Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VIII/The Letters/Letter 366

by Philip Schaff et al.

Letter CCCLXVI.^[1]

Basil to Urbicius the monk, concerning continency.

You do well in making exact definitions for us, so that we may recognise not only continency, but its fruit.  Now its fruit is the companionship of God.  For not to be corrupted, is to have part with God; just as to be corrupted is the companionship of the world.  Continency is denial of the body, and confession to God.  It withdraws from anything mortal, like a body which has the Spirit of God.  It is without rivalry and envy, and causes us to be united to God.  He who loves a body envies another.  He who has not admitted the disease of corruption into his heart, is for the future strong enough to endure any labour, and though he have died in the body, he lives in incorruption.  Verily, if I rightly apprehend the matter, God seems to me to be continency, because He desires nothing, but has all things in Himself.  He reaches after nothing, nor has any sense in eyes or ears; wanting nothing, He is in all respects complete and full.  Concupiscence is a disease of the soul; but continency is its health.  And continency must not be regarded only in one species, as, for instance, in matters of sensual love.  It must be regarded in everything which the soul lusts after in an evil manner, not being content with what is needful for it.  Envy is caused for the sake of gold, and innumerable wrongs for the sake of other lusts.  Not to be drunken is continency.  Not to overeat one’s self is continency.  To subdue the body is continency, and to keep evil thoughts in subjection, whenever the soul is disturbed by any fancy false and bad, and the heart is distracted by vain cares.  Continency makes men free, being at once a medicine and a power, for it does not teach temperance; it gives it.  Continency is a grace of God.  Jesus seemed to be continency, when He was made light to land and sea; for He was carried neither by earth nor ocean, and just as He walked on the sea, so He did not weigh down the earth.  For if death comes of corruption, and not dying comes of not having corruption, then Jesus wrought not mortality but divinity.^[2]  He ate and drank in a peculiar manner, without rendering his food.^[3]  So mighty a power in Him was continency, that His food was not corrupted in Him, since He had no corruption.  If only there be a little continency in us, we are higher than all.  We have been told that angels were ejected from heaven because of concupiscence and became incontinent.  They were vanquished; they did not come down.  What could that plague have effected there, if an eye such as I am thinking of had been there?  Wherefore I said, If we have a little patience, and do not love the world, but the life above, we shall be found there where we direct our mind.  For it is the mind, apparently, which is the eye that seeth unseen things.  For we say “the mind sees;” “the mind hears.”  I have written at length, though it may seem little to you.  But there is meaning in all that I have said, and, when you have read it, you will see it.

Footnotes

1. Introduced by the Ben. with the following preface:  “En magni Basilii epistolam, ex prisco codicelxi. f. 324, a me exscriptam quæ olim clarissimis quoque viris Marcianæ bibliothecæ descriptoribus Zannetro atque Morellio inedita visa est; atque utrum sit alicubi postremis his annis edita, mihi non constat, sed certe in plenissima Garnerii editione desideratur.  Ea scribitur ad Urbicum monachum, ad quem aliæ duæ Basilii epistolæ exstant, nempe 123 and 262, in Garneriana editione.  Argumentum titulusque est De Continentia, neque vero scriptum hoc Basilianum diutius ego celandum arbitror præsertim quia Suidas ac Photius nihil præstantius aut epistolari characteri accommodatius Basilii epistolis esse judicarunt.  Mai, biblioth. nov. patr.  iii. 450.
2. θεότητα οὐ θνητότητα.
3. The Ben. note is:  “Hac super re reverentissime theologiceque scribit Athanasius Corinthi episcopus in fragmento quod nos edidimus A.A. class l. x. p. 499–500, quod incipit:  Ζητοῦμεν, εἰ ἡ πλήρωσις τῶν βρωμάτων ἐπὶ Χριστοῦ ἐκέκτητο καὶ κένωσιν.  Erat enim hæc quoque una ex objectionibus hæreticorum.  Definit autem, corpus Christi hac in re fuisse cæteris superius, sicuti etiam in insolita nativitate.  Utitur quoque Athanasius exemplo trinitatis illius apud Abrahamum convivantis, neque tamen naturali necessitati obtemperantis; quod item de Christo post resurrectionem edente intelligendum dicit.