Sidenote: S. Matt. xx. 23. 18. By the words, _Hath no man condemned thee?_ He briefly overthrows all the quibbles of heretics, who say that Christ knows not the day of judgment. He Who says, _But to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give_, says also in this place, _Hath no man condemned thee?_ How is it that He asks concerning that which He saw? It is for our sakes that He asks, that we might know the woman was not condemned. And such is the wont of the human mind, often to enquire concerning that which we know. The woman too answered, _No man, Lord_, that is to say, Who can condemn when Thou dost not condemn? Who can punish another under such a condition as Thou hast attached to his sentence? 19. The Lord answered her, _Neither do I condemn thee_. Observe how He has modified His own sentence; that the Jews might have no ground of allegation against Him for the absolution of the woman, but by complaining only draw down a charge upon themselves; for the woman is dismissed not absolved; and this because there was no accuser, not because her innocence was established. How then could they complain, who were the first to abandon the prosecution of the crime, and the execution of the punishment? 20. Then He said to her who had gone astray, _Go, and sin no more_. He reformed the criminal, He did not absolve the sin. Faults are condemned by a severer sentence, whenever a man hates his own sin, and begins the condemnation of it in himself. When the criminal is put to death, it is the person rather than the ♦transgression which is punished, but when the transgression is forsaken, the absolution of the person becomes the punishment of the sin. What is the meaning then of, _Go, and sin no more_? It is this; Since Christ hath redeemed thee, suffer thyself to be corrected by Grace; punishment would not reform but only afflict thee. Farewell, my son, and love me as a son, for I on my part love you as a parent. LETTER XXVII. A.D. 387. WHO Irenæus was to whom the series of letters from xxvii. to xxxiii. are addressed is not ascertained. From the affectionate and parental way in which S. Ambrose addresses him, and from Irenæus’ applying to him for elucidation of his difficulties in the study of Holy Scripture, it is probable that he was one who had been trained, perhaps converted by him. The Benedictine Editors think that he must have been one of his Milan Clergy. All the letters are occupied in expounding passages of the Old Testament, or in solving questions connected with it; they are specimens of his method of mystical interpretation, in which he took great delight. In this Letter he begins a reply to a question on Exodus viii. 26. and then goes off into a mystical interpretation of Rachel and Leah, making them an allegory, as S. Paul does Hagar and Sarah. AMBROSE TO IRENÆUS, GREETING. Sidenote: Exod. viii. 26.