LETTER LXVIII. 

AN explanation of the text,  Thy heaven shall be brass and thy earth iron. 

AMBROSE TO ROMULUS.

1. BEING yourself in the country I am surprised at your having been led to inquire of me the reason why God should have said,  And thy heaven shall be brass, and thy earth iron. For the very appearance of the country and its present fertility might teach us how great is the mildness of the air, and how genial is the climate, when God vouchsafes to give plenty, but when sterility, how all things are closed up, how dense the air, so as to seem hardened into the very substance of brass. Elsewhere also you read that in the clays of Elijah  the heaven was shut up three years and six months. 

 2. By the heaven then being brass is signified its being shut up, and refusing its use to the earth. The earth also is iron, for it witholds its produce, and with hostile rigour excludes from its fructifying soil the seeds thrown upon it, which its wont is to cherish as in the bosom of a tender mother. For when does iron bring forth fruit, when does brass melt into showers?

3. Those impious men therefore He threatens with miserable famine, that they who know not how to shew filial piety to the common Lord and Father of all, may be deprived of the support of His paternal clemency, that the heaven may be to them as brass, and the air condensed into the substance of metal; that the earth may be to them as iron, deprived of its natural productions, and as is usually the case with poverty, a sower of strife. For they who are in want of food commit robberies, that at the expense of others they may relieve their own hunger.

4. If further the offence of the inhabitants be so great that God stirs up and brings war upon them, then their land is truly iron, bristling with crops of spears, and stripped of its own fruit, fruitful as regards punishment, barren as regards nourishment. But where is abundance?  Behold I will rain bread for you. saith the Lord. 

Farewell; love me, for I also love you.

EPISTOLA LXVIII.

 Quidnam Deus Judaeis interminatus fuerit, dicens: 

Ponam coelum aereum, et terram ferream.

AMBROSIUS ROMULO.

1. Cum sis in agro, miror qua ratione de me quaerendum putaveris, cur dixerit Deus:  Ponam coelum   1231C   aereum, et terram ferream (Deut. XXVIII, 23). Nam species ipsa agri, et praesens fertilitas docere nos potest quanta clementia sit aeris, et coeli indulgentia, quando dignatur Deus ubertatem dare: quando autem sterilitas, quemadmodum clausa omnia, spissus aer, ut in rigorem aeris solidatus putetur. Unde alibi habes quia in diebus Eliae clausum est coelum annis tribus et mensibus sex (III Reg. XVII, 1).

2. Significatur igitur clausum coelum aereum esse, usum sui terris negare. Terra quoque ferrea est, cum proventus abnuit, et jacta sibi semina tamquam hostili duritia genitali excludit arvo, quae gremio solet blandae matris fovere. Quando enim ferrum fructificat? Quando aes imbres relaxat?

3. His igitur miserandam famem minatur impiis,  1231D ut qui pietatem filiorum communi omnium domino et patri exhibere nesciunt, careant nutrimento paternae  1232A indulgentiae, sit illis coelum aereum, concreto aere, et solidato in metalli rigorem, sit illis terra ferrea, partus suos nesciens, ut quod plerumque inopia habeat, discordias serens. Rapto enim utuntur, qui victu indigent; ut alienis dispendiis famem suam ablevent.

4. Jam si et offensa inhabitantium hujusmodi sit, ut divina commotione iis inferantur praelia, vere terra est ferrea, telorum segetibus inhorrens, et suis nuda fructibus, fecunda ad poenam, sterilis ad alimoniam. Ubi autem abundantia?  Ecce ego pluo vobis panes, dicit Dominus (Exod. XVI, 4). Vale, et nos dilige; quia nos te diligimus.