Chapter 29 [XI.]--The Testimonies of Ambrose Against the Pelagians and First of All Concerning Original Sin.
But now also to the most glorious martyr Cyprian, let me add, for the sake of more amply confuting these men, the most blessed Ambrose; because even Pelagius praised him so much as to say that in his writings could be found nothing to be blamed even by his enemies. [2883] Since, then, the Pelagians say that there is no original sin with which infants are born, and object to the catholics the guilt of the Manichean heresy, who withstand them on behalf of the most ancient faith of the Church, let this catholic man of God, Ambrose, praised even by Pelagius himself in the truth of the faith, answer them concerning this matter. When he was expounding the prophet Isaiah, he says: "Christ was, therefore, without spot, because He was not stained even in the usual condition itself of birth." [2884] And in another place in the same work, speaking of the Apostle Peter, he says: "He offered himself, which he thought before to be sin, asking for himself that not only his feet but his head also should be washed, because he had directly understood that by the washing of the feet, for those who fell in the first man, the filth of the obnoxious succession was abolished." [2885] Also in the same work he says: "It was preserved, therefore, that of a man and woman, that is, by that mingling of bodies, no one could be seen to be free from sin; but He who is free from sin is free also from this kind of conception." Also writing against the Novatians he says: "All of us men are born under sin. And our very origin is in corruption, as you have it read in the words of David, [2886] For lo, I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins hath my mother brought me forth.'" [2887] Also in the apology of the prophet David, he says: "Before we are born we are spotted with contagion, and before the use of light we receive the mischief of that origin. We are conceived in iniquity." [2888] Also speaking of the Lord, he says: "It was certainly fitting that He who was not to have the sin of a bodily fall, should feel no natural contagion of generation. Rightly, therefore, David with weeping deplored in himself these defilements of nature, and the fact that the stain had begun in man before his life." [2889] Again, in the Ark of Noah he says: "Therefore by one Lord Jesus the coming salvation is declared to the nations; for He only could be righteous, although every generation should go astray, nor for any other reason than that, being born of a virgin, He was not at all bound by the ordinance of a guilty generation. Behold,' he says, I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins has my mother brought me forth;' [2890] he who was esteemed righteous beyond others so speaks. Whom, then, should I now call righteous unless Him who is free from those chains, whom the bonds of our common nature do not hold fast?" [2891] Behold, this holy man, most approved, even by the witness of Pelagius, in the catholic faith, condemned the Pelagians who deny original sin with such evidence as this; and yet he does not with the Manicheans deny either God to be the Creator of those who are born, or condemn marriage, which God ordained and blessed.
[2883] See On the Grace of Christ, ch. 47.
[2884] This work is not extant.
[2885] This work is not extant.
[2886] Ps. li. 5.
[2887] On Penitence, Book i. ch. 13.
[2888] Apology of the Prophet David, ch. 56.
[2889] Ibid. ch. 57.
[2890] Ps. li. 5.
[2891] On Noah and the Ark, ch. 7 (?).
Chapter 30.--The Testimonies of Ambrose Concerning God's Grace.
The Pelagians say that merit begins from man by free will, to which God repays the subsequent aid of grace. Let the venerable Ambrose here also refute them, when he says, in his exposition of the prophet Isaiah, "that human care without divine help is powerless for healing, and needs a divine helper." Also, in the treatise which is inscribed, "On the Avoidance of the World," [2892] he says: "Our discourse is frequent on the avoidance of this world; and I wish that our disposition were as cautious and careful as our discourse is easy. But what is worse, the enticement of earthly lusts frequently creeps in, and the flowing forth of vanities takes hold of the mind, so that the very thing that you desire to avoid you think upon, and turn over in your mind; and this it is difficult for a man to beware of, but to get rid of it is impossible. Finally, that that is rather a matter to be wished than to be accomplished the prophet testifies when he says, Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to avarice.' [2893] For our heart and our thoughts are not in our power, seeing that they are suddenly forced forth and confuse the mind and the soul and draw them in other directions from those which you have proposed for them;--they recall to things of time, they suggest worldly things, they obtrude voluptuous thoughts, they inweave seducing thoughts, and, in the very season in which we are proposing to lift up our mind, vain thoughts are intruded upon us, and we are cast down for the most part to things of earth; and who is so happy as always to rise upwards in his heart? And how can this be done without the divine help? Absolutely in no manner. Finally, of old Scripture says the same thing, Blessed is the man whose help is of Thee, O Lord; in his heart is going up.'" [2894] What can be said more openly and more sufficiently? But lest the Pelagians perchance should answer that, in that very point in which divine help is asked for, man's merit precedes, saying that that very thing is merit, that by his prayer he is desiring that divine grace should come to his assistance, let them give heed to what the same holy man says in his exposition of Isaiah. He says: "And to pray God is a spiritual grace; for no man says that Jesus is the Lord, except in the Holy Spirit." [2895] Whence also, expounding the Gospel according to Luke, [2896] he says: "You see certainly that everywhere the power of the Lord cooperates with human desires, so that no man can build without the Lord, no man can undertake anything without the Lord." Because such a man as Ambrose says this, and commends God's grace, as it is fitting for a son of promise to do, with grateful piety, does he therefore destroy free will? Or does he mean grace to be understood as the Pelagians in their different discourses will have to appear nothing but law--so that, for instance, God may be believed to help us not to do what we may know, but to know what we may do? If they think that such a man of God as this is of this mind, let them hear what he has said about the law itself. In the book "On the Avoidance of the World," he says: "The law could stop the mouth of all men; it could not convert their mind." [2897] In another place also, in the same treatise, he says: "The law condemns the deed; it does not take away its wickedness." [2898] Let them see that this faithful and catholic man agrees with the apostle who says, "Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to those who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight." [2899] For from that apostolic opinion Ambrose took and wrote these things.
[2892] Work cited, ch. 1.
[2893] Ps. cxix. 36.
[2894] Ps. lxxxiv. 5 [LXX.].
[2895] 1 Cor. xii. 13.
[2896] Commentary on Luke, lib. ii. ch. 3, p. 84.
[2897] Ch. 15.
[2898] Ch. 39.
[2899] Rom. iii. 19, 20.