Part 31

14. Thus Hippocrates and Solon recognized either seven ages, or periods of age consisting of seven years. In this then let the number seven prevail; but the octave introduces one uninterrupted period during which we grow up into a perfect man, in the knowledge of God, in the fulness of faith, wherein the measure of a legitimate period of life is completed.

15. In our inward parts also the virtue of the seventh number is manifested; for it is said that we have within us seven organs, the stomach, heart, lungs, spleen, liver, and the two kidneys, and outwardly seven also, the head, the hinder parts, the belly, two hands and two feet.

Sidenote: Phil. i. 21.

Sidenote: Gal. ii. 20.

Sidenote: 1 S. John ii. 18.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. v. 15.

16. Very excellent are these members, but subject to pain. Who then can doubt that the office of the Octave, which has renewed the whole man, so as not to be susceptible of pain, is more exalted? Wherefore the seventh age of the world being completed, the grace of the Octave has shone upon us, that grace which has made man to be no longer of this world, but above the world. But now we live not according to our own life but to that of Christ. For to us _to live is Christ, and to die is gain, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God_. So says the Apostle, whence we gather that the day of the world is come to a close. Again, at the last hour the Lord Jesus came, and died for us, _and we are all dead in Him, that we may live to God_. It is not then our former selves that now live, _but Christ liveth in us_.

Sidenote: Jer. xxxi. 31, 32; Heb. viii. 8, 9.

Sidenote: Ib. 9.

17. The number seven is passed away, the octave is arrived. Yesterday is gone, to-day is come, that promised day wherein we are admonished to hear and follow the word of God. That day of the Old Testament is passed away, that new day is come, wherein the New Testament is perfected, whereof it is said, _Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt_. He adds too the reason why the Testament was changed, _Because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord_.

Sidenote: Heb. iv. 14.

Sidenote: Ib. vii. 16.

Sidenote: Ib. 17. Ps. cx. 4.

18. The priests of the Law, the tribunals of the Law have passed away; let us draw nigh to _our new High Priest, to the throne of grace_, to the guest of our souls, to the Priest, _Who is not made after the law of the carnal commandment, but_ elected _after the power of an endless life_[223]. For _He took not this honour to himself_, but was chosen by the Father, as the Father Himself saith, _Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedech_. Other priests offered for themselves and for their people; this Man, not having sin, that He should offer for Himself, offered Himself for the whole world, and by His own blood entered into the Sanctuary.

Sidenote: Heb. x. 7.

19. He then is the new Priest and the new Victim, not of the law but above the law, the universal Mediator, the Light of the world, Who said, _Lo I come_, and came. To Him then let us draw near in the fulness of faith, adoring and beseeching and hoping in Him, Whom with our eyes we see not, but Whom we embrace with our hearts, to Whom be glory and honour for ever. Farewell, my son; love me, for I love you.

LETTER XLV. A.D. 385.

S. AMBROSE replies to the inquiry of Sabinus whether he had written concerning Paradise, and what was his opinion concerning it. Having first touched on the historical description of the place, he proceeds to the mystical explanation of it. And having shewn that Paradise is situate in the principal region of the soul, he teaches what is signified by the several parts thereof, and what men should imitate in the serpent. Lastly, having declared the greatness of human weakness and what great love God has shewn us from the beginning, he exhorts men to fly the pleasures of the senses.

AMBROSE TO SABINUS.

1. HAVING read my work on the six days of creation, you have thought good to enquire whether I have added ought concerning Paradise, and to express your strong desire to know what opinion I hold concerning it. I have, in truth, written on this subject, though not yet a veteran priest.

2. The opinions about it I have found to be many and various. Josephus, as an historian, tells us it is a place filled with trees and thick shrubs, and that it is watered by a river which divides itself into four streams. Its waters being thus gathered into one, this region does not entirely empty and deprive itself of its feeders, but up to this day bursts out into fountains and sends forth its winding streams, nourishing by them her offspring as from the full breasts of a pious mother.

3. Others expound it differently, but all agree that in Paradise is the deep rooted Tree of life, and the Tree of Knowledge whereby good and evil are discerned, the other trees also, full of vigor, and life, endued both with breath and reason. Wherefore we conclude that the real Paradise is no earthly one which can be seen; that it is placed in no spot of ground, but in the highest part of our own nature, which receives animation and life from the powers of the soul, and from the communication of the Spirit of God.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. xi. 2.

Sidenote: Cant. iv. 12.

4. Moreover, Solomon by inspiration of the Spirit has plainly shown that Paradise is in man himself. And seeing that he declares the mysteries either of the soul and the Word, or of Christ and the Church, he says of the virgin soul, or of the Church which he wished _to present as a chaste virgin to Christ, A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring sealed up, a fountain closed_.

5. ‘Paradisus’ is the Greek, ‘hortus’ the Latin name. And in the Latin text we read that Susannah was in a paradise. Adam too was in a paradise. Let it not trouble you then that some Latin manuscripts have the word ‘hortus,’ others ‘paradisus.’

6. Where the chaste wife is, there also is the virgin; the chosen virgin has indeed her barriers and enclosures, but both are in a garden, that thus by the shade of virtue they may be shielded from the heats of the body and concupiscence of the flesh.

7. Hence also Paradise is in our highest part, thick set with the growth of many opinions, and wherein chiefly God hath placed the Tree of life, that is, the root of piety, for this is the true substance of our life, that we should offer due service to our Lord and God.

8. He has likewise planted within us a seed-plot of the knowledge of good and evil; for man alone of all creatures of the earth possesses the knowledge of good and evil. Divers other plants are also there, whose fruits are virtues.

Sidenote: Gen. iii. 2, 3.

9. Now since God knew that man’s affections, once endued with knowledge, would more readily incline towards craft than towards perfect prudence, (for how could the qualities of His work be concealed from His discerning eye, Who had set up certain boundaries in our soul?) He desired to cast out craft from Paradise, and as the provident Author of our salvation, to place therein the desire of life and the discipline of piety. Wherefore He commanded man to eat of every tree which is in Paradise, but that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he should not eat.

10. But since all creatures are subject to passions, lust, with the stealth of a serpent, has crept over man’s affections: well therefore has holy Moses represented lust under the similitude of a serpent; for it creeps upon its belly like a serpent, not walking on foot, nor raised up on legs, gliding along by the sinuous contortions, as it were, of its whole body. Its food, as that of the serpent, is earthly, for it knows not heavenly food, but feeds on carnal things, and changes itself into various kinds of desire, and bends to and fro in tortuous wreaths. It has poison in its fangs, whereby the belly of every luxurious man is ripped up, the glutton is slain, the licker up of dishes perishes. How many have been burst by wine, weakened by drunkenness, distended by gluttony.

11. Now I understand why the Lord God breathed on the face of man; for there is the seat and there are the incitements to lust, the eyes, the ears, the nose and the mouth; it was to fortify our senses against lust. Now it was this lust, which, as a serpent, inspired us with craft, for it is not lust but labour and constant meditation, which, by God’s grace, gives perfect wisdom.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. xi. 3.

Sidenote: Eccles. vii. 11.

12. Now since the posterity of Adam are involved in the snares of the serpent, let us imitate herein the fraud of the serpent, and not run our head into danger, but be careful of its security beyond that of our other members, for _the head of every man is Christ_. Let this remain safe, that the poison of the serpent may not harm us. For _Wisdom is good with an inheritance_, that is, with faith, for there is an inheritance to them that believe in God.

13. But if that first man, who, dwelling in Paradise, conversed with God, could fall so easily, though made of that virgin clay which had lately been formed and created by the word of God, nor as yet clotted with gore and the murder of kindred, nor polluted by iniquity and shame; nor condemned in our flesh to the curse of a guilty posterity; how much more easily afterwards did the smooth-worn path of sin lead the human race to a greater fall, when, one after another, generations more and more depraved succeeded others less wicked?

14. For if the magnet has such natural power as to attract iron to it, and transfuse itself into the character of iron, so that often when persons, wishing to try the experiment, apply iron rings to the same stone, it retains all equally firmly: whereas, if to that ring to which the stone adheres you add another, and so on in succession, although the natural power of the magnet reaches through all in succession, it binds the first with a firm, the hindermost with a slighter bond: if such be the case, how much more must the condition and nature of the human race have fallen from a pure state into one less pure, seeing that it was always attracted to a generation more wicked than itself?

Sidenote: Ps. xiv. 3.

Sidenote: Rom. v. 20.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.

15. For if the power of nature is diminished even by passing through those substances which are not capable of sin, how much more must its vigour be abated by minds and bodies polluted by the stain of crime? Wherefore, seeing that wickedness had increased, that innocence had decayed, that _there was no one that did good, no, not one_; the Lord came in order to form anew, nay to augment, the grace of nature; _that where sin had abounded, grace might much more abound_. It is plain then both that God is the Creator of man, and that there is one God not many gods; but that there is one God Who made the world, and one world, not many worlds, as the philosophers assert.

16. First therefore He created the world, and then its inhabitant, man, that the whole world might be his country. For if, up to this day, wherever the wise man goes, he finds himself a citizen, he understands his own position, he considers himself no where as a stranger or sojourner, how much more was that first man an inhabitant of the whole world, and, as the Greeks say, a cosmopolite, he who was the recent creation of God, conversing continually with Him, the fellow-citizen of the saints, the seed-plot of virtue, set over all creatures in the earth sea and air, who considered the whole world to be his dominion; whom the Lord defended as His own work, and as a loving Father and Maker never deserted? In fine He so cherished this His creation, as to redeem him when lost, to receive him when banished, when dead to raise him to life by the passion of His Only-begotten Son. Wherefore God is the Author of man, and, as a good Creator, loves His own work, as a gracious Father, abandons not him, whom, in the character of a rich householder, He has redeemed at the cost of His own possessions.

17. Let us be on our guard therefore that this man, that is, our understanding[224] be not enervated by that woman, that is passion, who was herself deceived and beguiled by the pleasure of our senses; that she do not circumvent and draw him over to her own maxims and opinions. Let us fly pleasure as a serpent; it has many allurements, and especially as regards man. For other animals are captivated by greediness after food; man, in that the powers of his eyes and ears are more varied, is exposed to greater dangers.

Farewell; love me, as you indeed do, for I love you.

LETTER XLVI. A.D. 389.

SABINUS, who was Bishop of Placentia, had written to S. Ambrose to tell him of an Apollinarian heretic, who appears, after being condemned at Placentia, to have gone to Milan. S. Ambrose in this reply states how he had answered him from Holy Scripture, and refuted his false interpretations, especially of the passage in the Epistle to the Philippians and announces that he has baffled him, and that he is ‘preparing to flee.’

AMBROSE TO SABINUS.

Sidenote: Phil. ii. 7.

Sidenote: Eccles. x. 8.

1. THE man of whom you have written to me as a disseminator of pernicious doctrines is a very light character, and has already received the reward of his poison. For he has been replied to publicly, and what he had sown in private he has reaped openly. I had previously esteemed him vain and envious only, but when this language of his reached my ears, I immediately answered that he was infected by the venom of Apollinaris, who will not admit that our Lord Jesus became a servant for us when He took upon Him our flesh; and this, although the Apostle declares that _He took on Him the form of a servant_. This is the bulwark, this is the hedge of our faith; he who destroys this shall be destroyed himself, as it is written, _Whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him_.

2. At first I gently asked him, Why do you what is in itself good with evil intent? For I esteem it a favour if any one who reads my writings will tell me of any thing which causes him surprise. And this, first, because even in things which I know I may be deceived. Many things pass by the ear unheeded, many things sound differently to others, it is well, if it be possible, to be on one’s guard in all matters. Next, because it does not become me to be disturbed, seeing that many questions are mooted concerning the words of the Apostles and those of the Gospel and our Lord Himself, if things are found in my writings also, which people consider subjects of dispute. For many indulge their own humour, like that man who compassed the whole world, that he might find some one to censure, not one whom he might deem worthy of imitation.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xi. 25.

Sidenote: Ps. cix. 25, 26.

3. Now this man discovered a nasty means of cavilling at something in my writings, since in commenting upon the passage in which the Lord Jesus said, _I thank Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth_, I stated that it was intended to show that He is the Father of the Son and the Lord of the creature. Nevertheless in the Psalm the Son has plainly called the Father, Lord: _They that looked upon Me shaked their heads: help Me, O Lord My God_. For speaking in the form of a servant He called Him Lord Whom He knew to be His Father; though equal in the form of God, proclaiming Himself to be a servant according to the substance of His flesh; for slavery is of the flesh, lordship of the Godhead.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. v. 16.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. v. 17.

Sidenote: Phil. ii. 7.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. v. 21.

Sidenote: Gal. iii. 13.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. xv. 28.

Sidenote: Acts iii. 6.

Sidenote: Ib. 13.

Sidenote: Rev. v. 12.

Sidenote: Ps. xxii. 6.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. xv. 55.

4. First then your great sagacity perceives that what is said in the Gospel has reference to the times of the Gospel, when the Lord Jesus dwelt among men in human form; but now _we know Christ according to the flesh no longer_. Be it that He was so seen and known by them of old, now _old things are passed away, all things are become new_. But all things are from God, Who has reconciled us by Christ unto Himself; for we were dead, and therefore One was made a servant for all. Why do I say, a servant? He was made sin, a reproach, a curse. For the Apostle has said that _He was made sin for us_, that the Lord Jesus _was made a curse for us_. He has said, _when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall He also Himself be subject_. Peter also said in the Acts of the Apostles, _In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk_. Then he said also, that God had _glorified His Servant Jesus_, and no one brings any charge against him concerning the time. But in the Apocalypse He is called _a Lamb_ by John, in the Psalm He is called _a worm and no man_. He was made all these things that He might blunt the sting of our death, that He might take away our slavery, that He might abolish our curses, our sins, our reproaches.

Sidenote: Exod. xvi. 18.

Sidenote: Is. liii. 4.

Sidenote: Phil. ii. 7.

Sidenote: Ib. 11.

Sidenote: Ps. xxii. 7.

Sidenote: S. Luke xxiii. 34.

Sidenote: Isa. xl. 5.

Sidenote: Ib. liii. 2.

5. These things and others and many more you have written me word that you answered to one who consulted you; and, seeing that they are contained in Holy Scripture, how should any one hesitate to utter what has been thus piously written, tending as they do to the glory of Christ, not to His disparagement? For if it is said of His gift, that is, of the manna, that _he that gathered little had no lack[225], he that gathered much had nothing over_[226], could He Himself suffer diminution or increase? For in what respect was He diminished by taking upon Him our bondage, our infirmities? He was humbled, He was in the form of a servant, but He was also in the glory of God the Father. He was a worm upon the Cross, but He also forgave the sins of His persecutors. He was a reproach, but He is also the glory of the Lord, as it is written, _The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together_. What did He lose Who is wanting in nothing? _He had_ indeed _no form or comeliness_, but He had the fulness of the Godhead. He was accounted weak, but He ceased not to be the Power of God. He was seen in human form, but there shone upon earth the Divine Majesty and the glory of the Father.

Sidenote: Phil. ii. 6, 7.

Sidenote: Ps. xlv. 2.

6. Well therefore has the Apostle repeated the same word, saying of the Lord Jesus, _Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant_. What is the meaning of _in the form of God_ but in the fulness of the Godhead, in the expression of the Divine perfection? Being therefore in the fulness of the Godhead, He _emptied Himself_ of it, and received the fulness of human nature and perfection: as nothing was wanting to Him as God so neither was there any thing wanting to His completeness as Man, that in either _form_ He might be perfect. Wherefore David also says, _Thou art fairer than the children of men_.

Sidenote: Gal. iv. 8.

Sidenote: Phil. ii. 7.

Sidenote: Ib.

Sidenote: Jer. xvii. 9.

Sidenote: S. Matt. viii. 2, 3.

Sidenote: S. John xi. 33, 44.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xxvii. 52.

7. The Apollinarian is confuted, he has no refuge to turn to, he is caught in his own net. For he himself had said, He took upon him the form of a servant, He was not chosen to be a servant. I ask again therefore, what is the meaning of _in the form of God_? He replies, In the nature of God. For there are those, says the Apostle, _which by nature are no gods_. I enquire, what is the meaning of _took upon Him the form of a servant_? Doubtless, as I have stated, the perfection of the nature and condition of man, that He might be in the likeness of man. And he has said well _the likeness_, not of the flesh, but _of men_, for He is in the same flesh. But since He alone was without sin, but all men are in sin, He was seen _in the form of man_. Wherefore the prophet also says, _He is a man yet who can know him_[227]? Man according to the flesh, but beyond man according to the Divine operation. When he touched the leper He was seen as man, but above man when He cleansed him. When He wept over Lazarus dead, He wept as man, but He was above men when He commanded the dead to come forth with bound feet. He was seen as man when He hung upon the cross, but above man when the graves were opened and He raised the dead.

Sidenote: Phil. ii. 8.

Sidenote: 1 Tim. ii. 5.

Sidenote: S. John i. 14.