{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/210/2100218.htm","path":"chr/ecf/210/2100218.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/210/2100218.htm","text":"The wicked and dishonourable opinions held by Arians, Sabellians, and Manich\u00e6ans as concerning their Judge are shortly refuted. Christ\u2019s remonstrances regarding the rest of His adversaries being set forth, St. Ambrose expresses a hope of milder judgment for himself.\n108. Let us proceed, then, with your accusations, and see how you gain the favour of your Judge. Speak now, speak, I say, and tell Him: \u201cI consider Thee, O Christ, to be unlike Thy Father;\u201d and He will answer: \u201cMark, if thou canst, mark, I say, and tell Me wherein thou holdest Me to differ.\u201d\n109. Say again: \u201cI judge Thee to be a created being;\u201d and Christ will reply: \u201cIf the witness of two men is true, oughtest thou not to have believed both Me and My Father, Who hath called Me His Son?\u201d\n110. Then you will say: \u201cI deny Thy [perfect] goodness;\u201d and He will answer: \u201cBe it unto thee according to thy faith; so will I not be good to thee.\u201d\n111. \u201cThat Thou art Almighty, I hold not;\u201d and He will answer, in turn: \u201cThen can I not forgive thee thy sins.\u201d\n112. \u201cThou art a subject being.\u201d Whereto He will reply: \u201cWhy, then, dost thou seek freedom and pardon of Him Whom thou thinkest to be subject as a slave?\u201d\n113. I see your accusation halt here. I press you not, forasmuch as I myself know my own sins. I grudge you not pardon, for I myself would obtain indulgence, but I would know the object of your prayers. Look, then, whilst I recite before the Judge your desires. I betray not your sins, but look to behold your prayers and wishes set forth in their order.\n114. Speak, therefore, those desires, which all alike would have granted to them. \u201cLord, make me in the image of God.\u201d Whereto He will answer: \u201cIn what image? The image which thou hast denied?\u201d\n115. \u201cMake me incorruptible.\u201d Surely His reply will be: \u201cHow can I make thee incorruptible, I, Whom thou callest a created being, and so wouldst make out to be corruptible? The dead shall rise purified from corruption\u2014dost thou call Him corruptible Whom thou seest to be God?\u201d\n116. \u201cBe good to me.\u201d \u201cWhy dost thou ask what thou hast denied [to Me]? I would have had thee to be good, and I said \u2018Be ye holy, for I Myself am holy,\u2019 2058 p. 239 and thou settest thyself to deny that I am good? Dost thou then look for forgiveness of sins? Nay, none can forgive sins, but God alone. 2059 Seeing, then, that to thee I am not the true and only God, I cannot by any means forgive thee thy sins.\u201d\n117. Thus let the followers of Arius and Photinus speak. \u201cI deny Thy Godhead.\u201d To whom the Lord will make answer: \u201c\u2018The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God\u2019 2060 Of whom, think you, is this said?\u2014of Jew or Gentile, or of the devil. Whosoever he be of whom it is said, O disciple of Photinus, he is more to be borne with, who held his peace; 2061 thou, nevertheless, hast dared to lift up thy voice to utter it, that thou mightest be proved more foolish than the fool. Thou deniest My Godhead, whereas I said, \u2018Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most Highest?\u2019 2062 And thou deniest Him to be God, Whose godlike works thou seest around thee.\u201d\n118. Let the Sabellian speak in his turn. \u201cI consider Thee, by Thyself, to be at once Father and Son and Holy Spirit.\u201d To whom the Lord: \u201cThou hearest neither the Father nor the Son. Is there any doubt on this matter? The Scripture itself teaches thee that it is the Father Who giveth over the judgment, and the Son Who judges. 2063 Thou hast not given ear to My words: \u2018I am not alone, but I and the Father, Who sent Me.\u2019\u201d 2064\n119. Now let the Manich\u00e6an have his word. \u201cI hold that the devil is the creator of our flesh.\u201d The Lord will answer him: \u201cWhat, then, doest thou in the heavenly places? Depart, go thy way to thy creator. \u2018My will is that they be with Me, whom my Father hath given Me.\u2019 2065 Thou, Manich\u00e6an, holdest thyself for a creature of the devil; hasten, then, to his abode, the place of fire and brimstone, where the fire thereof is not quenched, lest ever the punishment have an end.\u201d\n120. I set aside other heretical\u2014not persons, but portents. What manner of judgment awaits them, what shall be the form of their sentence? To all these He will, indeed, reply, rather in sorrow than in anger: \u201cO My people, what have I done unto thee, wherein have I vexed thee? Did I not bring thee up out of Egypt, and lead thee out of the house of bondage into liberty?\u201d 2066\n121. But it is not enough to have brought us out of Egypt into freedom, and to have saved us from the house of bondage: a greater boon than this, Thou hast given Thyself for us. Thou wilt say then: \u201cHave I not borne all your sufferings? 2067 Have I not given My Body for you? Have I not sought death, which had no part in My Godhead, but was necessary for your redemption? Are these the thanks I am to receive? Is it this that My Blood hath gained, even as I spake in times past by the mouth of the prophet: \u2018What profit is there in My Blood, for that I have gone down to corruption?\u2019 2068 Is this the profit, that you should wickedly deny Me\u2014you, for whom I endured those things?\u201d\n122. As for me, Lord Jesu, though I am conscious within myself of great sin, yet will I say: \u201cI have not denied Thee; Thou mayest pardon the infirmity of my flesh. My transgression I confess; my sin I deny not. 2069 If Thou wilt Thou canst make me clean. 2070 For this saying, the leper obtained his request. Enter not, I pray, into judgment with Thy servant. 2071 I ask, not that Thou mayest judge, but that Thou mayest forgive.\u201d\nS. Mark. ii. 7.\n239:2060\nPs. 14:1, Ps. 53:1. These words mean, not so much that a man says \u201cThere is no God\u201d because he is a fool, because he is wanting in intelligence, but rather that when a man has left off to behave himself wisely and to do good\u2014i.e. does foolishly, that is to say, wickedly\u2014it is because he has said in his heart, \u201cThere is no God.\u201d\n239:2061\nThe \u201cfool\u201d (i.e. wicked man) has only said in his heart, secretly, \u201cNo God\u201d\u2014he has not ventilated his atheism.\n239:2062\nPs. 82:6, John 10:34 ff.\n239:2063\nS. John v. 22.\n239:2064\nS. John 8:16, John 16:32.\n239:2065\nS. John xvii. 24.\n239:2066 239:2067 239:2068 239:2069 239:2070\nS. Matt. viii. 2.\n239:2071","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. X: Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons.: Chapter XIII. The wicked and dishonourable opinions held by Arians, Sabellians, and Manich\u00e6ans as concerning their Judge are shortly refuted. Christ's remonstrances regarding the rest of His adversaries being set forth, St. Ambrose expresses a hope of milder judgment for himself.","type":"page"}