49. Connect with this that saying, which you lay hold of to support the imputation of infirmity, All that the Father giveth Me shall come unto Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out; for I am come down from heaven not to do Mine own will, but the will of the Father that sent Me534    St. John vi. 37, 38.. But, perhaps you say, the Son has no freedom of will: the weakness of His nature subjects Him to necessity, and He is denied free-will, and subjected to necessity that He may not reject those who are given to Him and come from the Father. Nor was the Lord content to demonstrate the mystery of the Unity by His action in not rejecting those who are given to Him, nor seeking to do His own will instead of the will of him that sent Him, but when the Jews, after the repetition of the words, Him that sent Me, began to murmur, He confirms our interpretation by saying, Every one who heareth from the Father and learneth, cometh unto Me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is from God, He hath seen the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth in Me hath eternal life535    Ib. 45–47.. Now, tell me first, where has the Father been heard, and where has He taught His hearers? No one hath seen the Father, save Him Who is from God: has any one ever heard Him Whom no one has ever seen? He that has heard from the Father, comes to the Son: and he that has heard the teaching of the Son, has heard the teaching of the Father’s nature, for its properties are revealed in the Son. When, therefore, we hear the Son teaching, we must understand that we are hearing the teaching of the Father. No one hath seen the Father, yet he who comes to the Son, hears and learns from the Father to come: it is manifest, therefore, that the Father teaches through the words of the Son, and, though seen of none, speaks to us in the manifestation of the Son, because the Son, by virtue of His perfect birth, possesses all the properties of His Father’s nature. The Only-begotten God desiring, therefore, to testify of the Father’s authority, yet inculcating His own unity with the Father’s nature, does not cast out those who are given to Him of the Father, or work His own will instead of the will of Him that sent Him: not that He does not will what He does, or is not Himself heard when He teaches; but in order that He may reveal Him Who sent Him, and Himself the Sent, under the aspect of one indistinguishable nature, He shews all that He wills, and says, and does, to be the will and works of the Father.

49. Ait non se suam, sed Patris facere voluntatem. Non ob agendi necessitatem, sed ob unitatem.---Adjunge quoque huic illud, quod ad opprobrium infirmitatis usurpas: Omne quod dat mihi Pater, ad me venit, et venientem ad me non apello; quia descendi de coelo non ut faciam voluntatem meam, sed voluntatem Patris qui me misit (Joan. VI, 37 et 38). Sed forte sine voluntatis libertate sit Filius, ut ei naturae infirmitas imperet necessitatem. Ideo autem necessitati sit subditus, non voluntati, ut datos sibi venientes a Patre non apellat. Sed sacramenti unitatem in his Dominus significans, dum non repellit sibi datos, dum non suam, sed mittentis se agit voluntatem, post repetitam hanc eamdem Judaeis murmurantibus vocem, intelligentiae nostrae sensum confirmat, dicens: Omnis, 0320B qui audit a Patre et discit, venit ad me, non quod viderit Patrem quisquam, nisi qui est a Deo, hic vidit Patrem. Amen, amen dico vobis, qui credit in me, habet vitam aeternam (Ibid. 45 et seqq.). Et quaero primum, ubi auditus sit Pater, ubi docuerit audientes. Sed Patrem nemo vidit, nisi qui a Deo est. Et quomodo eum quisquam audierit, quem nemo vidit? Audiens ergo a Patre, ad Filium venit. Et cum Filius auditur et docet, naturae in eo paternae proprietas et auditae et docentis ostenditur: ut hoc, quod docet Filius et auditur, paternae doctrinae intelligatur auditio. Nam cum nemo viderit Patrem, et ad Filium veniens, a Patre audiat atque discat ut veniat: admonemur intelligere quid sit et in loquente Filio Patrem docere, et in conspecto Filio Patrem, qui a nemine 0320C sit visus, audiri; quia naturae paternae proprietatem nativitas Filii in se perfecta contineat. Volens igitur unigenitus Deus auctoritatem paternam, salva in se naturae unitate, testari, et datos sibi a Patre non apellit, et voluntatem non suam, sed ejus qui se misit, efficit, non quod non velit, quae agit, aut quod non ipse audiatur qui docet: sed ut et cum qui se mittat, et se qui missus est, sub proprietate naturae indifferentis ostenderet: cum quae vult, agit, et loquitur, ea et voluntatem et opera et dicta Patris esse significet.