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| 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.
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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;”2077
for it is
enough to know His Divine Generation, without division or diminution,
being neither derivation nor creation.2078
| 2078
“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.”2079
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.”2080
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.”2081
132. Paul, moreover, as it is written in the
Acts of the Apostles,2082
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.”2083
In
another place also the same Apostle saith: “But foolish and
ignorant questionings do thou avoid.”2084
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.”2085
135. John, likewise, saith that heretics are
Antichrists,2086
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,”2087
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.”2088
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