Chapter 3. About how man, appointed to be the ruler of earthly creation, lost the mercy of the Creator, and so on.

Man in whom God was pleased to create in a special way, was appointed to be the ruler of the earthly creature with darkness, so that he himself would obey the Divine decrees, and fulfill the will only of Him Who, out of nothing, made him ruler over such numerous creatures. But he himself began, desiring, not out of ignorance, but out of envy, to despise, contrary to his nature, higher than by which by the grace of God he was created, he was deprived of the grace which the love of the Creator had given him. And the transgressor, because of the lust of that which the devil had deceived him, was immediately condemned to death, and spread it also to the descendants who were to descend from him, so that on this occasion the Divine saying was perfectly fulfilled: "By envy of devil death is brought into the world" (Wis. 2:25). In this way, for reasons of the fall, the devil received the power of death over all the sinners, and took possession of all those who had departed from God, binding them with the chains of grha, and imprisoning them in the prisons of the stinking Tartarus.

Chapter 4. In what way did God, having taken on human flesh and put to death the flesh, descended into hell, and having broken the chains and the gates of hell, set free those who were bound there from the jaws of the devil.

Grieving over their destruction, God, according to Divine providence, did not send a prophet, nor a slave, nor an invisible angel, but, having taken on the true human flesh, He Himself came and dwelt with man, in order to give mortals an example of a holy life, and by the end of His death and resurrection to manifest eternal life to those who lie in Him. For just as Nevria and idolatry sealed the entrance to heaven, so did the wickedness cast the wicked into the abyss of hell, where the devil reigned over them through death, tormenting them, until the coming of the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ, until He, having united the essence of human flesh with God, gave up the immaculate aphid to death. Christ, who had no part in the grave, descended into the pit of Tartarus, and shattered the chains and gates of hell, and, having destroyed the dominion of death, called the souls bound by the grave from the jaws of the devil to life, and the Divine triumph is inscribed in the letters of the Scriptures, saying: Where is the sting of death? where is it (1 Cor. 15:55)? Reflecting on this beatitude of restored salvation, Paul says: "As through Adam death entered into this world, so through Christ salvation was restored to the world" (1 Cor. 15:22), and in another place: the first man is a ring from the earth: the second man is from heaven (1 Cor. 15:47), and adds: "As we are clothed in the image of a ring, that is, an old man of sin, that we may put on the image of heaven" (1 Cor. 15:49), that is, that we may receive the salvation of the man who has been received, redeemed, renewed, and purified into Christ; for the same Apostle says that the first, that is, the firstfruits of the resurrection and life, are Christ, and then Christ's (1 Corinthians 15:25), that is, those who, imitating in their lives His purities, will attain the hope of His resurrection, in order to receive with Him the heavenly glory encased, as the Lord Himself says in the Gospel. For whosoever He saith shall follow Me shall not perish, but shall pass from death into life (John 5:24). In this way, the suffering of the Savior is the salvation of human life. For this is why He willed to die for us, that we, lying in Him, might live forever; for this reason He willed to be for a time that we, so that we, having received the communion of Him, might dwell with Him.

Chapter 5. On the high merits of the Paschal sacrament and day.

Such, I say, is the grace of the heavenly mysteries! Such is the gift of Pascha! Such is the longed-for year of the year! Such is the beginning of the birth of things! Hence, infants born in the animal ban of the Holy Church, being reborn, play with childish simplicity in the depths of an innocent conscience. From here pure fathers and wise mothers receive a new innumerable generation according to the time of the Lord. From here, under the tree of the tree, from the womb of the immaculate spring, shines the beauty of the candlesticks. From here (people) are sanctified by the gift of heavenly merit, and are satiated with the solemn feast of the heavenly mystery. Hence the people, constituting one people, like brethren brought up in the bosom of the blessed Church, honoring the one in essence Divinity and the threefold name of power (et virtutis triunum nomen), sing with the Prophet the hymn of the annual feast: "This day, which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and rejoice in it" (Psalm 117:24). What day, I say, is it? He Who hath brought us the author of life, the fountain of light, the author of enlightenment, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Who said of Himself: "I am the day, and he that walketh in the days shall not stumble" (John 11:9), that is, he who follows Christ in all things, according to His words shall come to the throne of the Holy Father, as He Himself, while still in the world, prayed for us to the Father, saying, "Father, I will, that I am, and these, that is, those who have taken me into me, shall be with me" (John 17:24): "As thou art in me, and I in thee, so also shall they be in us" (John 17:21). "Behold, I say, a day of joy and gladness, in which, having attained the perfect glory of all, we, the people, who are truly holy, still in this year, like angels, sing with the Prophet to the Lord the mystery of the future praise: this day, which the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and rejoice in it, the Lord, that is, the author of the restoration, redemption, and eternal life, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, reigning without beginning and without end in the Father with the Holy Spirit, now and always, and forever. Amen.

Printed according to the edition: St. Ambrose Bishop of Mediolan On the Sacraments of Pascha. Journal "Christian Reading, Published at the St. Petersburg Theological Academy". – 1841 – Part II. – pp. 40–47.

Letter XVII: Bishop Ambrose to the Most Excellent Sovereign and Most Christian Emperor Valentinian.

1. As all men who are under Roman power serve you, earthly emperors and sovereigns, so you yourselves serve the almighty god and the sacred faith. Otherwise, salvation cannot be assured if everyone does not faithfully worship the true God, and this is the god of the Christians, who rules over everything; but he himself is the true god, who is revered by a sincere soul: "but the gods of the heathen are demons," as the Scripture says.

2. Consequently, everyone who serves this true god and who sincerely worships Him with spiritual emotion, without pretending or condescending to devote devotion and reverence to the faith. In general, if not this, then at least someone should not be an accomplice in the worship of idols and in the implementation of impious cults. For no one will deceive God, to whom everything is revealed, even the secrets of the heart.

3. Wherefore I wonder how thou, most Christian emperor, who showed faith in the true god, with zeal in the faith itself, circumspect and pious, could awaken in any one the hope that the altar of the pagan gods should be restored by thy command, and also that for impious sacrifices the funds which had so long been accepted either by the fiscus or by the public treasury should be allocated, that it will seem that you will give them what is yours rather than give them back what is yours.

4. And those who have never spared our blood, who destroyed the very buildings of the churches, complain about the losses. They seek that you grant them privileges, those who have denied us the usual need to speak and teach by the last law of Julian; and those privileges by which Christians have often been deceived, because by some of these privileges, partly through ignorance, partly by evading the burdensomeness of public needs, they have wished to confuse us, and because not all have sufficient firmness, many have fallen, even in the time of Christian princes.