Letter XXX¶
A.D. 389
S. AMBROSE here continues the subject of the last Letter, dwelling especially on the duty of rising above the level of earthly things, and bringing together various passages of the Old Testament which he interprets spiritually as setting forth this Lesson. The true follower of Christ will build Him a Temple in his heart, which his Lord will fill with the adornment of spiritual graces.
AMBROSE TO IRENÆUS, GREETING
1. AFTER I had finished my last letter and directed it to be conveyed to you, the words which the Lord spake by the prophet Haggai came into my mind, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses? What is the meaning of this but that we ought to dwell on high, not in low and subterranean abodes? For they who dwell beneath the earth, cannot build the temple of God, but say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built, because it is the mark of sensual persons to seek underground dwellings, courting the cool of summer, being enervated by indulgence and requiring shady retreats to enable them to bear the heat, or because the slothful live at ease beneath the earth, or lastly because dark and shady places suit them best, concealing, (as they believe,) their crimes. I am compassed about with darkness, the walls cover me, what need I to fear? But in vain do they hope for this, when God beholds the hidden depths of the abyss, and discovers all things before they take place.
2. But neither Elijah nor Elisha dwelt in underground dwellings. Moreover the former carried the dead son of the widow up into the loft where he abode, and there raised him to life; and for the latter, that great woman, the Shunamite, prepared a chamber on the wall, and there she obtained the privilege of conceiving a son, for she was barren, and there also she saw the miracle of his restoration to life. And what shall I say of Peter who at the sixth hour went up upon the house-top, and there learnt the mystery of the baptism of the Gentiles. But the homicide Absalom had reared for himself a pillar in the King’s dale, and then, after his death, he was cast into a great pit. So then the saints ascend unto the Lord, the wicked descend to crime; the saints are on the mountains, the wicked in the valleys; For God is the God of the hills, not of the plains.
3. Those therefore who dwelt in the plain, where God dwells not, could not have the house of God in themselves; for this is the house which God required of them, that they should build up themselves, and should erect within them the temple of God with the living stones of faith. For it was not the erection of earthly walls nor of wooden roofs that He required, for these, had they existed, would have been destroyed by the enemies’ hand; but He sought for that temple which should be raised in men’s minds, to whom it might be said, Ye are the Temple of God, wherein the Lord Jesus was to dwell, and from whence He was to proceed for the redemption of the world. Thus in the womb of a Virgin a sacred chamber was to be prepared, wherein the King of heaven might dwell, and the human Body might become the temple of God, Which also when It was destroyed, was to be raised again in three days.
4. But such a house as this sensual persons, they who dwell in cieled houses and delight in chased silver, do not build. For as they despise pure silver, so also they despise simple dwellings. They enlarge the site of their houses, they add more and more, joining house to house and farm to farm, they dig up the ground; so that the very earth itself gives way to their habitations, and like sons of the earth they are laid up within her womb, and hidden in her bowels. They surely are those of whom Jeremiah says, Woe unto him that buildeth his house in unrighteousness. For he who builds in righteousness, builds not on earth but in heaven.
5. Thou hast built, saith the Prophet, a house, measure the upper chambers of it, even airy chambers, furnished with windows, cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Now he measureth the upper chambers, who, having contemplated the judgment of God, judgeth the judgment of the humble and the judgment of the poor. But he who seeks after gain and the blood of the innocent builds not his chambers with judgment, nor keeps the due measure, because he has not Christ, nor looks for the breath of Divine grace upon him, nor does he desire the brightness of full light, nor has he chambers painted with vermilion, for it cannot be said to him, Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet.
6. A man of this sort, it is said, shall not be buried, for he who has burrowed in the earth, and buried himself alive, so to speak, in a tomb, has deprived himself when dead of the rest of burial. And thus, laid in the pit of carnal pleasures, he has found no grave from whence to rise. Such a man therefore builds no temple to God, because he hath not known the time of his correction. How then can such men build a temple, who like wild beasts betake themselves to dens and hiding places, who like serpents bury themselves in ditches, and burrow in the earth like crafty foxes?
7. Neither does he build a sepulchre for himself who dies before the time, for he is dead while he liveth; and he hears not the voice of Haggai, that is being interpreted, of the Feaster, for he enters not the Tabernacle of God, in the voice of praise and thanksgiving, the sound of one feasting. For how can he hear His voice, who sees not His works? If he saw them, he would have heard the Word which has been put in His Hand, rejoicing in His acts, whereby He knocked and it was opened to Him, and He descended into his soul that He might feed therein upon the food of sincerity and truth.
8. Now because he has not heard, the word of Haggai comes again to hand, and says, Rise up from your cieled houses that are weighed down by wickedness, and go up to the mountain of the heavenly Scriptures, and hew wood, the wood of wisdom, the wood of life, the wood of knowledge; and make straight your ways, direct your acts that they may keep their due order which is useful and necessary for building the house of God.
9. For if ye do it not, the heaven over you shall be stayed of her dew, that is, the heavenly Word, Which descends as the dew upon the grass, shall not temper the fevered motions of your bodily passions, nor extinguish the fiery darts of your various desires; and the earth, that is, your soul, shall be stayed from her fruit, so that it shall be dried up, unless fully watered by the Word of God, and sprinkled with heavenly dew, even the fulness of spiritual Grace.
10. And as He knew how slothful they are who dwelt beneath the earth, and in the dark abodes of pleasure, I will stir up, it is said, the spirit of Jerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, Governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, that they may be stirred up to build the Divine house. For except the Lord build the house, their labour is lost that build it. Now Zerubbabel means, ‘constant overflowing,’ like the Fountain of life, and the Word of God, by Whom and from Whom are all things and in Whom all things consist. Thus saith the overflowing Fountain, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink; drink, that is, from the stream of the unfailing flood. We read also of Zabulon, a nocturnal flood, that is to say prophetic, but it also is now brightened by the intermixture of this stream, whereby was swallowed up that flood of vanity typified by Jezabel, which was opposed to truth and to the utterances of prophets, and was so torn in pieces by dogs that not a trace of it remained, but all its frame with every mark of its posterity was destroyed. Zerubbabel therefore of the tribe of Judah, and Jesus the High Priest, thus designated both by tribe and name seem to represent two persons, though one only is meant; for He Who as Almighty is born from the Almighty, as Redeemer is born of the Virgin, being the Same in the diversity of His two divisible natures, hath fulfilled as the Giant of salvation166 the verity of the one Son of God.
11. Now being about to raise from the dead holy Zerubbabel He says, Yet once, it is a little while, I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. Once before he had shaken these things when He delivered his people from Egypt, when there was in heaven a pillar of fire, dry land among the waves, a wall in the sea, a path in the waters, when in the desert a daily supply of heavenly food was produced, and the rock was melted into streams of water. But He shook them also afterwards in the Passion of the Lord Jesus, when the heaven was covered with darkness, the sun withdrew his light, the rocks were rent, the tombs opened, the dead raised, the Dragon, vanquished on his own waves, saw the fishers of men not only sailing, but even walking on the sea without danger.
12. The dry land was also shaken when the barren Gentile nations began to ripen with the harvest of devotion and faith, and the desert and the Gentiles were so much shaken, that the preaching of the Apostles, whom He sent to call the Gentiles, was so loud and vehement, that their sound went out into all lands, and their words unto the ends of the world. So greatly, indeed, was the desert shaken that more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, and the desert blossomed as a rose, the elect of the Gentiles entered in to the remnant of the people, that the remnant might be saved according to the election of grace.
13. And I will fill, it is said, this house with My silver and gold, with the heavenly oracles, which are as silver tried in the fire, and in the brightness of the true light, glistening like spiritual gold in the secret hearts of the saints. These riches He confers on His Church, riches whereby spiritual treasures are increased, and the glory of the house is exalted above the former glory which the elect people enjoyed.
14. For peace and tranquillity of the soul is above all glory of any house; for peace passeth all understanding. This is that peace above all peace which shall be granted after the third shaking of the heaven, the sea, the earth and the dry land, when He shall destroy all Principalities and Powers. For heaven and earth shall pass away, and all the fashion of this world; and every man shall rise up against his brother with the sword, that is, with the word piercing the marrow of the soul, that whatever opposes itself, the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem may be cut off, as Zechariah says. And thus there will be peace over all, the passions of the body offering no resistance, and the unbelieving mind no obstacle, that Christ may be all in all, offering in subjection to the Father the hearts of all men.
15. Wherefore to Him alone is it mystically said, I will take thee, O Zerubbabel, and will make thee as a signet, for I have chosen thee. When our mind shall have become peaceful so that it may be said to her, Return, return, o Shulamite, which signifies ‘peaceful,’ or, to use your own name, Irenice, then shall she receive Christ like a signet on herself, that is, the Image of God, that she may be according to that Image, for as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And it behoves us to bear the image of the heavenly, that is, peace.
16. And that we may know the truth of this, it is said in the Canticles to the soul now fully perfect, that which may the Lord Jesus say to you also, Set me as a seal upon thine arm; that peace may shine in your heart and Christ in your works, and that wisdom and righteousness and redemption may be formed in you. Farewell, my son: love me for I love you.
- 166
This refers to Ps. xix. 5. where the sun, that rejoiceth as a giant to run his course, is usually interpreted by the Fathers of the Messiah. It was a very favourite thought with S. Ambrose. In his Hymn ‘De Adventu Domini’ he adapts the language of the Psalm to it in words of beautiful simplicity,
Procedit e thalamo suo,
Pudoris aulâ regiâ
Geminæ Gigas substantiæ
Alacris ut currat viam.
Egressus Ejus a Patre,
Regressus Ejus ad Patrem,
Excursus usque ad Inferos,
Recursus ad sedem Dei.In the De Incarn. ch. v. he gives a fuller explanation. ‘Him the Prophet Daniel describes as a Giant, because being of a twofold nature, He partaketh in one Person both of the Godhead and of a human Body, and exulted in going forth as a Bridegroom from His chamber, like a Giant, to run His course. He is Bridegroom of the soul as being the Word, He is a Giant of earth because He fulfilled all the duties of our daily life, and, though He was ever the eternal God, took upon Him the Mystery of the Incarnation.’