Letter 175: Your excellency lately wrote to me, plainly charging me, besides other matters, to write concerning the Faith. I admire your zeal in the matter, and I pray God that your choice of good things may be persistent, and that, advancing in knowledge and good works, you may be made perfect. But I have no wish to leave behind me a treatise on the Faith,...

Your excellency wrote to me recently, charging me among other things to write a statement on the faith. I admire your zeal, and I pray God that your commitment to what is good will hold firm, and that as you grow in knowledge and good works you may be brought to perfection. But I have no wish to leave behind me yet another treatise on the faith, or to draft alternative creeds, and so I have declined your request. You seem to me to be surrounded by the noise of your associates there -- idle men who say things to slander me, imagining they can improve their own standing by telling disgraceful lies about mine. What they are, the past has already shown. Future experience will make it even plainer. I call on everyone who trusts in Christ: do not busy yourselves inventing alternatives to the ancient faith. As we believe, so let us be baptized. As we are baptized, so let us offer our praise. It is enough for us to confess the names we have received from Holy Scripture and to resist all innovation concerning them. Our salvation does not depend on inventing new forms of address. It depends on a sound confession of the Godhead in which we have placed our faith.

ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA To Count Magnenianus. Your excellency lately wrote to me, plainly charging me, besides other matters, to write concerning the Faith. I admire your zeal in the matter, and I pray God that your choice of good things may be persistent, and that, advancing in knowledge and good works, you may be made perfect. But I have no wish to leave behind me a treatise on the Faith, or to write various creeds, and so I have declined to send what you asked. You seem to me to be surrounded by the din of your men there, idle fellows, who say certain things to calumniate me, with the idea that they will improve their own position by lying disgracefully against me. The past shows what they are, and future experience will show them in still plainer colors. I, however, call on all who trust in Christ not to busy themselves in opposition to the ancient faith, but, as we believe, so to be baptized, and, as we are baptized, so to offer the doxology. It is enough for us to confess those names which we have received from Holy Scripture, and to shun all innovation about them. Our salvation does not lie in the invention of modes of address, but in the sound confession of the Godhead in which we have professed our faith.

[Πρός: Μαγνηνιανῷ κόμητι] Πρώην ἐπέστελλέ μοι ἡ σεμνότης σου ἄλλα τινὰ καὶ περὶ πίστεως γράψαι ἡμᾶς ἐναργῶς προστάσσουσα. ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ τὴν μὲν σὴν περὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα ἄγαμαι σπουδήν, καὶ εὔχομαι τῷ Θεῷ ἀνενδότως σοι τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὴν αἵρεσιν ἐνυπάρχειν καὶ ἀεί σε προκόπτοντα καὶ γνώσει καὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς τελειοῦσθαι· διὰ δὲ τὸ μὴ βούλεσθαι περὶ πίστεως σύνταγμα καταλιμπάνειν μηδὲ γράφειν διαφόρους πίστεις, παρετηρησάμην μὴ ἀποστεῖλαι ἃ ἐπεζητήσατε. Πλὴν δοκεῖτέ μοι περιηχεῖσθαι παρὰ τῶν αὐτόθι, τῶν μηδὲν ἐργαζομένων, οἳ ἐπὶ διαβολῇ ἡμετέρᾳ λέγουσί τινα, ὡς ἐκ τούτου ἑαυτοὺς συστήσοντες, ἐὰν ἡμῶν τὰ αἴσχιστα καταψεύσωνται. ἐκείνους μὲν γὰρ φανεροῖ ὁ παρελθὼν χρόνος, καὶ προϊοῦσα ἡ πεῖρα φανερωτέρους ποιήσει. ἡμεῖς δὲ παρακαλοῦμεν τοὺς ἠλπικότας εἰς Χριστὸν μηδὲν παρὰ τὴν ἀρχαίαν περιεργάζεσθαι πίστιν, ἀλλʼ ὡς πιστεύομεν, οὕτω καὶ βαπτίζεσθαι, ὡς δὲ βαπτιζόμεθα, οὕτω καὶ δοξολογεῖν. ὀνόματα δὲ ἡμῖν ἀρκεῖ ἐκεῖνα ὁμολογεῖν, ἃ παρελάβομεν παρὰ τῆς ἁγιας Γραφῆς καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τούτοις καινοτομίαν διαφεύγειν. οὐ γὰρ ἐν τῇ ἐφευρέσει τῶν προσηγοριῶν ἡ σωτηρία ἡμῶν, ἀλλʼ ἐν τῇ ὑγιεῖ περὶ τῆς θεότητος εἰς ἣν πεπιστεύκαμεν ὁμολογίᾳ.