Book V.

Prologue.

Who is a faithful and wise servant? His reward is pointed out in the case of Peter, as also in the case of Paul. Ambrose, being anxious to follow Paul’s guidance, wished this book to be added to the others, for it could not be included in the preceding one. The subject for discussion is then stated, and the reason for such a discussion given. He must needs be pardoned, for usury is to be demanded from every servant for the money which has been entrusted to him. Their faithfulness is the usury desired in his own case. He will be happy if he may hope for a reward; but he does not look so much for the recompense of the saints, as for exemption from punishment. He urges all to seek to merit this.

1. “Who, then, is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”844    That is, in respect of substance or nature, though the Persons must be distinguished.    S. Matt. xxii. 11.    S. Matt. xxiv. 45, 46. Not worthless is this servant: some great one ought he to be. Let us think who he may be.

2. It is Peter, chosen by the Lord Himself to feed His flock, who merits thrice to hear the words: “Feed My little lambs; feed My lambs; feed My sheep.”845    1 Tim. vi. 15.    Bk. II. iv.    S. John xxi. 15 ff. And so, by feeding well the flock of Christ with the food of faith, he effaced the sin of his former fall. For this reason is he thrice admonished to feed the flock; thrice is he asked whether he loves the Lord, in order that he may thrice confess Him, Whom he had thrice denied before His Crucifixion.846    1 Tim. vi. 13.    Heb. iv. 14.    S. Matt. xxvi. 70 ff.

3. Blessed also is that servant who can say: “I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it.”847    That is to say, God and Christ Jesus are united in the work of quickening.    Ps. xix. 1.    1 Cor. iii. 2. For he knew how to feed them. Who of us can do this? Who of us can truly say: “To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak”?848    Ps. lvi. 10.    Rev. iii. 20.    1 Cor. ix. 22.

4. Yet he, being so great a man, and chosen by Christ for the care of His flock, so as to strengthen the weak and to heal the sick,—he, I say, rejects forthwith after one admonition849    1 Tim. vi. 13–16.    Song of Solomon v. 2.    Tit. iii. 10. a heretic from the fold entrusted to him, for fear that the taint of one erring sheep might infect the whole flock with a spreading sore. He further bids that foolish questions and contentions be avoided.850    Ps. xxxii. 1.    Ps. cxviii. 19.    Tit. iii. 9.

5. How, then, shall we act, being but ignorant dwellers set amongst these fresh tares in the old-standing harvest field?851    1 Tim. i. 11.    Col. iv. 3.    S. Matt. xiii. 25. If we are silent, we shall seem to be giving way; and if we contend against them, there is the fear that we too shall be held to be carnal. For it is written of matters of this sort, which beget strife: “The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient, with moderation instructing those that oppose themselves.”852    Ps. lxxxix 19.    S. John xvi. 7.    2 Tim ii. 24, 25. And in another place: “If any man is contentious, we have no such custom, neither the Church of God.”853    Wisd. viii. 13.    S. John xx. 17.    1 Cor. xi. 16. For this reason it was our intention to write somewhat, in order that our writings might without any din answer the impiety of heretics on our behalf.

6. And so we prepare to commence this our Fifth Book, O Emperor Augustus. For it was but right that the Fourth Book should end with our discussion on the Vine, lest otherwise we should seem to have overloaded that book with a tumultuous mass of subjects, rather than to have filled it with the fruit of the spiritual vineyard. On the other hand, it was not seemly that the gathering of the vintage of the faith should be left unfinished, whilst there was still all abundance of such great matters for discussion.

7. In the Fifth Book, therefore, we speak of the indivisible Godhead of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (omitting, however, a full discussion on the Holy Ghost), being urged by the teaching of the Gospel to let out on interest to human minds the five talents854    Ezek. xviii. 20.    S. Matt. xvi. 18.    S. Matt. xxv. 15. of the faith entrusted to these five books being as it were the principal; lest perhaps when the Lord comes, and finds His money hidden in the earth, He may say to me: “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I do not sow; and gather where I have not strawed; thou oughtest therefore to have put My money to the exchangers, that at My coming I might have received Mine Own,”855    “That is to say, immortality is not of the essential nature of an angel as it is of the essential Nature of God. For God’s existence is such that He necessarily exists, He cannot but exist; His existence is not derived from another, but is from the power of His essential Nature, or rather is that very Nature. Not so with the angel, whose existence is a gift of God, and so the angel’s existence is no part of the idea of an angel, but is a property which is, so to speak, added on from without and accessory to the conception of such a being. Hence, in so far as an angel’s existence issues not of the mere force of his essential properties, but only of the Creator’s Will, we may say that by virtue of the said Will, not by force of his own nature, he continues in existence, and so far is immortal, although in another sense immortality may be called a natural property of an angel, inasmuch as there is no created power whereby he may be destroyed, and nothing in him that renders him liable to be destroyed by God—nay rather, everything about him demands that, once he is created, he should be for ever preserved in being.”—H.    S. Mark iii. 17.    S. Matt. xxv. 26, 27. or as it stands in another book: “And I,” it says, “at My coming might have received it with usury.”856    Hurter observes that St. Ambrose understands mortality in a wide sense, as including the capacity of any and every sort of change. Immortality, then, in accordance with this definition, would connote perfect absence of change. Hurter cites St. Bernard, § 81 in Cant.: “Omnis mutatio quædam mortis imitatio…Si tot mortes quot mutationes, ubi immortalitas?” and Plutarch, in Eusebius, Præpar. Ev. XI. 12. Plutarch’s view perhaps owed something to study of the reliques of Herachtus. Many fathers expounded 1 Tim. vi. 16 on this definition of immortality as=immutability. This definition would exclude angels, who are naturally fallible (as the rebellion of Lucifer and the third part of the host of heaven proved)—or if they are now no longer fallible, they owe it not to their own natural constitution but to grace. In so far then as angels are mutable, whether for better or worse, they are not immortal.    Ps. ix. 14.    S. Luke xix. 23.

8. I pray those to pardon me, whom the boldness of such a lengthy address displeases. The thought of my office compels me to entrust to others what I have received. “We are stewards of the heavenly mysteries.”857    Angels being by nature mutable, either for better or for worse, that is, capable of good or evil, and so of death, are de facto sinless, and hence need not, are not meet to be placed under, penal discipline. Or the meaning may be that the angelic nature was not created to be gradually taught in the way of holiness as human nature was.    S. John xv. 22, 23.    1 Cor. iv. 1. We are ministers, but not all alike. “But,” it says, “even as the Lord gave to every man, I have planted; Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.”858    Eccl. xii. 14. Hurter observes that God would not judge rational creatures, were they not capable of advance or retrogression, of becoming better or falling into degradation, and had, as a matter of fact, advanced or fallen back.    Orig. “derogare.” Derogare was a Roman law-term, meaning to repeal a law in part, to restrict or modify it—hence it came to be used generally of diminishing or taking away from anything already established.    1 Cor. iii. 5, 6. Let each one then strive that be may be able to receive a reward according to his labour. “For we are labourers together with God,” as the Apostle said; “we are God’s husbandry, God’s building.”859    The Arians regarded the Son as immortal de gratia; the Orthodox esteem Him immortal de jure, with true, absolute immortality.    1 Cor. iii. 9. Blessed therefore is he who sees such usury on his principal; blessed too is he who beholds the fruit of his work; blessed again is he “who builds upon the foundation of faith, gold, silver, precious stones.”860    i.e. Is Christ God in the true sense of the Name, or not?    1 Cor. iii. 12.

9. Ye who hear or read these words are all things to us. Ye are the usury of the money-lender,—the usury on speech, not on money; ye are the return given to the husbandman; ye are the gold, the silver, the precious stones of the builder. In your merits lie the chief results of the labours of the priest; in your souls shines forth the fruit of a bishop’s work; in your progress glitters the gold of the Lord; the silver is increased if ye hold fast the divine words. “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire; proved on the earth, purified seven times.”861    S. Matt. x. 24.    Ps. xii. 6. Ye therefore will make the lender rich, the husbandman to abound in produce; ye will prove the master-builder to be skilful. I do not speak boastfully; for I do not desire so much my own advantage as yours.

10. Oh that I might safely say of you at that time: “Lord, Thou gavest me five talents, behold I have gained five other talents;”862    1 John i. 5.    S. Matt. xxv. 20. and that I might show the precious talents of your virtues! “For we have a treasure in earthen vessels.”863    S. John i. 1; xvii. 5, 21.    2 Cor. iv. 7. These are the talents which the Lord bids us spiritually to trade with, or the two coins of the New and the Old Testament, which that Samaritan in the Gospel left for the man robbed by the thieves, for the purpose of getting his wounds healed.864    S. John xvi. 32.    S. Luke x. 35.

11. Neither do I, my brethren, with greedy desires, long for this, so that I may be set over many things; the recompense I get from the fact of your advance is enough for me. Oh that I may not be found unworthy of that which I have received! Let those things which are too great for me be assigned to better men. I demand them not! Yet mayest Thou say, O Lord: “I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.”865    l.c. S. John x. 30.    S. Matt. xx. 14. Let the man that deserves it receive authority over ten cities.866    2 Cor. v. 16.    S. Luke xix. 17.

12. Let him be such an one as was Moses, who wrote the Ten Words of the Law. Let him be as Joshua, the son of Nun, who subdued five kings, and brought the Gibeonites into subjection, that he might be the figure of a Man of his own name Who was to come, by Whose power all fleshly lust should be overcome, and the Gentiles should be converted, so that they might follow the faith of Jesus Christ rather than their former pursuits and desires. Let him be as David, whom the young maidens came to meet with songs, saying: “Saul hath triumphed over thousands, David over ten thousands.”867    S. John viii. 16.    1 Sam. xviii. 7.

13. It is enough for me, if I am not thrust out into the outer darkness, as he was, who hid the talent entrusted to him in the earth so to speak, of his own flesh. This the ruler of the synagogue did, and the other rulers of the Jews; for they employed868    S. John i. 18.    S. Matt. xxiii. 14 ff.,869    Greek ἐξηγήσατο, “explained,” “expounded.” The Incarnation has taught us something about God and about man that we never knew before and never could have known by ourselves.    i.e., either ‘used to their own earthly advantage’ or ‘explained in a carnal earthly sense.’ the words of the Lord, which had been entrusted to them, on the ground as it were of their bodies; and, delighting in the pleasures of the flesh, sunk the heavenly trust as though into the pit of an overweening heart.

14. Let us then not keep the Lord’s money buried and hidden in the flesh; nor let us hide our one talent in a napkin;870    S. Luke xix. 20. but like good money-changers let us ever weigh it out with labour of mind and body, with an even and ready will, that the word may be near, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.871    Deut. xxx. 14.

15. This is the word of the Lord, this is the precious talent, whereby thou art redeemed. This money must often be seen on the tables of souls, in order that by constant trading the sound of the good coins may be able to go forth into every land, by the means of which eternal life is purchased. “This is eternal life,” which Thou, Almighty Father, givest freely, that we may know “Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent.”872    S. John xvii. 3.

LIBER QUINTUS.

0649

551 PROLOGUS.

Quisnam fidelis et prudens servus? Ejus merces in Petro indicatur, item etiam in Paulo, cujus auctoritati parere Ambrosius cupiens hunc librum aliis adjectum voluit, qui non potuerit in superiore comprehendi. Quid in hoc disputaturus sit, quove consilio? Deberi sibi veniam, cum ab omnibus ministris quaerenda sit creditae sibi pecuniae usura. Hanc sibi usuram fideles esse: beatum autem fore, si mercedem sperare sibi liceat; se tamen sanctorum praemia non tam optare, quam poenarum immunitatem, ad quam merendam omnes hortatur.

0649B

1. Quisnam est fidelis servus et prudens, quem constituit Dominus super familiam suam, ut det illis in 0649C tempore cibum? Beatus ille servus, quem veniens Dominus ejus invenerit sic facientem (Matth. XXIV, 45, 46), Non vilis hic servus est, magnus aliquis esse debet: quis sit iste consideremus.

2. Est Petrus ipsius Domini ad pascendum gregem electus judicio, qui tertio meretur audire: Pasce agniculos meos, pasce agnos meos, pasce oviculas meas (Joan. XXI, 13 et seq.). Itaque pascendo bene cibo fidei gregem Christi, culpam lapsus prioris abolevit. Et ideo tertio admonetur ut pascat, tertio utrum Dominum diligat, interrogatur; ut quem tertio ante crucem negaverat, tertio fateretur (Matth. XXVI, 70 et seq.).

3. Beatus et ille servus, qui potest dicere: Lac vos potavi, non escam; nondum enim poteratis (I Cor. 0649D III, 2); novit enim quos quemadmodum pascat. Quis nostrum hoc facere potest? Quis nostrum potest vere dicere: Factus sum infirmis infirmus, ut infirmos lucrificiam (I Cor. IX, 22)?

4. Et tamen ille tantus ad curam gregis electus a Christo, qui sanaret infirmos, curaret invalidos, haereticum a commisso sibi ovili statim post unam correptionem repellit (Tit. III, 10); ne unius erraticae ovis scabies serpenti ulcere totum gregem contaminet. 0650B Jubet praeterea stultas quaestiones et contentiones esse vitandas (Ibid., 9).

5. Quid igitur nos agemus, inter messis antiquae nova zizania imprudentes accolae constituti? Si taceamus, cedere videbimur: si contendamus, verendum est ne nos quoque judicemur esse carnales. Scriptum est enim de hujusmodi quaestionibus, quae generant lites: Servum autem Domini non oportet litigare, sed mansuetum esse ad omnes, docibilem, patientem, cum modestia docentem eos qui resistunt (II Tim. II, 23, 24): et alibi: Si quis contentiosus est, nos talem consuetudinem non habemus, neque Ecclesia Dei (I Cor. XI, 16). Eoque scribere aliquid sententiae fuit, ut sine strepitu aliquo impietati haereticorum nostra pro nobis scripta respondeant.

0650C 6. 552 Quintum itaque, Imperator auguste, hunc librum paramus ordiri: nam, et quartum librum oportuit in illa vitis disputatione finiri; ne coacervasse magis librum eumdem quodam videremur quaestionum tumultu, quam fructu spiritalis vineae replevisse: nec inconsummatam fidei vindemiam tantis adhuc superfluentibus disputationibus decuit derelinqui.

7. Quinto igitur libro de Patris ac Filii et Spiritus sancti inseparabili divinitate digerimus, sequestrata interim pleniore disputatione de Spiritu sancto, provocati magisterio Evangelicae lectionis (Matth. XXV, 15); ut credita nobis quinque fidei talenta, quasi quadam horum quinque sorte librorum, humanis feneremus affectibus; ne forte cum venerit 0650D Dominus, et invenerit in terra absconditam pecuniam suam, dicat mihi: Serve male et piger, sciebas quia meto ubi non semino, et congrego ubi non sparsi: oportuit ergo te committere pecuniam meam nummulariis; ut veniens ego recepissem quod meum est (Ibid., 26, 27): aut quemadmodum in alio libro est: Et ego, inquit, veniens cum usuris utique exegissem illam (Luc. XIX, 23).

8. Date ergo veniam, si quos prolixioris hujuscemodi 0651A sermonis offendit audacia. Officii contemplatio cogit credere quod accepimus: Dispensatores sumus mysteriorum coelestium (I Cor. IV, 1). Ministri sumus, non ex aequo omnes, sed unicuique, inquit, sicut Dominus dedit. Ego plantavi, Apollo rigavit: sed Deus incrementum dedit (I Cor. III, 3, 6). Unusquisque igitur enitatur ut mercedem possit accipere secundum suum laborem; Dei enim sumus, ut Apostolus dixit, cooperarii, Dei cultura, Dei aedificatio (Ibid., 9). Beatus itaque ille qui tales fenoris sui cernit usuras: beatus et ille qui fructus sui operis intuetur: Beatus quoque qui superaedificat supra fundamentum fidei aurum, argentum, lapides pretiosos (Ibid., 12).

9. Vos nobis estis omnia, qui haec auditis aut legitis: vos feneratoris usurae; verbi usurae, non 0651B pecuniae: vos agricolae redditus: vos aedificatoris aurum, argentum, lapidesque pretiosi. In vestris meritis sacerdotalis summa laboris est, in vestris animis fructus episcopalis operis enitescit; in vestris profectibus aurum Domini refulget, multiplicatur argentum, si eloquia divina teneatis: Eloquia enim Domini, eloquia casta, argentum igne examinatum, probatum terrae, purgatum septuplum (Psal. XI, 7). Vos ergo facietis foeneratorem divitem, agricolam fructuosum: vos peritum probabitis architectum. Non arroganter dico; quia non tam mea sunt, quam vestra, quae voveo.

10. O si mihi liceat secure de vobis tunc 553 temporis dicere: Domine, quinque talenta mihi dedisti, et ecce alia quinque lucratus sum (Matth. XXV, 20), 0651C et ostendere vestrarum talenta pretiosa virtutum! Habemus enim thesaurum in vasis fictilibus (II Cor. IV, 7). Haec sunt talenta quae jubet Dominus spiritaliter fenerari: aut duo aera novi et veteris Testamenti, quae spoliato illi a latronibus Samaritanus ille Evangelicus ad curanda vulnera dereliquit (Luc, X, 35).

11. Neque ego, fratres, voti avarus ideo haec opto, ut supra multa constituar: sat est mihi praemium de vestro profectu. Utinam non indignus eo inveniar, quod accepi! Ea quae sunt me majora melioribus tribuenda, non exigo; licet soleas, Domine, dicere: Volo autem et huic novissimo dare, sicut et tibi (Matth. XX, 14). Accipiat potestatem supra decem civitates, qui meretur (Luc. XIX, 17).

12. Sit ille talis, qualis Moyses, qui Legis decem 0651D verba conscripsit (Deut. V, 5 et seq.). Sit ille Jesus Nave, qui subegit quinque reges, et Gabaonitas in deditionem accepit (Josue X, 22 et seq.); ut esset typus venturum ejus nominis virum, cujus imperio corporales omnes deliciae vincerentur, converterentur gentes: ut fidem Jesu Christi magis, quam pristina studia sua et vota sequerentur. Sit ille David, cui occurrerunt 0652A psallentes juvenculae dicentes: Saul triumphavit in millibus, David in decem millibus (I Reg. XVIII, 7).

13. Mihi sat est, si non in exteriores tenebras extrudar, quemadmodum ille qui commissum sibi talentum in terra quadam suae carnis abscondit: sicut princeps Synagogae, caeterique principes Judaeorum, qui credita sibi eloquia Dei humo quadam sui corporis occuparunt: deliciisque carnis intenti, quasi in quamdam exaltati cordis foveam fenus coeleste merserunt (Matth. XXIII, 14 et seq.).

14. Nos igitur non intra latibula carnis absconditam Domini teneamus pecuniam, vel mnam illam in sudario reponamus (Luc. XIX, 20): sed tamquam boni nummularii cum sudore quodam mentis et corporis 0652B aequo et parato semper libremus affectu; ut prope sit verbum in ore tuo et in corde tuo (Deut. XXX, 14).

15. Hoc verbum Dei est, pretiosum est talentum, quo redimeris. Haec est pecunia per mensas animarum saepe cernenda; ut frequenter agitando in omnem terram bonorum sonus possit exire nummorum, per quem vita paretur aeterna. Haec est autem vita aeterna, quam largiris omnipotens Pater; ut cognoscamus te solum verum Deum, et quem misisti Jesum Christum (Joan. XVII, 3).