Chapter XV.

St. Ambrose deprecates any praise of his own merits: in any case, the Faith is sufficiently defended by the authoritative support of holy Scripture, to whose voice the Arians, stubborn as the Jews, are deaf. He prays that they may be moved to love the truth; meanwhile, they are to be avoided, as heretics and enemies of Christ.

129. These arguments, your Majesty, I have set forth, briefly and summarily, in the rough, rather than in any form of full explanation and exact order. If indeed the Arians regard them as imperfect and unfinished, I indeed confess that they are scarce even begun; if they think that there be any still to be brought forward, I allow that there be well-nigh all; for whereas the unbelievers are in uttermost need of arguments, the faithful have enough and to spare. Indeed, Peter’s single confession was abundant to warrant faith in Christ: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God;”417    S. Matt. xvi. 16; Mark viii. 30. Cf. Peter’s other confession, S. John vi. 69, and Martha’s confession in S. John xi. 27. for it is enough to know His Divine Generation, without division or diminution, being neither derivation nor creation.418    “Without division or diminution,” i.e. the generation of the Son entails no division or partition of the Godhead, still less any diminution of it. The Father is none the less God. His Godhead loses nothing by His begetting His Eternal Son. Some manuscripts have “demutatam” instead of “deminutam” here—i.e. “changed” for “diminished.” Certainly the begetting of the Son can make no change whatever in the Being of the Father, for the Divine Generation is “from everlasting to everlasting,” and is necessarily implied in the very Fatherhood, the personal essence of the Father. Hurter quotes St. Hilary, De Trin. 6, 10. “The Church knows of no apportionment made to the Son, but knows Him as perfect God of perfect God, as One begotten of One, not shorn off from Him, but born: she knows the Nativity to entail no diminution of Him Who begets, nor weakness in Him Who is born.” The fact is a spiritual relation, metaphysical in the highest sense, transcending our intelligence, and only to be apprehended by faith, simply as a fact—as the ἀρχή, or principle, which is sufficient for us. The “how” we must wait to have revealed to us hereafter, if we shall ever be able to receive it.

130. This, indeed, is declared in the books of Holy Writ, one and all, and yet is still doubted by misbelievers: “For,” as it is written, “the heart of this people is become gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes have they darkened, lest ever they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand in their heart.”419    Isa. vi. 10. For, like the Jews, the Arians’ wont is to stop their ears, or make an uproar, as often as the Word of salvation is heard.

131. And what wonder, if unbelievers doubt the word of man, when they refuse to believe the Word of God? The Son of God, as you will find it written in the Gospel, said: “Father, glorify Thy Name,” and from heaven was heard the voice of the Father, saying: “I have both glorified it, and again will glorify.”420    S. John xii. 28. These words the unbelievers heard, but believed not. The Son spake, the Father answered, and the Jews said: “A peal of thunder answered Him;” others said: “An angel spake to Him.”421    S. John xii. 29.

132. Paul, moreover, as it is written in the Acts of the Apostles,422    Acts xxii. 9. when by the Voice of Christ he received the call of grace, several companions journeying with him at the same time, alone said that he had heard Christ’s Voice. Thus, your sacred Majesty, he who believes, hears—and he hears, that he may believe, whilst he who believes not, hears not, nay, he will not, he cannot hear, lest he should believe!

133. As for me, indeed, would that they might have a will to hear, that they might believe—to hear with true love and meekness, as men seeking what is true, and not assailing all truth. For it is written that we pay no heed to “endless fables and genealogies, which do rather raise disputes than set forward the godly edification, which is in faith. But the aim of the charge is love from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, whence some have erred and betaken themselves to empty babbling, desirous of being teachers of the law, without understanding the words they say, nor the things whereof they speak with assurance.”423    1 Tim. i. 4 ff. In another place also the same Apostle saith: “But foolish and ignorant questionings do thou avoid.”424    2 Tim. ii. 23.

134. Such men, who sow disputes—that is to say, heretics—the Apostle bids us leave alone. Of them he says in yet another place, that “certain shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits, and the doctrines of devils.”425    1 Tim. iv. 1.

135. John, likewise, saith that heretics are Antichrists,426    1 John ii. 18 ff. plainly marking out the Arians. For this [Arian] heresy began to be after all other heresies, and hath gathered the poisons of all. As it is written of the Antichrist, that “he opened his mouth to blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His Name, and to make war with His saints,”427    Rev. xiii. 6. so do they also dishonour the Son of God, and His martyrs have they not spared. Moreover, that which perchance Antichrist will not do, they have falsified the holy Scriptures. And thus he who saith that Jesus is not the Christ, the same is Antichrist; he who denies the Saviour of the world, denies Jesus; he who denies the Son, denies the Father also, for it is written; “Every one which denieth the Son, denieth the Father likewise.”428    1 John ii. 23.

CAPUT XV.

Modeste sentit de Opere suo: dicit tamen ad fidem illud sufficere; cum divinae generationi tot locis Scriptura suffragetur, cui obsurdescunt Ariani. Horum pervicaciam Judaicae plane similem patefaciens, adprecatur illis veritatis amorem. Postremo deserendos eos, utpote haereticos et Antichristos, docet.

129. Haec ego, Imperator auguste, carptim ac breviter impolita magis proposui, quam enodata digessi. 0585D Quod si qua Ariani inconsummata arbitrantur, ego vix fateor inchoata: si qua adhuc superesse opinantur, ego prope omnia; infidelibus enim totum deest, abundat fidelibus. Denique una confessio Petri abundavit ad fidem Christo: Tu es Christus Filius Dei 0586A vivi (Matth. XVI, 16); sat est enim generationem scire divinam, non divisam, non diminutam, non derivatoriam, non creatam.

494 130. Hoc etiam totis Scripturarum exponitur libris, nec adhuc ab impiis creditur: Incrassatum est enim, ut scriptum est, cor populi hujus, et auribus graviter audierunt, et oculos suos gravaverunt; ne quando oculis suis videant, et auribus audiant, et corde intelligant (Esai. 6, 10). Namque, more Judaico, aures suas Ariani claudere solent, aut serere tumultus, quotiescumque verbum salutis auditur.

131. Et quid mirum si humanis vocibus credere non soleant infideles, qui non credunt divinis? Filius Dei dicebat, sicut habes in Evangelio: Pater, clarifica nomen tuum. Vox Patris de coelo audita est dicentis: 0586B Et clarificavi, et iterum clarificabo (Act. IX, 4). Infideles haec audiebant, sed non credebant. Dicebat Filius, respondebat Pater; et dicebant Judaei: Tonitruum factum est illi (Ibid., 29); alii dicebant: Angelus locutus est ei (Joan. 12. 29).

132. Paulus quoque, sicut scriptum est in Actibus Apostolorum, cum voce Christi vocaretur ad gratiam, pluresque comites pariter incederent, solus vocem Christi audisse se dixit. Adeo, sancte Imperator, qui credit, audit; et audit, ut credat: qui non credit, non audit; sed nec vult, nec potest audire, ne credat!

133. Atque utinam, quod in me est, audire vellent, ut crederent: audire cum bona charitate et mansuetudine, ut verum quaerentes, non veritatem 0586C impugnantes. Scriptum est enim, ut non intendamus fabulis et genealogiis interminabilibus, quae quaestiones magis praestant quam aedificationem Dei, quae in fide est. Finis autem praecepti est charitas de corde puro, et conscientia bona, et fide non ficta. A quibus quidam aberrantes, conversi sunt in vaniloquium, volentes esse legis doctores, non intelligentes neque quae loquuntur, neque de quibus affirmant (I Tim. I, 4 et seq.). Alibi quoque idem Apostolus dicit: Stultas autem et sine disciplina quaestiones devita (II Tim. II, 23).

134. Tales deserendos Apostolus dicit, qui quaestiones serunt, hoc est, haereticos: de quibus et alibi dicit quod discedent quidam a fide, intendentes spiritibus erroris et doctrinis daemoniorum (I Tim. IV, 1).

135. Et Joannes dicit haereticos esse Antichristos, 0586D Arianos utique designans (I Joan. II, 18). Haec enim haeresis post omnes haereses coepit, et ex omni haeresi venena collegit. Sicut enim de Antichristo scriptum est, quia aperuit os suum in blasphemiam ad Deum, blasphemare nomen ejus, et bellum facere 0587A cum sanctis ejus (Apoc. XIII, 6): ita et isti Filio Dei derogant, nec martyribus pepercerunt; et, quod fortasse ille non faciet, Scripturas falsavere divinas. Itaque qui dicit quia Jesus non est Christus, hic est Antichristus: qui negat Salvatorem mundi, negat Jesum: qui negat Filium, negat et Patrem; quia scriptum est: 495 Omnis qui negat Filium, negat et Patrem (I Joan. II, 23).