Part 44

12. But now Christians have no need of the light pain of circumcision, for bearing about with them the Lord’s Death, they at every act engrave on their foreheads contempt of their own death, as knowing that without the cross of the Lord they can have no salvation. For who would use a needle to fight with when armed with stronger weapons?

13. And now any one may easily perceive how easily the suggestion may be refuted, that more persons might be incited to the observance of holy religion unless they were withheld by the fear of pain or the appearance of labour. For could this terrify an older person, when many infants endured it without danger? Granting however that some Jewish children unable to bear the pain of circumcision and of so keen a stroke may have died, still this did not deter those of a robuster and more advanced age, and one who thus obeyed the celestial precepts it only made more praiseworthy.

14. But if they imagine that this light pain was such an obstacle to confession, what will they say of martyrdom? For if they choose to blame the pain of circumcision, they must blame also the death of martyrs, by whom religion so far from being impaired has received its perfection. But the pain of circumcision is so much removed from being hurtful to faith, that faith is approved by pain, for greater is the grace of faith if any one for religion’s sake despise pain; and such a one has a greater reward than he who was only willing to endure the pain of circumcision that he might glory in the Law, and win praise of men rather than of God.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. xii. 23.

15. It was fitting therefore that this partial circumcision should take place before His advent Who was to circumcise the whole man, and that the human race should receive a partial preparation for believing in that which is perfect. But if circumcision must take place, in what region of the body ought it rather to fall than on that which seems to some less comely? _And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon those we bestow more abundant power; and our uncomely parts have abundant comeliness._ For in what member ought men to be rather reminded of his blood than in that which is wont to minister to transgression?

Sidenote: S. Matt. xix. 12.

16. And now is the fitting time to reply to those also who say, If this part of our body is according to nature it ought not to be cut off, but if contrary to nature, then it ought not to have been born together with it. Let these men, being so subtle, themselves answer me, whether the succession of the human race, which arises by generation is according to nature or contrary to nature? If according to nature, it ought never to be interrupted, and then how can we praise the chastity of men, the virginity of maids, the abstinence of widows, the continence of wives? No effort then to promote this succession should be suffered to lie idle. But the Author of nature Himself did not pay this regard to generation, for He gave us, when living in the body, His own example, and exhorted His disciples to chastity, saying, _There be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it._

17. Man being made up of body and soul, (for at present it will suffice to speak of these and not to mention the spirit,) he is not naturally the same in both, but what is according to the nature of the body is contrary to the nature of the soul, and what is according to the nature of the soul is contrary to the nature of the body; so that were I to speak that which is according to nature in that which is seen, it will be contrary to nature as regards the unseen, and what is according to nature in the unseen is contrary to nature as regards the seen. It is no incongruity therefore in the man of God, if there should be things contrary to the nature of the body which are according to the nature of the soul.

Sidenote: S. John i. 29.

18. With regard to those who say that more would have believed if circumcision had not been instituted, let them receive this answer, that more would have believed if there had been no martyrdom, but the constancy of a few is to be preferred to the remissness of a larger number. For as many kinds of washings preceded, because that one true Sacrament of Baptism with water and the Spirit, whereby the whole man is redeemed, was to follow, so also the circumcision of many was to precede, because the circumcision of the Lord’s Passion, which Jesus suffered as the Lamb of God, that He might _take away the sins of the world_, was to follow.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. iv. 16.

Sidenote: Rom. vii. 22.

19. My object in writing this has been to shew that it was fitting that circumcision, which is outward, should precede, that now after the Lord’s Advent it might seem to be justly excluded. But now that circumcision is necessary which is in secret, _in spirit not in the letter_, seeing that there are two men in one, of whom it is said, _Though our outward man perish_ according to the desires of error, _yet the inward man is renewed day by day_, and in another passage, _For I delight in the law of God after the inward man_; that is, our inward man which is made according to the image and likeness of God, our outward is that which is formed of clay. So again in Genesis two creations of man are declared to us, and it is signified that by the second man was truly made.

Sidenote: S. Matt. v. 28.

20. As therefore there are two men, so also is his conversation two-fold; one of the inward the other of the outward man. And indeed many acts of the inward man reach to the outward man, in the same way that the chastity of the inward man passes into bodily chastity. He who is free from adultery of the heart is free from adultery of the body, but it does not also follow that he who has not sinned in body should not have sinned even in heart, for it is written, _Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart_. For although he be not yet an adulterer in body, still in affection he is one. So that there is a circumcision of the inward man, for he who is circumcised has put off, like a foreskin, all the allurements of the flesh, that so he may be in the spirit, not in the flesh, and _by the spirit may mortify the deeds of the flesh_.

Sidenote: Rom. iv. 11.

Sidenote: Isa. xi. 6, 7.

Sidenote: S. Luke iii. 6.

21. And this is that circumcision which is in secret, as Abraham was first in the uncircumcision and afterwards came to be in the circumcision. Thus our inward man, while it is in the flesh, is as it were in uncircumcision, but when he is now no longer in the flesh but in the spirit, he begins to be in the circumcision not in the uncircumcision. And as he who is circumcised does not put off the whole flesh but his foreskin only, where corruption more frequently lies, so he who is circumcised in secret, puts off that flesh of which it is written, _All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever_; and there remains the flesh which will see the salvation of God, as it is written, _And all flesh shall see the salvation of God_. What this flesh is cleanse your ears that you may understand.

Sidenote: Gen. xlix. 8, 9.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. ii. 15.

Sidenote: S. Matt. v. 17.

22. Now that circumcision which is secret ought to be of such a kind as to bear no comparison with that which is outward. He therefore who is a Jew in secret, is he who excels, he who is from Judah, whose _hand is in the neck of his enemies_, who _stooped down and couched as a lion, and as a lion’s whelp, whom his brethren praise_. From this Judah the prince departs not, because his word makes princes, such as are not overcome by worldly allurements and ensnared by the pleasures of this world. And since Judah himself was born into this generation, many of those who were born afterwards are preferred, that they may enjoy a pre-eminence of virtue. Let us have therefore the circumcision which is in secret, and the Jew that is in secret, that is, the spiritual: but he that is _spiritual_, as being a prince, _judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man_. It was fitting therefore, that the circumcision commanded by the prescript of the Law, which was partial, should cease after His coming Who was to circumcise the whole man, and fulfil the circumcision of the Law. And who is this but He Who said _I am not come to destroy the Law, but to fulfil it_?

Sidenote: Gen. xvii. 9. sqq.

24. That the fulness of the Gentiles is come in is another reason, if you will attend to it carefully, why the circumcision of the foreskin ought to cease. For it was not upon the Gentiles but upon the seed of Abraham that circumcision was enjoined, for this is the first Divine promise, _And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep My covenant therefore, thou and thy seed after in their generations. This is My covenant, which ye shall keep, between Me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations. He that is born in thy house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed, must needs be circumcised; and My covenant shall be in your flesh, for an everlasting covenant. And the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised_ on the eighth day, _shall be cut off from the people; he hath broken My Covenant_. It is affirmed indeed that the Hebrew text, as Aquila intimates, does not contain the words ‘on the eighth day;’ but all authority does not rest with Aquila, who being a Jew has passed it by in the letter, and not inserted, ‘on the eighth day.’

Sidenote: Ib. xxi. 12.

Sidenote: Lev. xvii. 1, 8.

25. Meanwhile you have heard that both the eighth day and circumcision were given for a sign; now a sign is an indication of a greater matter, a symbol of a future verity; and a covenant was given to Abraham and his seed, to whom it was said, _In Isaac shall thy seed be_. The circumcision of the Jews therefore, or of one born in his house, or bought with his money was permitted. But we cannot extend this to a foreigner or proselyte, unless they were born in the house of Abraham, or bought with his money, or of his seed. Again, nothing is said of proselytes; when it is wished to speak of them they are expressly mentioned, as it is written: _And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron, and unto his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and say unto them: ... Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers which sojourn among you, that offereth a burnt-sacrifice_. When therefore they are intended to be included the Law touches them; when the Divine word does not point to them, how can they seem to be bound? Again, it is written, _Speak unto the sons of Aaron_, when the priests are intended; and so as regards the Levites also.

26. Thus it is abundantly manifest that even according to the letter of the Law, although the Law be spiritual, yet that according to the very letter of the Law the Gentiles could not be obliged to observe circumcision, but that circumcision itself was a sign, until _the fulness of the Gentiles should be come in, and so all Israel be saved_ by circumcision, not of a small portion of one member, but of the heart. And both the excuse on our parts is sufficient, and the continuance of circumcision among the Jews up to this day is excluded.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. i. 23, 24.

Sidenote: S. Matt. x. 33. S. Luke ix. 26.

27. But as to its being imputed it as a cause of blame, now or in past time, by the Gentiles, I would say, first, it is not competent to them to blame or deride what others who are their fellows do. Suppose however that there were cause for their ridicule, why ought this to move us, when the very cross of the Lord is _a stumbling-block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks, but to us the power of God and the wisdom of God_. And the Lord Himself has said, _Whosoever shall be ashamed[288] of Me before men, of him will I also be ashamed before My Father Which is in heaven_; teaching us not to be disturbed by those things which are laughed at by men, if we observe them in the service of religion.

LETTER LXXIII.

IRENÆUS having enquired why the Law was ever given, seeing that Paul declares it to be injurious: S. Ambrose replies that it would have been useless, had we kept that natural law which is written on our hearts, and is found even in infants; but that, this being broken, the former became necessary, that it might take away all excuse by its manifestation of that sin which was afterwards removed by the grace of Christ.

AMBROSE TO IRENÆUS.

Sidenote: Rom. iv. 15.

1. GREATLY, it would seem, have you been moved by the lesson from the Apostle, having heard read to-day, _Because the Law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression_. And therefore you have thought fit to ask why the Law was promulgated, if it profited nothing, nay rather, by working wrath and bringing in transgression, was injurious.

Sidenote: Ib. ii. 14.

2. And indeed, according to the tenor of your question, it is certain that the Law, which was given by Moses, was not necessary. For had men been able to keep the natural Law, which our God and Maker implanted in the breast of each, there would have been no need of the Law, which, _written on tables of stone_, tended rather to entangle and fetter the infirmity of human nature, than to set at large and liberate it. Now that there is _a natural Law written in our hearts_ the Apostle also teaches us, when he writes, that for the most part _the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by nature the things contained in the Law, and, though they have not read the Law, have yet the works of the Law written in their hearts_.

Sidenote: Rom. ii. 15.

3. This law therefore is not written but innate; not acquired by reading, but flowing as from a natural fountain, it springs up in each breast, and men’s minds drink it in. This Law we ought to have kept even from fear of a future judgment, a witness whereof we have in our conscience, which shews itself in those silent thoughts we have towards God, and whereby either our sin is reproved or our innocence justified. And thus that which has ever been manifest to the Lord, will be clearly revealed in the day of judgment, when those secrets of the heart, which were thought to be concealed, will be called into account. Now the discovery of these things, these secrets, I mean, would do no harm, if the natural Law still remained in the human breast; for it is holy, free from craft or guile, the companion of justice, free from iniquity.

4. Moreover let us interrogate the age of childhood, let us consider whether any crime can be found therein, avarice, ambition, guile, rage, or insolence. It claims nothing for its own, assumes no honours to itself, never prefers itself to others, neither wishes or knows how to avenge itself. Its pure and simple mind cannot even comprehend the meaning of insolence.

Sidenote: Gen. iii. 6.

Sidenote: Rom. vii. 8.

Sidenote: S. John xv. 22.

5. Adam broke this Law, seeking to assume to himself that which he had not received, that thus he might become as it were his own maker and creator, and arrogate to himself divine honour. Thus by his disobedience he incurred guilt, and through arrogance fell into transgression. Had he not thus violated his allegiance, but been obedient to the commands of heaven, he would have preserved to his posterity the prerogative of nature and the innocence which he possessed at his birth. Wherefore as by disobedience the authority of the Law of Nature was corrupted and blotted out, the written law was found necessary; in order that man, having lost all, might at least regain a part; attaining by instruction to the knowledge of that which he had received at his birth, but had subsequently lost. Moreover, since the cause of his fall was pride, and pride arose from the dignity of innocence, it was needful that some law should be passed which should subdue and subject him to God. For without the Law he was ignorant of sin, and thus his guilt was less because he knew it not. Wherefore also the Lord says, _If I had not come and spoken to them they had not had sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin_.

Sidenote: Rom. iii. 19.

6. The Law then was published, first to take away all excuse lest man should say, I knew not sin, because I received no rule what to avoid. And next that _all the world might become guilty[289] before God_ by the confession of sin. For it made all subject; in that it was not only given to the Jews but also called the Gentiles; for proselytes from the Gentiles were associated with them. Nor can he seem to be excepted, who after being called was found wanting, for the Law also bound those whom she called. And thus the fault of all worked subjection, subjection humility, humility obedience. And thus as pride had drawn after it transgression, so on the other hand, transgression produced obedience. And thus the written Law, which seemed superfluous, was rendered necessary, redeeming sin by sin.

Sidenote: Rom. v. 20.

7. But again, lest anyone should be deterred, and say that an increase of sin was caused by the Law, and that the Law not only did not profit but was even injurious, he has a consolation for his solicitude, because although _by the Law sin abounded, grace did much more abound_. And now let us consider the meaning of this.

Sidenote: Ib. vii. 7.

Sidenote: Ps. cxix. 71.

Sidenote: Rom. v. 19.

8. Sin abounded by the Law because _by the Law is the knowledge of sin_, and thus it began to be injurious to me to know that which through infirmity I could not avoid; it is good to foreknow in order to avoid, but if I cannot avoid, to have known was injurious. Thus the effect of the Law was changed to me into its opposite, yet by the very increase of sin it became useful to me, because I was humbled. Wherefore David also said, _It is good for me that I have been humbled_. For by my humiliation I have broken those bonds of that ancient transgression, whereby Adam and Eve had bound the whole line of their posterity. Hence too the Lord came in obedience that He might loose the knot of disobedience and of man’s transgression. And so, as by disobedience sin entered, so by obedience sin was remitted. Wherefore the Apostle also says, _For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous_.

9. Here is one reason the Law on the one hand was superfluous and yet became necessary. It was ♦superfluous herein, that it would not have been needed could we have kept the natural Law, but as we kept it not, the law of Moses became needful for us, to the intent that it might teach us obedience and loose that knot of Adam’s transgression which has fettered his whole posterity. Guilt indeed was increased by the Law, but pride, the author of this guilt, was overthrown by it, and this was profitable to me, for pride discovered the guilt, and this guilt brought grace.

Sidenote: Rom. iii. 19.

10. Hear another reason. At first Moses’ Law was not needed; it was introduced subsequently, and this appears to intimate that this introduction was in a sense clandestine and not of an ordinary kind, seeing that it succeeded in the place of the natural Law. Had this maintained its place, the written Law would never have entered in; but the natural Law being excluded by transgression and almost blotted out of the human breast, pride reigned, and disobedience spread itself; and then this Law succeeded, that by its written precepts it might cite us before it, and _every mouth be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God_. Now the world becomes guilty before God by the Law, in that all are made amenable to its prescripts, but no man is justified by its works. And since by the Law comes the knowledge of sin, but not the remission of guilt, the Law, which has made all sinners, would seem to have been injurious.

Sidenote: Col. ii. 14.

Sidenote: Rom. v. 20.

Sidenote: S. John i. 29.

Sidenote: Rom. iv. 7.

11. But when the Lord Jesus came, He forgave all men that sin which none could escape, and _blotted out the handwriting against us_ by the shedding of His own Blood. This then is the Apostle’s meaning; sin abounded by the Law, but grace abounded by Jesus; for after that the whole world became guilty, He took away the sin of the whole world, as John bore witness, saying: _Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world_. Wherefore let no man glory in works, for by his works no man shall be justified, for he that is just hath a free gift, for he is justified by the Bath. It is faith then which delivers by the blood of Christ, for _Blessed is the man to whom sin is remitted, and pardon granted_.

Farewell, my son; love me, for I also love you.

LETTER LXXIV.

IN this letter S. Ambrose explains the meaning of S. Paul’s expression, that ‘the Law was our schoolmaster,’ and shews how, while the letter of the precepts fitted the Jews, the spiritual sense which lay under the letter applies to Christians.

AMBROSE TO IRENÆUS.

Sidenote: Gal. iii. 24.

Sidenote: Num. xv. 35.