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Click here to read at earlychurchtexts.com in the original Greek (with dictionary lookup links). The English translation below is from the NPNF series.

earlychurchtexts.com

• Is like an electronic encyclopedia of the first five centuries of Church History, with extensive links (subscription version only) to information on around 800 people and themes, and around 230 Church Councils;

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• Gives easy access to complete Greek and Latin texts which are in the public domain and translations (where found available) from the first five centuries. There are carefully indexed links to authors and their works, including an index of commentaries, homilies etc. by biblical book. Nearly all of the Greek and Latin texts from this period contained in the Migne Patrologia series are covered. Some other sources are also used. The texts used are the scanned versions available at Google Books and elsewhere. A distinctive feature of the Early Church Texts website is that where English translations have been found available online they can easily be read immediately alongside the original Greek and Latin. (A complete list of authors represented is here. A sample text is here.)

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TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

St. Basil the Great on the Holy Spirit

(David Anderson - translator)

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Anna Silvas
The Asketikon of St Basil the Great
(Oxford Early Christian Studies)

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On The Human Condition: St Basil the Great (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press "Popular Patristics" Series)

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Georges Barrois:
The Fathers Speak: St Basil the Great, St Gregory of Nazianzus, St Gregory of Nyssa

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Basil: The Letters, Volume I, Letters 1-58 (Loeb Classical Library No. 190):
Roy J. Deferrari (Translator)

(Search also for other 3 volumes of Basil's letters.)

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On Social Justice: St. Basil the Great (Popular Patristics):

C. Paul Schroeder

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Monica Wagner, trans., Basil of Caesarea: Ascetical Works, Fathers of the Church 9

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Letters, Volume 2 (186-368) [The Fathers of the Church, Volume 28]

Translated by Agnes Clare Way.

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On the Value of Greek Literature (Greek and English Edition)

N.G. Wilson

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P.J. FEDWICK: Basil of Caesarea: Christian, Humanist, Ascetic

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ROBERT C. GREGG: Consolation Philosophy: Greek and Christian Paideia in Basil and the Two Gregories (Patristic Monograph Series of the North American Patristic Society, 3)

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Stephen M Hildebrand:

The Trinitarian Theology of Basil of Caesarea: A Synthesis of Greek Thought and Biblical Faith

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Augustine Holmes:

A Life Pleasing to God:

The Spirituality of the Rule of Saint Basil (Cistercian Studies)

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Andrew Radde-Gallwitz:
Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Transformation of Divine Simplicity
(Oxford Early Christian Studies)

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Philip Rousseau:
Basil of Caesarea
(Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

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Letter CCXXXIV.

To the same, in answer to another question.

Do you worship what you know or what you do not know? If I answer, I worship what I know, they immediately reply, What is the essence of the object of worship? Then, if I confess that I am ignorant of the essence, they turn on me again and say, So you worship you know not what. I answer that the word to know has many meanings. We say that we know the greatness of God, His power, His wisdom, His goodness, His providence over us, and the justness of His judgment; but not His very essence. The question is, therefore, only put for the sake of dispute. For he who denies that he knows the essence does not confess himself to be ignorant of God, because our idea of God is gathered from all the attributes which I have enumerated. But God, he says, is simple, and whatever attribute of Him you have reckoned as knowable is of His essence. But the absurdities involved in this sophism are innumerable. When all these high attributes have been enumerated, are they all names of one essence? And is there the same mutual force in His awfulness and His loving-kindness, His justice and His creative power, His providence and His foreknowledge, and His bestowal of rewards and punishments, His majesty and His providence? In mentioning any one of these do we declare His essence? If they say, yes, let them not ask if we know the essence of God, but let them enquire of us whether we know God to be awful, or just, or merciful. These we confess that we know. If they say that essence is something distinct, let them not put us in the wrong on the score of simplicity. For they confess themselves that there is a distinction between the essence and each one of the attributes enumerated. The operations are various, and the essence simple, but we say that we know our God from His operations, but do not undertake to approach near to His essence. His operations come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach.

But, it is replied, if you are ignorant of the essence, you are ignorant of Himself. Retort, If you say that you know His essence, you are ignorant of Himself. A man who has been bitten by a mad dog, and sees a dog in a dish, does not really see any more than is seen by people in good health; he is to be pitied because he thinks he sees what he does not see. Do not then admire him for his announcement, but pity him for his insanity. Recognise that the voice is the voice of mockers, when they say, if you are ignorant of the essence of God, you worship what you do not know. I do know that He exists; what His essence is, I look at as beyond intelligence. How then am I saved? Through faith. It is faith sufficient to know that God exists, without knowing what He is; and “He is a rewarder of them that seek Him.” So knowledge of the divine essence involves perception of His incomprehensibility, and the object of our worship is not that of which we comprehend the essence, but of which we comprehend that the essence exists.

And the following counter question may also be put to them. “No man hath seen God at any time, the Only-begotten which is in the bosom hath declared him.” What of the Father did the Only-begotten Son declare? His essence or His power? If His power, we know so much as He declared to us. If His essence, tell me where He said that His essence was the being unbegotten? When did Abraham worship? Was it not when he believed? And when did he believe? Was it not when he was called? Where in this place is there any testimony in Scripture to Abraham’s comprehending? When did the disciples worship Him? Was it not when they saw creation subject to Him? It was from the obedience of sea and winds to Him that they recognised His Godhead. Therefore the knowledge came from the operations, and the worship from the knowledge. “Believest thou that I am able to do this?” “I believe, Lord;” and he worshipped Him. So worship follows faith, and faith is confirmed by power. But if you say that the believer also knows, he knows from what he believes; and vice versa he believes from what he knows. We know God from His power. We, therefore, believe in Him who is known, and we worship Him who is believed in.