Chapter XIII.

Discussion of the Divine Generation is continued. St. Ambrose illustrates its method by the same example as that employed by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The duty of believing what is revealed is shown by the example of Nebuchadnezzar and St. Peter. By the vision granted to St. Peter was shown the Son’s Eternity and Godhead—the Apostle, then, must be believed in preference to the teachers of philosophy, whose authority was everywhere falling into discredit. The Arians, on the other hand, are shown to be like unto the heathen.

79. It will be asked: “In what sort was the Son begotten?” As one who is for ever, as the Word, as the brightness of eternal light,159    Heb. i. 3. for brightness takes effect in the instant of its coming into existence. Which example is the Apostle’s, not mine. Think not, then, that there was ever a moment of time when God was without wisdom, any more than that there was ever a time when light was without radiance. Judge not, Arian, divine things by human, but believe the divine where thou findest not the human.

80. The heathen king saw in the fire, together with the three Hebrew children, the form of a fourth, like as of an angel,160    Dan. iii. 25. and because he thought that this angel excelled all angels, he judged Him to be the Son of God, Whom he had not read of, but in Whom he believed. Abraham, also, saw Three, and adored One.161    Gen. xviii. 1–3.

81. Peter, when he saw Moses and Elias on the mountain, with the Son of God, was not deceived as to their nature and glory. For he enquired, not of them, but of Christ, what he ought to do, inasmuch as though he prepared to do homage to all three, yet he waited for the command of one. But since he ignorantly thought that for three persons three tabernacles should be set up, he was corrected by the sovereign voice of God the Father, saying, “This is My dearly beloved Son: hear ye Him.”162    S. Matt. xvii. 5. That is to say: “Why dost thou join thy fellow-servants in equality with thy Lord?” “This is My Son.” Not “Moses is My Son,” nor “Elias is My Son,” but “This is My Son.” The Apostle was not dull to understand the rebuke; he fell on his face, brought low by the Father’s voice and the glorious beauty of the Son, but he was raised up by the Son, Whose wont it is to raise up them that are fallen.163    S. Matt. xvii. 6–8. Then he saw one only,164    S. Matt. xvii. 8. the Son of God alone, for the servants had withdrawn, that He might be seen to be Lord alone, Who alone was entitled Son.

82. What, then, was the purpose of that vision, which signified not that Christ and His servants were equal, but betokened a mystery, save that it should be made plain to us that the Law and the Prophets, in agreement with the Gospel, revealed as eternal the Son of God, Whom they had heralded. When we, therefore, hear of the Son coming forth of the womb, the Word from the heart, let us believe that the Son was not fashioned with hands but begotten of the Father, not the work of a craftsman but the offspring of a parent.

83. He, therefore, Who said, “This is My Son,” said not, “This is a creature of time,” nor “This being is of My creation, My making, My servant,” but “This is My Son, Whom ye see glorified.” This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, Who appeared to Moses in the bush,165    Ex. iii. 14. concerning Whom Moses saith, “He Who is hath sent me.” It was not the Father Who spake to Moses in the bush or in the desert, but the Son. It was of this Moses that Stephen said, “This is He Who was in the church, in the wilderness, with the Angel.”166    Acts vii. 38. This, then, is He Who gave the Law, Who spake with Moses, saying, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.” This, then, is the God of the patriarchs, this is the God of the prophets.

84. It is of the Son, therefore, that we read, thy mind understandeth the reading, let thy tongue make confession. Away with arguments, where faith is required; now let dialectic hold her peace, even in the midst of her schools. I ask not what it is that philosophers say, but I would know what they do. They sit desolate in their schools. See the victory of faith over argument. They who dispute subtly are forsaken daily by their fellows; they who with simplicity believe are daily increased. Not philosophers but fishermen, not masters of dialectic but tax-gatherers, now find credence. The one sort, through pleasures and luxuries, have bound the world’s burden upon themselves; the other, by fasting and mortification, have cast it off, and so doth sorrow now begin to win over more followers than pleasure.

85. Let us now see how far Arians and pagans do differ. The latter call upon gods, who are different in sex and unequal in power; the former affirm a Trinity where there is likewise inequality of power and diversity of Godhead. The pagans assert that their Gods began to exist once upon a time; the Arians lyingly declare that Christ began to exist in the course of time. Have they not all dyed their impiety in the vats of philosophy? But indeed the pagans do extol that which they worship,167    i.e., the pagans worship false gods, but they at least have the decency to regard them as a higher order than human creatures, and not to wilfully depreciate them. the Arians maintain that the Son of God, Who is God, is a creature.

CAPUT XIII.

Quaestionem quomodo genitus sit Filius solvit sanctus Doctor; et revelationi credendum Nabuchodonosoris ac Petri exemplo docet. Hujus ultimi visione aeternitatem divinitatemque Filii signatam esse; atque adeo illi credendum neglectis philosophis, quibus jam ubique fides abrogabatur. Contra vero gentilibus ostenduntur similes Ariani.

0547B 79. Dicet aliquis: Quomodo generatus est Filius? Quasi sempiternus, quasi Verbum, 460 quasi splendor lucis aeternae, quia simul splendor operatur, ut nascitur. Apostoli istud exemplum est, non est meum. Noli ergo credere quod fuerit vel momentum aliquod quo fuerit sine sapientia Deus, aut sine splendore lux (Hebr. I, 3). Noli, Ariane, ex nostris aestimare divina: sed divina crede, ubi humana non invenis.

80. Rex gentilis in igne cum tribus pueris Hebraeis quarti quasi angeli vidit figuram: et quia praestare putabat angelis, Dei Filium, quem non legit, sed credidit, judicavit (Dan. III, 92). Abraham quoque tres vidit, et unum adoravit (Gen. XVIII, 2).

81. Petrus in monte Moysen et Eliam cum Filio 0547C Dei vidit, nec erravit in natura, nec erravit in gloria. Denique quid facere deberet, non illos, sed Christum interrogavit; nam etsi tribus parabat obsequium, unius tamen exspectabat imperium. Sed quoniam vel tabernaculorum numerum deferendum tribus simpliciter aestimavit, emendatur Dei Patris auctoritate dicentis: Hic est Filius meus dilectissimus, ipsum audite (Matth. XVII, 5), id est: Quid conservos tuos cum Domino socias tuo? Hic est Filius meus. Non Moyses filius, non Elias filius: sed hic Filius. Sensit emendationem apostolus, procidit in faciem, consternatus Patris voce, et Filii claritate: sed sublevatur a Filio, qui jacentes erigere consuevit. Unum vidit, solum vidit Dei Filium. Recesserunt 0547D enim servuli, ut solus Dominus, qui solus designabatur Filius, videretur.

82. Quid igitur sibi voluit illa visio, non aequalitatem 0548A Christi servorumque significans, sed mysterium signans, nisi ut appareret nobis quod Lex et Prophetae cum Evangelio congruentes, sempiternum Dei Filium, quem annuntiaverant, revelarent? Ergo et nos cum audimus ex utero Filium, ex corde Verbum, credamus quia non plasmatus manibus, sed ex Patre natus: non artificis opus, sed progenies est parentis.

83. Et ideo qui dicit: Hic est Filius meus, non dixit: Hic est temporalis; non dixit: Haec est creatura mea, haec factura mea, hic servus meus; sed hic Filius meus, quem videtis in gloria. Hic est Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, Deus Jacob, qui apparuit in rubo Moysi, de quo Moyses ait: Qui est, misit me (Exod. III, 14). Non Pater in rubo, non Pater in 0548B eremo: sed Filius Moysi locutus est. Denique de ipso Stephanus dixit: Hic est qui fuit in Ecclesia, in eremo, cum angelo (Act. VII, 38). Hic est ergo qui Legem dedit, ipse qui locutus est Moysi, dicens: Ego sum Deus Abraham, Deus Isaac, Deus Jacob (Exod. III, 16). Hic est ergo Deus patriarcharum, hic Deus est prophetarum.

84. Filium ergo legimus: mens tua percipit lectionem, edat lingua confessionem. Aufer hinc argumenta, ubi fides quaeritur: in ipsis gymnasiis suis jam dialectica taceat. Non quaero quid loquantur philosophi, requiro quid faciant. Soli in suis gymnasiis remanserunt. Vide 461 quam fides argumentis praeponderet. Illi quotidie a suis consortibus deseruntur, qui copiose disputant: isti quotidie 0548C crescunt, qui simpliciter credunt. Non creditur philosophis, creditur piscatoribus: non creditur dialecticis, creditur publicanis. Illi voluptatibus et deliciis orbem ligarunt, isti jejuniis et doloribus exuerunt. Plures itaque jam coepit illicere injuria, quam voluptas.

85. Nunc videamus quo distant a gentilibus Ariani. Illi deos appellant dispares sexu, dissimiles potestate: isti Trinitatem asserunt differentis divinitatis, et dissimilis potestatis. Illi deorum suorum principium asseverant temporale; et isti Christum coepisse ex tempore mentiuntur. Nonne ex philosophia omnem impietatis suae traxerunt colorem? Illi tamen quod venerantur, amplificant: isti Dei Filium creaturam asserunt esse, qui Deus est.