The Two Books of St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, on the Decease of His Brother Satyrus.

 Book I.

 1. We have brought hither, dearest brethren, my sacrifice, a sacrifice undefiled, a sacrifice well pleasing to God, my lord and brother Satyrus. I did

 11. He wept for what affected us, not Himself for the Godhead sheds no tears but He wept in that nature in which He was sad He wept in that in whic

 21. I feel, indeed, that my mind is touched by the repetition of thy services and the enumeration of thy virtues, and yet in being thus affected I fin

 31. So then, brother, I esteem thee happy both in the beauty of thy life and in the opportuneness of thy death. For thou wast snatched away not from u

 41. For if at any time there was a discussion between me and my holy sister on any matter, as to which was the preferable opinion, we used to take the

 51. But in what words can I set forth his simplicity? By this I mean a certain moderation of character and soberness of mind. Pardon me, I beseech you

 61. So that one may rightly say that the Holy Spirit has this day told us by the voice of the boy reader: “He that is innocent in his hands and of a c

 71. And certainly if they have ever found any consolation who have thought that death is the end of sensation and the failing of our nature, how much

 Book II.

 1. In the former book I indulged my longing to some extent, lest too sharp remedies applied to a burning wound might rather increase than assuage the

 11. Let, then, grief be patient, let there be that moderation in adversity which is required in prosperity. If it be not seemly to rejoice immoderatel

 21. We know, however, that it survives the body, and that being set free from the bars of the body, it sees with clear gaze those things which before,

 31. And who said this but he who asked for and obtained wisdom, to know how the world was made, and the power of the elements, the course of the year,

 41. But what remedy? “Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have a physician, let us

 51. All things, indeed, are believed to be, either because of experience, or on grounds of reason, or from similar instances, or because it is fitting

 61. However, before the season comes, those things also are not believed, for every season is not suited for the raising of seeds. Wheat is sown at on

 71. But let us now hear the prophet himself, who speaks thus: “The hand of the Lord was upon me, and the Lord led me forth in the Spirit, and placed m

 81. And this was not the only instance which our Lord Jesus Christ set forth, but He raised others also, that we might at any rate believe more numero

 91. So, then, man rose because man died man was raised again, but God raised him. Then it was man according to the Flesh, now God is all in all. For

 101. We see, then, that heaven is open to virtue, and that this is the privilege not only of a few: “For many shall come from the east and from the we

 111. Yet it is not every one’s business to sound each trumpet, nor every one’s business to call together the whole assembly, but that prerogative is g

 121. And therefore “blessed is he who keepeth the words of this prophecy,” which has revealed the resurrection to us by clearer testimony, saying: “An

 131. But I have seen what you, Gentiles, think of each other, and indeed it ought not to seem strange that you who worship beasts should believe that

121. And therefore “blessed is he who keepeth the words of this prophecy,”189    Rev. xxi. 7. which has revealed the resurrection to us by clearer testimony, saying: “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and they opened the books; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and hell gave up the dead which were in it.”190    Rev. xx. 12, 13. We must, then, not question how they shall rise again, whom hell gives up and the sea restores.

122. Hear also when the future grace of the just is promised: “And I heard,” he says, “a great voice from the throne saying: Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be their God with them: and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more.”191    Rev. xxi. 3.

123. Compare now, if you will, and contrast this life with that; and choose, if you then can, unending bodily existence in toil, and in the wretched misery of such changes as we endure, in satiety when we have our wishes, in that disgust which attends our pleasures. If God were willing to let these last for ever, would you choose them? For if on its own account life is to be escaped from, that there may be an avoidance of troubles and rest from miseries, how much more is that rest to be sought for, which shall be followed by the eternal pleasure of the resurrection to come, where there is no succession of faults, no enticement to sin?

124. Who is so patient in suffering as not to pray for death? who has such endurance in weakness as not to wish rather to die than to live in debility? Who is so brave in sorrow as not to desire to escape from it even by death? But if we ourselves are dissatisfied while life lasts, although we know that a limit is fixed for it, how much more weary should we become of this life if we saw that the troubles of the body would be with us without end! For who is there who would wish to be excepted from death? Or what would be more unendurable than a miserable immortality? “If in this life only,” he says, “we hope in Christ, we are more miserable than all men;”192    1 Cor. xv. 19. not because to hope in Christ is miserable, but because Christ has prepared another life for those who hope in Him. For this life is liable to sin, that life is reserved for the reward.

124. And how much weariness do we find that the short stages of our lives bring us! The boy longs to be a young man; the youth counts the years leading to riper age; the young man, unthankful for the advantage of his vigorous time of life, desires the honour of old age. And so to all there comes naturally the desire of change, because we are dissatisfied with that which we now are. And lastly, even the things we have desired are wearisome to us; and what we have wished to obtain, when we have obtained it, we dislike.

125. Wherefore holy men have not without reason often lamented their lengthy dwelling here: David193    Ps. cxx. [cxix.] 5. lamented it, Jeremiah194    Jer. xx. 18. lamented it, and Elijah195    1 Kings xix. 4. lamented it. If we believe wise men, and those in whom the Divine Spirit dwelt, they were hastening to better things; and if we enquire as to the judgment of others, that we may ascertain that all agree in one opinion, what great men have preferred death to sorrow, what great men have preferred it to fear! esteeming forsooth the fear of death to be worse than death itself. So death is not feared on account of evils which belong to it, but is preferred to the miseries of life, since the departure of the dying is desired and the dread of the living is avoided.

126. So be it, then. Granted that the Resurrection is preferable to this life. What! have philosophers196    Cicero, Tusc. Disp. I.; Plato, Phædo. themselves found anything with which we should have a greater delight to continue than to rise again? Even those indeed who say that souls are immortal do not satisfy me, seeing they only allow me a partial redemption. What grace can that be by which I am not wholly benefited? What life is that if the operation of God dies out in me? What righteousness is that which, if death is the end of natural existence, is common to the sinner and the just? What is that truth, that the soul should be considered immortal, because it moves itself and is always in motion? As regards that which in the body is common to us with beasts, it is perhaps uncertain what happens before the body exists, and the truth is not to be gathered from these differences but destroyed.

127. But is their opinion preferable, who197    From the Egyptians this opinion seems to have passed on to Pythagoras and Plato. say that our souls, when they have passed out of these bodies, migrate into the bodies of beasts, or of various other living creatures? Philosophers, indeed, themselves are wont to argue that these are ridiculous fancies of poets, such as might be produced by draughts of the drugs of Circe;198    Ovid, Metamorph. XIV. 1. and they say that not so much they who are represented to have undergone such things, as the senses of those who have invented such tales are changed into the forms of various beasts as it were by Circe’s cup. For what is so like a marvel as to believe that men could have been changed into the forms of beasts? How much greater a marvel, however, would it be that the soul which rules man should take on itself the nature of a beast so opposed to that of man, and being capable of reason should be able to pass over to an irrational animal, than that the form of the body should have been changed? You yourselves, who teach these things, destroy what you teach. For you have given up the production of these portentous conversions by means of magic incantations.

128. Poets say these things in sport, and philosophers blame them and at the same time they imagine that those very things are true of the dead which they consider fictitious as regards the living. For they who invented such tales did not intend to assert the truth of their own fable, but to deride the errors of philosophers, who think that that same soul which was accustomed to overcome anger by gentle and lowly purpose, can now, inflamed by the raging impulses of a lion, impatient with anger and with unbridled rage, thirst for blood and seek for slaughter. Or again, that that soul, which as it were by royal counsel used to moderate the various storms of the people, and to calm them with the voice of reason, can now endure to howl in pathless and desert places after the fashion of a wolf; or that that soul which, groaning under a heavy burden, used to low in sad complaint over the labours of the plough, now changed into the fashion of a man, seeks for horns on his smooth brow;199    Verg. Ecl. VI. 51. or that another, which used of old to be borne aloft on rapid wing to the heights of heaven, now thinks of flight200    Ovid, Metam. II. 4. no longer in its power, and mourns that it grows sluggish in the weight of a human body.

129. Perchance you destroyed Icarus201    Metam. VIII. 3. through some such teaching, because the youth, led on by your persuasion, imagined, it may be, that he had been a bird. By such means too have many old men been deceived so as to submit to grievous pain, having unhappily believed the fables about swans, and thought that they, whilst soothing their pain with mournful strains, would be able to transmute their gray hair into downy feathers.

130. How incredible are these things! how odious! How much more fitting is it to believe in accordance with nature, in accordance with what takes place in every kind of fruit; to believe in accordance with the pattern of what has happened, in accordance with the utterances of prophets, and the heavenly promise of Christ! For what is better than to be sure that the work of God does not perish, and that those who are made in the image and likeness of God cannot be transformed into the shapes of beasts; since in truth it is not the form of the body but of the spirit which is made after the likeness of God. For in what manner could man, to whom are subjected the other kinds of living creatures, migrate with the better part of himself into an animal subjected to himself? Nature does not suffer this, and if nature did grace would not.

121. Et ideo beatus qui custodit verba prophetiae hujus (Apoc. XXIII, 7), quae nobis resurrectionem 1350C evidentioribus testimoniis revelavit dicens: Et vidi mortuos magnos et pusillos stantes ante sedem, et libros aperuerunt: et alius liber apertus est, qui est vitae: et judicati suntmortui de scriptis in libris, secundum facta sua. Et dedit mare mortuos, qui in ipso erant: et inferi dederunt mortuos, qui penes se erant (Apoc. XX 12). Ne ergo dubites quemadmodum resurgant, quor inferi revomunt, mare reddidit.

122. Accipe etiam quando promittatur gratia futura justorum: Et audivi, inquit, vocem magnam de throno dicentem: Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum hominibus, et habitabit cum illis; et ipsi populus ejus erunt, et ipse Deus cum illis erit illorum Deus. Et delebit omnem lacrymam de oculis eorum, et mors non erit amplius, neque luctus, neque clamor, neque dolor ultra 1350Derit. (Apoc. XXI, 3, 4).

1167 123. Compara nunc, si placet, atque contende vitam hanc cum illa vita, et elige, si potes, perpetuam corporis vitam in labore aerumnaque miserabili tantarum commutationum, votorumque 1351A taedio, fastidio voluptatum. Nonne si Deus ista perpetuare velit, illa deligeres? Nam si per se ipsa vita fugienda est, ut sit molestiarum fuga, requies aerumnarum; quanto magis ea requies est expetenda, cui futurae resurrectionis voluptas perpetua succedet; ubi nulla criminum series, nulla illecebra delictorum?

124. Quis in dolore tam patiens, qui non mortem oret? quis in infirmitate tam constans, ut non optet mori se potius, quam debilem vivere? quis in moerore tam fortis, ut non desideret eo se vel moriendo defungi? Quod si ipsi nobis dum vivimus, displicemus, cum vivendo finem praestitum esse noverimus; quanto amplius vitae nos taederet istius, si sine fine futuros nobis labores hujus corporis cerneremus? 1351B Quis est igitur qui se velit mortis exsortem? Aut quid gravius immortalitate miserabili? Si in hac vita, inquit, in Christo tantum sperantes sumus, miserabiliores sumus omnibus hominibus (I Cor. XV, 19); non quod in Christo sperare sit miserum, sed quia Christus sperantibus in se vitam alteram praeparaverit. Haec enim peccato obnoxia est, illa praemio reservata.

124. Ipsos cursus breves nostrarum aetatum quantum videmus nobis afferre fastidium? Puer adolescentiam desiderat, adolescens annos sibi majoris metitur aetatis, juvenis beneficio aevi florentis ingratus, senilem honorificentiam concupiscit. Ita omnibus ex natura venit velle mutari; quia ejus nos quod sumus, poenitet. Denique etiam ipsa post usum 1351C vota fastidio sunt: et quae mereri optavimus, cum meruerimus, abdicamus.

125. Unde non immerito etiam sancti viri prolongatum incolatum suum saepe doluerunt (Psal. CXIX, 5): doluit David, doluit Jeremias (Jerem. XX, 17), doluit Elias (III Reg. XIX, 4). Si sapientibus creditur, et hi in quibus divinus Spiritus loquebatur, ad meliora properabant: si reliquorum judicia sciscitamur, ut cognoscamus omnes in unam convenire sententiam; quanti mortem moerori, quanti mortem formidini praetulerunt? judicantes videlicet graviorem metum mortis esse, quam mortem. Adeo suis malis mors non timetur, sed vitae miseriis antefertur! 1352A cum expetitur morientis exitus, et evitatur formido viventis.

126. Sed esto, huic vitae resurrectio praeferatur. 1168 Quid, philosophi ipsi genus post mortem aliquod repererunt, quo nos uti magis, quam resurgere delectabit? Et illi quidem qui dicunt animas immortales esse, non satis mulcere me possunt, cum pro parte me redimunt. Nam quae potest esse gratia, ubi non totus evasi? quae vita, si in me opus Dei occidat? quae justitia, si naturae finis mors sit, erranti justove communis? quae veritas, ut quia ipsa se moveat, et semper moveatur anima, immortalis esse credatur? Quod nobis in corpore commune cum bestiis, ante corpus quid geratur incertum; nec ex contrariis colligatur veritas, sed destruatur.

1352B 127. An vero illorum sententia placet, qui nostras animas, ubi ex hoc corpore emigraverint, in corpora ferarum, variorumque animantium transire commemorant? At certe haec circeis medicamentorum illecebris composita esse ludibria poetarum ipsi philosophi disserere solent: nec tam illos qui perpessi ista simulentur, quam sensus eorum qui ista confinxerint, velut circeo poculo ferunt in varia bestiarum monstra conversos. Quid enim tam simile prodigii, quam homines credere in habitum ferarum potuisse mutari? Quanto majoris est prodigii gubernatricem hominis animam, adversam humano generi bestiarum suscipere naturam, capacemque rationis ad irrationabile animal posse transire, 1352C quam corporis effigies esse mutatas? Vos ipsi haec destruitis, qui docetis. Nam magicis incantata carminibus portentosae hujus conversionis genera tradidistis.

128. Ludunt haec poetae, reprehendunt philosophi: et quae putant ficta de viventibus, haec arbitrantur vera de mortuis. Illi autem qui ista finxerunt, non suam probare fabulam, sed philosophorum errores irridere voluerunt: qui putant quod illa anima quae miti humilique proposito iracundiam vincere, patientiam assumere, cruore abstinere consueverat, eadem frementi motu leonis incensa, irae impatiens, effrena rabie, sitire sanguinem, caedemque possit 1353A expetere: et illa quae populorum fremitus varios regali quodam consilio temperabat, et rationabili voce mulcebat; eadem se inter devia atque deserta ritu luporum patiatur ululare: aut quae injusto sub onere gemeus, dures aratri labores questu miserabili mugiebat; eadem postea in figuram hominis commutata, levi cornua quaerat in fronte: vel illa quam praepetes prius pennae usque ad alta coeli per sublime aeris alarum remigiis evehebant; eadem 1169 postea volatus jam non suos requirat, et se humani doleat corporis gravitate pigrescere.

129. Hinc fortasse et illum Icarum perdidistis, quod persuasionibus vestris inductus adolescens, prius avem se fuisse fortasse crediderat. Hinc etiam senes plerique decepti sunt, ut gravi immorerentur 1353B dolori, cygneis male creduli fabulis, dum putant modulis se mulcendo flebilibus albentem molli pluma mutare canitiem.

130. Haec quam incredibilia! quam deformia! Quanto illud est convenientius, ut credas secundum naturam, credas secundum usum fructuum caeterorum, credas secundum gestorum exempla, oracula prophetarum, Christi coeleste promissum. Quid vero praestantius, quam ut opus Dei judices non perire, et secundum imaginem et similitudinem Dei factos transferri non posse in effigies bestiarum; cum utique ad similitudinem Dei non corporis sit imago, sed spiritus? Nam quemadmodum homo, cui subjecta sunt animantium genera caeterorum, in subjectum sibi animal meliore sui parte demigret? Non patitur 1353C hoc natura, et si pateretur natura, non pateretur gratia.