On the Christian Faith

Contents

Reading pages: 1.0–1.9 · 1.10–1.16 · 1.17–2.4 · 2.5–2.10 · 2.11–3.2 · 3.3–3.9 · 3.10–3.15 · 3.16–4.4 · 4.5–4.8 · 4.9–4.11 · 4.12–5.2 · 5.3–5.7 · 5.8–5.12 · 5.13–5.15 · 5.16–5.19

1. 1.0Ambrose dedicates the work to the Emperor Gratian, who asked for a statement of the faith before going to war, and announces that he will follow the faith of the 318 fathers of Nicaea.
2. 1.1Ambrose states the faith in one God against pagans, Jews, Sabellius, Photinus, and Arius, and argues from the baptismal formula and John 10:30 that the Trinity has one name, one nature, and one power.
3. 1.2Ambrose argues that Christ, as God, has all the attributes of the divine nature, and that the scriptural titles Word, Son, Power, and Wisdom show one divinity in Father and Son with a distinction of generation.
4. 1.3Ambrose argues from Isaiah, Genesis, Psalm 45, Paul, and a passage he ascribes to Jeremiah that Scripture speaks of one God while confessing both Father and Son.
5. 1.4Ambrose finds the one God confessed by the unity of the world, of faith, and of baptism, by the gifts of the Magi, and by the three youths in the furnace.
6. 1.5Ambrose lists the Arian claims about the Son (unlike the Father, begun in time, created, not good, not true Son, not almighty, not one with the Father) and warns against their reliance on dialectic.
7. 1.6Ambrose proposes to answer the Arians from Scripture, names their divided leaders, and likens heresy to the Hydra and to Scylla, which the faithful must sail past.
8. 1.7From Paul’s calling Christ the image of the invisible God, from Wisdom 7:26, from John 14:9, and from Gen 1:26, Ambrose argues that the Son is not unlike the Father.
9. 1.8Ambrose argues that the Son is everlasting from Isa 43:10 and from the fourfold “was” of John 1:1–2, which he finds to refute Arius, Sabellius, Photinus, Eunomius, and the Manichaeans.
10. 1.9Ambrose argues that if the Father became Father at some point, he would have changed, so the Son’s eternal generation follows from God’s unchangeability.
11. 1.10Ambrose argues that Christ, the everlasting power of God, is everlasting, and that the divine generation is beyond understanding and cannot be measured by human generation.
12. 1.11Ambrose argues from Ps 81:9 that the Son is neither a “new” nor a “strange” God, and shows that arguments from the custom of human birth lead to absurdities.
13. 1.12Ambrose answers the objection that the Son lacks what sons have by arguing that nothing creaturely applies to God, that both Christ’s eternal generation and his birth from the Virgin are unique, and that they are to be believed, not examined.
14. 1.13Ambrose answers “how was the Son begotten?” with the image of radiance from light, reads the furnace, Mamre, the Transfiguration, and the burning bush as revelations of the eternal Son, and contrasts simple faith with philosophical disputation.
15. 1.14Ambrose argues that Christ is not a creature: he is the Creator to whom the Gospel to every creature is entrusted, the begotten and only-begotten Son, and “made” only according to the flesh born of Mary.
16. 1.15Ambrose explains Acts 2:36 and Prov 8:22 (“The Lord created me”) as said of Christ’s humanity, prophesied as though already done, and reads Wisdom’s banquet in Prov 9 as fulfilled in the Gospel.
17. 1.16Ambrose argues that “begotten” and “created” differ, that Paul forbids serving the creature yet calls himself Christ’s servant, and that a creature cannot exist in the simple nature of God.
18. 1.17Ambrose argues that the Son is true God and the Father’s own Son, from Rom 8:32, from his coming forth from God, from his sharing the Father’s work, from the confessions of the apostles and the centurion, and from Isa 65 and 1 John 5:20.
19. 1.18Ambrose quotes the Nicene Creed and its anathemas against the Arians, sees the cross and the name of Jesus in the number of the 318 bishops, and appeals to the Council of Ariminum.
20. 1.19Ambrose answers the anathematized Arian claims one by one: that there was when the Son was not, that he was not before he was born, that he is from nothing or from another substance, that he is a creature, and that he is changeable; he compares Arius’s death with that of Judas.
21. 1.20Ambrose closes the first book with a prayer, like Isaiah’s, that Christ would cleanse his lips and the emperor’s ears, and that the wine of the cross would fill them with faith.
22. 2.0Opening the second book, Ambrose arranges the scriptural titles of the Son into twelve signs of his property, likeness, and unity with the Father, likens them to the twelve stones of Aaron’s breastpiece, and sums up the faith in short definitions.
23. 2.1Ambrose answers the Arian use of Mark 10:18 (“No one is good but one, God”): Christ spoke as man to one who did not believe him God, and goodness belongs to the one divine nature, which includes the Son.
24. 2.2Ambrose argues that Christ is good from his benefits to Israel in the exodus and the desert, from his laying down his life as the good shepherd, and from texts of the Gospels, the Psalms, and the Song of Songs.
25. 2.3Ambrose argues that Christ cannot be counted among the so-called gods, since God is one and Father and Son are distinct but not divided in divinity.
26. 2.4Ambrose proves that the Son is almighty from Rev 1:7–8, Zech 2:8–9, Isa 52:6, and John 16:15.
27. 2.5Ambrose answers the objection that Christ doubted the Father’s power in Gethsemane: Christ is almighty, and he spoke and feared as man, showing the reality of his flesh against the Manichaeans, Valentinus, and Marcion.
28. 2.6Ambrose argues that the Son, like the Spirit, acts by free will, and that the Father and the Son have one will, as the healing of the leper and the giving of life show.
29. 2.7Ambrose explains that Christ’s will to avoid death, his sorrow, fear, and cry of dereliction belong to the human nature he took on for us, while the divinity cannot suffer; the Lord of majesty was crucified in his human nature.
30. 2.8Ambrose explains John 14:28 (“the Father is greater than I”) as said of Christ’s humanity, in which he was made lower than the angels, and argues from John 5:18, Phil 2:6, and God’s oath by himself that in divinity the Son is equal to the Father.
31. 2.9Ambrose argues that being sent does not make the Son less, since he is sent by the Father and by the Spirit and himself sends the Spirit, and that Christ speaks sometimes as God and sometimes as man, as in John 6–7 and 17.
32. 2.10Ambrose explains that the Son’s obedience unto death (Phil 2:8) belongs to his incarnation, shows the one power and work of the Trinity from the passion and from Paul’s prayers, and compares the Son’s subjection to his subjection to Joseph and Mary.
33. 2.11Ambrose turns to persuasion: Christ took on flesh, temptation, sorrow, and the curse for our healing, while his divinity shone even on the cross; his being “sent” to Israel did not bind his free will.
34. 2.12Ambrose appeals to Christ as judge: his session at the Father’s right hand is honor, not inferiority, Father and Son hand everything over to each other in love, and the Seraphim’s threefold “Holy” is praise of one Trinity.
35. 2.13Ambrose imagines the Arian, the Photinian, the Sabellian, and the Manichaean pleading before Christ the judge, each condemned by his own denial, and ends with his own plea for mercy.
36. 2.14Ambrose argues that Christ has already given sentence in John 5:23, and that an appeal to the Father against it fails, since the Father commanded that the Son be heard.
37. 2.15Ambrose closes the second book: Peter’s confession is enough for faith, the Arians shut their ears like those who heard the Father’s voice as thunder, and Paul and John warn against such sowers of questions and antichrists.
38. 2.16Ambrose sends Gratian to war against the Goths, reading Ezekiel’s prophecy of Gog as a promise of victory, and prays that Christ will grant the catholic emperor triumph after the disasters he attributes to the Arian faithlessness of the Danube provinces.
39. 3.1Opening the third book, Ambrose explains why he writes more, defends his use of poetic images by Scripture’s own use of poets and myth, and turns from the Sirens to Christ’s fasting.
40. 3.2Ambrose refers Christ’s hunger, tears, sorrow, and being “made” to his human nature, shows from the Psalms and Luke that Christ is the Most High, and argues from Col 2:12–15 that the God who raised us is the Son, not the Father alone.
41. 3.3Ambrose argues that 1 Tim 6:13–16 (“blessed and only Potentate, who alone has immortality”) applies to the Son too, explains how the immortality of God differs from that of souls and angels, and shows that “alone” never separates Father and Son.
42. 3.4Ambrose reads Ps 88 as Christ speaking as man, “free among the dead and without help,” and contrasts the prophets and apostles, who raised the dead by prayer or in Christ’s name, with Christ, who commands by his own power.
43. 3.5Ambrose shows that “made” in Scripture often means “became” by grace, not creation, as in 1 Cor 1:30, where Christ was made wisdom for us through the cross; he warns against following the bare letter.
44. 3.6Ambrose answers the Arian use of John 1:3–4 (“what was made in him”) by discussing its punctuation and showing that things are said to be “made in God” without belonging to his substance.
45. 3.7Ambrose explains Prov 8:22 (“The Lord created me the beginning of his ways”) of the incarnation, by which Christ redeemed the Father’s works and became the beginning of every virtue, above all through the cross.
46. 3.8Ambrose reads Isa 9:6 (“a child is born, a Son is given to us”) as distinguishing Christ’s human birth from his eternal sonship, and as excluding Jews, Manichaeans, Marcionites, Photinians, Sabellians, and Arians.
47. 3.9Ambrose explains that Prov 8 mentions Christ’s creation in the flesh before his eternal begetting because Scripture speaks of future things as past and shows both natures of the one Christ.
48. 3.10Ambrose explains John 1:30 (“a man who was made before me”) of Christ’s incarnation and honor, not his divinity, and reads the loosing of the shoe in Ruth and in the commands to Moses and Joshua as signs that Christ alone is the bridegroom of the Church.
49. 3.11Ambrose shows from the Psalms, Hebrews, and Philippians that Christ is said to be “made” in respect of his humanity, priesthood, and sacrifice, explains Melchizedek as a man who prefigured Christ, and concludes that the work of Father and Son is one.
50. 3.12Ambrose argues from the Gospels and the epistles that the kingdom of the Father and of the Son is one, so that their power and divinity are one.
51. 3.13Ambrose argues from Matt 25:31 and Luke 9:26 that the majesty of the Father and of the Son is one, while the angels only attend it.
52. 3.14Ambrose argues that Scripture itself uses the word “substance” of God and of Christ, citing Heb 1:3, Ps 139, Nahum, Jeremiah, and Ps 89, and that these texts do not mean wealth or a created thing.
53. 3.15Ambrose defends the Nicene word homoousios (“of one substance”) against the Arians, recalling that Eusebius of Nicomedia rejected it, explaining that it signifies distinction of persons and unity of nature, and urging fidelity to the faith sealed by confessors and martyrs.
54. 3.16Ambrose warns against Arian formulas that sound orthodox, such as “not a creature like the other creatures,” and insists that Christ be confessed as true God with the Father’s full divinity, seated at his right hand.
55. 3.17Ambrose explains that Stephen saw Christ standing, not sitting, because he stood as priest and president of the martyr’s contest, and argues from Stephen’s prayers that the Father and the Son have one power.
56. 4.1Opening the fourth book, Ambrose describes Christ’s triumphant ascension, with the angels asking “Who is this King of glory?” (Ps 24), and concludes that the ascending Son is the Lord of hosts and almighty.
57. 4.2Ambrose teaches that only those who confess Christ almighty may enter heaven, and urges each believer to open and lift up the gates of the heart so that the ascended Christ may enter.
58. 4.3Ambrose answers the Arian use of 1 Cor 11:3 (“the head of Christ is God”) as said of Christ’s humanity, and distinguishes the unity of Father and Son by nature from the unity of believers by grace (John 17).
59. 4.4Ambrose answers the Arian use of John 5:19 (“the Son can do nothing of himself”) by the verse’s own sequel and by showing that the Son, as the power and wisdom of God, created the world and worked his miracles without copying any pattern of the Father.
60. 4.5Ambrose distinguishes four kinds of impossibility (by nature, by weakness, by lack of skill or authority, and by fixed will) and shows that the first three cannot apply to Christ, so that John 5:19 expresses the unity of will and love between Father and Son.
61. 4.6Ambrose argues that the Son never acts against the Father’s will, as creation and the raising of Lazarus show, so that John 5:19 refers to the unity of their love and operation, not to weakness.
62. 4.7Ambrose contrasts our spoken or inward word with the living, working Word of God (Heb 4:12), who shares the Father’s will and power by unity of substance.
63. 4.8Ambrose answers the Arian claim that the Son is unequal because he did not beget a son: begetting belongs to the Father’s property, not to power or nature, and the Son, of one substance with the Father, has all that the Father has.
64. 4.9Ambrose answers the Arian dilemmas about the Son’s generation (whether he existed before he was begotten, whether generation began, whether it was willed) by showing that the generation is eternal, like radiance from light, and that even human beings such as Jacob, Jeremiah, and John existed in some sense before birth.
65. 4.10Ambrose explains John 6:57 (“I live because of the Father”) as said of the incarnate Son of Man, or as showing his equality with the Father in giving life, and answers a similar objection from John 11:4 and John 17 about the Son being glorified.
66. 4.11Ambrose answers the Arian use of 1 Cor 8:6 (“from whom” the Father, “through whom” the Son) by showing from Rom 11:33–36 and other texts that “from,” “through,” and “in” are said of both Father and Son, so that their power is one.
67. 4.12Ambrose answers the Arian use of John 15:1 (“my Father is the vinedresser”) by explaining the vine of Christ’s incarnate flesh, showing from Jeremiah that the Son too is vinedresser, and so explaining John 14:28 of his humanity.
68. 5.0In the prologue to the fifth book Ambrose, as a steward of the five talents of faith, explains why he writes against the heretics despite the warnings against disputes, and introduces John 17:3.
69. 5.1Ambrose argues that John 17:3 (“you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ”) joins the Son to the Father, and that Christ, being neither a false god nor a god in name only, is true God, the same yesterday, today, and for ever.
70. 5.2Ambrose argues that calling the Father “the only true God” does not exclude the Son, since Scripture uses “alone” of God where both Father and Son act, as in creation, and the Son alone shares the Father’s life, immortality, and work.
71. 5.3Ambrose answers the Arian charge that one substance means two gods: Scripture uses plurality for things of different substance, while Father and Son, being of one substance, are one God, to be served and worshiped together.
72. 5.4Ambrose explains John 4:22 (“we worship what we know”) as Christ speaking as a Jew according to his humanity, and lists how his human weaknesses served divine purposes.
73. 5.5Ambrose explains Christ’s answer to the mother of James and John (Matt 20:23) as a gentle refusal out of love for a devoted mother, not as a sign that the Son lacks the Father’s power to give.
74. 5.6Ambrose argues that the request of James and John for seats beside Christ was impossible for any creature, since even angels and the Seraphim stand before God, and that Christ’s “not mine to give” was said according to his humanity.
75. 5.7Ambrose explains that John 17:23 does not make men equal to the Son in the Father’s love, that John 17:5 speaks with the feeling of the first man, and that the Son’s being “sent” implies no inferiority, since the lesser may send the greater.
76. 5.8Ambrose explains that Christ calls the Father “Lord” in respect of his servant form, uses Christ’s question about David’s son and Lord to refute several heresies, and refers texts about Christ as servant and being glorified to his incarnation.
77. 5.9Ambrose answers the Arian argument from the order of names in the baptismal formula by showing that Scripture often names the Son before the Father.
78. 5.10Ambrose explains John 12:44 (“he who believes in me does not believe in me”) and the sayings about Christ’s testimony and the Father’s commandment as spoken in his human person, while his divine testimony is true.
79. 5.11Ambrose explains that the Son’s speaking what he hears from the Father expresses their unity of will, and gives a series of arguments that the Son is not a creature.
80. 5.12Ambrose explains the parable of the nobleman who went to receive a kingdom (Luke 19) and Paul’s statement that the Son will hand over the kingdom (1 Cor 15:24–28) as referring to believers, the kingdom Christ won and presents to the Father, while the kingdom of Father and Son remains one.
81. 5.13Ambrose explains the Son’s future subjection to the Father (1 Cor 15:28) not as a subjection of his divinity, nor as his being absorbed into the Father, but as his subjection in his body, the Church, when all believers are subject to God.
82. 5.14Ambrose explains that Christ will be subject to the Father in the human nature he took, as he was subject to Mary and obedient unto death, and in his members, when all believers are subject to God and God is all in all.
83. 5.15Ambrose sums up that the Son’s subjection belongs to his obedience and humanity, shows that he himself subjects all things by his divine power (Phil 3:21), and reads Ps 62 and Rom 8:35–39 in the same sense.
84. 5.16Ambrose answers the Arian use of Mark 13:32 (“nor the Son”) by noting that older Greek manuscripts of Matthew lack the words, by explaining them of Christ’s human nature, and by arguing that the Creator of the ages, who foretold the signs, the place, and the order of the end, cannot be ignorant of the day.
85. 5.17Ambrose argues that Christ withheld the day of judgment for our profit, so that we should always be watchful, and that Scripture often speaks of God as asking or not knowing what he knows, as with the Father’s “perhaps they will respect my Son.”
86. 5.18Ambrose gives two explanations of “nor the Son” (love that withholds useless knowledge, and the human condition Christ assumed), then argues that the Son, who has all that the Father has, is less only according to the flesh, and that no creature may sit in judgment on the Father and the Son.
87. 5.19Ambrose turns in prayer to the Father: no one may measure God or judge between the Father and the Son, and Arius, claiming to know God wholly, outdoes Paul in presumption and imitates the devil’s boast.