This last head of doctrine, supremely necessary for holding, as is needful, the genuine and sincere rationale of the antecedent will, Chrysostom explains nowhere else more splendidly and evidently than when, concerning these words1 of John, ἦν τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινόν, ὃ φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον ἐρχόμενον εἰς τὸν κόσμον, “it was the true light, which illuminates every man coming into this world,” he writes2:
If it illuminates every man coming into this world, πῶς ἀφώτιστοι μεμενήκασι τοσοῦτοι, “how do so many men remain unilluminated?” For not all recognize the religion of Christ; πῶς οὖν φωτίζει πάντα ἄνθρωπον, “how, therefore, does it illuminate every man?” Τό γε εἰς αὐτὸν ἧκον, “as much as lies in him.” But if any, of their own accord closing the eyes of the mind, are unwilling to receive the rays of this light, οὐ παρὰ τὴν τοῦ φωτὸς φύσιν ἡ σκότωσις ἐκείνοις, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τὴν κακουργίαν τῶν ἑκόντι ἀποστερούντων ἑαυτοὺς τῆς δωρεᾶς, “it does not come from the nature of the light that they remain in darkness, but from the wickedness of those who voluntarily deprive themselves of this gift.” For grace has been poured out εἰς πάντας, “upon all”; it turns away neither Jew, nor Greek, nor barbarian, nor Scythian, nor free man, nor slave, nor man, nor woman, nor youth; πάντας δὲ ὁμοίως προσιεμένη καὶ μετὰ τῆς ἴσης καλοῦσα τιμῆς, “but it similarly admits all and calls them with equal honor.”
But those who do not will to enjoy this gift ought to ascribe this blindness to themselves. For when the entrance lies open to all and is barred by no one, ἐθελοκακοῦντές τινες ἔξω μένωσι, παρ᾽ οὐδένα ἕτερον, ἀλλ᾽ ἢ παρὰ τὴν οἰκείαν πονηρίαν ἀπόλλυνται μόνον, “some remain outside through voluntary wickedness; they perish from no other cause, but solely through their own vice.”