Chapter III.

To the argument of the Novatians, that they only deny forgiveness in the case of greater sins, St. Ambrose replies, that this is also an offence against God, Who gave the power to forgive all sins, but that of course a more severe penance must follow in case of graver sins. He points out likewise that this distinction as to the gravity of sins assigns, as it were, severity to God, Whose mercy in the Incarnation is overlooked by the Novatians.

10. But they say that, with the exception of graver sins, they grant forgiveness to those of less weight. This is not the teaching of your father, Novatian, who thought that no one should be admitted to penance, considering that what he was unable to loose he would not bind,13    Binding and loosing here refer rather to the infliction of open penance, the outward sign of repentance, than to absolution.    Heb. vi. 4–6. The use made by the Montanists and Novatians of this passage in support of their heresy seems to have been one of the reasons why the Epistle to the Hebrews was so late in being received as canonical. This is stated by one authority in so many words: “Epistola ad Hebræos non legitur propter Novatianos.” Philastrius, de Hær. 41. lest by binding he should inspire the hope that he would loose. So that your father is condemned by your own sentence, you who make a distinction between sins, some of which you consider that you can loose, and others which you consider to be without remedy. But God does not make a distinction, Who has promised His mercy to all, and granted to His priests the power of loosing without any exception. But he who has heaped up sin must also increase his penitence. For greater sins are washed away by greater weeping. So neither is Novatian justified, who excluded all from pardon; nor are you, who imitate and, at the same time, condemn him, for you diminish zeal for penance where it ought to be increased, since the mercy of Christ has taught us that graver sins must be made good by greater efforts.

11. And what perversity it is to claim for yourselves what can be forgiven, and, as you say, to reserve to God what cannot be forgiven. This would be to reserve to oneself the cases for mercy, to God those for severity. And what as to that saying: “Let God be true but every man a liar, as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and overcome when Thou art judged”?14    Rom. iii. 4.    Rom. vi. 4. In order, then, that we may recognize that the God of mercy is rather prone to indulgence than to severity, it is said: “I desire mercy rather than sacrifice.”15    Hosea vi. 6.    Eph. iv. 23. How, then, can your sacrifice, who refuse mercy, be acceptable to God, since He says that He wills not the death of a sinner, but his correction?16    Ezek. xviii. 32.    Ps. civ. [ciii.] 5.

12. Interpreting which truth, the Apostle says: “For God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us.”17    Rom. viii. 3, 4.    Eph. iv. 5. He does not say “in the likeness of flesh,” for Christ took on Himself the reality not the likeness of flesh; nor does He say in the likeness of sin, for He did no sin, but was made sin for us. Yet He came “in the likeness of sinful flesh;” that is, He took on Him the likeness of sinful flesh, the likeness, because it is written: “He is man, and who shall know Him?”18    Jerem. xvii. 9 [LXX.].    Rom. vi. 3. He was man in the flesh, according to His human nature, that He might be recognized, but in power was above man, that He might not be recognized, so He has our flesh, but has not the failings of this flesh.

13. For He was not begotten, as is every man, by intercourse between male and female, but born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin; He received a stainless body, which not only no sins polluted, but which neither the generation nor the conception had been stained by any admixture of defilement. For we men are all born under sin, and our very origin is in evil, as we read in the words of David: “For lo, I was conceived in wickedness, and in sin did my mother bring me forth.”19    Ps. li. [l.] 5.    Rom. vi. 5, 6. Therefore the flesh of Paul was a body of death, as he himself says: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”20    Rom. vii. 24.    Col. ii. 12. But the flesh of Christ condemned sin, which He felt not at His birth, and crucified by His death, so that in our flesh there might be justification through grace, in which before there had been pollution by guilt.

14. What, then, shall we say to this, except that which the Apostle said: “If God is for us, who is against us? He who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how has He not with Him also given us all things? Who shall lay a charge against the elect? It is God Who justifieth, who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Who died, yea, Who also rose again, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.”21    Rom. viii. 31–35.    Col. ii. 14. Novatian then brings charges against those for whom Christ intercedes. Those whom Christ has redeemed unto salvation Novatian condemns to death. Those to whom Christ says: “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am gentle,”22    S. Matt. xi. 29.    Col. ii. 15. Novatian says, I am not gentle. On those to whom Christ says: “Ye shall find rest for your souls, for My yoke is pleasant and My burden is light,”23    S. Matt. xi. 30.    Heb. vi. 3. Novatian lays a heavy burden and a hard yoke.

393 CAPUT III.

Iisdem Novatianis veniam gravioribus tantum criminibus abs se denegari opponentibus, respondet S. Doctor hac sententia ab illis sectae suae parentem rursus 0469Bdamnari, et offendi ipsummet Deum, qui peccatorum quorumlibet remittendorum fecit potestatem: sed majoribus delictis majorem quoque poenitentiam adhibendam esse. Adjicit autem ipsos in hoc perversos sese praebere, quod hujusmodi culparum distinctio severitatis materiam Deo relinquat: cujus misericordiam in incarnatione Christi adeo mirabiliter emicantem imitari detrectant.

10. Sed aiunt se, exceptis gravioribus criminibus, relaxare veniam levioribus. Non hoc quidem auctor vestri erroris Novatianus, qui nemini poenitentiam dandam putavit; ea scilicet contemplatione, ut quod ipse non posset solvere, non ligaret; ne ligando sperari a se faceret solutionem. In eo igitur patrem 0469C vestrum propria damnatis sententia, qui distinctionem peccatorum facitis, quae solvenda a vobis putetis, et quae sine remedio esse arbitremini: sed Deus distinctionem non facit, qui misericordiam suam promisit omnibus, et relaxandi licentiam sacerdotibus suis sine ulla exceptione concessit (De Poenit., dist. 1, cap. Deus). Sed qui culpam exaggeraverit, exaggeret etiam poenitentiam; majora enim crimina majoribus abluuntur fletibus. Ita nec Novatianus probatur, qui veniam interclusit omnibus: nec vos imitatores ejusdem et condemnatores; quia ibi minuitis studia poenitentiae, ubi augeri oportet; quia graviora peccata majoribus sustentanda fulcris docuit Christi misericordia.

11. Quae autem ista perversitas est, ut vobis vindicetis 0469D possibilia concessu: Deo, ut ipsi dicitis, impossibilia reservetis? Hoc est sibi eligere causas ignoscendi, Deo materiam saeviendi relinquere. Et ubi 0470A est illud: Sit autem Deus verax, omnis autem homo mendax, sicut scriptum est: ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris (Rom. III, 4)? Ut agnoscamus igitur Deum misericordiae magis indulgentem esse, quam severitatis tenacem, ipse ait: Misericordiam malo, quam sacrificium (Ose. VI, 6). Quomodo igitur vestrum potest acceptum esse sacrificium Deo, qui negatis misericordiam; cum ipse dicat nolle se mortem peccatoris, sed correctionem (Ezech. XVIII, 32)?

12. Cujus interpres Apostolus ait: Quia Deus Filium suum mittens in similitudinem carnis peccati, et de peccato damnavit peccatum in carne; ut justificatio Legis impleretur in nobis (Rom. VIII, 3, 4). Non in similitudinem carnis ait; quia Christus veritatem 0470B suscepit carnis humanae, non similitudinem: neque in similitudinem peccati ait; quia peccatum non fecit, sed peccatum pro nobis factus est: sed venit in similitudinem carnis peccati (II Cor. V, 2), hoc est, suscepit similitudinem carnis peccatricis; 394 ideo similitudinem, quia scriptum est: Et homo est, et quis agnoscet eum (Jerem. XVII, 3)? Homo erat in carne secundum hominem, qui agnosceretur: virtute supra hominem, qui non agnosceretur; ita et hic carnem habet nostram, sed carnis hujus vitia non habet.

13. Non enim sicut omnis homo est, ex virili erat et feminea permixtione generatus: sed natus de Spiritu sancto et de Virgine (Matth. I, 18), immaculatum corpus susceperat, quod non solum nulla 0470C vitia maculaverant, sed nec generationis aut conceptionis concretio injuriosa fuscaverat (S. Aug. lib. II, cont. Jul. Pelag., in princ. et fin.; lib II de Pec. orig., c. 40; et l. IV, contra duas Epist. Pet. c. 11). Nam omnes homines sub peccato nascimur, quorum ipse ortus in vitio est, sicut habes lectum, dicente David: Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum, et in delictis peperit me mater mea (Psal. L, 5). Ideo Pauli caro corpus mortis erat, sicut ipse ait: Quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus (Rom. VII, 24)? Christi autem caro damnavit peccatum, quod nascendo non sensit, quod moriendo crucifixit; ut in carne nostra esset justificatio per gratiam, ubi erat ante colluvio per culpam.

14. Quid ergo dicemus ad haec, nisi quod dixit 0470D Apostolus: Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos? Qui Filio proprio non pepercit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit eum; quomodo non etiam cum illo omnia nobis 0471Adonavit? Quis accusabit adversus electos Dei? Deus qui justificat, quis est qui condemnet? Christus qui mortuus est, immo qui et resurrexit, qui est in dextera Dei, qui etiam interpellat pro nobis (Rom. VIII, 31 et seq.). Pro quibus ergo Christus interpellat, eos Novatianus accusat. Quos Christus ad salutem redemit, eos Novatianus damnat ad mortem. Quibus Christus dicit: Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me quia mitis sum (Matth. XI, 29); Novatianus dicit: Immitis sum. Quibus Christus dicit; Invenietis requiem animabus vestris; jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve est (Ibid., 30); his grave onus, et durum imponit jugum Novatianus.