The First and the Second

Sed dicit aliquis quia scriptum est: Primus homo ex terra terrenus, secundus homo de caelo coaelestis  Verum attende quid dicat. Secundus, inquit homo; quasi hominem secundum dixit. Et ego dico quia primus est secundum divinitatem, ante quem nullus: secundus autem secundum carnem quia post Adam. Ego plus dico, non solum ego secundum hominem, sed etiam novissimum. Denique sic habes scriptum: 'Factus est primus homo Adam in animam viventem, novissimus Adam in spiritum vivificantem . Vide clementiam Christi: ipse est primus et novissimus. Qui primus erat, propter nos se novissimum fecit. Primus, quia per ipsum omnia: novissimus, quia per ipsum resurrectio. Descendit enim et projecit se, ut caderet, infra omnes se faciens ut omnes jacentes levaret. Unde et ait Ecclesiastes: Quia si ceciderit unus, alter eriget socium suum: et nae illi uni cum ceciderit, et non est secundus, ut eum erigat. Et quidem si dormiant duo, est calor illis: et unus, quomodo calefiet? Hoc est, qui Christum habet secum, etsi ceciderit, resurget: etsi mortuus fuerit, reviviscet; quia adest illi qui venit ignem in terram mittere. Denique et Elisaeus cum puerum resuscitaret, insufflavit illi, ut infunderet vitae calorem. Habeto ergo tecum hunc ignem in pectore tuo, qui te resuscitet; ne frigus tibi perpetuae mortis irrepat. Hic ergo juvenis se projecit, qui venit per Mariam, et infundebat vitae calorem pectoribus audientium. Unde dicunt illia in Evangelio: 'Nonne cor nostrum ardens erat in nobis, cum aperiret nobis Scripturus? Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Institutione Virginis, Caput XI

But it says somewhere in Scripture: 'The first man from the earth and the second from heaven.' 1 Truly attend to what it says. The second man, it says, like a second man, he means. I say that He is first according to Divinity, before whom nothing is, and second according to the flesh because He is after Adam. And then I say not only the second  but the newest. For then it is written: 'Adam, the first man, was made with a living spirit, the newest Adam with a life giving spirit.' 2 See the mercy of Christ, He is the first and newest. He who was first, for our sake has been made newest. First, because through Him everything was made, newest because through Him is the resurrection. For He came down and flung himself forth that he might fall, among everyone doing it that he might lift up everyone falling. Whence it is said in Ecclesiastes: 'Because if one falls, another, his friend, shall raise him and woe to him who when he falls is alone, and has no other, that he might raise him up. And if two sleep together, they warm one another, and if there is just one, how is he warmed? 3 That is, he who has Christ with him, even if he falls, rises again, even if he dies, he revives, because He is near  who comes to cast fire on the earth. 4 So see that Elisha when he revived the boy breathed in him 5 that he imbue him with the heat of life. Have, then, within you this fire in your heart, He who revives you, lest cold be with you forever when you fall into death. This youth, then, coming forth, who came through Mary, imbued the heat of life in the hearts of his hearers. Whence are said these things in the Gospel: 'Were are hearts not burning within us when he opened the Scriptures to us?' 6 Saint Ambrose, On The Birth of the Virgin, Chap 11 1 1 Cor 15.47 2 1 Cor 15.45 3 Eccles, 9. 4,10,11 4 Lk 12.49 5 4 King 4,32-35 6 Lk 24.32