Chapter I.

The marvel is, not that men have failed to know Christ, but that they have not listened to the words of the Scriptures. Christ, indeed, was not known, even of angels, save by revelation, nor again, by His forerunner. Follows a description of Christ’s triumphal ascent into heaven, and the excellence of its glory over the assumption of certain prophets. Lastly, from exposition of the conversation with angels upon this occasion, the omnipotence of the Son is proved, as against the Arians.

1. On consideration, your Majesty, of the reason wherefore men have so far gone astray, or that many—alas!—should follow diverse ways of belief concerning the Son of God, the marvel seems to be, not at all that human knowledge has been baffled in dealing with superhuman things, but that it has not submitted to the authority of the Scriptures.

2. What reason, indeed, is there to wonder, if by their worldly wisdom men failed to comprehend the mystery of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden,670    Ps. lxxxvii. 5. The R.V. renders “Yea, of Zion it shall be said, This one and that one was born in her.” The verse is rather prophetic of the universality of Christ’s Church than of the Incarnation.    Col. ii. 3. that mystery of which not even angels have been able to take knowledge, save by revelation?

3. For who could by force of imagination, and not by faith, follow the Lord Jesus, now descending from the highest heaven to the shades below, now rising again from Hades to the heavenly places; in a moment self-emptied, that He might dwell amongst us, and yet never made less than He was, the Son being ever in the Father and the Father in the Son?

4. Even Christ’s forerunner, though only in so far as representing the synagogue,671    He could not “be made” God if we use the Name “God” in its proper sense, but St. Ambrose probably had in his mind the sense which the Arians attached to the name, as applicable to the Son. According to them, it was a sort of “courtesy-title.”    St. Ambrose perhaps meant that John Baptist had, for a space, lost the prophetic Light, when he doubted, and sent disciples to enquire of Jesus. The darkness of the dungeon had drawn a cloud over the prisoner’s soul, and for a time he was in the state described by Isaiah ix. 1, walking in darkness and the shadow of death, the state of the people of Israel (represented by the synagogue) at the time of our Lord’s Advent. See S. Matt. iv. 12–16. doubted concerning Him, even he who was appointed to go before the face of the Lord, and at last sending messengers, enquired: “Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?”672    1 Tim. ii. 5.    S. Matt. xi. 3.

5. Angels, too, stood spellbound in wonder at the heavenly mystery. And so, when the Lord rose again, and the heights of heaven could not bear the glory of His rising from the dead, Who of late, so far as regarded His flesh, had been confined in the narrow bounds of a sepulchre, even the heavenly hosts doubted and were amazed.

6. For a Conqueror came, adorned with wondrous spoils, the Lord was in His holy Temple, before Him went angels and archangels, marvelling at the prey wrested from death, and though they knew that nothing can be added to God from the flesh, because all things are lower than God, nevertheless, beholding the trophy of the Cross, whereof “the government was upon His shoulder,” and the spoils borne by the everlasting Conqueror, they, as if the gates could not afford passage for Him Who had gone forth from them, though indeed they can never o’erspan His greatness—they sought some broader and more lofty passage for Him on His return—so entirely had He remained undiminished by His self-emptying.

7. However, it was meet that a new way should be prepared before the face of the new Conqueror—for a Conqueror is always, as it were, taller and greater in person than others; but, forasmuch as the Gates of Righteousness, which are the Gates of the Old and the New Testament, wherewith heaven is opened, are eternal, they are not indeed changed, but raised, for it was not merely one man but the whole world that entered, in the person of the All-Redeemer.

8. Enoch had been translated, Elias caught up, but the servant is not above his Master. For “No man hath ascended into heaven, but He Who came down from heaven;”673    Cf. Anselm. “Cur Deus Homo?” I. 5; II. 6.    S. John iii. 13. and even of Moses, though his corpse was never seen on earth, we do nowhere read as of one abiding in celestial glory, unless it was after that the Lord, by the earnest of His own Resurrection, burst the bonds of hell and exalted the souls of the godly. Enoch, then, was translated, and Elias caught up; both as servants, both in the body, but not after resurrection from the dead, nor with the spoils of death and the triumphal train of the Cross, had they been seen of angels.

9. And therefore [the angels] descrying the approach of the Lord of all, first and only Vanquisher of Death, bade their princes that the gates should be lifted up, saying in adoration, “Lift up the gates, such as are princes amongst you, and be ye lifted up, O everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.”674    The Incarnation was a sacrament, being the outward visible sign of the divine love.    Ps. xxiv. 7. St. Ambrose follows the LXX.

10. Yet there were still, even amongst the hosts of heaven, some that were amazed, overcome with astonishment at such pomp and glory as they had never yet beheld, and therefore they asked: “Who is the King of glory?”675    Ps. xviii. 7, 14.    Ps. xxiv. 8. Howbeit, seeing that the angels (as well as ourselves) acquire their knowledge step by step, and are capable of advancement, they certainly must display differences of power and understanding, for God alone is above and beyond the limits imposed by gradual advance, possessing, as He does, every perfection from everlasting.

11. Others, again,—those, to wit, who had been present at His rising again, those who had seen or who already recognized Him,—made reply: “It is the Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”

12. Then, again, sang the multitude of angels, in triumphal chorus: “Lift up the gates, O ye that are their princes, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.”

13. And back again came the challenge of them that stood astonished: “Who is that King of glory? For we saw Him having neither form nor comeliness;676    S. Luke i. 76.    Isa. liii. 2. if then it be not He, who is that King of glory?”

14. Whereto answer they which know: “The Lord of Hosts, He is the King of glory.” Therefore, the Lord of Hosts, He is the Son. How then do the Arians call Him fallible, Whom we believe to be Lord of Hosts, even as we believe of the Father? How can they draw distinctions between the sovereign powers of Each, when we have found the Son, even as also the Father, entitled “Lord of Saboath”? For, in this very passage, the reading in many copies is: “The Lord of Sabaoth, He is the King of glory.” Now the translators have, for the “Lord of Sabaoth,” rendered in some places “the Lord of Hosts,” in others “the Lord the King,” and in others “the Lord Omnipotent.” Therefore, since He Who ascended is the Son, and, again, He Who ascended is the Lord of Sabaoth, it surely follows that the Son of God is omnipotent!

521 CAPUT PRIMUM.

0617B

Haud mirum esse quod homines in Christi cognitione erraverint, sed quod Scripturae non obtemperaverint: illum quoque nec ab angelis nisi revelatione fuisse cognitum, sicut nec ab ipso Praecursore. Ejusdem Christi in coelum 0617C ascendentis triumphus qualis, et raptu prophetarum quorumdam quanto praestantior? Tum descripto angelorum hac de re colloquio, contra Arianos Filius omnipotens esse ostenditur.

1. Consideranti mihi, Imperator auguste, qua ratione sic erraverit genus hominum, ut de Dei Filio plerique, vae mihi, diversa sequerentur; nequaquam satis mirum videtur quia erravit humana scientia de supernis, sed quod Scripturis non detulit obedientiam.

2. Quid enim mirum, si mysterium Dei Patris et Domini Jesu Christi, in quo sunt omnes thesauri sapientiae et scientiae absconditi (Coloss., II, 3), per sapientiam mundi non potuerunt homines comprehendere, quod nec angeli cognoscere, nisi ex revelatione, 0617D potuerunt?

522 3. Quis enim potuit opinione magis quam fide sequi Dominum Jesum, nunc de coeli altissimis inferna penetrantem, nunc ab inferis ad coelestia resurgentem: subito exinanitum, ut habitaret in nobis; nec 0618B umquam imminutum, cum semper Filius in Patre, et in Filio Pater esset?

4. Dubitavit in eo ipse Praenuntius, licet per Synagogae typum, dubitavit ipse ante Domini faciem destinatus. Denique missis discipulis, interrogat: Tu 0618C es qui venturus es, an alium exspectamus (Matth. XI, 3)?

5. Obstupuerunt et angeli coeleste mysterium. Unde cum resurgeret Dominus, atque illum quem dudum secundum carnem angustus sepulcri locus texerat, resurgentem ab inferis coeli alta sustinere non possent, haeserunt etiam coelestia opinionis incerto.

6. Veniebat enim novis victor redimitus exuviis, Dominus in templo sancto suo; praeibant angeli et archangeli, mirantes spolium ex morte quaesitum: et quamvis scirent nihil Deo accedere ex carne potuisse, quia infra Deum 523 omnia sunt, tamen tropaea crucis, cujus principium super humeros ejus, et triumphatoris aeterni manubias intuentes, quasi eum quem emiserant coeli portae, capere non possent; licet numquam ejus capiant majestatem, majorem 0618D viam quaerebant aliquam revertenti: adeo nihil exinanitus amiserat!

7. Debuit tamen novo victori novum iter parari; semper enim victor tamquam major et praecelsior est: sed quia aeternae sunt justitiae portae, eaedemque 0619A novi et veteris Testamenti, quibus coelum aperitur, non mutantur utique, sed elevantur; quia non unus homo, sed totus in omnium redemptore mundus intrabat.

8. Translatus erat Enoch (Gen. V, 11), raptus Elias (IV Reg. II, 12): sed non est servus supra Dominum. Nullus enim ascendit in coelum, nisi qui descendit de coelo (Joan. III, 13). Nam et Moysen, licet corpus ejus non apparuerit in terris, nusquam tamen in gloria coelesti legimus, nisi posteaquam Dominus resurrectionis suae pignore vincula solvit inferni, et piorum animas elevavit. Translatas ergo Enoch, raptus Elias; ambo famuli, ambo cum corpore: sed non post resurrectionem, non cum manubiis mortis, et triumpho crucis viderant illos angeli.

0619B 9. Et ideo Dominum omnium primum ac solum de morte triumphantem venire cernentes, tolli portas principibus imperabant, cum admiratione dicentes: Tollite portas, principes, vestri; et elevamini, portae aeternales: et introibit rex gloriae (Psal. XXIII, 7).

10. Erant tamen adhuc et in coelestibus qui stuperent, qui admirarentur novam pompam, novam gloriam; et ideo requirebant: Quis est iste rex gloriae (Ibid., 8)? Sed quia et angeli processus habent scientiae, et capacitatem profectus, habent utique discretionem virtutis, atque prudentiae: solus enim sine processu Deus; quia in omni perfectione semper aeternus est.

11. Dicebant alii, illi utique qui adfuerant resurgenti, illi qui viderant vel jam cognoverant: Dominus 0619C fortis et potens, Dominus potens in praelio.

12. Iterum multitudo Angelorum triumphali agmine praecinebant: Tollite portas, principes, vestri; et elevamini, portae aeternales: et introibit rex gloriae.

13. Rursus alii stupentes dicebant: Quis est iste rex gloriae (Ibid., 10)? Vidimus eum non habentem speciem neque decorem (Esai. LIII, 2): si ergo ipse non est, Quis est iste rex gloriae?

14. Respondetur a scientibus: Dominus virtutum, ipse est rex gloriae. Ergo Dominus virtutum ipse est Filius. Et quomodo infirmum Ariani dicunt, quem Dominum virtutum, sicut et Patrem, credimus? Quomodo Ariani discretionem faciunt potestatis, cum Dominum sabaoth Patrem, Dominum sabaoth Filium legerimus? 524 Nam et hic sic positum plerique 0619D codices habent, quod Dominus sabaoth ipse sit rex gloriae: sabaoth autem interpretes alicubi Dominum virtutum, alicubi regem, alicubi omnipotentem interpretati sunt. Ergo quoniam qui ascendit 0620A Filius est: qui ascendit autem, Dominus est sabaoth; omnipotens utique Dei Filius est.