Chapter 2 (48)
Distinction XVI | 67 Chapter 2 (46)
OF THE STATES OF MAN, AND WHAT CHRIST TOOK FROM EACH OF THEM. It
is here to be noted that Christ, who came to save all,' took something from each of the states of man. There are four states of man: first before sin, second after sin and before grace, third under grace, fourth in glory.
From the first state, he took immunity from sin. Hence Augustine, expounding that phrase of John the Evangelist, He who comes from above, is over all,' says: "Christ came from above, that is, from the loftiness of human nature before sin, because it was from that height that the Word of God took on human nature; he took its punishment without taking its fault."* But he took the punishment and other defects from the second state; from the third, he took the fullness of grace; from the fourth, he took the inability to sin and the perfect contemplation of God. Indeed, he took simultaneously some of the goods of the wayfarer and some of the goods of the fatherland, as he took also some of the evils of the wayfarer.
DISTINCTION XVII
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WHETHER EVERY PRAYER OR WILL OF CHRIST WAS FULFILLED. After the
above, it is good to consider whether Christ willed or prayed for anything which was not done. This may be thought to be the case because he himself said: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But not my will, but yours, be done.' Indeed, here he seems to be separating his own will from the Father's.
Chapter 2 (48)
1. ON THE WILLS OF CHRIST ACCORDING TO HIS TWO NATURES. In regard
to this, it is not to be doubted that in Christ there were different wills according to his two natures, namely a divine will and a human one. And human will is a disposition of reason or a disposition of sensuality. The disposition of the soul is one thing according to reason, another according to sensuality, and yet each of these is called human will. By the disposition of reason, he willed the same as by his divine will, that is, to suffer and die; by the disposition of sensuality, he did not will this—indeed, he wanted to flee it.
'Cf. Mt. 18, 11.
25 ily Sane Ordinary gloss, on Jn. 3, 31.
'Mt. 26, 39.
68 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
2. Nor was it the case that in him the flesh lusted against the spirit or against God, because, as Augustine says, "there is some vice when the flesh lusts against the spirit."'' "And the flesh is said to lust because the soul does this according to the flesh, just as the soul hears through the ear and sees through the eye." "For the flesh lusts only through the soul; but it is said to lust when the soul with carnal concupiscence struggles against the spirit,' "finding carnal pleasure by and from the flesh, in opposition to the pleasure which the spirit has. The cause of this carnal concupiscence is not in the soul alone, nor in the flesh alone; it comes from both, and this pleasure is not felt without both." Such a struggle and contention could in no way be in Christ's soul, because carnal concupiscence has no place there. It was even God's will and consonant with reason that Christ should so will according to the flesh, in order that the truth of the humanity in him should be proved. For he who took on human nature had to suffer what pertains to such a nature.
3. And so, just as there is in us a double disposition, namely of the mind and of sensuality, so there had to be in him also a double disposition: by the disposition of the mind, he was willing to die, and by the disposition of sensuality he was not, and the same is true in holy men. For Truth itself says to Peter: When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and lead you where you do not want to go,° that is, to death. Expounding this, Augustine says that Peter "was unwillingly led to that burden; he came unwillingly, but he willingly overcame it, and left behind the disposition of infirmity by which no one is willing to die; such a natural disposition is this, that even old age had not removed it from Peter. And so even the Lord says: Father, let this cup
pass from me;' but the power of love overcame him."* And so in Christ too, according to his humanity, and in [us] his members, there is a twofold disposition: one of reason, informed by charity, by which one is willing to die for the sake of God; another of sensuality, connected and joined to the infirmity of the flesh, by which death is fled—For as Augustine says: "A pious person, by the reason of his mind, desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ;' but by the sensation of the flesh, he flees and rejects this.""""
'Gale 5s *Augustine, De civitate Dei, bk 19 c4 n3.
*Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, bk 10 c12 n21.
"Augustine, De continentia, c8 n19.
*Augustine, De Genesi ad litteram, bk 10 c12 n20.
In, 2 ts, ™t. 26, 39.
'Augustine, /n Joannem, tr. 123 nS.
"Phil? 1,23; "Augustine, Epistola 150 (ad Honoratum), c6 n16.
Distinction XVII \ 69 "Human disposition does this because it loves life and hates death."
According to this disposition, Christ was not willing to die, nor did he obtain what he asked for in accordance with this disposition.
4. BY MEANS OF AUTHORITIES, HE PROVES THAT THERE ARE DIVERSE
WILLS in Cxzist. And it was from his human disposition, which he derived from the Virgin, that he wanted not to die, and prayed that the cup should pass.—Beve. And so Bede: "He prays that the cup should pass, because he is 4 man, saying: Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." See, here you have the express human will. But see also the rightcous heart: But not my will, but yours be done." And so elsewhere: J did not come to do my will, namely the one which | took in time from the Virgin, but the will of the one who sent me, namely the one which I, the eternal onc, shared with the Father.""" Here he says clearly that there were two wills in Christ, and that he willed different things according to each.
5. JELOME. Jerome too, on that place: The spirit is ready, but the flesh is weak," gives it to be understood that the two wills are expressed here, and says 2s follows: "This is against the Eutychians, who say that in Christ there was only one will. But here he shows a human will, which rejects the passion because of the weakness of the flesh, and a divine one, which is ready to carry out the divine plan.""'
6. AUGUSTINE, ON PSALM 31. Augustine too asserts that there are two wills in Christ, saying: "As far as God is from man, that is how far the will of God is from the will of man. And so Christ, bearing his humanity, gave evidence of a private human will, which stood for both his and our will, for he is our head and we are, as it were, his members. Father, he says, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." This was a human will, desiring something of its own and, as it were, private. But because he wants to be a righteous man who is entirely directed toward God, he adds:
But not my will, but yours, be done,'' as if to say: See yourself in me, because you are able to will something of your own, even as God wills something else. This is allowed to human frailty.""—THE SAME, ON PsaLm 84. The same, elsewhere: "Christ in his passion expressed the two wills that were in him according to his two natures; and so he said:
" hugusine, Sermo 344, 04.
Mh 14, 35.
"hk. 14, 36.
"$n. 6, 36.
"Bette, In Marcum 14, 35-36.
* th, 14, 36.
"Ondinary gow, on Mik. 14, 38.
*SMt, 26, 99, Wk. 14, 35.
"Wk. 14, 36.
* pygusne, Enarrationes in Psalmos, on Ps, 32,1, 02.
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Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.*' Here you have a human will; turning it immediately toward the divine one, he added: But not my will, but yours, be done.""
7. AMBROSE. Ambrose too, in On the Trinity, book 3: "It is written:
Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me." The words are Christ's, but consider the manner and the form in which they are spoken: he bears the substance of man, he has taken human disposition. And so he does not speak as God, but as man.""* "He did indeed take up my will. It was my will which he called his own, when he said: But not my will, but yours, be done."*>*° "But when he said: A// things that the Father has are mine," because nothing is excepted, it is certain that the Son has the same will as the Father has. Christ's will is the same as the Father's."'* "And so one and the same will is the Father's and the Son's. But the human will is one thing, and God's another, so that you may know that what the human will
~ desires is life; but what the divine will desires is the passion of Christ, that he should suffer for us.""
8. By these testimonies, it is clearly taught that there were two wills in Christ; because Archbishop Macarius denied this, he was condemned at the Metropolitan Synod.*°—It was by the human disposition of sensuality, and not of reason, that he willed and asked for something which he did not obtain. Nor did he ask in such a manner as to obtain it, because he knew that God was not going to do that; nor did he want it to be done by the disposition of reason, or by his divine will.
9. WHY HE PRAYED AS HE DID. Why, then, did he ask? In order to give an example to [us] his members, when difficulties loom, of calling upon the Lord and subjecting one's will to God's: if they too are saddened by pressing trouble, to pray for its removal and, if they cannot avoid it, to say what Christ did —CASSIODORUS. "So it was not pointless that Christ, in calling out, is not heard in regard to his bodily safety";*' he asked for a good, namely that he should not die, but it was better that he should die, and this came to pass.
7IME.26, 39: Mk.14.:35-36, ** Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos, on Ps. 93, 15, 19.
Mit. 26,39 Mk 14.35: Lkr27.40.
** Ambrose, De fide, bk 2 c5 nn41-42.
» Mt. 26, 39.
*° Ambrose, De fide, bk 2 7 n53. eG. lo:
*' Ambrose, De fide, bk 2 c6 n51.
2Ibid., bk 2, c7 n52.
*°Macarius, patriarch of Antioch, was condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-681).
*ICassiodorus, In Psalmum 21.3.