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On the Sacraments
St Ambrose of Milan, tr. Thompson, 1919
Book 1, Baptism Prefigured in the Crossing of the Red Sea and in the Story of the Flood
Again, that there was a figure of our baptism in the Red Sea1 is asserted by the Apostle, when he says that our fathers were all baptized in the cloud and in the sea.2 And he added, Now all these things happened unto them by way of figure;3 to them in a figure, but to us in reality. Then Moses held his rod: the people of the Jews had been shut in; on one side the Egyptian pressed on with arms, and on the other side the Hebrews were shut in by the sea. They could neither cross the seas, nor return to the enemy. They began to murmur.4
See that it tempt thee not, that they were heard. Although the Lord heard, yet they are not without fault who murmured. It is thy duty, when thou art in a strait, to believe that thou wilt escape, not to murmur; to appeal, to entreat, not to utter complaint.
Moses held his rod, and led the people of the Hebrews at night in a pillar of light, and in the day in a pillar of cloud.5 What is the light but truth, since it sheds a full and open brightness? What is the pillar of light but Christ the Lord, who scattered the shadows of unbelief, and poured the light of truth and spiritual grace on human hearts? The pillar of cloud, on the other hand, is the Holy Spirit. The people was in the sea, and the pillar of light went on before; then the pillar of cloud followed, as if the shadowing of the Holy Spirit. Thou seest that by the Holy Spirit and by the water he has shown a type of baptism.
As early as the flood6 there was also a figure of baptism, and, certainly, the mysteries of the Jews did not as yet exist. Therefore, if the figure of our baptism preceded, thou seest that the mysteries of the Christians are earlier than were those of the Jews.
But meanwhile, in view of the weakness of our voice7 and the consideration of the time at our disposal, let us content ourselves to-day with just having touched the mysteries concerning the holy font. To-morrow, if the Lord shall grant strength and ability to speak, I will declare them more fully. It behoves your holiness8 to have your ears prepared, your mind the more ready, that you may be able to retain what we may gather from the course of the Scriptures, and shall declare unto you, that you may have the grace of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, to which Trinity belongs an everlasting kingdom, from all ages, both now, and always, and for ever and ever.
Notes
- Cf. de Myst. iii. 12.
- 1 Cor. x. 2.
- 1 Cor. x. 11.
- See Ex. xiv. 9f.
- Ex. xiii. 21 f.; xiv. 19, 20.
- See for this ii. 1. 1 below.
- There is a similar reference to “weakness of voice” in the Apologia David altera (v. 29). But the work is not a genuine work of Ambrose, and bears (acc. to Bardenhewer, Gesch. der altkirchl. Litt. III. 536) much the same relation to the genuine Apol. David as de Sacram. bears to de Myst.
- “Your holiness” (sanctitas vestra) is here a title addressed to the congregation, not to an individual (T.).