An Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 39

1 BOOK II — CHAPTER 25: Concerning what is in our own power, that is, concerning Free-will.

2 The first enquiry involved in the consideration of free-will is whether anything is in our power. The second is, what are the things that are in our power, and over what things do we have authority? The third is, what is the reason for which God Who created us endued us with free-will?

3 Of all the things that happen, the cause is said to be either God, or necessity, or fate, or nature, or chance, or accident. Under which, then, of these categories are we to bring what happens through the agency of man, if indeed man is not the cause and beginning of action? We are left then with this fact, that the man who acts and makes is himself the author of his own works, and is a creature endowed with free-will.

4 Further, if man is the author of no action, the faculty of deliberation is quite superfluous: for to what purpose could deliberation be put if man is the master of none of his actions? For all deliberation is for the sake of action. But to prove that the fairest and most precious of man's endowments is quite superfluous would be the height of absurdity. If then man deliberates, he deliberates with a view to action.