XXIV. The formulas and rationale by which Oecumenius sets forth and explains the same division of the divine will

Most similar to these is both the division of the divine will and its explanation which Oecumenius hands down, who¹, on account of his subtle and articulated commentaries, has customarily been called the Scholiast of the New Testament. For, considering the words of Christ in Paul², τοῦ ποιῆσαι ὁ Θεὸς τὸ θέλημά σου, “that I may do, O God, your will,” he writes:

τί οὖν; αἱ κατὰ νόμον θυσίαι οὐκ ἦσαν θελήματι Θεοῦ; ἦσαν μέν, ἀλλ᾽ ἀναγκαστῶς.

What then? Were the sacrifices according to the law not from the will of God? They were indeed, but by a certain necessity and almost under compulsion. For the Lord said simply to the Jews: bloody victims are altogether hateful to me on account of their blood; but when you have a desire to sacrifice, sacrifice indeed to me and not to idols, ὅπερ οὐκ ἦν καθαροῦ καὶ πρωτοτύπου θελήματος, which was not of the pure and principal will.

Therefore that which in the other Greek writers is the second will, the consequent will, the will from condescension and permission, the will provoked by us, is in Oecumenius the will as though elicited by necessity, not arising spontaneously from God, a mixed will, not simple and pure. But that which in them is the first, principal, spontaneous will, the will of benignity and love, is in Oecumenius the pure will, namely, separated from all those things of which men are the cause, the archetypal will, in which alone the activity of divine charity, never growing faint, shines forth.

That this pure and archetypal will is salvific, universal in amplitude, and cherishes all in its bosom, Oecumenius declares in the place³ where, upon the words of Paul⁴, ὃς πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι, “who [God] wills all men to be saved,” he appends this commentary:

εἰ αὐτός, φησί, θέλει πάντας σωθῆναι ὁ καὶ σώζων Κύριος, τίς χρεία ἐμῶν εὐχῶν; ναί· αὐτούς τε γὰρ ἐκείνους εἰς ἀγάπην ἕλκεις, καὶ τὸ φιλόστοργον δεικνύεις, μιμοῦ, φησί, τὸν σκοπὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ· αὐτὸς γὰρ πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι, καὶ σὺ ὑπὲρ πάντων εὔχου ἀνθρώπων,

If he himself, you will object, who is the Lord that saves, wills all to be saved, to what purpose are our prayers? They are indeed fitting, for you both draw those very persons into charity and demonstrate benevolence. Imitate, Paul says, the purpose of God; for since he himself wills all men to be saved, do you in turn pray for all men.

Then he adds: εἰ οὖν θέλει ὁ Θεός, “if therefore God wills, why is that which he wills not done?” It is not done, ὅτι ἐκεῖνοι οὐ θέλουσιν, οὐδὲν γὰρ πρὸς ἀνάγκην ποιεῖ ὁ Θεός, “because they do not will. For God extorts nothing from us by imposing necessity.”

Therefore all men belong to the object of charity, whether of that charity by which we ought mutually to embrace one another, or of that by which God pursues all men. But if many fall away from salvation and come upon everlasting destruction, this cannot be ascribed to divine charity as though it did not fulfill its parts; rather, it must be imputed as a fault to those who stubbornly resist divine charity.