Ambrose of Milan

The devil has many wolves, whom he directs towards the sheep of Christ; and therefore Joseph, being intelligent, snatched the wolf Paul, the enemy who came to plunder the sheep, in order to save his own sheep, making him a teacher from a persecutor. Concerning whom Jacob says, as it is written: Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he shall devour prey, and in the evening he shall divide the spoil among the princes. The wolf was present when he scattered and devoured the sheep of the Church. But the one who was a wolf became a shepherd. The wolf was there when Saul entered houses and dragged men and women to prison. The wolf was there when he breathed threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, seeking letters from the chief priests to capture the servants of Christ. But Jesus blinded him like a wolf wandering in the darkness of the night with the outpouring of His light. Therefore, when Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, she called his name Son of my sorrow, prophesying that from her would come the tribe of Paul, who would afflict the children of the Church during his time of persecution, and cause great pain to their mother. But nevertheless, at a later time he divided the same bread among the leaders, proclaiming the word of God to the Gentiles and calling many to faith. During this discussion, as we read, the proconsul Paul and the prince Publius received the grace of the Lord.

But beautifully also, when Moses blessed the tribe of Benjamin, he said: The beloved of the Lord shall dwell securely, and God shall overshadow him all the days, and the beloved of the Lord shall rest between his shoulders, who has also become a vessel of election. For he was converted to the Lord by the mercy and love of the Lord. Therefore, offering nothing to his own merit, but attributing everything to Christ, he says: For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been in vain. He will dwell with confidence in the house that he previously laid waste, he will dwell in the tabernacles of Christ, who previously wandered like a wolf in the woods. And God overshadowed him when Christ appeared to him. Although he saw nothing with his open eyes, he still saw Christ. And he rightly saw the present one, whom he also heard speaking. This shadow is not of blindness, but of grace. Finally, Mary is told: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Could Paul teach in opposition to his own act? He had at Corinth forgiven sin through penance; how could he himself speak against his own decision? Since, then, he could not destroy what he had built, we must assume that what he says was different from, but not contrary to, what had gone before. For what is contrary is opposed to itself; what is different has ordinarily another meaning. Things that are contrary are not such that one can support the other. Inasmuch, then, as the apostle spoke of remitting penance, he could not be silent as to those who thought that baptism was to be repeated. And it was right first of all to remove our anxiety and to let us know that, even after baptism, if any sinned, their sins could be forgiven them, lest a false belief in a reiterated baptism should lead astray those who were destitute of all hope of forgiveness. And second, it was right to set forth in a well-reasoned argument that baptism is not to be repeated.…So, then, that which he says in this epistle to the Hebrews, that it is impossible for those who have fallen to be “renewed unto repentance, crucifying again the Son of God and putting him to open shame,” must be considered as having reference to baptism, wherein we crucify the Son of God in ourselves that the world may be by him crucified for us. We triumph, as it were, when we take to ourselves the likeness of his death. We put to open shame upon his cross principalities and powers and triumphed over them, that in the likeness of his death we, too, might triumph over the principalities whose yoke we throw off. But Christ was crucified once and died to sin once, and so there is but one, not several baptisms.…
And indeed I might also say to anyone who thought that this passage spoke of repentance, that things which are impossible from the human point of view are possible with God. God is able whenever God wills to forgive us our sins, even those which we think cannot be forgiven. And so it is possible for God to give us that which it seems to us impossible to attain. For it seemed impossible that water should wash away sin, and Naaman the Syrian thought that leprosy could not be cleansed by water. But that which was impossible, God who gave us such great grace made to be possible. Similarly it seemed impossible that sins should be forgiven through repentance, but Christ gave this power to his apostles, which has been transmitted to the priestly office. That, then, has become possible which was impossible. But by true reasoning, the apostle convinces us that the reiteration by anyone of the sacrament of baptism is not permitted.

Let no one claim Divinity resides in an order established by human beings when he encounters such an order. For the church does not consider even Melchizedek, by whose office Abraham offered sacrifice, an angel (as some Jewish interpreters do). It rather considers him a holy man and priest of God who, prefiguring our Lord, is described as “without father or mother, without history of his descent, without beginning and without end.” It does this in order to show beforehand the coming into this world of the eternal Son of God who was likewise incarnate and then brought forth without any father, begotten as God without mother, and was without history of descent. For it is written: “Who shall declare his generation?”This Melchizedek, then, we have received as a priest of God based upon the model of Christ. However, the one we regard as the type, the other as the original. Now, a type is a shadow of the truth. We have accepted the royalty of the one [Melchizedek] in the name of a single city [Jerusalem], but that of the other [Jesus] as shown in the reconciliation of the whole world. For it is written: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself,” that is to say, the eternal Godhead was in Christ. Or, if the Father is in the Son, even as the Son is in the Father, then their unity in both nature and operation is plainly not denied.

But because we must always be anxious, always attentive; and because the Word of God leaps forth like a young goat, or like a fawn, the soul must always be vigilant and strive for what it seeks and desires to hold. Therefore, as if having slipped, the soul says, "In my bed, I sought the one whom my soul loves during the nights." Whoever seeks well, let them seek in their bed, let them seek during the nights, neither on holidays nor on nights of rest. Let no time be vacant from the duty of piety; and if it does not find it at first, let it continue in seeking. Therefore, it says: "I will rise, therefore, and seek in the city, in the forum, in the streets." And perhaps it has not yet found it, because it sought in the forum, where there are legal disputes; in the streets, where there are markets for the sale of goods. For Christ is not purchased with any money. We can understand it in this way. In the bed, she seeks Christ, and she seeks him with tranquility, with peace. In the nights, she seeks, for he spoke in parables. For he has set darkness as his hiding place; and night reveals knowledge to night. Then, what we say in our hearts, we should be mindful of in our beds. But even so, she does not find, and therefore she says: "I will rise up, that is, I will raise up, and I will lift up my intention, so that I may seek diligently, I may seek earnestly: I will enter the city." And it is the soul that says: "I am a fortified city, I am a besieged city." It is a city fortified by Christ, it is the city of Jerusalem in heaven where the interpreters of divine law abound, and the learned in discipline: through them the Word of God is sought.