LETTER XXXIII. 

S. Ambrose in this Letter explains more fully the text of Deut. (xxi. 15 &c) which he had alluded to in Letter xxi, and makes the  two wives represent qualities.

AMBROSE TO IRENAEUS, GREETING.

1. In a previous letter I said that the soul ought to be delivered from its adversaries, and a bond of life which shall be inseparable entered into with it. And inasmuch as my discourse took as a proof of its assertion that passage in the Book of Deuteronomy which speaks of the man who had two wives, one beloved and the other hated, you seem to have felt much concern lest any one should suppose this man had taken to himself two souls, which is impossible.

2. But you yourself know that sometimes, when Scripture uses allegory, it refers some things to the figure of the Synagogue, some to that of the Church; some things to the soul, others to the mystery of the Word, others to souls of different kinds and qualities, which he who has spiritual discernment can distinguish. And so I conceive that it is not two souls, but different qualities of the same soul, which are treated of in the following chapter of the Law. For there is an amiable kind of soul, which desires pleasure, which shuns labour, shrinks from compunction, slights the judgments of God. It is amiable because it seems gentle and sweet for the time, and one that soothes rather than distresses the mind. But there is another severer kind, which is consumed with zeal for God, which, like a strict wife, will not permit or suffer her consort to commit whoredoms, allows no indulgence to the body, gives no licence to delight or pleasure, renounces the hidden deeds of shame, devotes herself to arduous labours and to severe perils.

3. If therefore both have borne children,  he may not, it is said,  when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, make the son of the beloved first  ^{04-8 8. 1 primitivus.}  before the son of the hated, which is indeed the first. The meaning of which I conceive not to be so much a simple preference as between two first ones, but rather a declaration that the son of the hated wife alone has the prerogative of being first. Now the word 'primitives' means as first-born  04-9 9. 2 primogenitus. , and the firstborn are holy, for  every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. Nevertheless all first-born are not holy, for Esau who was the first-born was not holy.

4. But the holy are the first-born, for it is written in Numbers;  Behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel instead of all the first-born that openeth the matrix among the children of Israel. For on the day that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I   hallowed unto Me all the first-born in Israel. Wherefore He took the Levites for the first-born, as being holy, for we know that the holy are first-born from the Epistle to the Hebrews, where it is written,  But ye are come to Mount Sion, and unto the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the Church of the first-born.  Wherefore as the first-born of the Church are holy, so also are the Levites, for they also are the first-born. For it is not by the order of their birth but by the gift of sanctification that they are holy; Levi being the third son of Leah and not the first.

5. But he who is sanctified himself opens the womb. What womb? Hear the words,  As soon as they are born they go astray. As you have understood the first-born who opens the womb, so understand here the womb of the good mother, from which it is not saints, but sinners who go astray. But the Levites are taken away from the midst of Israel, because they have nothing in common with the people, whose earthly first-born are destroyed. The first-born of the world are of another mother, from whose womb Paul was separated when he was called to the grace of God. He received the Word Who is in the midst of our hearts. Whence it is said also,  There standeth One among you. Whom ye know not. 

6. This digression then of ours from one part of the Law to the other, for the purpose of shewing that the firstborn is not the son of the beloved, that is of the more remiss and voluptuous wife, has not been needless, although the words of the chapter before us express the same truth:  He may not make the son of the beloved first-born before the son of the hated, which is indeed the first-born. He is indeed the first-born who is the holy son of a holy mother; just as she is indeed the mother, from whose womb not her true sons but sinners go astray. Wherefore the former is not the son of the true mother, nor the true first-born, but as though he were so, subsistence is indeed provided for him that he may not want, but he is not honoured, that he may become rich. But the other has received double from all, that he may abound; just as in Genesis each of the patriarchs had two changes of raiment given to them by their brother Joseph, when they were sent back to their father to tell him that he whom he had believed to be dead was found.

7. Thus the first-born has received the prerogative of inheritance, as the Scripture says,  He is the beginning of his strength, the right of the first-born is his. Thus from the first-born Son of God the first-born are holy, and from that beginning, (for He is the Beginning and the Ending,) the beginning is called holy, the beginning is the son to whom the prerogative of the first-fruits is due, according to that which was said to Abraham,  Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. 

8. Now the Divine Oracle teaches us that this relates to the inheritance of virtues rather than that of mercy, for the Lord says,  In all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called. What other inheritance was there in Isaac which could ennoble his father, but that of sanctity? The son of the handmaid indeed he set over the Gentiles, as bestowing upon him a simple portion of his patrimony, but to the son of Sarah he gave a double portion, for on him he bestowed not only temporal but also heavenly and eternal things.

Farewell: love me, for I love you.

EPISTOLA XXXIII.

IRENAEO  vereri se ne quis ex loco Scripturae de duabus uxoribus duas in eodem homine animas esse arbitretur, significanti; scribit varias ibidem indicari animae qualitates; in amabili enim animam voluptati deditam adumbrari, in odibili vero severiores virtutes consectantem: hujus autem unius primogenitos esse cum ex altero loco, tum ex eo etiam qui fuit propositus, intelligi. 

AMBROSIUS IRENAEO salutem.

1. Superiore epistola scripsimus liberandam ab adversariis animam nostram, et cum ea indissociabilis vitae subeundum consortium. Et quia sermo  1071D iste nobis de Deuteronomio (Deut. XXI, 16) exemplum assumpsit assertionis suae, quo loci subjectum est 920 de viro, qui duas uxores habebat, unam  1072A odibilem, alteram amabilem; non perfunctorie motus videris, ne forte duas animas istum sibi adscivisse aliquis intelligat: quod fieri nequaquam potest.

2. Verum ipse non ignoras quod interdum Scriptura cum allegoriam dicit, alia ad speciem Synagogae, alia ad Ecclesiae refert: alia ad animam, alia ad Verbi mysterium, alia ad diversas species et qualitates animarum: quae discernit, qui dijudicat spiritu. Unde sequenti capitulo Legis non duas animas, sed diversas qualitates unius animae comprehensas esse arbitror. Est enim amabilis animae species, quae concupiscit voluptaria, quae laborem fugit, compunctionem declinat, judicium Dei negligit. Ideo amabilis, quia dulcis et suavis ad tempus videtur, quae  1072B mentem non afficiat, sed oblectet. At illa altera tristior, quae zelo Dei conficiatur, sicut uxor severa scortari comparem suum nolit, non patiatur, non sinat, nihil indulgeat corpori, nihil voluptati et delectationi relaxet, abdicet occulta dedecoris, dura laborum sequatur, gravia periculorum.

3. Si igitur pepererint ei ambae, non poterit, inquit, primitivum filium amabilis in haereditatis institutione praeponere primitivo filio odibilis; cum sciat odibilis filium primitivum esse. In quo non tam praelationem simpliciter significari puto, quasi inter primitivos duos, quam expressionem solum odibilis filium primitivi habere praerogativam. Primitivus enim primogenitus est, sancti autem primogeniti sunt; quia  omnis masculus adaperiens vulvam, sanctus   1072C   Domino vocabitur (Exod. XIII, 2; Luc. II, 23). Non tamen omnis primogenitus sanctus; non enim sanctus Esau, qui utique primogenitus.

4. Sancti autem primogeniti sunt; denique habes in Numeris:  Ecce tuli levitas de medio filiorum Israel pro omni primogenito, qui aperit vulvam, a filiis Israel. Mihi enim in quo die percussi omne primogenitum Aegypti, sanctificavi omne primogenitum Israel  (Num. III, 12). Ergo levitas pro primogenitis accepit, quasi sanctos; sanctos enim primogenitos esse cognoscimus ex epistola ad Hebraeos scripta, in qua habemus:  Sed appropinquastis Sion monti, et civitati Hierusalem, et decem millibus angelorum; et Ecclesiae primitivorum (Hebr. XII, 22). Ergo sicut primogeniti Ecclesiae sancti, sic et levitae; quoniam  1072D ipsi quoque primogeniti. Non enim nascendi ordine sancti, sed sanctificationis munere; Levi enim tertius filius fuit Liae, non primus utique (Gen. XXIX, 34).

 1073A 5. Qui autem sanctificatur, ipse aperit vulvam. Quam vulvam? Audi dicentem:  Erraverunt peccatores ab utero (Psal. LVII, 4). Quia intellexisti primogenitum, qui aperit vulvam; intellige uterum bonae matris, a quo non errant sancti, sed peccatores. Levitae autem auferuntur de medio 921 Israel; quia nihil habent commune cum populo, cujus primogenita saecularia destruuntur. Primogenita enim saeculi alterius matris sunt, a cujus utero segregatus Paulus est, cum ad gratiam vocaretur Dei (Galat. I, 15). Et ideo de medio populi segregatus, Verbum recepit, quod est medium in corde nostro. Unde et illud dictum est:  Medius autem vestrum stat, quem vos non videtis (Joan. I, 26).

6. Non otiosus itaque nobis a Lege in Legem  1073B excursus fuit, ut primogenitum non esse amabilis illius, id est, remissioris et voluptariae filium doceremus; quamvis propositi capituli verba hoc exprimant, dicente Scriptura: Non poterit filium amabilis primitivum praeponere, cum sciat filium odibilis primitivum esse (Deut. XXI, 17). Ille est vere primitivus, qui sanctae matris sanctus est partus; sicut illa vera mater, a cujus utero non errant veri filii, sed peccatores. Ergo ille non verae matris filius, non primitivus verus, sed quasi primitivus juvatur sumptu, ne egeat; non ut dives sit, honoratur: hic autem dupla ex omnibus accepit, ut abundet; sicut etiam in Genesi habes patriarchas a fratre suo Joseph geminae singulos stolae donatos munere, cum remitterentur ad patrem (Gen. XLV, 22), ut significarent  1073C patri repertum Joseph, quem defunctum esse crediderat pater.

7. Primogenitus itaque haereditatis accepit praerogativam, dicente Scriptura:  Hic est initium filiorum ejus, et huic debentur primogenitalia (Deut. XXI, 18). A primogenito igitur Dei Filio primogeniti sancti, et ab illo initio (quia ipse est (Apoc. I, 8) initium et finis) initium sanctus nuncupatur, initium filius, cui debetur primitiarum praerogativa, secundum illud ad Abraham dictum:  Ejice ancillam, et filium ejus; non enim haeres erit filius ancillae cum filio meo Isaac (Gen. XXI, 10).

8. Quod magis ad haereditatem virtutum, quam pecuniae spectare divino oraculo docetur, dicente Domino:  Omnia quaecumque tibi dixerit Sarra, audi   1073D   vocem ejus; quoniam in Isaac vocabitur tibi semen (Ibid., 12). Quae erat alia in Isaac, nisi sanctitatis haereditas, quae nobilitaret patrem? Et filium quidem ancillae super nationes praefecit, quasi simpla  1074A conferens patrimonii: filio autem Sarrae dupla dedit, cui non solum temporalia, sed etiam superna et perpetua collata sunt. Vale, et nos dilige; quia nos te diligimus.