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| Chapter III. To the argument of the Novatians, that they only deny forgiveness in the case of greater sins, St. Ambrose replies, that this is also an offence against God, Who gave the power to forgive all sins, but that of course a more severe penance must follow in case of graver sins. He points out likewise that this distinction as to the gravity of sins assigns, as it were, severity to God, Whose mercy in the Incarnation is overlooked by the Novatians.
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Chapter III.
To the argument of the Novatians, that they only deny
forgiveness in the case of greater sins, St. Ambrose replies, that this
is also an offence against God, Who gave the power to forgive all sins,
but that of course a more severe penance must follow in case of graver
sins. He points out likewise that this distinction as to the
gravity of sins assigns, as it were, severity to God, Whose mercy in
the Incarnation is overlooked by the Novatians.
10. But they say
that, with the exception of graver sins, they grant forgiveness to
those of less weight. This is not the teaching of your father, Novatian, who thought
that no one should be admitted to penance, considering that what he was
unable to loose he would not bind,2922
| 2922 Binding and
loosing here refer rather to the infliction of open penance, the
outward sign of repentance, than to absolution. | lest by
binding he should inspire the hope that he would loose. So that
your father is condemned by your own sentence, you who make a
distinction between sins, some of which you consider that you can
loose, and others which you consider to be without remedy. But
God does not make a distinction, Who has promised His mercy to all, and
granted to His priests the power of loosing without any
exception. But he who has heaped up sin must also increase his
penitence. For greater sins are washed away by greater
weeping. So neither is Novatian justified, who excluded all from
pardon; nor are you, who imitate and, at the same time, condemn him,
for you diminish zeal for penance where it ought to be increased, since
the mercy of Christ has taught us that graver sins must be made good by
greater efforts.
11. And what perversity it is to claim for
yourselves what can be forgiven, and, as you say, to reserve to God
what cannot be forgiven. This would be to reserve to oneself the
cases for mercy, to God those for severity. And what as to that
saying: “Let God be true but every man a liar, as it is
written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy words, and overcome
when Thou art judged”?2923
In
order, then, that we may recognize that the God of mercy is rather
prone to indulgence than to severity, it is said: “I desire
mercy rather than sacrifice.”2924
How,
then, can your sacrifice, who refuse mercy, be acceptable to God, since
He says that He wills not the death of a sinner, but his
correction?2925
12. Interpreting which truth, the Apostle
says: “For God, sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the
righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us.”2926
He does not say “in the
likeness of flesh,” for Christ took on Himself the reality not
the likeness of flesh; nor does He say in the likeness of sin, for He
did no sin, but was made sin for us. Yet He came “in the
likeness of sinful flesh;” that is, He took on Him the likeness
of sinful flesh, the likeness, because it is written:
“He is man, and who shall know Him?”2927
He was man in the flesh,
according to His human nature, that He might be recognized, but in
power was above man, that He might not be recognized, so He has our
flesh, but has not the failings of this flesh.
13. For He was not begotten, as is every
man, by intercourse between male and female, but born of the Holy
Spirit and of the Virgin; He received a stainless body, which not only
no sins polluted, but which neither the generation nor the conception
had been stained by any admixture of defilement. For we men are
all born under sin, and our very origin is in evil, as we read in the
words of David: “For lo, I was conceived in wickedness, and
in sin did my mother bring me forth.”2928
Therefore the flesh of Paul was
a body of death, as he himself says: “Who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?”2929
But
the flesh of Christ condemned sin, which He felt not at His birth, and
crucified by His death, so that in our flesh there might be
justification through grace, in which before there had been pollution
by guilt.
14. What, then, shall we say to this, except
that which the Apostle said: “If God is for us, who is
against us? He who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us
all, how has He not with Him also given us all things? Who shall
lay a charge against the elect? It is God Who justifieth, who is
he that shall condemn? It is Christ Who died, yea, Who also rose
again, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession
for us.”2930
Novatian
then brings charges against those for whom Christ intercedes.
Those whom Christ has redeemed unto salvation Novatian condemns to
death. Those to whom Christ says: “Take My yoke upon
you, and learn of Me, for I am gentle,”2931
Novatian says, I am not gentle. On
those to whom Christ says: “Ye shall find rest for your
souls, for My yoke is pleasant and My burden is light,”2932
Novatian lays a heavy burden and a hard
yoke.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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