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they remembered the desiderative power of nature essentially; or rather, they declared the natural will, or our own faculty of choice, to be subsisting by appropriation in the incarnate God.

Having especially considered this, your servant and disciple, in the works composed for my most holy lord and teacher Thalassius concerning the difficult passages of Holy Scripture, I said ‘faculty of choice’; knowing that if the creator of men became man for us, He clearly also wrought for us the immutability of the faculty of choice, as the creator of immutability; accepting the passions of our penalty through experience itself, essentially (32) and by his own power, while philanthropically taking upon himself by appropriation the passions of our dishonor; of which he has made appropriation the cause of the apathy of the faculty of choice for our race, while he has granted experience as a faithful pledge of the subsequent natural incorruptibility. For the human element of God was not moved according to faculty of choice as we are, making the discernment of opposites through counsel and judgment, lest it be thought naturally mutable according to faculty of choice; but at the same time as it received its being in union with God the Word, it had an unhesitating, or rather a stationary, motion of its natural desiderative faculty, that is, its will; or, to speak more properly, the station that was unmoved in him was completely deified in God the Word according to its most pure substantial existence; which, naturally forming and moving (6) as His own and as natural to His soul, He has fulfilled without fantasy the great mystery of the economy on our behalf; having in no way diminished anything natural of what was assumed, except for sin; of which no principle has been sown at all in any of the things that exist.

Since, therefore, the difference of the names has been made clear to us through the description clearly adapted to each, let us not be disturbed when we hear those who, for the confusion of the things understood, use the names without distinction; if indeed for us truth is in things and not in names; and let us not think that what is not the same is the same; but piously believing, let us confess Christ to be truly perfect God and truly perfect man, the same being in reality, properly, and in truth, and not called this by a bare name alone; and for this reason let us proclaim him to be of two natures, of which he is the hypostasis, if indeed he is not without flesh; and let us boldly declare, according to the Fathers, that he has two natural wills, if indeed he is not without a soul and without a mind; and let us not dare to innovate a saying, for which we do not have the patristic authority as a refuge. For those who have striven to be pious fear to speak of one natural or gnomic will of Christ, not only because of the absurdity that has been shown, (33) but also because none of the saints has ever been shown to have said this; knowing truly that the faculty of choice belongs to those who are able to be moved toward both—I mean both good and evil things; which, in the case of Christ, who is truly the substance and source of good things, even to think, let alone to say, is most full of all impiety. And so much for these matters.

But concerning the one energy mentioned in the seventh chapter of the *Difficulties* of the great Gregory, the account is clear. For describing the future state of the saints, I said that the one energy of God and of the saints is the deification of all the saints, of the hoped-for blessedness; being on the one hand of God by essence, but on the other hand having come to be of the saints by grace. Or rather, I added 'of God alone,' since the deification of the saints by grace is the result of the divine energy alone, a power for which we do not have sown in our nature. And for those things for which we do not have the power, we do not have the activity either, since activity is the fulfillment of a natural power. Activity, therefore, depends on power, and power on essence, For the

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ἐπεμνήσθησαν, τόν ὀρεκτικήν τῆς φύσεως δύναμιν οὐσιωδῶς· ταυτόν δέ φάναι, τήν φυσικήν θέλησιν, ἤ τήν ἡμῶν αὐτῶν προαίρεσιν τῷ σαρκωθέντι Θεῷ κατ᾿ οἰκείωσεν ἐνυπάρχουσαν, παρεδήλωσαν.

Ὅ δή μάλιστα σκοπήσας ὁ σός δοῦλος καί μαθητής, ἐν τοῖς πρός τόν ἁγιώτατόν μου κύριον καί διδάσκαλον περί τῶν ἀπόρων τῆς ἁγίας Γραφῆς ἐκτεθεῖσι Θαλάσσιον, εἶπον προαίρεσιν· εἰδῶς, ὡς εἴπερ ἡμῖν γέγονεν ἄνθρωπος ὁ ποιητής τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἡμῖν δηλονότι καί τήν ἀτρεψίαν κατώρθωσε τῆς προαιρέσεως, ὡς ἀτρεψίας δημιουργός· τά μέν τῆς ἡμῶν ἐπιτιμίας δι᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς πείρας, οὐσιωδῶς (32) κατ᾿ ἐξουσίαν πάθη δεχόμενος· τά δέ τῆς ἀτιμίας, κατ᾿ οἰκείωσιν φιλανθρώπως ἀναδεχόμενος· ὧν τήν μέν οἰκείωσιν, τῆς προαιρετικῆς ἀπαθείας αἰτίαν τῷ γένει πεποίηται· τήν δέ πεῖραν, τῆς ἑπομένης φυσικῆς ἀφθαρσίας πιστόν ἀῤῥαβῶνα δεδώρηται. Τό γάρ ἀνθρώπινον τοῦ Θεοῦ, κατά προαίρεσιν ὡς ἡμεῖς οὐ κεκίνηται, διά βουλῆς πεποιημένον καί κρίσεως τήν τῶν ἀντικειμένων διάγνωσιν· ἵνα μή φύσει κατά προαίρεσιν νομισθείη τρεπτόν· ἀλλ᾿ ἅμα τῇ πρός τόν Θεόν Λόγον ἑνώσει τό εἶναι λαβόν, ἀδίστακτον, μᾶλλον δέ στάσιμον τήν κατ᾿ ὄρεξιν φυσικήν ἤτοι θέλησιν, κίνησιν ἔσχεν· ἤ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, τήν στάσιν ἀκίνητον ἐν αὐτῷ κατά τήν ἀκραιφνεστάτην οὐσίωσιν τῷ Θεῷ Λόγῳ παντελῶς θεωθεῖσαν· ἥν φυσικῶς τυπῶν τε καί κινῶν (6), ὡς οἰκείαν, καί τῆς αὐτοῦ ψυχῆς φυσικήν, ἀφαντασιάστως πεπλήρωκε τό μέγα τῆς ὑπέρ ἡμῶν οἰκονομίας μυστήριον· μηδέν τοῦ προσλήμματος φυσικόν παντελῶς ἀπομειώσας, πλήν τῆς ἁμαρτίας· ἧς οὐδείς οὐδενί τῶν ὄντων καθάπαξ ἐνέσπαρται λόγος.

Τῆς οὖν διαφορᾶς τῶν ὀνομάτων φανερᾶς ἡμῖν γεγενημένης, διά τῆς εὐκρινῶς ἑκάστῳ προσαρμοσθείσης ὑπογραφῆς, μή ταρασσώμεθα τῶν ἐπί συγχύσει τῶν νοουμένων πραγμάτων, ἀδιακρίτως τοῖς ὀνόμασι κεχριμένων ἀκούοντες· εἴπερ ἐν πράγμασιν ἡμῖν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ὀνόμασιν ἡ ἀλήθεια· καί νομίσωμεν ταυτόν εἶναι τό μή ταυτόν · ἀλλ' εὐσεβῶς πιστεύοντες, ὁμολογήσωμεν τόν Χριστόν Θεόν τέλειον ἀληθῶς, καί ἄνθρωπον τέλειον ἀληθῶς, τόν αὐτόν πράγματι κυρίως κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ὄντα, καί οὐ μόνῃ ψιλῇ κλήσει τοῦτο λεγόμενον· καί διά τοῦτο φύσεις δύο, ὧν αὐτός ἐστιν ὑπόστασις, εἴπερ οὐκ ἄσαρκος, αὐτόν καταγγείλωμεν· καί δύο θελήματα φυσικά, κατά τούς Πατέρας· εἰπερ οὐκ ἄψιλος καί ἄνους, ἔχειν αὐτόν παῤῥησιασώμεθα· καί μή θαῤῥήσωμεν καινίσαι φωνήν, ἐφ᾿ ᾗ καταφυγήν οὐκ ἔχομεν τήν πατρικήν αὐθεντίαν. Ἕν γάρ θέλημα Χριστοῦ φυσικόν, ἤ προαιρετικόν, οὐ μόνον διά τήν δειχθεῖσαν ἀτοπίαν δέος εἰπεῖν τούς εὐσεβεῖν ἐσπουδακότας, (33) ἀλλ᾿ ὅτι καί μηδείς τῶν ἁγίων πώποτε τοῦτο φήσας πέφανται· ἀληθῶς εἰδότες, ὡς ἡ προαίρεσις τῶν ἐπ᾿ ἄμφω· τά καλά τε λέγω καί τά κακά, κινεῖσθαι δυναμένων ἐστίν· ὅπερ ἐπί Χριστοῦ τῆς ὄντως οὐσίας τῶν ἀγαθῶν καί πηγῆς, κἄν ἐννοεῖν, μή ὅτι γε λέγειν, πάσης ἀσεβείας πληρέστατον. Καί περί μέν τούτων ταῦτα.

Περί δέ τῆς ἐν τῷ ἑβδόμῳ κεφαλαίῳ τῶν ἀπόρων τοῦ μεγάλου Γρηγορίου κειμένης μιᾶς ἐνεργείας, σαφής ὁ λόγος. Τήν ἐσόμενην φάρ κατά τό μέλλον τῶν ἁγίων ὑπογράφων κατάστασιν, ἔφην μίαν ἐνέργειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ καί τῶν ἁγίων, τήν πάντων ἐκθεωτικήν τῶν ἁγίων, τῆς ἐλπιζομένης μακαριότητος· τοῦ μέν Θεοῦ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὑπάρχουσαν, τῶν ἁγίων δέ κατά χάριν γεγενημένης. Μᾶλλον δέ, μόνον Θεοῦ προσεπήγαγον· ἐπειδή μόνης ἀποτέλεσμα τῆς θείας ἐνεργείας ἐστίν, ἡ κατά χάριν τῶν ἁγίων ἐκθέωσις, ἧς ἡμεῖς οὐκ ἔχομεν ἐγκατεσπαρμένην τῇ φύσει τήν δύναμιν. Ὧν δέ τήν δύναμιν οὐκ ἔχομεν, τούτων οὐδέ τήν πρᾶξιν, φυσικῆς δυνάμεως οὖσαν συμπλήρωσιν. Ἔχεται οὖν ἡ μέν πρᾶξις, δυνάμεως· ἡ δέ δύναμις, οὐσίας, Ἥ τε γάρ