Part 45

1. YOU have heard, my son, the lesson of to-day in the Apostle, that _the Law was our schoolmaster in Christ_, that we might be justified by faith. And by this one text I believe that those questions are resolved, which are wont to perplex many. For there are those who say, ‘Since God gave the Law to Moses, what is the reason that there are many things in the Law which now seem abrogated by the Gospel?’ And how can the Author of the two Testaments be one and the same, when that which was permitted in the Law, when the Gospel came, was permitted no longer? as for instance there is a circumcision of the body, which was even then only given for a sign, that the verity of spiritual circumcision might be preserved, yet why was it even given as a sign? Why was there such diversity, that then it was esteemed piety to be circumcised, but now it is judged to be impiety? Again it was ordered by the Law that the Sabbath day ought to be a holiday, so that if any one carried a bundle of sticks, he became guilty of death; but now we perceive that the same day is devoted to bearing burthens and to transacting business without any punishment. And there are many precepts of the Law which at the present time would seem to have ceased.

Sidenote: Ezek. xx. 25.

Sidenote: S. Matt. v. 17.

2. Let us consider then what is the cause of this; for it was not without a purpose that the Apostle said, _the Law was our schoolmaster in Christ_[290]. To whom does a schoolmaster belong, to one of riper years or to a youth? Doubtless to a youth or boy, that is, to one of infirm age. For a pædagogus, as the word is rendered in the Latin, is the teacher of a boy; and he cannot apply perfect precepts to an imperfect age, because it cannot bear them. Again, the God of the Law says by the Prophet, _I gave them also statutes that were not good_, that is, not perfect. But the same God has preserved more perfect things for the Gospel, as He says, _I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil the Law_.

Sidenote: Exod. xxxiv. 9.

3. What then was the cause of this difference, but human diversity? He knew the Jews to be a stiff-necked people, prone to fall, base, inclined to unbelief, that heard with the ear but understood not, that saw with their eyes but perceived not, fickle with the instability of infancy, and heedless of commands; and therefore He applied the Law, as a Schoolmaster, to the unstable temper and impious mind of the people, and moderating the very precepts of the Law, He chose that one thing should be read, another understood; that thus the foolish man might at least keep what he was reading, and depart not from the prescript of the letter; while the wise should understand the sentiments of the Divine mind, which the letter did not alter; that the unwise man might keep the command of the Law, the prudent might observe the mystery. The Law therefore has the severity of the sword, as the schoolmaster holds the rod, that at any rate by the denunciation of punishment it may keep in awe the weakness of the imperfect people; but the Gospel has indulgence whereby sins are forgiven.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. iii. 6.

Sidenote: S. Matt. v. 30.

4. Rightly therefore does Paul say that _the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life_. For the letter circumcises a small portion of the body; the understanding spirit keeps the circumcision of the whole soul and body; that the superfluous parts being cut off, (for nothing is so superfluous as the vices of avarice, the sins of lust, which nature had not, but sin caused,) chastity might be observed, and frugality loved. The sign therefore is bodily circumcision, but the truth is spiritual circumcision, the one cuts off the member, the other cuts off sin. Nature has created nothing imperfect in man, nor has she commanded it to be taken away as if it were superfluous, but that they who cut off a part of their body might perceive that sins were much more to be cut off, and those members which led to offences were to be retrenched, even though they were joined together by a certain unity of body, as it is written, _If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell_. To the Jews then, as to children, are enjoined not complete precepts but

## partial ones, and, seeing that they were unable to keep the whole of

their bodies clean, they were commanded to keep clean, as it were, one portion of it.

Sidenote: Exod. xxxi. 13.

5. They were also commanded to keep the holiday of the Sabbath one day in the week, so as to be subjected to no burthen, and I would that being thus released from earthly works they had escaped, carrying with them to that perpetual sabbath of future ages the burthen of heavy crimes. But as God knew how prone to fall the people were, He enjoined a part upon the weaker by the observance of one day, He reserved the fulness for the stronger: the Synagogue observes the day, the Church immortality. In the Law therefore is a part, in the Gospel is perfection.

Sidenote: Num. xv. 33.

Sidenote: S. John viii. 11.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. iii. 12, 13.

6. The people of the Jews are forbidden to carry sticks, that is, such things as are consumed by fire. He keeps in the shade, who flies from the sun. But to you the Sun of Righteousness suffers not the shade to be an hindrance, but pouring forth the full light of His grace says to you, _Go, and sin no more_. The follower of that eternal Sun says to you, _Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is_. Wherefore let us build upon Christ, for Christ is our foundation, that which may not be burnt but purified. Gold is purified by fire, and so is silver.

Sidenote: Ps. xii. 6.

7. You hear me speak of gold and silver, you think it to be the material substance, you desire to gather it, but you are losing your labour. This gold and silver brings burthen but no fruit. The toil of him who seeks it turns to the profit of his heir. This gold is burned like wood, not preserved; this silver will bring detriment not profit to your life in that day. Another kind of gold and silver is required of you, that is, a good meaning, a word fitly spoken, of which God says that He gives vessels of gold and silver. These are the gifts of God. _The words of the Lord are pure words; even as the silver which from the earth is tried and purified seven times in the fire._ The grace of your understanding, the beauty of chaste discourse is required of you; the brightness of faith not the tinkling of silver. The one remains, the other perishes; the one has reward, and we carry it away with us, the other, which we leave behind, brings loss.

Sidenote: 1 Cor. iii. 14, 15.

8. If any rich man thinks that the gold and silver which he has hoarded and stored up can avail him for life, let him know that he carries an empty burthen, which the fire of judgment will consume. Leave here your burthens, ye rich men, that your burthen may not add fuel to the fire which is to come. If you will bestow some of these goods, your burthen will be diminished, and what remains will be no burthen. Lay not up wealth, O miser; lest you should become in mere name only a Christian, in work a Jew, perceiving that your burthens are a punishment to you. For it has been said to you, not in the shade but in the sun, _If any man’s work abide, he shall receive a reward, if any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss_.

Sidenote: Isa. xxxii. 20.

Sidenote: Deut. xxv. 4.

Sidenote: S. Luke xix. 33.

9. And therefore, as a perfect man, taught in the Law, confirmed in the Gospel, receive the faith of both Testaments. For _Blessed is he that sows beside all waters, that sends forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass_, as we read to-day, that is, who sows upon the people who follow the doctrine of both Testaments; this is that ox of the plough, carrying the yoke of the Law, of which the Law says, _Thou shalt not muzzle the ox, when he treadeth out the corn_; that ox which has the horns of the Divine Scriptures. But the foal of the ass the Lord rides upon, in the Gospel, representing the people of the Gentiles.

10. But I think that since the word of God is rich in meanings, we ought also to understand that the ox has horns full of terror, the bull is fierce, the ass mild, and that this is fitly applied to our present purpose, for happy is he who observes both severity and mildness; that so by the one discipline may be maintained, while by the other innocence may be cherished; for too great severity is wont by means of terror to tempt to falsehood. God prefers being loved to being feared; for the Lord exacts love, the servant fear, for terror cannot be perpetual in man, for it is written as we read to-day _Behold, in your fear, they whom ye feared, shall fear_.

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

LETTER LXXV.

THIS letter is a sequel to the preceding, and deals with the context of the passage of S. Paul which that letter discussed. S. Ambrose ends by maintaining that the Jews were ‘heirs’ only of the letter of the Old Testament promises, the Christian being the heir of the Spirit.

AMBROSE TO CLEMENTIANUS[291].

1. I AM indeed aware that nothing is more difficult than to treat properly concerning the Apostle’s meaning, for even Origen’s expositions of the New Testament are far inferior to his expositions of the Old. Yet since in my previous letter you think that I have not explained amiss the reason of the Law being called a Schoolmaster; in what I say to-day too I purpose to unfold to you the actual force of the Apostle’s statement.

Sidenote: Gal. iii. 10.

Sidenote: Ib. 13.

Sidenote: Ib. 16.

Sidenote: Ib. 19.

Sidenote: Gal. iii. 22.

Sidenote: Ib. 25.

Sidenote: Ib. 29.

2. Now the former part of his discourse declares that no man shall be justified by the works of the Law, but by faith, _For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse_; but _Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us_. The inheritance therefore is not given by the Law but by promise. _Now to Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed which is Christ._ Thus the Law _was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made_; and therefore _all are concluded under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under the Law, that is, under a schoolmaster_; and this because we are _all the sons of God_, and are all in Christ Jesus. Now if we are all in Christ Jesus, then are we _Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise_. And this is the conclusion at which the Apostle arrives.

Sidenote: Heb. ix. 17.

Sidenote: Jer. xii. 8.

3. Still however he is met with this objection, that even the Jew might say, I also, being under the Law, have an heirship, for the Law is also called the Old Testament, and where is a Testament there also is an inheritance. And although the Apostle himself told the Hebrews that a testament is of no force, until the death of the testator happen, that is to say, a testament is of no strength while the testator liveth, but is established by his death, yet as in Jeremiah the Lord, speaking of the Jews, has said, _Mine heritage is unto Me as a lion_, he would not deny that they were heirs. But there are heirs without possessions, there are heirs also with them; and while the testator lives those whose names are written in the will are called heirs, though without possessions.

Sidenote: Gal. iv. 1.

Sidenote: Ib. 3.

4. Little children are also heirs, but they _differ in nothing from a servant, in that they are still under tutors and governors. Even so we were in bondage under the elements of the world. But, when the fulness of the time was come_, Christ also came, and now we are no longer servants but sons, if we believe in Christ. Thus He gave them the semblance of an inheritance, but withheld from them the possession of it. Thus they have the name but not the benefit of being heirs, for like children they possess the bare name of heirship without its privileges, and have no right either to command or to use, waiting for the fulness of their age that they may be delivered from their governors.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xxiii. 10.

Sidenote: 2 Cor. iii. 17.

5. As then young children, so the Jews also, are under a schoolmaster. _The Law is our schoolmaster_, the schoolmaster brings us to our Master; and our One Master is Christ: _Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ_. The schoolmaster is feared, the Master shews the way of salvation. Thus fear brings us to liberty, liberty to faith, faith to love; love obtains adoption, adoption the inheritance. Where then faith is there is liberty; for the servant acts from fear, the free-man by faith; the one by the letter, the other by grace; the one in slavery the other by the Spirit; but _where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty_. If then where faith is, there is liberty; where liberty there grace, where grace there inheritance; and he that is a Jew in the letter not in spirit is in bondage, he who hath not faith hath not the liberty of the spirit. Now where there is no liberty there is no grace, where no grace no adoption, where no adoption there no succession.

Sidenote: 1 S. Pet. i. 18, 19.

Sidenote: Isa. liii. 7.

Sidenote: S. John i. 29.

6. Thus, the tablets being, as it were, closed, he beholds[292] his inheritance but possesses it not, he has no permission to read it. For how can he say ‘Our Father’ who denies the true Son of God, Him by Whom our adoptive sonship is obtained for us? How can he rehearse the will who denies the death of the testator? How can he obtain liberty, who denies the Blood whereby he has been redeemed? For this is the price of our liberty, as Peter says, _ye were redeemed with the precious Blood_, not indeed of a lamb, but of Him Who came as a lamb, in meekness and humility, and redeemed the whole world with the one offering of His Body, as He himself says, _I was brought as a lamb to the slaughter_. Wherefore John also says, _Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world_.

Sidenote: Gal. iv. 4.

Sidenote: Eph. iv. 13.

7. Hence the Jew, being heir in the letter not in the spirit is as a child under tutors and governours; but the Christian, who recognizes that fulness of time wherein Christ came, _made of a woman, made under the Law, that He might redeem all who were under the Law_; the Christian, I say, _by unity of faith and knowledge of the Son of God grows up unto a perfect man: unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ_.

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

LETTER LXXVI.

AT Irenæus’ request S. Ambrose points out the scope of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Therein is proposed to us a heavenly inheritance, a seat in heavenly places together with Christ, Who has obtained freedom for us. It sets forth to us charity, whereby we are united to Christ, as the end of faith. He adds that no other Epistle contains the mention of so many blessings, and he briefly recounts these one by one.

AMBROSE TO IRENÆUS, GREETING.

1. YOU have asked me to set forth to you the scope and substance of the Epistle to the Ephesians, an Epistle which seems somewhat obscure, unless by analyzing it we can gather what those motives are by which the Apostle would persuade us not to despair of the kingdom of God.

2. In the first place then he points out that the hope of reward and the inheritance of those heavenly promises which have been brought within our reach by the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, are wont to be a great encouragement to the good in the pursuit of virtue.

Sidenote: Eph. iv. 15.

3. To this he has added that not only has a mode of return to Paradise been opened to us by Christ, but that even the honour of sitting in heavenly places has been imparted to this flesh of our body by its fellowship with the Body of Christ; so that you need no longer doubt the possibility of your own ascension, now that you know that your fellowship with the flesh of Christ subsists even in the kingdom of heaven, knowing also that by His Blood reconciliation has been made for all things, both on earth and in heaven, for He descended that He might fill all things: and, further, that by His Apostles, prophets, and priests, the whole world has been established, and the Gentiles gathered in; and that the end of our hope is the love of Him, that we may _grow up into Him in all things_; for He is the Head of all things, and unto Him according to the measure of His working we are all raised and built up by charity into one body.

Sidenote: Eph. i. 5.

Sidenote: Gen. ii. 24.

Sidenote: Eph. v. 31, 32.

4. We ought not therefore to despair of the members adhering to their Head; especially since from the beginning we have _been predestinated by Jesus Christ to adoption as children of God in Himself_: which predestination He has ratified, instructing us that the prediction made from the first, that _a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh_, is _a sacrament of Christ and the Church_. If therefore the union of Adam and Eve is _a great sacrament which relates to Christ and the Church_, it is certain that as Eve was bone of the bones of her husband, and flesh of his flesh, so we are members of the Body of Christ, bone of His Bones and flesh of His Flesh.

Sidenote: Ib. i. 3, 5, 9.

Sidenote: Ib. 10.

Sidenote: Ib. vi. 12.

5. No other Epistle has pronounced so many blessings over the people of God as this. For herein the pregnant witness of Divine grace has declared that we are _blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places_, and _predestinated unto the adoption of children_, richly endowed also with grace in the Son of God, _which things have abounded unto the knowledge of the mystery of His eternal will_. Especially now, in the fulness of time, when _all things are reconciled in Christ, both in heaven and on earth_, have we attained an inheritance in Him, to the intent that both what is of the Law and what is of Grace might be fulfilled in us. For even according to the Law we seemed to be elected in that season of youth, by which is signified a holy life, without either the wantonness of childhood or the infirmity of age. We have been taught also how we must vigorously _wage war not only against flesh and blood, but also against spiritual wickedness in high places_.

Sidenote: Acts i. 26.

Sidenote: Ps. lxviii. 13.

Sidenote: Num. xxvii. 1.

6. Wherefore as the possession of lands taken from the enemy fell to their lot, so to us has fallen the lot of grace, that we may become the heritage of God, Who possesses our reins, the seat of chastity and temperance. Do you seek to know this lot? Remember that lot which fell upon Matthias, that he might be chosen into the number of the twelve Apostles. The Prophet David also says, _If ye sleep in the midst of the lots_, because he who is placed in the middle, between the lot of the Old and New Testament, resting upon both, arrives at the peace of the heavenly kingdom. This lot of their paternal inheritance the daughters of Zelophehad sought for, and their petition was admitted by God’s judgment. But they sought for it in the shade, for Zelophehad means ‘the shade of the mouth;’ they sought it then in dark sayings, they spoke not what was revealed. Hence the supplication for their inheritance by the daughters of Zelophehad was couched in dark sayings, but in our case it stands in the light of the Gospel and in the revelation of grace.

Sidenote: Eph. ii. 4.

Sidenote: Ib. 6.

7. Let us therefore be the possession of God, and let Him be our portion, for in Him are the riches of His glory and inheritance. For who is rich but God alone, Who created all things? Especially however is He _rich in mercy_, in that He redeemed all mankind, and, as being the author of nature, changed us, who according to our fleshly nature were the children of wrath, and exposed to trouble, that we might become the children of peace and charity. For who can change nature but He Who created nature? Wherefore He raised the dead, and those that were _quickened in Christ He hath made to sit in heavenly places in the Lord Jesus_.

Sidenote: Ps. cx. 1.

Sidenote: S. Matt. xxvi. 64.