Letter 535

To Leonides the Decemprimus [a decemprimus or decaprotos, one of the ten leading members of a municipal council]. "No one comes to me," says Christ our Savior, "unless it has been given to him from above" [John 6:44; here "from above," anothen, in place of the Gospel's "unless the Father draws him"]. For faith in Christ is no ordinary thing; it stands in need of an impulse from above, since to believe truly is the mark of a noble soul. Such a soul, then, requires the compunction that comes from God in order to believe; and yet the impulse from above also requires our own free choice.

« Οὐδεὶς ἔρχεται πρός με, φησὶν ὁ Σωτὴρ ἡμῶν Χριστός, ἐὰν μὴ ἡ δεδομένην αὐτῷ ἄνωθεν, » Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ τὸ τυχὸν πρᾶγμα ἡ εἰς τὸν Χριστὸν πίστις, τῆς γὰρ ἄνωθεν δεῖται ῥοπῆς, τὸ γὰρ ἀληθινῶς πιστεῦσαι γενναίας ἐστὶ ψυχῆς. Ἡ οὖν τοιαύτη ψυχὴ τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ χρῄζει κατανύξεως εἰς τὸ πιστεῦσαι· καὶ ἡ ἄνωθεν δὲ ῥοπὴ δεῖται τῆς ἡμῶν προαιρέσεως.