In dictum apostoli: Non quod volo facio

On the saying of the apostle: "Not what I wish, this I do, but what I hate, this I perform." And how Jacob became a type of Christ. In the prologue of the discourse, against those who attend the theaters. I praise your desire and admire your zeal, and I accept this noble rivalry. For it is not a disturbance that generates uproar, but a distress that weaves a crown of righteousness. I bless your good eagerness, on account of which you endure every hardship, being dependent on the divine citadel. But just as I admire this zeal, so I turn away from the labor spent on vain things. For yesterday this sacred assembly was plundered, and instead of this divine and blessed stadium, the hippodrome received the people. And I marveled how you sought a contest of horses, abandoning a contest of divine discourse. For there one could see a race of horses, but here a manifold chariot of God, in which thousands are guided. There one could see a struggle and a race and strife, here desire and zeal and eagerness. One chariot overthrows countless chariots. For the chariot of God is one; but the chariots of the wicked are many. But the one directs the course of piety; the others are overturned by the divine chariot. For these, it is said, are in chariots, and those on horses; but we shall be magnified in the name of the Lord our God; they were entangled and fell; but we arose and were set upright. This chariot does not overthrow horses, nor does it destroy men. But it dissolves demons and lays the tyranny of the devil flat on the ground. God has a chariot not composed of four horses, but assembled from countless souls.

For the chariot of God, he says, is manifold, in which thousands are guiding. The horses of God are the holy souls; the horses of God are the souls of the apostles, which have traveled through the whole earth and bring salvation to the world. For the riding of the apostles is the salvation of the inhabited world. Because of this the prophet proclaimed beforehand, saying: "You have mounted your horses upon the sea, and your riding is salvation." For these same horses both brought salvation to the faithful and confounded the enemies of piety. For "You have mounted your horses upon the sea," he says, "stirring up many waters." The preaching of the apostles disturbed the assemblies of the nations. Many kings were disturbed; many tyrants were confounded, unable to bear the course of apostolic grace. Because of this, those who were troubled by the course of the apostles said: "Those who have upset the inhabited world, these are also present here." Behold the chariot of God; behold the horses receiving the bridle of piety. Do not resist the word of truth, nor imitate the capers of irrational beasts, kicking against the divine law, lest the divine word also say to you: "Why do you persecute me?" It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Let us accept the bridle of piety and turn our gaze to a chaste spectacle. Let us behold the charioteers of piety, prophets and apostles. Prophets are charioteers of truth, who steer the course of good order. Such was Elijah, to whom Elisha cried out: "Father, father, charioteer of Israel and its rider." But piety must be preferred above all. Do not, when you hear the divine word, be suspended from the teaching.

But when you are outside of reason, you appear among the irrational. Attune your soul and your eye to love the word of God. Do not divide your vision between shameful spectacle and divine zeal. Accustom your eye to see nothing other than the heavenly beauties, so that you may say: I have lifted my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven. Accustom your hearing not to shouts nor to disturbances, but to the divine law, saying: I will incline my ear to a parable and hear what the Lord God will speak in me. One must not say things that lead to flattery, but teach things that educate. For there is no profit in flattery, but great benefit in education. Do not let your mind be taken captive by improper sights, nor surrender your reasoning to external songs. For reason is capable of controlling you, even if it draws your mind away from habit. You are not a slave, but free. You are not unwillingly taken captive, but willingly sell yourself to sin. Do not seize upon the apostolic voice. Do not, when the reproach of truth enters, exposing the secrets of the heart, say: Am I not superior to Paul, who says: I do not do what I wish, but I do what I hate? Do not, while serving habit, slander the divine words. Do not, while fulfilling your own desire, malign the apostolic glory. For many often put forward pretexts in sins and hold out to us the apostolic word that has just been read to us. Paul, they say, the vessel of election, who was guided throughout by the Holy Spirit, said: I do not do what I wish, but I do what I hate.

I rejoice in the law of God, according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and taking me captive to the law of sin. Every lover of sin loves to find a credible person who fights alongside his sin, and they gladly run down the apostles, not in order to insult them, but to procure an excuse for themselves. Paul says, "For I know that good does not dwell in me," that is, in my flesh. If, then, good does not dwell in Paul, how, he says, is it possible for there to be a dwelling of good in me, and for me to partake of good, and for there to be a root of good in me? If we find such a man taken captive by sin, as he himself has explained, what about me, the wretched one enslaved to sin? So that two evils may not occur—both the apostolic word be slandered and we procure for ourselves impunity for sins—it is necessary to unfold the entire apostolic meaning. For all disputed passages in the scriptures, the solution is the subject matter. For when one knows the speaker's aim, and to whom the speech is directed, and about what, he renders the interpretation of the words clear and unconfused.

The apostle, to use a clear and concise expression, paints a picture of every human being—of the one formed from the beginning, of the one educated under the law, and of the one set free in grace. And he paints as if in a picture with his word. What then was Adam before the commandment? And what did he become after the commandment? What state did he have under the law, and what name did he receive in grace? And just as if I say today: God made us in his image and likeness, but because we transgressed the commandment, we were cast out of paradise—I do not apply the word to myself, but I refer the ancient history to myself. For I have neither seen paradise nor been cast out of paradise, but I depict the passion of the father and the origin of the calamity and say: I was formed, I transgressed, I was cast out, I was educated, I was recalled. So also Paul narrates concerning Adam, who he was before the commandment of the law—I mean the law given in paradise—and he says in the person of Adam: But I once lived without law. Was Paul, then, older than the law? Paul flourished after all those nurtured under the law, after the appearance of Christ. If, therefore, he is after the law, how does he place himself as older than the law? For he shows from what he says that he was older than the law: But I once lived without law. When the commandment came, sin revived. Did the commandment, then, come after Paul? And so that no one might think that the law existed before Paul, but that he himself once lived without law, having taken up a pagan life, and was afterward educated by the law, history refutes the truth.

Paul never lived without the law. For how could he, who says he is a Hebrew of Hebrews, circumcised on the eighth day, of the Israelite race, ever have lived without the law? But I once lived without the law. When the commandment came, however. Which one? The one that said: "You may eat from every tree in the garden." When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. See how he places sin and righteousness as if on a balance in his argument: that sin is dead when the commandment is fulfilled. Then the man dies when sin prospers. For saying, "When the commandment came, sin revived," shows that before the transgression sin was dead. He calls sin not the act of sin, but the devil. Why does he call the devil sin? Because he became the teacher of sin. For if one does not attend to the peculiarities of Scripture, he greatly slips and falls from the goal of truth. Scripture is accustomed to call the devil sin. Why? Because he became the teacher, instigator, and promoter of sin. Similarly, Scripture calls our Lord Jesus Christ the Savior righteousness, not as an act of righteousness, but as the teacher of righteousness. For this reason Paul says about him: "He who became for us from God wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." Just as Christ is called righteousness, insofar as he is the source of righteousness, so also the devil, having become the instigator and teacher of sin, received the appellation of sin. Sin revived, and I died. And the commandment that was found for me for life, this one was for death.

God gave Adam a commandment, not so that he would die, but so that he would live. So the commandment, it is said, which was given to me for life, was found to be for death—not because it changed, but because I, through transgression, overturned its life-giving effect. One must pay close attention to every question that arises. For the enemy of the Scriptures, who is not nurtured in the word of piety, immediately goes to nothing else but this: "Did God not know beforehand," he says, "that Adam was going to sin? Did he not know that he would not keep the commandment? Did he not know that he would be deceived by the serpent? Why then did he give the commandment to one who was going to fail to keep it?" But one must know that God foreknows all things, yet gives the laws not only with a view to the one who will transgress, but also to the one who will succeed. Why do you say, "Did God not know that Adam would sin?" Why do you pass over in silence the consequences and what follows from that sequence? But you are silent, being ungrateful. I, however, proclaim, believing that just as God foreknew that Adam would transgress, so he knew that Abel would be justified; he foreknew that Enoch would be translated; he foreknew that the chorus of saints would be established; he foreknew that Noah would swim through the universal destruction; he foreknew that Abraham, the root of faith, would flourish; he foreknew that patriarchs would shine, prophets would blossom, apostles would excel; and from that very mixture of those who were going to transgress, the much-hymned beauty of the economy of the Savior would flourish. He foresaw the course of the apostles; he foresaw the steadfastness of the martyrs; he foresaw the struggles of the confessors.

He foresaw the gatherings of the monks; he foresaw the flowers of the churches; he foresaw the choir of priests; he foresaw all those who truly stand at the altar. What then? Was it necessary, on account of the foreknowledge of so many good things, to bring the creature into being? For sin, having taken an occasion, through the commandment deceived me and through it killed me. Sin, that is, the devil. Having taken an occasion. What occasion? Because God said: "You may eat for food from every tree in the paradise, but from the tree of knowing good and evil you shall not eat; for on the day you eat, you will die the death." The devil, taking an occasion from the commandment, constructs a slander and says to him: "For God knew that on whatever day you eat, you become like gods, and he prevented you." He slanders God as envious and runs down God as spiteful. "God, being jealous of you," he says, "of your equality with the gods, prevented you from eating from the tree, from which your equality with the gods was about to arise." So sin, having taken an occasion, through the commandment deceived. It rightly said "deceived." For it promised the truth, but it deceived and through it killed. For the deception generated death. For the creature was not mortal. For many have thought this too, that God made the creature mortal. But the creature was not mortal. For even if it was earthly, yet it was created immortal. If it was not created immortal, but mortal, which it had in its nature, why did it receive death as a penalty? If this creature was mortal, why did God set death as the penalty for its transgression? "For on whatever day you eat, you will die the death.

Therefore, before he ate, the creation was immortal. But if it was mortal even before he ate, then what is said is deception and mockery, not truth; for it threatens me with what I already was. No one threatens another with sleep, which he has by nature. No one threatens with food, which he naturally receives. But God threatens death. What the creation did not have by its original constitution, it received through sin. For if Adam had kept the commandment, guarding the divine law, death would have had no place. And that wise saying bears witness that God did not create death, nor does he delight in the destruction of the living; but death entered the world through the envy of the devil. Hence, if one must speak according to truth, mortality entered us contrary to nature. And resurrection restores to us what is according to nature. For this reason it is called resurrection, because the creation, which was corrupted and fell through sin, is set upright through righteousness. If Adam had remained with the commandment, he would have remained alive. And who guarantees this statement, so that it may not be considered mere conjecture and plausibility? Therefore, brothers, let us not apply conjectures to divine matters, but using logical sequence, let us grasp the evident truth of the facts. The immortality of the creation is witnessed by what follows. If the creation was mortal by nature, if it did not receive death through sin but through nature itself, how did Elijah and Enoch overcome nature? How was Elijah taken up, having never tasted death? How was Enoch translated, having no experience of death? Behold the pledges of the original creation; so that it was possible for man to live perpetually, if he lived in accordance with the divine law.

For this reason, God, taking firstfruits of our race, translated them into immortality. And observe the wise economy. He takes Enoch many generations beforehand; he snatches up Elijah after many generations, and this with purpose. For since piety was to be practiced among two nations—among the people who have circumcision and among the people who profess circumcision—he does not take Elijah alone, lest the Jew boast, priding himself on the firstfruits; but first he takes Enoch, who did not live according to the Law, but preserved ecclesiastical order. For everything before the Law was a type of the Church. Ask what the righteous up to Abraham and the Law were. Everything revolves around three names: Hellenism, the part of unbelief; Judaism, that which lived according to the Law; Christianity, that which is guided by evangelical grace. Let those of the opposite side be asked about Adam, Abel, Enoch, Seth, Noah, and all who from that time distinguished themselves up to Abraham—what were they? Greeks? But faith does not permit it. They were not Greeks. For they did not live in unbelief, they did not serve demons, they were not subject to carved images, they resisted the error of demons. Therefore they cannot be called Greeks. But what were they? Jews? But they did not receive the Law; they did not keep Sabbaths; they did not observe distinctions of foods; they did not have circumcision. If, then, the ancients were neither Greeks nor Jews, another name is found that can fit them. For if those who lived before the Law were neither Jews nor Greeks, what appellation do they give them?

What is left? Clearly, Christians, not in name but in power. For this reason all the types of the church shone forth beforehand. Enoch was uncircumcised, just as the church is. He is not enslaved to the law, just as the people of Christ are not. He knows no distinctions of foods, just as the church that lives together with the divine word does not. The church that is ordered by the type of piety is more ancient than all. And the faith of Abraham was an image not of the Jews, but of the church. For this reason the apostle examines the argument concerning faith, and wishing to show that Abraham is an image of the church and not of the Jews, he says: Brothers, it is written that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. When then was it counted to him? While he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? These things Paul, who is from the Jews, who knows the law and explains matters according to the law, says: Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision; and he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that is in uncircumcision. See the contemplation of intricate thoughts. See how the apostle expels Israel from Abraham, as not having the kinship of faith, and brings in the Gentiles, as having the character of piety. And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of righteousness, so that he might become the father of those who believe through uncircumcision. Do you see how the type of the church was at work in Abraham? And the Savior, wishing to show that the evangelical state is brought back to the ancient state, when the Jews say: Moses wrote.

If someone wishes to divorce his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. Again the Savior, inserting himself into the law, not as dissolving it but revealing the true teaching, says: "Moses spoke because of your hardness of heart; from the beginning it was not so." See how he restores us to the ancient state. I repeat the statement. But I ask you to strive with us through silence, so that no disturbance blowing against us may dissolve the meaning. My Savior, wishing to show that the evangelical teaching leads to the ancient state, when the disciples, or rather the Pharisees, said: "Why did Moses command: 'If someone divorces his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce'?" The Savior does not accuse the law but defends the law: "Moses said these things because of your hardness of heart; from the beginning it was not so." See how he restores us to the ancient state. But the one who made man made them male and female. Therefore what God has joined, let no man separate. And through many things I find the Savior leading the ecclesiastical order back to the ancient state. So the type of the church was in practice before circumcision. And pay close attention. Since the type of the church was in practice from the beginning, and after this again the rule of the church, but the law entered in between, the apostle, wishing to show the ecclesiastical order running through time in sequence, says: "The law interposed." He did not say, "The law entered," but "interposed." For the law that entered is one thing, and the law that interposed is another.

From the beginning, the evangelical law entered, not observing days, nor knowing distinctions of foods, not accepting circumcision. This law from the beginning from the ancients governed, and it reached the last; but the law entered in the middle, or rather, it crept in. And it is possible to hear the apostle saying clearly, as we have said: "A law crept in." And do you wish to learn where it crept in? Listen to the histories. Just as Jacob served Laban for the sake of Rachel, and concerning the marriage itself, she did not enter; and the patriarch's purpose was to take Rachel, but the deception of the father-in-law brought in another instead of another, and the one not sought was found to be brought in. Thus it was God's purpose always to establish the church; but he brought in the synagogue, not receiving it by force and deception, but fitting the events to the pattern of the old history. And just as Jacob, with Leah, had his purpose toward Rachel, but bore the violence from the deception; so also God, at the time when he had the synagogue, hated one and longed for the other. And what word bears witness for us? What guarantees the contemplation of the history? Often, while living with the synagogue according to the law, God said: "Your feasts and your new moons my soul has hated." And just as Jacob loved the face of Rachel, but turned away from the weakness of Leah's eyes—for Leah, it is said, was weak in the eyes—so God turned away from the synagogue, not because it was unsound in body, but because its soul was blinded. Because of this the prophet said: "And who is blind, but my children?

And who is deaf, but those who rule over them? And the servants of God were blinded. And just as there, because of the weakness of the eyes, so here, because of the blindness of the soul, the synagogue was turned away. For this reason, the Savior, hinting at their blindness, said: "Let them go; they are guides of the blind. But if a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit." That throughout the entire time when the synagogue lived together with the law, God wanted to cast out that people because of their ingratitude, a prophet somewhere testifies, saying: "From the day I led your fathers out of the land of Egypt until today, it was before my eyes to cast out this city." And again, that during the time the synagogue was with the law, God had his sight set on the church, he says to Moses: "Let me be, and I will make you into a great nation, and much more." If you have in yourself the church as an image of the old history, how did the law come in? As Leah to Rachel. And that, brothers, this is not forced theory or allegory, but truly this was an image of Jacob, and that Jacob fulfilled a type of God, who once had the synagogue and now has the church, he himself cries out through the prophet: "I multiplied visions and was likened in the hands of a prophet." And Jacob served with a woman and with a woman he preserved me. Why then did he preserve? Or how did he preserve? You will find, brother, according to another theory, Jacob taking the woman in one way, and Isaac, the father of Jacob, in another.

Isaac, when taking a wife, did not himself go into the midst of the rivers and take her, but sent his servant and betrothed her. Jacob, however, does not betroth through a servant, but through himself. For this too was a type of the old and the new. For God, betrothing the old synagogue, takes her through his servant Moses. Isaac, taking a wife, betroths through a servant and, having betrothed through a servant, takes her. But Jacob does not send a servant, although he has servants, but himself went into the midst of the rivers. He himself came alone, though he had many servants. He came alone, though he had many beasts of burden. For God blessed the house of the master Abraham with cattle and silver and gold and slaves and horses and the rest. And possessing so many goods, he comes holding only his staff, and Jacob says: With my staff I crossed this Jordan, meaning: Holding only a staff, I went out alone, I who am master of many. Jacob went out alone; he came to Bethel and slept in the evening and placed a stone under his head. He found no house, no lodging. For he was an image of the one who says: But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Then, brothers, while sleeping he sees the heaven opened. For just as for Christ there was no place to lay his head on the earth, but heaven and the heavenly realms were opened to him, so Jacob sleeps, having no house and seeing the heaven opened and a ladder fixed from earth to heaven. And he was also, in another sense, a type of those who are persecuted.

For since he came to the middle of the rivers fleeing Esau, God, wishing to show that for everyone persecuted on earth heaven is opened, he sees heaven opened and a ladder set up from earth to heaven and the angels of God ascending and descending through the ladder. And the Lord, it says, was leaning. He did not simply say he was sitting, but he was leaning on the ladder. And what is the ladder? An image of the cross. For through it one can ascend to heaven. And some ascended through it to heaven, while others descended through it. Jews fell from heaven through the cross, and Gentiles are led up to heaven through the cross. But since it is necessary everywhere to flee the violence of allegory and to seal what is said with written testimonies, so that the Savior might show through the Gospels that those angels ascending and descending fulfilled the image of the grace of the Gospel, he says to Nathanael: Since I told you, I saw you under the fig tree, you believed; you will see greater things than these. Truly I say to you, from now on you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. He came to the middle of the rivers, and when he saw the vision, he says: This is nothing other than a house of God. And indeed you did not see a building of houses, but a ladder. But since he knew that the ladder is a type of the church, he says: This is a house of God, this is a church. And whence is this, that a house of God is a church? Paul says this writing to Timothy.

If I delay, so that you may see how one ought to conduct oneself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God. Then, fulfilling in all things the image of Christ—the image that is without possessions, that hates wealth, that accepts no worldly illusion—he says: If the Lord God is with me and gives me bread to eat and a garment to put on. See how the philosophical soul does not exceed self-sufficiency. If the Lord God is with me and guides me on the way and gives me bread to eat and a garment to put on. Before the evangelical, he utters the apostolic. And if he gives me bread to eat and a garment to put on. Paul speaks through Jacob: For having sustenance and coverings, we will be content with these. This place will be for me a house of God. For this is also what Bethel means: Beth is house, and El is of God. He went to the middle of the rivers, and first a well meets him. He came to the well, and it was covered, and he found shepherds there. An image in every respect of Christ. The first coming of Christ to the baptism, to the well, the well that leaps into eternal life. The well is found covered, because grace also was hidden before the coming. Jacob says to the shepherds: Why are you still standing? It is very late. Water the sheep and lead them away. They said to him: Unless all the shepherds come, we cannot roll away the stone. And what does Jacob do immediately? What needed to be done by many and by all the shepherds, he does alone. For taking hold, he rolls away the stone. How then was he able to do this alone, which many could barely do?

But since it was an image of Christ, and the Scripture showed the power of the master—that what many were unable to accomplish, the grace of the Gospel accomplished. There he finds Rachel coming. For everywhere the righteous of old received their brides for the most part from wells. Moses took his wife, the daughter of Jethro, from a well; Jacob from a well; the servant of Abraham received Rebecca from a well. Everywhere the betrothals of the ancients were from a well, because Christ too betroths the church in no other way than from waters. And to be brief, he entered, asked for Rachel, and Leah entered alongside. One must hold to the subject and return to it; it is necessary. So law entered alongside, not entered, since Leah too did not enter but entered alongside. For to enter is to use frankness openly; to enter alongside is to enter with another by a side route. So sin also entered alongside; the devil entered alongside through the law. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So that no one might think the commandment is the cause of death, he says: Thus the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Then did the good in me become death? Far from it. But so that sin might be seen to work death for me through the good. Everywhere he calls the sinner sin, that is, the devil. So that, he says, the devil might appear as exceedingly sinful, working death through the commandment. We know that the law is spiritual; but I am fleshly.

You, Paul, are fleshly, you who are steered by the Holy Spirit, you who have Christ speaking within you? If you are fleshly, why did you deceive your disciples by saying, “You are not in the flesh, but in the spirit”? Are your disciples not in the flesh, and are you fleshly? But I am fleshly. I. Who? The one who lived before the law and under the law. Sold under sin. He did not say “sold by sin,” but “sold to sin.” For no other person sold him, but he sold himself. For just as among us humans there are some who are sold by necessity, while others who partake of freedom give themselves into slavery through marriage to slave women or some other necessity, so also man, being free by nature and having obtained a free nature, willingly sold himself. Do you want to see a man selling himself? Look at what Elijah says to Ahab, when God sent him to rebuke him concerning the vineyard that he took from Naboth. Ahab says to him, “Have you found me, my enemy?” Elijah says to him, “I have found you, because you were sold to do evil before the Lord.” For our sale is through the works of wickedness. But I am fleshly. Sold under sin. For the one who has been taken over by evil habit cannot easily free himself from slavery, even if he wishes. For habit is a second nature, and nature prevails over men. Therefore he added, “For I do not do what I want, since I have once been sold, nor do I do what I wish.” These words are fitting for a slave.

Just as someone does not do what he wishes, but what he is commanded, so man had no authority to do what he wanted, but what he was commanded by sin. For sin then reigned. And it was not possible to speak against the king. Man was therefore sold, not Paul, but the image of man, the creature of freedom. And to be brief, when he said this, he adduced many proofs of enforced slavery. Wretched am I, a man; who will deliver me from this body of death? Do you see how he introduced man, as one examined in bitter slavery and tyranny, longing to cast off slavery, seeking freedom, and calling for benefaction? Wretched am I, a man; who will deliver me? Who is coming? I give thanks to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. To show you that he calls the one formerly under the law a sale of sin, and freedom of the sold those ransomed through evangelical grace, he says: Wretched am I, a man; who will deliver me? I give thanks to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He freed me from the law of sin. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed me. Do you see how he introduced the man being freed and the man in slavery? And he speaks not only about himself, but about all humanity together. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus freed me from the law of sin and death. And how were you freed? For the impossibility of the law, in which it was weak through the flesh.

Since the law commanded the good, but the flesh did not obey, as having been sold to sin, what the law was unable to accomplish because of the weakness of the flesh, it accomplished through the power of the flesh of Christ. For the impossibility of the law, in which it was weak through the flesh—for the law was not weak in itself, but through the flesh—God, having sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, so that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. Therefore, by the grace of God, the solution of the questions has been given: that Paul does not utter these things to his own father, nor does he slander his own freedom, nor does he place himself under sin, nor does he introduce himself as spiritual and fleshly, but he set forth, as in an image, by the word the man under the law, the man in the law, the man after grace. Then he made him come to knowledge, who was the man before the law, who in the law, who after the freedom in Christ. God, having sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh.

Here the other question is also resolved. For not only the Apollinarians say this, but also the Arians and Eunomians, that the Savior assumed flesh only, and not also a soul. And some have been ambitious and said a soul without mind, others that the Savior took only flesh. It has been demonstrated by us through what was said previously on the previous day, that Scripture is accustomed to mention the human being, and to call the human being from a part. For sometimes it names the whole human being from the flesh—"To you every flesh will come," instead of "every human being"—, sometimes from the soul, as when it says, "Jacob went down into Egypt with seventy-five souls"; sometimes from the breath, as in, "Let every breath praise the Lord." Show me, then, where Scripture speaks of flesh as soulless. If it is completely dead, it is no longer called flesh, but a dead body. For as long as it has the vital power and lives, it is named flesh. But when it has been killed, it is not called flesh, but is addressed as body. For every soulless thing is a body: both a stone is a body and a piece of wood is a body, and a spirit that does not have a soul is called a body. Tell me, why did he not assume the soul? For he came, they say, himself to save through himself, and he had no need of our soul. Why then did he assume the flesh? Since he was not able to appear as God, he assumed the flesh, so that through it he might be believed. Therefore, did the flesh not have a soul? How then did he hunger? how did he thirst? how did he become weary? For if you expel the soul and introduce the God, you bring the hunger and the thirst upon him.

Moreover, brothers, if the Word were not both God and an ensouled human being, the vessel of humanity united to him, but the divinity alone were in the flesh, about what soul did the Savior say: "Father, I commend my spirit into your hands"? If the divinity alone existed, and there was no soul, who is the one commending, and what is commended? "Father, I commend my spirit into your hands," that is, the soul. If you introduce only the divinity in the flesh, but cast out the soul, who is the one commending, and what is commended? But the aim of the heretics is clear. For this reason they say that the Lord did not assume a soul, so that they might draw all the humble sayings to the divinity; so that when they read: "I do not speak of myself, because my father gave me a command, what I should say and what I should speak," they might no longer ascribe it to the humanity, but to the divinity. Do you see into what depth of impiety they slip? What is the spirit of which he says: "I commend into your hands"? Even if they force it, they do not find it. For it is resolved through other passages, that he called the spirit the soul. Listen to Stephen saying in his martyrdom: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." That the spirit is the soul, Stephen testifies. Who then is the one commending the spirit, and to what was the spirit commended? And about what substance does he speak? Into which the apostles draw the prophecy: "That you will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will you allow your holy one to see corruption." "You will not abandon my soul to Hades." Was the word about God? God is not abandoned to Hades. Did Hades hold God? Did corruption hold the life-giving power?

Have you not heard Paul saying, that it was not possible for life to be held by corruption? He calls the body "life." But if the body is life, was life held by death? "You will not abandon my soul to Hades." He raised the whole fallen whole. He renewed the whole fallen human being wholly. But if you say, he says, "He renewed a perfect human being," what difference do you give him compared to the apostles? For in them also God came to be. But it is one thing to dwell in, and another to assume and be united. It is said concerning us: "I will dwell in them and walk among them." It speaks of the soul's simplicity, it posits the virtue of the soul, in which God reposes and walks about. But since Christ's own body, united from the womb, became a temple, it did not receive God dwelling in it by progression of conduct, but the temple was constructed at once, God dwelt in it at once. The body, then, was a temple of the united Christ. For this reason he says: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it." O the absurdity of those who dare everything fearlessly. But these things are said against heretics who say "soul and body and spirit" and who force the apostolic saying that says: "God will guard your body and soul and spirit." It is necessary to say this: They think spirit is the mind. If then the spirit is the mind, why does the apostle say: "I will sing with my spirit, I will sing also with my mind"? For if spirit and mind are the same, why does Paul distinguish, saying: "I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind"? If the spirit is mind, why does he speak of mind as something other than spirit? But since he says, "You did not accept it thus, interpret as you think.

What is it that Paul says: "God will guard your body and soul and spirit"? It is customary for Scripture to call the gift of the Holy Spirit "spirit." I beg you, join with me in this labor. For it is no small thing to cut out a heretical thorn. It is customary for Scripture to call the gift of the Holy Spirit "spirit." For example, if someone receives a spirit of wisdom or a spirit of knowledge, that very gift of the Spirit is called spirit. Paul says: "Since you are zealots of spirits," meaning of spiritual gifts. For there are not many spirits. "Since you are zealots of spirits," I am still showing you a further point. "I am showing you," he says, "what gifts you ought to seek." Therefore, the grace of the Spirit is called spirit—not the substance of the Spirit itself, but the energy of the Spirit. And all these things are energized by one and the same Spirit. The energy of the Spirit is spirit, that is, the gift—not the substance of the Spirit itself. You are called spiritual, and the gift in you is called spirit. So the apostle says: "God will guard your body and soul and the gift which you received from the Spirit?" Again he calls the gift spirit. And the gift increases through diligence and is lost through negligence. The apostle says: "Do not extinguish the spirit." It is possible neither to extinguish the substance of the Spirit nor the mind that exists by nature. But since we increase the gift through diligence and extinguish it through laziness, he says: "Do not extinguish the gift which you received." Therefore, he calls the energy of the Spirit "spirit." May it be that we all attain this.

in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is the glory and the power now and always and to the ages of ages. Amen.