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Shorter Rules
St Basil the Great, tr. Lowther Clarke, 1925
212. Rule 212: How is the Love of God Attained? (R. 152)
By having a good conscience and grateful disposition as a result of the benefits received from him. This is the case with animals; for we see dogs loving only him that gives them bread. We learn this too from the words spoken through the prophet Isaiah by way of accusation: “I begat sons and brought them up; but they set me at nought. The ox knoweth his master and the ass his lord’s crib; but Israel doth not know me, and my people hath not understood me.”1 For as with the ox or ass, as a result of the kindness received from him that tends them, love towards him is engendered automatically, shall not we too in like manner, if we receive benefits in a sensitive and grateful way, love God, the bestower of such great and numerous benefits, the appropriate disposition arising in the sound soul naturally, so to speak, and without prompting?
Notes
- Isa. i. 2; 3. “Ipsi autem contempnentes spreuerunt me” is quoted in Ben. Reg. ii.