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| Chapter X. Christ's eternity being proved from the Apostle's teaching, St. Ambrose admonishes us that the Divine Generation is not to be thought of after the fashion of human procreation, nor to be too curiously pried into. With the difficulties thence arising he refuses to deal, saying that whatsoever terms, taken from our knowledge of body, are used in speaking of this Divine Generation, must be understood with a spiritual meaning.
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Chapter X.
Christ’s eternity being proved from the
Apostle’s teaching, St. Ambrose admonishes us that the Divine
Generation is not to be thought of after the fashion of human
procreation, nor to be too curiously pried into. With the
difficulties thence arising he refuses to deal, saying that whatsoever
terms, taken from our knowledge of body, are used in speaking of this
Divine Generation, must be understood with a spiritual meaning.
62. Hear now
another argument, showing clearly the eternity of the Son. The
Apostle says that God’s Power and Godhead are eternal, and that
Christ is the Power of God—for it is written that Christ is
“the Power of God and the Wisdom of God.”1788
If, then, Christ is the Power
of God, it follows that, forasmuch as God’s Power is eternal,
Christ also is eternal.
63. Thou canst not, then, heretic, build up
a false doctrine from the custom of human procreation, nor yet gather
the wherewithal for such work from our discourse, for we cannot compass
the greatness of infinite Godhead, “of Whose greatness there is
no end,”1789
in our
straitened speech. If thou shouldst seek to give an account of a
man’s birth, thou must needs point to a time. But the
Divine Generation is above all things; it reaches far and wide, it
rises high above all thought and feeling. For it is
written: “No man cometh to the Father, save by
Me.”1790
Whatsoever,
therefore, thou dost conceive concerning the Father—yea, be it
even His eternity—thou canst not conceive aught concerning Him
save by the Son’s aid, nor can any understanding ascend to the
Father save through the Son. “This is My dearly-beloved
Son,”1791
| 1791 S. Matt. xvii. 5; S. Mark ix. 7; S. Luke ix.
35. | the Father
saith. “Is”
mark you—He Who is, what He is,
forever. Hence also David is moved to say: “O Lord,
Thy Word abideth for ever in heaven,”1792
—for what abideth fails neither in
existence nor in eternity.
64. Dost thou ask me how He is a Son, if He
have not a Father existing before Him? I ask of thee, in turn,
when, or how, thinkest thou that the Son was begotten. For me the
knowledge of the mystery of His generation is more than I can attain
to,1793
—the mind fails, the voice is
dumb—ay, and not mine alone, but the angels’ also. It
is above Powers, above Angels, above Cherubim, Seraphim, and all that
has feeling and thought, for it is written: “The peace of
Christ, which passeth all understanding.”1794
If the peace of Christ passes all
understanding, how can so wondrous a generation but be above all
understanding?
65. Do thou, then (like the angels), cover
thy face with thy hands,1795
for it is not
given thee to look into surpassing mysteries! We are suffered to
know that the Son is begotten, not to dispute upon the manner of His
begetting. I cannot deny the one; the other I fear to search
into, for if Paul says that the words which he heard when caught up
into the third heaven might not be uttered,1796
how can we explain the secret of this
generation from and of the Father, which we can neither hear nor attain
to with our understanding?
66. But if you will constrain me to the rule
of human generation, that you may be allowed to say that the Father
existed before the Son, then consider whether instances, taken from the
generation of earthly creatures, are suitable to show forth the Divine
Generation.1797
| 1797 The analogy, as
made by the Arians, certainly was open to St. Ambrose’s
censure. We should remember, however, that a man is not properly
a father until his child is born. | If we
speak according to what is customary amongst men, you cannot deny that,
in man, the changes in the father’s existence happen before those
in the son’s. The father is the first to grow, to enter old
age, to grieve, to weep. If, then, the son is after him in time,
he is older in experience than the son. If the child comes to be
born, the parent escapes not the shame of begetting.1798
| 1798 St. Ambrose
perhaps thought that the curse laid upon human conception and birth
(Gen. iii. 16) displayed itself as well in the initial
as in the final stages. |
67. Why take such delight in that rack of
questioning?1799
| 1799 Quæstionum
tormenta. The use of racks and such-like machines
(tormenta, fr. torqueo—wist) was resorted to, in
the old Roman practice, in the examination (quæstio) of
slaves. | You hear
the name of the Son of God; abolish it, then, or acknowledge His true
nature. You hear speak of the womb—acknowledge the truth of
undoubted begetting.1800
Of His
heart—know that here is God’s word.1801
Of His right hand—confess His
power.1802
Of His
face—acknowledge His wisdom.1803
These words are not to be understood, when we speak of God, as when we
speak of bodies. The generation of the Son is incomprehensible,
the Father begets impassibly,1804
| 1804 Without suffering
any change in Himself. | and yet of
Himself and in ages inconceivably remote hath very God begotten very
God. The Father loves the Son,1805
and you
anxiously examine His Person; the Father is well pleased in
Him,1806
| 1806 S. Matt. iii. 17; S. Mark i. 11; S. Luke iii.
22. | you, joining the Jews, look upon Him with
an evil eye; the Father knows the Son,1807
| 1807 S. John v. 22, 23; iii. 35; xvii. 1, 2,
5. | and you join the heathen in reviling
Him.1808
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