Second Apology of David

Contents

Reading pages: 1–31 · 32–56 · 57–75

1. 1The readings of the day, Psalm 51’s title on David and Bathsheba and the Gospel of the adulteress, might seem to encourage adultery to careless hearers.
2. 2Did David boast of his sin by singing it, though he condemned sinners who boast?
3. 3Christ could not have erred in releasing the adulteress, since he knows all hearts and came to fulfill the law.
4. 4After a brief reply to those who deny God’s foreknowledge, Ambrose turns first to the psalm’s title.
5. 5David’s adultery and murder are admitted; but judges should first judge themselves; the defense will address Gentiles, Jews, and Christians.
6. 6Pagans object that Christians’ leaders, like David, committed murder and adultery.
7. 7David did sin, as all humans do, but unlike kings he repented with tears and sackcloth.
8. 8Rare is the ruler who, like David, submits his power to justice and to his own laws.
9. 9A ruler cannot exempt himself from his own judgment; David is admirable for mastering power and returning by faith.
10. 10Worldly power is a danger; kings should not trust in it but fear God, who delights in those who hope in his mercy.
11. 11Power need not always lead to vice, as David and Solomon used theirs for God’s worship.
12. 12Power gave David the opportunity to sin; Scripture warns against looking at a woman’s beauty, since no one is strong for long.
13. 13No one can carry the fire of lust in his heart without being burned, as Solomon warned.
14. 14The harlot enters by the window of the eyes; one must avoid every encounter with wantonness, as Proverbs warns.
15. 15Even saints are snared; David conquered Goliath but not himself, for the inner fight is harder.
16. 16Samson, Solomon, and Paul show that the weakness is human, not David’s alone; they confessed, so who are we to presume?
17. 17Avoid the occasions of sin: looking at a strange woman tosses the mind like a ship in a storm.
18. 18Drunkenness inflames lust, as with Noah and Lot; avoid what leads to a fall.
19. 19The just have the same fallen nature as others, but faith and devotion temper it.
20. 20Ambrose closes his reply to the pagans by calling them to turn to the merciful God who forgives sin and exalts his servants.
21. 21Against the Jews: David, an adulterer and murderer, cannot be the Son of God, who is without sin.
22. 22Psalm 72, titled “for Solomon,” cannot refer to the warlike, short-lived Solomon but to Christ, the true Prince of Peace ruling all nations.
23. 23Solomon, who received wisdom and later fell, and whose temple burned, is not the Son of God; Christ is wisdom itself and builds the true temple, the church.
24. 24Other saints did works equal to Solomon’s, but all point to Christ, who surpasses Joshua, Enoch, Elijah, Elisha, and Moses.
25. 25Psalm 110 cannot refer to Solomon: David calls the one at God’s right hand his Lord, begotten before the morning star, an eternal priest of Melchizedek’s order.
26. 26Christ’s question about Psalm 110 refutes not only the Jews but Photinians, Sabellians, and Arians: the Son, distinct from the Father, shares his throne and power.
27. 27Against Manichees and Valentinians, who deny Christ’s flesh, Matthew calls him son of David: Son of God by divine substance, son of David by the flesh.
28. 28Continuing on another day, Ambrose concludes that only the Son of God, who took flesh from Mary as David’s seed, sits on the heavenly throne promised to David.
29. 29It is neither impossible nor injurious for God to take flesh; he willed it and is untouched by our passions.
30. 30Pagans believe their gods took human and monstrous forms, and Jewish Scripture speaks of God becoming present and even beast-like; so the incarnation is not incredible.
31. 31Ambrose recalls his threefold plan, according to nature, faith, and grace, and now turns to the mysteries for Christians.
32. 32David’s sin served a purpose: through it the mysteries of the church appear, and he is justified by faith, not works.
33. 33Christ chose sinners like David, Bathsheba, and Tamar as ancestors, to show that he came to forgive and that grace abounds over sin.
34. 34Ambrose retells the story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah, noting that David at least concealed his sin out of shame.
35. 35To open the mysteries Ambrose prays with David for a clean heart and asks Christ, the door, to open to him.
36. 36Ambrose prays to drink from Christ’s spring, or at least from his deep well, as the Samaritan woman did.
37. 37Allegorically, the prophet is the Holy Spirit and the adulteress the synagogue; Christ was born of that family but, spotless, from a virgin.
38. 38The child who died stands for the synagogue, Solomon (“wise and peaceful”) for the Christian people who reach the kingdom.
39. 39Third mystery: David means “humbled,” signifying Christ, humbled in the flesh yet one with the Father in divinity, the Lord in servant’s form.
40. 40Allegorically, David walking in his house is Christ in his Father’s house, who saw naked human nature and loved it; the literal scene is implausible.
41. 41The naked woman is human nature stripped by sin since Adam; Christ, who once took it in marriage through the law, saw it naked and loved it.
42. 42The bathing woman is the church washing in John’s baptism; dark from sin but beautiful, she seeks Christ, who sees and loves her.
43. 43In the Song, Christ invites his bride the church: faith marks marriage, not adultery; winter is past and the flower, Christ from Jesse’s root, has appeared.
44. 44The church eagerly sought Christ, unafraid of wounds, for they are wounds of love.
45. 45The church’s nakedness is openness of heart, unlike the veiled synagogue; turning to the Lord removes the veil.
46. 46The tunic the bride puts off is the old self; washed, she forgets the defilement of nature.
47. 47The church not only washes but invites Christ into her house, as the Song’s bride does; she is the enclosed garden, watching at Wisdom’s doors.
48. 48Uriah’s death figures the end of the law, freeing human nature, as a widow is free to remarry, to be joined to Christ without adultery.
49. 49Uriah (“my light”) is the law, Christ’s light; it was diminished not by Christ but by enemies, until the fullness of the Gentiles and Israel’s salvation.
50. 50The fourth mystery: as Hosea’s marriage to a harlot was devout, so the “unequal union” of divinity and flesh in the incarnation is a holy fellowship.
51. 51Bathsheba’s name (“daughter of the sabbath,” “full,” “well of the oath”) points to the flesh of Christ, joined lawfully to the Word.
52. 52The flesh died in Christ to be freed from the law, so that we might belong to the risen Christ in newness of the Spirit.
53. 53Those who killed Uriah were themselves slain, a figure that the killers of Christ did not escape; the first, weak offspring stands for the Jews, the later fruit for Christians.
54. 54Ambrose turns from the adultery and murder to Nathan the messenger named in the psalm’s title.
55. 55Ambrose retells Nathan’s parable, his rebuke, David’s confession, and the death of the child.
56. 56Lessons of the story: suffering is the price of sin, kings’ falls harm their peoples, pardon came swiftly, and David was humbled by an inferior prophet.
57. 57In Nathan’s parable the rich man is the Jewish people rich in the law, the poor man the Christian people, whose poverty in spirit inherits the kingdom.
58. 58The poor man’s lamb is Christ, led like a sheep to the slaughter, who found rest only with the poor.
59. 59The guest is sin, which drove the killing of Christ the lamb; as with Judas, the sacrifice only increased the sinner’s guilt.
60. 60David’s verdict on the rich man is the Jewish people’s self-condemnation, while the fourfold restoration is the Christian people’s greater good in the resurrection.
61. 61Having shown that David deserves praise rather than defense, Ambrose lets David speak for himself in Psalm 51.
62. 62“Great mercy” is understood from God’s “great power,” which made heaven; that power is both the Father’s and the Son’s, showing their one working and majesty.
63. 63The Holy Spirit too shares the great power that made and established the heavens; as God’s “finger,” he works in unity with the Father and the Son.
64. 64Great mercy is the incarnation: the Word became flesh, coming down without leaving his divinity, as if bringing heaven with him.
65. 65The “multitude of compassions” are the sufferings Christ bore in the flesh, which drive away our many hardships.
66. 66Christ, sinless, was made sin to blot out ours; sin is written on the heart with an iron pen, and it accuses us from within.
67. 67Our sins, written on our hearts, will be laid bare at the judgment; so let us now flee to Christ, who breaks the iron gates and blots out sin.
68. 68If David and Paul confessed their sins, who are we to deny ours? God pardons and rewards those who confess and amend.
69. 69David confesses to God, who alone sees the heart and can blot out what is written there; he sinned in himself and in Adam.
70. 70Heresies converge: the Arians, by dividing Father and Son, end up like the Manichees, who split the God of the two Testaments.
71. 71All sinned in Adam, who broke the command entrusted to him; we owe a debt, and must recognize who the lender is.
72. 72Since Christ forgives the debt owed to the one who lent it, Father and Son are one; otherwise the Arians fall into the Manichees’ two gods.
73. 73Belief in one power, majesty, and strength of the Trinity refutes all heresies: the Son is in the Father and the Father in the Son.
74. 74The Lord’s Prayer shows that the Father forgives, and the Son’s teaching it shows their one power.
75. 75The Son forgives with authority by his word and with judgment, commanding the forgiven to sin no more.