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unwillingly? But if unwillingly, it would reasonably be called tyranny, and not obedience. But if willingly: he was obedient not insofar as He is God, but insofar as He became man. "For insofar as He is God, He is neither obedient, according to the Fathers, nor disobedient." "For these things belong to those who are second, and to those under authority," says the divine Gregory; therefore also insofar as He was man, He had a will.

And the blessed David in the thirty-ninth psalm: Sacrifice and offering, he says, you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Whole burnt offerings and for sin you did not seek; then I said: Behold, I come. In the heading of the book it is written of me, to do your will; my God, I have willed. That indeed insofar as Christ is man, and not insofar as He is God, the Father is called his God, just as also He is Father, insofar as He is God, and not insofar as He is man, not even those of the opposite opinion doubt. But if insofar as He is man, and not insofar as He is God, the Father is his God, therefore also insofar as He is man, and not insofar as He is God, He willed to do the will of the Father and of Himself; for the will of the Father is also His own, He being also God by essence. For if this is so, not only insofar as He is God and consubstantial with the Father did He have a will, but also insofar as He is man and consubstantial with us.

And it must be known that the divine Apostle, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, has taken the words of the psalm just cited as referring to the Lord. And the great Moses in the genesis of man introduces God saying: Let us make man in our image and after our likeness. If therefore man is the image of the divine nature, and the divine nature is possessed of free will, therefore so is the image; if indeed it preserves the likeness to the archetype, it happens to be by nature possessed of free will. And if this is so, and what is by nature the archetype has also become by nature an image, therefore in both His natures the same one was by nature possessed of a will. For it has been previously shown from the Fathers that the will is the natural free will.

But it must be known that free will is spoken of homonymously (325), just as is nature; and it is understood in one way with respect to God, and in another with respect to angels, and in another with respect to men. With respect to God, super-essentially; with respect to angels, as choice concurs with the state, admitting no interval of time at all; but with respect to men, as the choice of the state is conceived in time. For if Adam willingly obeyed, and willingly contemplated, and having willed, ate, therefore the will is primary in us. But if the will is primary in us, and the incarnate Word, according to them, did not assume it with the nature, then I have not become without sin. But if I have not become without sin, then I have not been saved; if indeed what is not assumed is not healed.

Furthermore, if the power of the nature's free will exists as His work and creation, and the Word made flesh, according to them, did not assume this with the nature through an ineffable union, either He, condemning His own creation as not good, rejected it from Himself; or, envying us its healing, He both deprives us of complete salvation and shows Himself to be subject to passion, by not willing, or by not being able, to save completely.

These things, then, are concerning the incarnate God the Word being by nature possessed of a will, even insofar as He is man; but concerning the same one being by nature possessed of a will, even insofar as He is God, we shall learn from this. For our Lord and God Himself, the only truth, says about Himself in the Gospels thus: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you; how often I have wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing! Now your house is left to you desolate. For it is clear that not insofar as He is man but insofar as He is God, having shown the various ways of His wise providence concerning man

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μή θέλων; Ἀλλ᾿ εἰ μέν μή θέλων, τυραννίς δέ εὐλόγως, καί οὐχ ὑπακοή λεχθείη. Εἰ δέ θέλων· ὑπήκοος δέ οὐ καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, ἀλλά καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος γέγονε· " Καθ᾿ ὅ γάρ Θεός, οὔτε ὑπήκοος, κατά τούς Πατέρας, οὔτε ἀνήκοος." "Τῶν γάρ δευτέρων, καί τῶν ὑπό χεῖρα ταῦτα," φησίν ὁ θεῖος Γρηγόριος· ἄρα καί καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος θελητικός ἦν.

Καί ὁ μακάριος δέ ∆αβίδ ἐν τῷ τριακοστῷ ἐννάτῳ ψαλμῷ· Θυσίαν καί προσφοράν, φησίν, οὐκ ἠθέλησας, σῶμα δέ κατηρτίσω μοι. Ὁλοκαυτώματα καί πεί ἁμαρτίας οὐκ ἐξεζήτησας· τότε εἶπον· Ἰδοῦ ἤκω. Ἐν κεφαλίδι βιβλίου γέγραπται περί ἐμοῦ, τοῦ ποιῆσαι τό θέλημα σου· ὁ Θεός μου, ἠβουλήθην. Ὅτι μέν καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος ὁ Χριστός, καί οὐ καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, Θεός αὐτοῦ λέγεται ὁ Πατήρ, ὥσπερ καί Πατήρ, καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, καί οὐ καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος, οὐδέ τούς δι᾿ ἐναντίας οἶναι διαμφιβάλλειν. Εἰ δέ καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος, καί οὐ καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, Θεός αὐτοῦ ἐστιν ὁ Πατήρ, ἄρα καί καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος , καί οὐ καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, ἠβουλήθη τό θέλημα τοῦ Πατρός καί αὐτοῦ ποιῆσαι· αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐστι καί τό τοῦ Πατρός θέλημα, Θεοῦ καί αὐτοῦ κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ὄντος. Εἰ γάρ τοῦτο, οὐ μόνον καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός καί τῷ Πατρί ὁμοούσιος ἦν θελητικός, ἀλλά καί καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος καί ἡμῖν ὁμοούσιος.

Χρή δέ εἰδέναι ὡς τά νῦν παρατεθέντα τοῦ ψαλμοῦ ῥήματα ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος, ἐν τῇ πρός Ἑβραίους Ἐπιστολῇ, εἰς τόν Κύριον ἐξείληφεν. Ὁ μέγας δέ Μωϋσῆς ἐν τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου γενέσει τόν Θεόν εἰσάγει λέγοντα· Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ᾿ εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καί καθ᾿ ἡμοίωσιν. Εἰ οὖν εἰκών ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῆς θείας φύσεως· αὐτεξούσιος δέ ἡ θεία φύσις· ἄρα καί ἡ εἰκών· εἴπερ τήν πρός τό ἀρχέτυπον σώζει ὁμοίωσιν, αὐτεξούσιος φύσει τυγχάνει. Εἰ δέ τοῦτο, γέγονε δέ τό φύσει ἀρχέτυπον καί εἰκών φύσει, ἄρα κατ' ἄμφω τάς αὐτοῦ φύσεις θελητικός φύσει ὑπῆρχεν ὁ αὐτός. Προαπείχθη γάρ ἐκ τῶν Πατέρων, τό θέλημα εἶναι τήν κατά φύσιν αὐτεξουσιότητα.

∆εῖ δέ εἰδέναι ὡς ἡ αὐτεξουσιότης ὁμωνύμως (325) λέγεται μέν, ὥσπερ καί ἡ φύσις· ἄλλως δέ ἐπί Θεοῦ λαμβάνεται, καί ἄλλως ἐπί ἀγγέλων, καί ἄλλως ἐπί ἀνθρώπων. Ἐπί μέν Θεοῦ ὑπερουσίως· ἐπί δέ ἀγγέλων, ὡς συντρεχούσης τῇ ἕξει τῆς προχειρήσεως, καί παρενθήκην ὅλως χρόνου μή παραδεχομένης· ἐπί δέ ἀνθρώπων, ὡς χρονικῶς τῆς ἕξεως ἐπινοουμένης τῆς προχειρήσεως. Εἰ γάρ θέλων ὁ Ἀδάμ ὑπήκουσε, καί θέλων ἐθεώρησε, καί θελήσας ἔφαγεν· ἄρα πρωτοπαθής ἐν ἡμῖν ἡ θέλησις. Εἰ δέ πρωτοπαθής ἐν ἡμῖν ἡ θέλησις, ταύτην δέ μετά τῆς φύσεως κατ᾿ αὐτούς οὐ προσείληφεν ὁ Λόγος ἐνανθρωπήσας· οὐκ ἄρα ἐγώ χωρίς ἁμαρτίας γέγονα. Εἰ δέ ἐγώ χωρίς ἁμαρτίας οὐ γέγονα, οὐκ ἄρα ἐσώθην· εἴπερ τό ἀπρόσληπτον, ἀθεράπευτον.

Ἔπειτα δέ , εἰ ἔργον αὐτοῦ καί ποίημα ἡ αὐτεξούσιος τῆς φύσεως ὑπάρχει δύναμις, ταύτην δέ ὁ Λόγος σαρκωθείς, κατ᾿ αὐτούς, μετά τῆς φύσεως καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν ἄῤῥητον οὐ προσείληφεν, ἤ καταγνούς τῆς οἰκείας δημιουργίας, ὡς οὐ καλῆς, ταύτην ἑαυτοῦ ἀπεπέμψατο· ἤ φθονήσας ἡμῖν τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτήν θεραπείας, ἡμᾶς μέν τῆς ἐντελοῦς ἀποστερῶν σωτηρίας, καί ἑαυτόν ὑπό πάθος ὄντα δεικνύς, τῷ μή θέλειν, ἤ τῷ μή δύνασθαι τελείως σώζειν.

Ταὐτα μέν περί τοῦ θελητικόν εἶναι φύσει τόν σαρκωθέντα Θεόν Λόγον, καί καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος· περί σέ τοῦ θελητικόν φύσει εἶναι τόν αὐτόν, καί καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, ἔνθεν εἰσόμεθα. Φησί γάρ αὐτός ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καί Θεός, ἡ μόνη ἀλήθεια, περί ἑαυτοῦ ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις οὕτως· Ἱερουσαλήμ, Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἡ ἀποκτένουσα τούς προφήτας, καί λιθοβολοῦσα τούς ἀπεσταλμένους πρός αὐτήν· ποσάκις ἠθέλησα ἐπισυναγαγεῖν τά τέκνα σου, ὡσπερ ὄρνις ἐπισυνάγει τά νοσσία ἑαυτῆς ὑπό τάς πτέρυγας, καί οὐκ ἠθελήσατε; Νῦν ἀφίεται ὑμῖν ὁ οἶκος ὑμῶν ἔρημος. ∆ῆλον γάρ, ὅτι οὐ καθ᾿ ὅ ἄνθρωπος ἀλλά καθ᾿ ὅ Θεός, δείξας τούς ποικίλους τῆς σοφῆς αὐτοῦ περί τόν ἄνθρωπον προνοίας