time before. Therefore also were prophets sent beforehand, and patriarchs foretold the events, and by means of words and deeds the cross was prefigured. For the sacrifice of Isaac also signified the cross to us: wherefore also Christ said “Abraham your father rejoiced to see my glory and he saw it and was glad.”669 The patriarch then was glad beholding the image of the cross, and does He Himself deprecate it? Thus Moses also prevailed over Amalek when he displayed the figure of the cross: and one may observe countless things happening in the Old Testament descriptive by anticipation of the cross. For what reason then was this the case if He who was to be crucified did not wish it to come to pass? And the sentence which follows this is yet more perplexing. For having said “Let this cup pass from me He added “nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt.”670 For herein as far as the actual expres- sion is concerned we find two wills opposed to one another: if at least the Father desires Him to be crucified, but He Himself does not desire it. And yet we everywhere behold Him desiring and purposing the same things as the Father. For when He says “grant to them, as I and Thou are one that they also may be one in us,”671 it is equivalent to saying that the purpose of the Father and of the Son is one. And when He says “The words which I speak I speak not myself, but the Father which dwelleth in me, He doeth these works,”672 He in- dicates the same thing. And when He says “I have not come of myself”673 and “I can of my own self do nothing”674 he does not say this as signifying that He has been deprived of au- thority, either to speak or to act (away with the thought!), but as desiring to prove the concord of his purpose, both in words and deeds, and in every kind of transaction, to be one and the same with the Father, as I have already frequently demonstrated. For the expression “I speak not of myself” is not an abrogation of authority but a demonstration of agreement. How then does He say here “Nevertheless not as I will but as Thou wilt”? Perhaps I have excited a great conflict in your mind, but be on the alert: for although many words have been uttered I know well that your zeal is still fresh: for the discourse is now hastening on to the solution. Why then has this form of speech been employed? Attend carefully, The doctrine of the incarnation was very hard to receive. For the exceeding measure of His lovingkindness and 205 the magnitude of His condescension were full of awe, and needed much preparation to be accepted. For consider what a great thing it was to hear and to learn that God the ineffable, the incorruptible, the unintelligible, the invisible, the incomprehensible, in whose hand are the ends of the earth,675 who looketh upon the earth, and causeth it to tremble, who toucheth 669 John viii. 56. 670 Matt. xxvi. 39. 671 John xvii. 11. 672 John xiv. 10. 673 John vii. 28. 674 John v. 30. 675 Ps. xcv. 4. 282 Against Marcionists and Manichæans.