IV. The names, origin, and attributes of the first will

Chrysostom, indeed, so divides the most simple will of God that one is and is called θέλημα πρῶτον, the first will, while the other is θέλημα δεύτερον, the second will. He then declares in three ways altogether what sort of will the first will is: first, when he teaches that it is referred to the will which in the Scriptures is called εὐδοκία; then, when by circumlocutions and accumulated appositions he demonstrates its force and nature; and finally, when he discloses and lays open its origin and native fountain.

And in the clearest words he hands down that it is referred to the will which is customarily called εὐδοκία in the Scriptures, saying: πανταχοῦ εὐδοκία τὸ θέλημά ἐστι τὸ προηγούμενον, “everywhere in the Scriptures εὐδοκία is the principal will and that which precedes.” And again he hands this down, adding: εὐδοκίαν οὖν τὸ πρῶτον θέλημα φησί, “therefore he (Paul) calls the first will good pleasure.” But εὐδοκία is not the sign and shadow of a will, but a true and intimate will and, as the School says, a formal will, and the sincere and benign inclination of the mind. Such, therefore, is also τὸ πρῶτον καὶ προηγούμενον θέλημα, the first and antecedent will; nor can it be understood either of a sign of the will or of a metaphorical will¹, without most shamefully perverting the words of Chrysostom.