So great, therefore, is the amplitude of the divine salvific will that, circumscribed by no limits, it extends itself to absolutely all men, rejects no one, turns away from no one however utterly ruined, and passes over no one wholly empty of its benefits. Wherefore, when the things which we have thus far gathered from the works of Chrysostom have been compared with one another, and the things which pertain to ὀνοματολογίαν, the rationale of speaking, have been accurately distinguished from those which are referred to πραγματολογίαν, the matter itself, it is easy to place before the eyes his entire doctrine comprehended within a brief circuit.
And indeed, as regards ὀνοματολογίαν, Chrysostom first distinguishes1 a twofold divine will, θέλημα πρῶτον, the first will, and θέλημα δεύτερον, the second will. He does not always set forth and signify the former in one and the same manner, but by several and diverse formulas of speech. I shall recount the more important, among which those stand out by which he calls it θέλημα προηγούμενον, the principal and antecedent will, εὐδοκίαν, good pleasure, τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν αὐτοῦ, God’s own desire,
τὸ σφοδρὸν θέλημα, the intense and vehement will; τὸ μετ᾽ ἐπιθυμίας θέλημα, the desirous will joined with the desire of doing good; τὸ πεῖσμα, the most firm determination of mind; θέλημα αὐτοῦ, the will which is properly his, which is native to him and flows spontaneously from him; θέλημα ἀπὸ ἀγαθότητος μόνης, the will proceeding from the goodness of God alone; and therefore θέλημα χωρὶς αἰτίας, the will which, for lavishing its gifts, requires from men no cause and no condition.
But corresponding ἀναλόγως, analogously, to these are the formulas and appellations by which Chrysostom expresses the second will. Such are: θέλημα οὐκ αὐτοῦ, the will which is not his simply but only in a certain respect, inasmuch as it does not flow spontaneously from the very nature of God, but is provoked ἔξωθεν, from without; θέλημα κατὰ συγκατάβασιν, the will from condescension, to which, an occasion having been taken from men, God lowers and almost casts himself down; whence θέλημα μετὰ αἰτίας, a will with a cause, and that an external one, which men furnish either by their evil deeds or by deeds rightly done.