20. He who can neither be compelled nor forbidden is no slave; now it belongs to the wise man to be neither compelled nor forbidden; the wise man, therefore, is not a slave. Now he is forbidden who does not execute what he desires, but what does the wise man desire but the things which belong to virtue and discipline, without which he cannot exist? For they subsist in him, and cannot be separated from him. But if they are separated from him he is no longer wise, seeing that he is without the use and discipline of virtue, of which he would deprive himself if he were not the voluntary interpreter of virtue. But if he be constrained, it is manifest that he acts unwillingly. Now in all actions there are either corrections proceeding from virtue, or falls proceeding from malice, or things between the two and indifferent. The wise man follows virtue not compulsorily but voluntarily, for all things that are pleasing he does, as flying from malice, and admits not so much as a dream of it. So far is he from being moved by things indifferent, that no forces have the power to move him hither and thither as they do the herd of men,but his mind hangs as in a balance in equal scales, so that it neither inclines to pleasure, nor in any respect directs its desires however slightly to things which ought to be avoided, but remains unmoved in its affections. Whence it appears that the wise man does nothing unwillingly or by compulsion, because were he a slave he would be so compelled; the wise man therefore is free.
21. The Apostle likewise gives this definition, saying, 1 Cor. ix. 1. Am I not an Apostle, am I not free? Truly he was so free that when certain persons had Gal. ii. 4. come in privily to spy out his liberty, he gave place, as he himself says, by subjection, no not for an hour, that the truth of the Gospel might be preached. He therefore who yielded not preached voluntarily. Where free will is, there is the reward of free will; where obligation is, there is the service of obligation. Free will therefore is better than obligation; to will is the part of the wise man, to obey and to serve is the part of the fool.
22. This is also the Apostle’s definition, who says, 1 Cor. ix. 17. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will a dispensation is committed to me. On the wise man therefore a reward is conferred, but the wise man acts willingly, according to the Apostle therefore the wise man is free. Wherefore he also exclaims, Gal. v. 13. Ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh. He separates the Christian from the Law, that he may not seem to yield to the Law against his will; he calls him to the Gospel, which the willing both preach and practise. The Jew is under the Law, the Christian is by the Gospel; in the Law is bondage, in the Gospel, where is the knowledge of wisdom, is liberty. Every one therefore who receives Christ is wise, and he who is wise is free, every Christian therefore is both wise and free.
23. But the Apostle has taught me something even beyond freedom itself, namely that to serve is real freedom, 1 Cor. ix. 19. Though I be free from all, he says, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. What is that which surpasses liberty but to have the Spirit of grace, to have charity? Liberty renders us free to men, but charity renders us beloved by God. Wherefore Christ also says, S. John xv. 15. But I have called you friends. Good indeed is charity;whereof it is said, Gal. v. 13. By love of the Spirit[188] serve one another. Christ also became a servant that He might make all free. Ps. lxxxi. 6. LXX. His hands served in the baskets: He Who Phil. ii. 6. thought it not robbery to be equal with God, took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made all things to all men, that He might bring salvation to all. Following this example, Paul was both, as it were, under the Law, and lived without the Law, for the benefit of those whom he desired to gain: to the weak he voluntarily became weak that he might strengthen them; 1 Cor. ix. 24, 27. he ran so as to obtain, he kept under his body that he might be victorious over heavenly powers in Christ.
24. To the wise man therefore even bondage is freedom; whence we may gather that even to be in power is bondage to the fool, and what is worse, while he rules over a few, he serves more and severer masters. For he serves his own passions, his own lusts, their tyranny he can escape neither by night nor day, for he carries these masters within his own breast, and suffers within himself an intolerable bondage. For there is a double bondage, one of the body, another of the soul; now the lords of the body are men, but the lords of the soul are evil dispositions and passions, from which liberty of the mind alone frees the wise man and enables him to depart from his bondage.
25. Let us seek therefore that truly wise man, that truly free man, who although he live under the dominion of many, says freely, Job xiii. 19–21. Who is he that will plead with me? from Whose sight I shall not be able to hide myself, only do Thou withdraw Thy hand far from me, and let not Thy dread make me afraid.
26. And King David, who followed him, said, Ps. li. 6. Against Thee only have I sinned. For being supported by the royal dignity, and being, so to speak, master of the laws, he was not subject to them but was liable to God alone, Who is the Lord of hosts.
27. Hear another free man; 1 Cor. iv. 3, 4. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man’s judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self, for I know nothing against myself, ... but He that judgeth me is the Lord.The freedom of the spiritual man is a true freedom, because 1 Cor. ii. 15. he judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, because he knows himself to be subject to nothing which has any participation in the creature, but to God alone, Who only is without sin, of Whom Job also says, Job xxvii. 2. God liveth Who hath taken away my judgment, for the just man can only be judged by Him Ib. xxv. 5. in Whose sight the heavens are not clean, nor the light of the stars pure and clean.
28. Will any one bring forward those verses of Sophocles which say ‘Jupiter, and no mortal man is ruler over me?’ How much more ancient is Job, how much older is David? Let them acknowledge then that they have borrowed from us the more excellent of their sayings.
29. Who then is wise but he who has arrived at the very mysteries of the Godhead, and has known the hidden things of wisdom to be manifested to him. He then alone is wise who has taken God as his guide, to conduct him to the secret resting-place of truth, and although but a mortal man has become by grace the heir and successor of the eternal God, and partaker, as it were, of His sweetness, as it is written, Ps. xlv. 8. Wherefore God, even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.