Against Celsus 4.1

Having gone through in the three books before this, holy Ambrose, what occurred to us in reply to Celsus's treatise, we now dictate a fourth in reply to what follows, having prayed to God through Christ. May words be given to us of which it is written in Jeremiah, where the Lord says to the prophet: “Behold, I have given my words into your mouth as fire. Behold, I have set you today over nations and kingdoms, to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to tear down, and to build and to plant.” For we too now need words that root out what is against the truth from every soul harmed by Celsus's treatise or by thoughts like it. And we need thoughts that pull down the buildings of every false opinion, and the building of Celsus in his treatise, like the building of those who said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top shall reach to heaven.” And we also need wisdom that tears down every high thing lifted up “against the knowledge of God,” and the “high thing” of Celsus's boastfulness “lifted up” against us. Then, since we must not stop at “rooting out and pulling down” what has been mentioned, but must “plant,” in the place of what has been rooted out, the planting of God's field, and in the place of what has been pulled down build God's building and a temple of God's glory, we too must therefore pray to the Lord who gave what is written in Jeremiah, that he may give us too words for building up the things of Christ and for “planting” the spiritual law and the prophetic words that correspond to it. And above all we need, in reply to what Celsus says next after the passages already treated, to establish that the things concerning Christ were rightly prophesied. For Celsus, standing against both at once, against the Jews who deny that the coming of Christ has taken place but hope that it will, and against the Christians who confess that Jesus is the prophesied Christ, says: