Ambrose of Milan

Are you ashamed, sir, to do as David did—David, the king and the prophet, the ancestor of Christ according to the flesh? He was told of the rich man who had a great number of flocks and yet, when a guest arrived, took the poor man's one ewe lamb and killed it; and when he recognized that he was himself condemned by the story, he said, "I have sinned against the Lord." Therefore do not take it ill, sir, if what was said to King David is said to you, "You are the man." For if you listen with attention and say, "I have sinned against the Lord," if you say, in the words of the royal prophet, "O come, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker," then it will be said to you also, "Because you repented, the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die."