Euebius of Caesarea via Ambrose: Grace is before Law

From Ambrose, Commentary on Luke: Now, why was it that one put his hand out of the womb first, and the other preceded him in the order of their birth, if not because what is being portrayed in the mystery of the twins is the life of the twin peoples? One is the life according to the law, the other that according to faith; one according to the letter, the other according to grace. Grace is before the law, faith is before the letter. And the reason that the type of grace put his hand out first is that grace's way of life, the one which was in Job, Melchisedech, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who lived by faith without the law, came first and foremost. "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness;" because the holy patriarchs, coming before the law and unfettered by the bonds of its commandments, shone with a free grace, like us. Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 263 - 339), Gospel Problems and Solutions, Ed. Roger Pearse, p. 275, Chieftan Publishing (Ipswich, 2010), David J.D. Miller, section translator.