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INCARNATION AND THE TWO NATURES IN CHRIST. AMBROSE: “The bosom of the Father” is to be understood in a spiritual sense, as a kind of innermost dwelling of the Father’s love and of his nature, in which the Son always dwells. Even so, the Father’s womb is the spiritual womb of an inner sanctuary, from which the Son has proceeded just as from a generative womb. . . . The Father speaks of that womb through the prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Therefore, the prophet showed that there was a twofold nature in Christ, the divine and the fleshly, the former from the Father, the latter from a virgin, but in such a way that Christ was not deprived of his divinity when he was born from a virgin and was in the body. ON THE PATRIARCHS 11.51.

CHRIST’S PREEXISTENCE. AMBROSE: To show them, however, the weakness and transparency of their objection, though it has no real relation to any truth, divine or human, I will prove to them that people have existed before they were born. Let them show that Jacob had not been appointed and ordained, even before he was born. While yet hidden in the secret chamber of his mother’s womb, he supplanted his brother. Let them show that Jeremiah had not likewise been so, before his birth, “Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you; and before you came forth from the belly, I sanctified you, and appointed you for a prophet amongst the nations.” . . . What do you Arians mean by your principle that “before he was begotten he did not exist”? Was the Father engaged for some time in conception, so that certain epochs passed away before the Son was begotten? ON THE CHRISTIAN FAITH 4.9.113, 116.

 Избранные Господом проповедовать народу слова Божьи Моисей и Иеремия из скромности пытались отказаться от того, к чему они были призваны по благодати См. : Исх. 4:11; Иер. 1:6. 
  Итак, прекрасна добродетель скромности Ср. у Цицерона: off. 1:134, 140 и сладостна ее благодать, проявляющаяся не только в делах, но и в словах: ты хранишь меру в речах, чтобы в них не звучало ничего неподобающего, так как слова – это отражение ума Ср. у Цицерона: de orat. 3:221–223.  Скромность регулирует и саму силу голоса, чтобы слишком громкий звук См. дальше об этом: off. 1. 84, 104 не причинил неприятности слушающему. Поэтому в пении самым важным является обучение скромности, и даже при произнесении важно, чтобы каждый голос включался исподволь, когда начинают читать псалмы, либо петь, либо говорить, и такое сдержанное начало определяет все дальнейшее. 
 Да и само молчание, в котором обретают покой прочие добродетели, является величайшим проявлением скромности. Если молчание является результатом неумения говорить или высокомерия, то оно порицается, если же оно от скромности, то достойно похвалы. Молчала Сусанна, несмотря на грозившую ей опасность См. : Дан. 13 , считая более тяжкой утрату скромности, чем жизни, и не желая сохранить свою жизнь ценой потери стыдливости. Она говорила с Богом – лишь с Ним может говорить целомудренная стыдливость; она избегала пристально смотреть в мужские лица – ведь скромность проявляется и во взорах, поэтому жена не смотрит на мужчин и не желает, чтобы они на нее смотрели. 

MODESTY OR AVOIDANCE? AMBROSE: Both Moses and Jeremiah, chosen by the Lord to declare the words of God to the people, avoided through modesty that which through grace they could do. DUTIES OF THE CLERGY 1.17.66.

THE BURDEN OF THE GOSPEL. AMBROSE: But perhaps you may say, How does Jeremiah call the yoke heavy, when the Lord in the Gospel has said, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”? Now, first understand that the Greek has “yoke” only, and has not added “heavy.” Notice this, also, that although it was so in Lamentations, in the Gospel he said “easy yoke” and “light burden,” not “light yoke.” For the yoke of the Word can be heavy, yet easy. Heavy to the youth, heavy to the young man whose age is in fuller flower, so that he is unwilling to offer the neck of his mind in subjection to the yoke of the Word. The yoke of the Word can seem heavy because of the burdens of discipline, the rigor of improvement, the weight of abstinence and the curbing of lust. Yet it is easy because of the fruitfulness of grace, the hope of eternal reward and the sweetness of a purer conscience. Still, he called the yoke of the Word “easy” and the burden of conscience “light,” because for him who has taken up the yoke of the Word with a patient neck the burden of discipline cannot be heavy. CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 11.

THE ENDURING ALMOND TREE. AMBROSE: It is written in the book of the prophet, “Take a branch from a nut tree.” So we must consider why the Lord said this to the prophet, for it is not written without a purpose, since we also read in the Pentateuch that the nut tree of Aaron, the priest, blossomed after it had been laid away for a long while. LETTER 62.