22

as not the first-fruit of our race, uniting the whole mass by grace, and freeing it from all divisive things, of which the transgression of the old Adam has become the cause; on account of which death also was condemned upon nature. Why then do they begrudge us our perfect salvation and confession? Why do they contrive their supposedly inescapable syllogisms against us, and say that the wills follow the energies, and that opposition in turn follows these, from which they also introduce those who will contrary things?

0077 But to pass over examining their compositions: whence, and how do they devise such things? I only wanted to ask and to learn, whether, when they themselves did such things, and put forth their new exposition, they did this without willing it, and who was it that brought compulsion? Then after the deed, something not existing at all before, did they subsequently acquire the will for what was done, and whence and from what did it come? And who compelled them to have the will for what was done, so that it was both done against their will, and the thing being done was cherished against their volition? And how, again, if the incarnate Logos Himself did not will naturally as a man, and operate according to nature, did He willingly, by His will, admit hunger and thirst, and pain, and weariness, and sleep, and all the rest? 15Α_102 For the Logos alone did not will or operate these things by nature, having a nature with the Father and the Spirit that is superessential and infinite; even if, again, he "authoritatively as God, gave nature the occasion, when He willed, to perform its own operations"; as the divine teacher of the Nyssenes and great Gregory says. For if He, the same, willed these things as God only, and not as man, then either the divine is by nature a body, or having been changed in substance, He became flesh by a falling away from His own divinity; or His flesh was by its nature entirely rational and at the same time entirely irrational; or if His flesh was rationally ensouled, it was not truly ensouled, but was by its nature altogether inanimate and irrational; or if it was rationally ensouled, it also possessed a natural will. For everything that is by nature rational is also by all means by nature volitional. And if He had a natural will as man, He certainly willed essentially those things which He Himself as God, having created them for the constitution of nature, naturally implanted. For He did not come to falsify the nature which He Himself as God and Logos had made; but He came to deify the nature entirely, which He, willing for Himself, by the good pleasure of the Father and the cooperation of the Spirit, united according to the same and one hypostasis, with all that naturally belongs to it, and apart from sin.

Therefore, as God by nature, He willed the things that are by nature divine and of the Father. For He was co-willing with His own 0080 Begetter; and again, the same, as man by nature, He willed the things that are by nature human; keeping the economy pure from all fantasy, in no way opposing the will of the Father. For none of the natural things, just as not even nature itself at all, would ever oppose the cause of nature; nor indeed does the gnomic will and whatever belongs to it, whenever, that is, it assents to the principle of nature. For if someone should happen to say that one of the natural things opposes God, the fault belongs to him rather than to nature; he who naturally imposes war 15Α_104 on existing things, for the sedition and battle against him and against one another.

For that nothing natural is opposed to God, is clear from the fact that these things were created by Him in their generation, and that He bears no blame for their essential constitution in us; but quite the contrary, that we clearly sustain accusations on account of their deviation. For according to this deviation, we partake of all gnomic evil, according to the author-of-evil serpent; but according to that essential constitution, we are by nature a formation of God and an honorable creature. For this very reason, according to the divine Fathers, neither of natural wills, nor indeed of energies, just as not even of the natures themselves, a diminution

22

ὡς οὐκ ἀπαρχή τοῦ ἡμετέρου γένους, τό φύραμα κατά χάριν ἑνίζουσα, καί τῶν διαιρετικῶν ἀπολύουσα πάντων, ὧν ἡ τοῦ παλαιοῦ παράβασις Ἀδάμ αἰτία γεγένηται· δι᾿ ἥν καί ὁ θάνατος κατεκρίθη τῆς φύσεως. Τί τοιγαροῦν βασκαίνουσιν ἡμῖν τῆς τελείας σωτηρίας καί ὁμολογίας; Τί τούς ἀφύκτους δῆθεν καθ' ἡμῶν διατείνουσι συλλογισμούς, καί ταῖς μέν ἐνεργείαις ἕπεσθαί φασι τά θελήματα, καί τούτοις συνέπεσθαι πάλιν τήν ἐναντίωσιν, ἐξ ἧς καί τούς τἀναντία θέλοντας ἐπεισάγουσιν;

0077 Ἵνα δέ τάς συστάσεις εὐθύνειν παρῶ· πόθεν, καί πῶς τά τοιαῦτα σοφίζονται; Πυθέσθαι μόνον ἤθελον καί μαθεῖν, ὡς ἄρα δράσαντες αὐτοί τά τοιαῦτα, καί τήν καινήν ἔκθεσιν ἐνεργήσαντες, ἀθελήτως τοῦτο πεποίηκαν, καί τίς ὁ βίαν ἐπενεγκών; Εἴτα μετά τήν πρᾶξιν, οὐκ ὄν πρότερον παντελῶς, ὕστερον τοῦ γενομένου τό θέλημα προσεκτήσαντο, πόθεν, κἀκ τίνος ἐλθόν; Καί τίς ὁ τοῦ πραχθέντος ἔχειν τό θέλημα βιασάμενος, ἵνα καί παρά θέλησιν πραχθῇ, καί παρά βούλησιν στερχθῇ τό πραττόμενον; Πῶς δέ πάλιν, εἰ μήτε φυσικῶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἤθελε, καί ἐνήργει τά κατά φύσιν, αὐτός ὁ σαρκωθείς Λόγος, ἑκουσίως τήν τε πεῖναν καί δίψαν, τόν τε πόνον, καί κόπον, καί ὕπνον, καί τά λοιπά πάντα 15Α_102 προσίετο θέλων; Οὐ γάρ Λόγος μόνον ταῦτα κατά φύσιν ἤθελεν ἤ ἐνήργει, τήν φύσιν ἔχων μετά Πατρός καί Πνεύματος ὑπερούσιόν τε καί ὑπεράπειρον· εἰ καί πάλιν ἡ "ἐξουσιαστικῶς ὡς Θεός, ἐδίδου τῇ φύσει καιρόν, ὅταν ἐβούλετο, τά ἑαυτῆς ἐνεργῆσαι"· καθάπερ φησίν ὁ θεῖος τῆς Νυσσαέων καθηγητής καί μέγας Γρηγόριος. Εἰ γάρ ὡς μόνον Θεός ταῦτα, καί οὐχ ὡς ἄνθρωπος ὁ αὐτός ἤθελεν, ἤ σῶμα φύσει τό θεῖον, ἤ τήν οὐσίαν τραπείς, σάρξ κατ᾿ ἔκπτωσιν τῆς οἰκείας θεότητος γέγονεν· ἤ πάντως λογικῶς ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτήν διόλου καί ἄλογος· ἤ εἴπερ ἐψύχωτο λογικῶς ἡ κατ᾿αὐτόν οὐκ ἐψύχωτο σάρξ· ἀλλ᾿ ἄψυχος ἦν κατ᾿ αὐτήν διόλου καί ἄλογος· ἤ εἴπερ ἐψύχωτο λογικῶς, καί θέλημα ἐκέκτητο τό φυσικόν. Πᾶν γάρ φύσει λογικόν, καί φύσει θελητικόν πάντως ἐστί. Καί εἰ θέλημα φυσικόν εἶχεν ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἐκεῖνα πάντως ἤθελε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν, ἅπερ αὐτός ὡς Θεός τῇ φύσει πρός σύστασιν δημιουργήσας ἐνέθετο φυσικῶς. Οὐ γάρ ἦλθε παραχαράξαι τήν φύσιν, ἥν αὐτός ὡς Θεός καί Λόγος πεποίηκεν· ἀλλ' ἦλθε διόλου θεῶσαι τήν φύσιν, ἥν αὐτός ἑαυτῷ θέλων, εὐδοκίᾳ Πατρός καί συνεργείᾳ Πνεύματος, κατά τήν αὐτήν καί μίαν ὑπόστασιν ἥνωσε, μετά πάντων τῶν προσόντων αὐτῇ φυσικῶς, καί δίχα τῆς ἁμαρτίας.

Οὐκοῦν ὡς φύσει Θεός ἤθελε τά κατά φύσιν θεῖα καί Πατρικά. Συνθελητής γάρ ὑπῆρχε τοῦ ἰδίου 0080 Γεννήτορος· καί ὡς ἄνθρωπος φύσει πάλιν ὁ αὐτός, ἤθελε τά κατά φύσιν ἀνθρώπινα· πάσης καθαράν φυλάττων φαντασίας τήν οἰκονομίαν, μηδαμῶς ἀντιπίπτοντα τῶ θελήματι τοῦ Πατρός. Οὐδέν γάρ τῶν φυσικῶν, ὥσπερ οὐδ᾿ αὐτή καθάπαξ ἡ φύσις, τῷ αἰτίῳ ποτ᾿ ἄν ἀντιπίπτει τῆς φύσεως· ἀλλ᾿οὐδέ γνώμη καί ὅσα γνώμης ἐστίν, ὁπηνίκα μέντοι τῷ λόγῳ συννεύει τῆς φύσεως. Καί γάρ εἰ τυχόν φαίη τις, ὡς ἀντιπίπτει Θεῷ τι τῶν κατά φύσιν, αὐτοῦ μᾶλλον ἤ τῆς φύσεως ὑπάρχει τό ἔγκλημα· πόλεμον φυσικῶς ἐνθεμένου 15Α_104 τοῖς οὖσι, πρός τήν κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ καί ἀλλήλων στάσιν καί μάχην.

Ὅτι γάρ οὐδέν ἀντίκειται Θεῷ φυσικόν, δῆλον ἐκ τοῦ ταῦτα κατά γέννησιν ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ δημιουργηθῆναι, καί μηδεμίαν ὑπέρ τῆς οὐσιώδους ἐν ἡμῖν τούτων συστάσεως αἰτίασιν ἔχειν· πᾶν μέν οὖν τοὐναντίον, διά τήν τούτων παρεκτροπήν τάς ἐγκλήσεις σαφῶς ὑπομένειν. Κατά ταύτην μέν γάρ, πάσης τε γνωμικῶς κακίας γινόμεθα κατά τόν ἀρχαίκακον ὄφιν· κατ᾿ ἐκείνην δέ, πλάσμα Θεοῦ καί τίμιον κτίσμα κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχομεν. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο κατά τούς θείους Πατέρας, οὔτε θελημάτων φυσικῶν, οὔτε μήν ἐνεργειῶν, ὥσπερ οὐδ᾿ αὐτῶν φύσεων μείωσιν