Opuscula Theologica et Polemica 1 part 12/12

But the gnomic will is the qualified and varying movement and desire belonging to the things that are gathered together in accordance with pleasure.

Of the same [author], from the letter to Marinus the priest: What is the act of willing, and what is deliberate choice.

They say that the will is natural, that is, [that it is] the act of willing;

Look likewise earlier in the same letter, concerning counsel, and gnome, and prudence, and opinion, and authority.

Of our holy and God-bearing Fathers, concerning the two operations of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Of Saint Justin the Philosopher, and finally Martyr, from his treatise to Euphrasius the sophist, concerning Providence and Faith, of which the beginning is:

If God has the will concurrent with [his] nature, just as also the operation;

for God always exists, by nature, as one who wills and who operates;

nor will [any] of those capable of willing possess a natural willing and operation the same as his;

since [otherwise] it would certainly also be of the same nature.

But God knows no circumscription with respect to operation and nature.

Of the same [author], from the same treatise.

The operation of every essence is the quality that is naturally proper to it.

Natural and constitutive operation is the defining difference of the nature of the thing signified;

apart from which nothing whatsoever has, in any respect, the recognition of how it exists.

Natural operation is the essential and constitutive quality of every essence;

that which is deprived of this is also deprived of every essence.

Natural operation is an essential power which does not allow even a single alteration of one thing into another with respect to essence.

Natural operation is the power that preserves, unmixed, the essential distinction of all things from all things.

Of Saint Alexander, from his letter to Aiglon, Bishop of Cynopolis, against the Arians.

Natural operation is the innate movement of every nature.

Natural operation is the essential and cognitive principle of every nature.

Natural operation is the power that is declarative of every essence.

The operation of the rational soul is the movement of the intellect, and discursive thought.

Operation is an essential movement characteristic of the nature to which it properly belongs, through which [that nature] is known to differ essentially from others.

Operation is an effective movement.

For we say that operation is the natural power and movement of each essence, apart from which nature neither exists nor is known;

and by which [natures] naturally come into contact with things outside them, and become perceptible to things outside.

And, to speak summarily, we call the significative property peculiar to each nature "natural operation."

Of this alone is deprived that which is not, [i.e. non-being].

For that which is, participating in some essence, will also certainly participate in the power that naturally manifests it.

For true reason knows the natural operations of essences to be their defining limits.

Operation of the rational soul is the proper discursive thought and movement of the intellect.

Operation of the rational soul is its life according to its nature.

The essential operation of God is to be nowhere;

not by not being, but by being beyond place and time and nature;

to which [place, time, and nature] a beginning, and an end, and a becoming are naturally conceived together;

who is the sustainer and maker by mere willing alone.

For without natural operation, the nature of nothing is evident.

The operation and power befitting God is to be everywhere, and ineffably to fill heaven;

and again to fill the earth, and to contain all things, yet to be contained by none.

For he is not comprehensible, nor bounded by an interval;

nor indeed within any circumscription

For that which is without quantity, without magnitude, and incorporeal cannot undergo anything of this kind

Since indeed the defining boundary of every essence is constituted by its operation according to nature;

a proof leading the mind up to the nature from which it has its procession — namely, that those things whose operation is one and the same, of these the essence too is one

Of the same [father], from [his work] Against Eunomius

How can there be an otherness of essence, where a sameness of operation is recognized?

For when the essences are differentiated, the operations too must be differentiated

How is the Spirit, which is of the same operation as the Father and the Son, not also of the same essence as they?

How can there be an otherness of essence in the Trinity, in which a sameness of operation is found?

For if they are without variation in essence, they will also be so in power;

And those whose power is equal will surely, in every respect, have equal operation also;

and those whose nature is one have the same operations

Of Saint Gregory of Nyssa

Therefore the sameness of operation in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit clearly shows the invariability of the nature

And we are able to recognize the nature of that which operates through comprehension of its operations

And the commonality of nature is actually demonstrated, being established through the sameness of the operations

But the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God;

If, then, both the operation and the power are one, how is it possible to suppose an otherness of nature in those in whom we find no difference whatever in power and operation?

It is altogether necessary to acknowledge that the deliberate choice too is fitting and proper to the nature;

and that if they are dissimilar in nature, the wills too are always dissimilar

And since the power in each of the two is sufficient, neither will be too weak to fulfill its own will

Therefore, if we should see the operations wrought by the Father and the Holy Spirit differing from one another, we would conjecture, from the otherness of the operations, that the natures operating are also different

For it is not possible for things that differ according to the principle of nature to agree in the form of their operations: fire does not cool, nor does ice give warmth

But by the otherness of the natures, the operations proceeding from them are likewise separated from one another

For things that have received the same nature as one another will operate alike

But those for whom the principle of how they exist is altered will also have, in every respect, a principle of operation that is not the same

Things that have the same operation, and employ the same natural powers, are necessarily of the same essence

For none of the things that exist will exhibit, in relation to what is of a different kind and different essence, the same powers and operations without variation

For things that are of the same operation are also acknowledged to be of the same essence

No one in his right mind would grant that things of different nature and different kind have the same operation

For fire would not effect one and the same thing as water;

but just as they have the principle of their essence and quality set apart from one another, so too they will render forth a correspondingly different operation

For those in whom the operation and the power are one without variation, in them the commonality of species must also be preserved

For things that have the same operation are wont also to be of the same essence, and a difference of nature among such things is implausible

For surely we shall not grant that there is one natural operation of God and of a created thing, lest we either raise up the thing made into the divine essence, or else bring down the transcendence of the divine nature into the mode befitting created things

For things that have one operation will exhibit one and the same principle of how they exist

Of Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan, from the second discourse to the Emperor Gratian

For how can the same operation come from a different essence?

For the lesser does not operate in the same way that the greater operates

For where the essence is different, it is impossible for there to be one operation

Of Saint Basil, from the syllogisms against Eunomius

The one who acts is one thing, the operation another, and the product of the operation yet another; and these differ very greatly from one another

For the one who operates is the one who is moved to bring something about

But operation is, as it were, the operative motion — the impulse, one might say, of the deliberate choice, straining and inclining toward the doing of something, ceasing and ending together with the choosing, and, having moved rather swiftly, passing away

But the products of operation are the things that are completed and brought into being from it