Stopping The Flood

Nunc consideremus quid sit quod ait Scriptura divina: Clausi sunt fontes aquarum, et cataractae coeli. Nec obscurum arbitror. His enim causis minuitur diluvium quibus crevit. Erupti erant fontes aquarum, apertae fuerant cataractae coeli, ut undique influentibus aquis terra inundaretur. Debuerant claudi ea ex quibus diluvii origo manavit, ut ejus inciperet esse defectus. Hoc littera sonat. Subtilior autem interpretatio exprimit, eo quod diluvium animae vitio mentis et luxuriae corporalis influxerat, ut malitia passioni, passio malitiae misceretur: ingrediente medico Dei Verbo ad visitationem animae quae diutina aegritudine laborabat disceptationum improbitate, et passionum acerbitate, prius debuerunt causae aegritudinis amputari. Principium enim medicinae est causas languoris incidere; ne diutius ea quae nocent, ad incrementum aegritudinis ministrentur. Quod nos etiam lex docet; cum enim steterit lepra, ut jam non diffundatur, tunc ait mundam esse leprae stationem quamdam et mansionem. Quidquid enim praeter naturam movetur immundum est. Haec igitur est animae sanitas, haec salubritas mentis, ut affluentia cesset erroris, sistatur culpa, ne serpat. Cessante incentivo culpae atque delicti salus tuta est, atque innoffensus vigor animae se refundit. Sanctus Ambrosius Mediolanensis, De Noe et Arca, Caput XVII Source: Migne PL 14.388c-389a

Now let us consider what it may mean when Holy Scripture says: 'The founts of the waters were closed up, and the waterfalls of heaven.' 1 I do not think that this is obscure. With these causes with which He created the flood He brought it to an end. For when the founts of the waters erupted and the waterfalls of heaven were opened, then from every direction the earth with inundated with flowing water. Thus with these closed, from which the flood originated, it should dry up, and thus it began to subside. This the letter tells us. The more subtle understanding tells that the flood has poured vices into the soul and lusts into the body, so that wickedness mixes with passion and passion with wickedness, and with the coming of the physician of the Word of God to visit the soul, which has laboured in its long sickness amid the disruptions of evil and the bitterness of the passions, first the causes of the sickness should be cut off. For the beginning of medicine is the discovery of the causes of the illness, lest those things which harm afflict for a longer time with the increase of the ailment. Which the Law teaches us, for the leper was made to wait and when the sickness had not spread, then the leper was said to be clean in himself and his house likewise. 2 For whatever occurs beyond nature is unclean. This, therefore, is the health of the soul and the well being of the mind, that its flood of errors cease and its defect be fixed, lest it become worse. The cessation of the cause of fault and evil is perfect salvation, and the restoration of the unharmed vigour of the soul. Saint Ambrose, On Noah and the Ark, from Chapter 17 1 Gen. 8.2 2 Lev 13.5-6