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of salvation; on the one hand, as being well-pleased with this together with the Father and the Spirit; on the other hand, as becoming obedient to the Father for the sake of this unto death, even death on a cross; and the great mystery of the economy towards us, which He Himself wrought through the flesh.
SCHOLION 1. Fr. That those who say that the phrase, "Not what I will," (69) is to be referred negatively to the of the Only-begotten
unoriginate divinity; signifying, as they say, that He wills nothing of His own apart from the Father, are forced also to refer the thing willed, which is the refusal of the cup, to the unoriginate divinity itself; and that since it is not possible to place the negation on both—both on the Only-begotten willing something of His own apart from the Father, and on the thing willed—they must by all means refer this negation only to His willing something of His own, not to the thing willed, which is the refusal of the cup, that is, our salvation; what could be more irrational than this? For it follows that God wishes to pass over that which by nature is desirable to Him. Since He to whom belongs, "Not what I will," to Him also by all means belongs, "Let this cup pass from me."
OF THE SAME
Dogmatic Tome sent to Cyprus to Marinus the deacon. I was not more amazed at the decorum of your great reverence than of your greatest zeal
the manliness I admired, O all-holy servant of God, and all-wise initiate and mystagogue of His mysteries. For by the sacred intertwining of both, you have acquired perfection in all good things; according to the one, having become wholly in whole and entirely for God through the fulfillment of His divine commandments, you consider yourself, through an extreme excess of poverty, to be entirely among those who, like me, with a soul attached to matter, are mired in the pus of impure passions; at the same time reasonably acquiring safety for yourself from this; for nothing is stronger than voluntary poverty for the establishment and preservation of good things; for it has become an unbreakable foundation of the divine edifices in the soul, and has become a cause of salvation for all others who have earnestly pursued the good; by leading more by active example than by didactic address, to greatness of virtue through lofty humility, those who wisely direct both their mind and their life alike toward you. But according to this zeal, I say, having all the fervor of the Spirit, and having acquired the fire in the earth of your heart, which the Logos—by nature a lover of good and a lover of mankind, who consumes every wicked habit and motion of ours—came to cast upon it, you on the one hand set aflame those who, from deceit and folly, are mad for matter and talk nonsense, in both worthless deeds and counterfeit words, refuting (72) the rottenness and futility of these things by the projection of the blessed lamp that burns unquenchably in you according to divine knowledge and virtue; and on the other hand you warm those who are extremely chilled by the frost of this precipitous and lightless projection, with the radiant splendors of the divine words; completely driving away and dispelling the gloom, and transforming extreme timidity into extreme courage and power; and again you illumine from the eternal mountains—I mean from the immaterial and, surpassing all knowledge and power of all the senses, patristic words and dogmas—those who long for light; and by the taste according to wisdom, causing them to have already clearly and well prefigured in hope that very thing which by its very nature is the longed-for thing; leading them and bringing them near to that which is through experience
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σωτηρίας· τό μέν, ὡς ταύτην συνευδοκῶν Πατρί καί Πνεύματι· τό δέ, ὡς Πατρί διά ταύτην ὑπήκοος γενόμενος μέχρι θανάτου, θανάτου δέ σταυροῦ· καί τό μέγα τῆς εἰς ἡμᾶς οἰκονομίας, διά σαρκός αὐτουργήσας μυστηρίου.
ΣΧΟΛΙΟΝ α᾿. Fr. Ὅτι οἱ λέγοντες τό, Οὐχ ὁ ἐγώ θέλω, (69) ἀρνητικῶς ἐπί τῆς τοῦ ἱονογενοῦς
ἀνάρχου θεότητος φέρεσθαι· σημαῖνον, ὡς αὐτοί φασι, τό, μή τι θέλειν αὐτόν ἴδιον παρά τόν Πατέρα, ἀνάγκην ἔχουσι, καί τό θεληθέν, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ τοῦ ποτηρίου παραίτησις, ἐπ᾿ αὐτῆς ἀνάγειν τῆς ἀνάρχου θεότητος· καί ὅτι ἐπειδή μή δυνατόν ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν τίθεσθαι τήν ἄρνησιν, καί τοῦ τί θέλειν ἰδίως τόν Mονογενῆ παρά τόν Πατέρα, καί τοῦ θεληθέντος, πάντως ἐπί τοῦ τι θέλειν ἰδίως μόνον ταύτην ἀνάγωσιν, οὐκ ἐπί τοῦ θεληθέντος, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ τοῦ ποτηρίου παραίτησις, ἤγουν ἡ σωτηρία ἡμῶν· οὗ τί γένοιτο παραλογώτερον; Συμβαίνει γάρ ἐθέλειν παρελθεῖν τόν Θεόν, ὅ φύσει αὐτῷ καθέστηκε θελητόν. Ἐπεί οὗ ἐστι τό, Οὐχ ὅ ἐγώ θέλω, τούτου πάντως καί τό. Παρελθέτω ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ ποτήριον.
ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ
Τόμος δογματικός σταλείς ἐν Κύπρῳ πρός Μαρῖνον διάκονον. Οὐ μᾶλλόν σου τῆς πολλῆς εὐλαβείας κατεπλάγην τό κόσμιον ἤ τοῦ μεγίστου ζήλου
τό ἀνδρικόν ἀπεθαύμασα, πανάγιε Θεοῦ θεράπον, καί τῶν αὐτοῦ πάνσοφε μύστα καί μυσταγωγέ μυστηρίων. Τῇ γάρ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν ἱερᾷ συμπλοκῇ, τήν ἐν πᾶσιν ἀγαθοῖς ἐκτήσω τελείωσιν· κατ᾿ ἐκείνην μέν, ὅλος ἐν ὅλῳ διόλου γενόμενος τῷ θεῷ, διά τῆς τῶν αὐτοῦ θείων ἐντολῶν ἐκπληρώσεως, ὅλος εἶναι λογίζῃ δι' ἄκραν πτωχείας ὑπερβολήν ἐν τοῖς κατ᾿ ἐμέ προσύλῳ ψυχῆς διαθέσει, τῷ ἰχῶρι τῶν ἀκαθάρτων ἰλυσπώμενοι παθῶν· ὁμοῦ τε τό ἀσφαλές ἐντεῦθεν ἑαυτῷ κατά λόγον περιποιούμενος· οὐδέν γάρ αὐθαιρέτου πτωχείας εἰς πῆξιν τῶν καλῶν καί συντήρησιν, ἰσχυρότερον· θεμέλιος γάρ τῶν ἐν ψυχῇ θείων οἰκοδομημάτων καθέστηκεν ἀῤῥαγής, καί τοῖς ἄλλοις ἅπασιν, οἷς τό καλόν διεσπούδασται, σωτηρίας γενόμενος πρόξενος· τῷ ἄγειν ἐξ ὑποδείξεως ἐνεργοῦς μᾶλλον, ἤ διδακτικῆς προσφωνήσεως, εἰς μέγεθος ἀρετῆς δι᾿ ὑφέσεως ὑψηλῆς, τούς πρός σέ τόν τε νοῦν ὁμοίως καί τόν βίον σοφῶς ἀπευθύνοντας. Κατά τοῦτον δέ, φημί, τόν ζῆλον, ὅλην ἔχων τήν ζέσιν τοῦ Πνεύματος, καί τό πῦρ ἐν τῇ γῇ τῆς καρδίας κτησάμενος, ὅ ἦλθεν ἐν αὐτῇ βαλεῖν, ὁ πᾶσαν ἡμῶν ἐκδαπανῶν μοχθηράν ἕξιν καί κίνησιν, φιλάγαθος φύσει καί φιλάνθρωπος Λόγος, φλογίζεις μέν τούς ἐξ ἀπάτης τε καί ἀνοίας ὑλομανοῦντάς τε καί ὑθλομανοῦντας, ἔν τε πράξεσι φαύλαις καί κιβδήλοις λόγοις, τούτων ἀπελέγχων (72) τό σαθρόν τε καί εἰκαῖον, τῇ προβολῇ τῆς ἀσβέστως ἐν σοί καιομένης κατά θείαν γνῶσιν καί ἀρετήν μακαρίας λαμπάδος· θερμαίνεις δέ, τούς τῇ πήξει λίαν κατεψηγμένους, ταύτης δή τῆς κρημώδους καί ἀφεγγοῦς προβολῆς, ταῖς ἀκτινοφανέσι τῶν θείων λόγων αὐγαῖς· τό τε νύχος πάμπαν ἐλαύνων καί διαλύων, καί τήν ἄκραν συστολήν πρός ἄκραν ἀνδρείαν μετάγων καί δύναμιν· φωτίζεις δέ πάλιν ἀπό ὀρέων αἰωνίων· τῶν ἀΰλων φημί, καί πᾶσαν πασῶν αἰσθήσεων ὑπερβεβηκότων γνῶσιν καί δύναμιν, πατρικῶν λόγων τε καί δογμάτων, τούς ἐφιεμένους φωτός· καί τῇ κατά τήν σοφίαν γεύσει, τοῦτο σαφῶς ἐκεῖνο δι᾿ ἐλπίδος εἰκονισθέντας ἤδη καλῶς, ὅπερ αὐτό φύσει καθέστηκε τό ποθούμενον· πρός τήν διά πείρας ἄγων αὐτούς, καί προσάγων