Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Psalms 18

There are 104 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 17, footnote 17 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Clement of Rome (HTML)

First Epistle to the Corinthians (HTML)

Chapter XLVI.—Let us cleave to the righteous: your strife is pernicious. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 205 (In-Text, Margin)

Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, “Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy.” And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, “With a harmless man thou shalt prove thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show thyself perverse.”[Psalms 18:25-26] Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 142, footnote 10 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Barnabas (HTML)

The Epistle of Barnabas (HTML)

Chapter IX.—The spiritual meaning of circumcision. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1548 (In-Text, Margin)

He speaks moreover concerning our ears, how He hath circumcised both them and our heart. The Lord saith in the prophet, “In the hearing of the ear they obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:44] And again He saith, “By hearing, those shall hear who are afar off; they shall know what I have done.” And, “Be ye circumcised in your hearts, saith the Lord.” And again He says, “Hear, O Israel, for these things saith the Lord thy God.” And once more the Spirit of the Lord proclaims, “Who is he that wishes to live for ever? By hearing let him hear the voice of my servant.” And again He saith, “Hear, O heaven, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 208, footnote 7 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter XXVIII.—True righteousness is obtained by Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2023 (In-Text, Margin)

... by Malachi, one of the twelve prophets, ‘I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord; and I shall not accept your sacrifices at your hands: for from the rising of the sun unto its setting My name shall be glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place a sacrifice is offered unto My name, even a pure sacrifice: for My name is honoured among the Gentiles, saith the Lord; but ye profane it.’ And by David He said, ‘A people whom I have not known, served Me; at the hearing of the ear they obeyed Me.’[Psalms 18:43]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 525, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XLI.—Those persons who do not believe in God, but who are disobedient, are angels and sons of the devil, not indeed by nature, but by imitation. Close of this book, and scope of the succeeding one. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4439 (In-Text, Margin)

... created by God. But with respect to obedience and doctrine we are not all the sons of God: those only are so who believe in Him and do His will. And those who do not believe, and do not obey His will, are sons and angels of the devil, because they do the works of the devil. And that such is the case He has declared in Isaiah: “I have begotten and brought up children, but they have rebelled against Me.” And again, where He says that these children are aliens: “Strange children have lied unto Me.”[Psalms 18:45] According to nature, then, they are [His] children, because they have been so created; but with regard to their works, they are not His children.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 230, footnote 1 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter IX.—That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1237 (In-Text, Margin)

Accusation is censure of wrong-doers. This mode of instruction He employs by David, when He says: “The people whom I knew not served me, and at the hearing of the ear obeyed me. Sons of strangers lied to me, and halted from their ways.”[Psalms 18:43-45] And by Jeremiah: “And I gave her a writing of divorcement, and covenant-breaking Judah feared not.” And again: “And the house of Israel disregarded Me; and the house of Judah lied to the Lord.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 456, footnote 5 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter VIII.—The Use of the Symbolic Style by Poets and Philosophers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3043 (In-Text, Margin)

... that we may comprehend these things. And when he says, ‘Thou shalt not eat the eagle, the hawk, the kite, and the crow;’ he says, ‘Thou shalt not adhere to or become like those men who know not how to procure for themselves subsistence by toil and sweat, but live by plunder, and lawlessly.’ For the eagle indicates robbery, the hawk injustice, and the raven greed. It is also written, ‘With the innocent man thou wilt be innocent, and with the chosen choice, and with the perverse thou shall pervert.’[Psalms 18:25-26] It is incumbent on us to cleave to the saints, because they that cleave to them shall be sanctified.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 507, footnote 6 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XV.—Different Degrees of Knowledge. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3419 (In-Text, Margin)

... showing that the Gnostic alone is able to understand and explain the things spoken by the Spirit obscurely. “And he who understands in that time shall hold his peace,” says the Scripture, plainly in the way of declaring them to the unworthy. For the Lord says, “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,” declaring that hearing and understanding belong not to all. To the point David writes: “Dark water is in the clouds of the skies. At the gleam before Him the clouds passed, hail and coals of fire;”[Psalms 18:11-12] showing that the holy words are hidden. He intimates that transparent and resplendent to the Gnostics, like the innocuous hail, they are sent down from God; but that they are dark to the multitude, like extinguished coals out of the fire, which, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 584, footnote 6 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3827 (In-Text, Margin)

... goodness, which is immoveable towards those who have obediently believed. There shall not then pass away from the law neither the iota nor the tittle; that is, neither the promise that applies to the straight in the way, nor the punishment threatened against those that diverge. For the Lord is good to the straight in the way; but “those that turn aside after their crooked ways He shall lead forth with those that work iniquity.” “And with the innocent He is innocent, and with the froward He is froward;”[Psalms 18:26] and to the crooked He sends crooked ways.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 154, footnote 16 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1181 (In-Text, Margin)

... “lances,” and to remodel the pristine execution of “war” upon the rivals and foes of the law into the pacific actions of “ploughing” and “tilling” the land. Therefore as we have shown above that the coming cessation of the old law and of the carnal circumcision was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and the spiritual circumcision has shone out into the voluntary obediences of peace. For “a people,” he says, “whom I knew not hath served me; in obedience of the ear it hath obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:43-44] Prophets made the announcement. But what is the “people” which was ignorant of God, but ours, who in days bygone knew not God? and who, in the hearing of the ear, gave heed to Him, but we, who, forsaking idols, have been converted to ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 468, footnote 14 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion's Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressions of the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testament. Collation of Many Passages of This Epistle, with Precepts and Statements in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophets. All Alike Teach Us the Will and Purpose of the Creator. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6020 (In-Text, Margin)

... mention of the captivity from the same prophets as suggested to him his precepts likewise: “Putting away lying,” (says he,) “speak every man truth with his neighbour;” and again, using the very words in which the Psalm expresses his meaning, (he says,) “Be ye angry, and sin not;” “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” “Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness;” for (in the Psalm it is written,) “With the holy man thou shalt be holy, and with the perverse thou shalt be perverse;”[Psalms 18:26] and, “Thou shalt put away evil from among you.” Again, “Go ye out from the midst of them; touch not the unclean thing; separate yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord.” (The apostle says further:) “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 56, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Exhortation to Chastity. (HTML)

Application of the Subject.  Advantages of Widowhood. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 562 (In-Text, Margin)

... blush, prayer blushes. It is the spirit which conducts prayer to God. If the spirit be self-accused of a blushing conscience, how will it have the hardihood to conduct prayer to the altar; seeing that, if prayer blush, the holy minister (of prayer) itself is suffused too? For there is a prophetic utterance of the Old Testament: “Holy shall ye be, because God is holy;” and again: “With the holy thou shalt be sanctified; and with the innocent man thou shalt be innocent; and with the elect, elect.”[Psalms 18:25-26] For it is our duty so to walk in the Lord’s discipline as is “worthy,” not according to the filthy concupiscences of the flesh. For so, too, does the apostle say, that “to savour according to the flesh is death, but to savour according to the spirit ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 94, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Answer to a Psychical Objection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 918 (In-Text, Margin)

... not sat with the conclave of vanity; and with them who act iniquitously will I not enter”—this (has to do with “ the church ” of such as act ill—“and with the impious will I not sit;” and, “I will wash with the innocent mine hands, and Thine altar will I surround, Lord” —as being “a host in himself”—inasmuch as indeed “With an holy (man), holy Thou wilt be; and with an innocent man, innocent Thou wilt be; and with an elect, elect Thou wilt be; and with a perverse, perverse Thou wilt be.”[Psalms 18:25-26] And elsewhere: “But to the sinner saith the Lord, Why expoundest thou my righteous acts, and takest up my testament through thy mouth? If thou sawest a thief, thou rannest with him; and with adulterers thy portion thou madest.” Deriving his ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 94, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Answer to a Psychical Objection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 918 (In-Text, Margin)

... not sat with the conclave of vanity; and with them who act iniquitously will I not enter”—this (has to do with “ the church ” of such as act ill—“and with the impious will I not sit;” and, “I will wash with the innocent mine hands, and Thine altar will I surround, Lord” —as being “a host in himself”—inasmuch as indeed “With an holy (man), holy Thou wilt be; and with an innocent man, innocent Thou wilt be; and with an elect, elect Thou wilt be; and with a perverse, perverse Thou wilt be.”[Psalms 18:26-27] And elsewhere: “But to the sinner saith the Lord, Why expoundest thou my righteous acts, and takest up my testament through thy mouth? If thou sawest a thief, thou rannest with him; and with adulterers thy portion thou madest.” Deriving his ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 582, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4371 (In-Text, Margin)

... were not, let us set forth a few points, for the sake of comparison with these plausible declarations of Plato, which did not however, dispose the philosopher to worship in a manner worthy of him the Maker of all things. For he ought not to have adulterated or polluted this worship with what we call “idolatry,” but what the many would describe by the term “superstition.” Now, according to a Hebrew figure of speech, it is said of God in the eighteenth Psalm, that “He made darkness His secret place,”[Psalms 18:11] to signify that those notions which should be worthily entertained of God are invisible and unknowable, because God conceals Himself in darkness, as it were, from those who cannot endure the splendours of His knowledge, or are incapable of looking ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 513, footnote 12 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
That the Gentiles should rather believe in Christ. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3904 (In-Text, Margin)

... “Behold, the people shall rise up as a lion-like people.” In Deuteronomy: “Ye Gentiles shall be for the head; but this unbelieving people shall be for the tail.” Also in Jeremiah: “Hear the sound of the trumpet. And they said, We will not hear: for this cause the nations shall hear, and they who shall feed their cattle among them.” In the seventeenth Psalm: “Thou shalt establish me the head of the nations: a people whom I have not known have served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:43-44] Concerning this very thing the Lord says in Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou wentest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee, and established thee as a prophet among the nations.” Also in Isaiah: “Behold, I ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 554, footnote 13 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
That we are to live with the good, but to avoid the evil. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4579 (In-Text, Margin)

... immortality.” Also in the same place: “Be thou far from the man who has the power to slay, and thou shalt not suspect fear.” Also in the same place: “Blessed is he who findeth a true friend, and who speaketh righteousness to the listening ear.” Also in the same place: “Hedge thine ears with thorns, and hear not a wicked tongue.” Also in the seventeenth Psalm: “With the righteous Thou shalt be justified; and with the innocent man Thou shalt be innocent; and with the froward man Thou shalt be froward.”[Psalms 18:25-26] Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “Evil communications corrupt good dispositions.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 65, footnote 3 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Gregory Thaumaturgus. (HTML)

Dubious or Spurious Writings. (HTML)

Four Homilies. (HTML)
On the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary. Discourse Second. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 544 (In-Text, Margin)

... and heir. For when He had found the same labouring painfully in the letter and the law, He called him by grace. It is such an Israel, therefore, that He called and hath holpen in remembrance of His mercy. “As He spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever.” In these few words is comprehended the whole mystery of the economy. For, with the purpose of saving the race of men, and fulfilling the covenant that was made with our fathers, Christ has once “bowed the heavens and come down.”[Psalms 18:9] And thus He shows Himself to us as we are capable of receiving Him, in order that we might have power to see Him, and handle Him, and hear Him when the speaketh. And on this account did God the Word deem it meet to take to Himself the flesh and the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 392, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3091 (In-Text, Margin)

... the immensity of his joy, chant ed his hymn of thanksgiving, and openly proclaimed the “Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel.” Not even then were they willing to hear what was placed within their hearing, and held in veneration by the heavenly beings themselves; wherefore the house in which they boasted was filled with smoke. Now smoke is a sign and sure evidence of wrath; as it is written, “There went up a smoke in His anger, and fire from His countenance devoured;”[Psalms 18:8] and in another place, “Amongst the disobedient people shall the fire burn,” which plainly, in the revered Gospels, our Lord signified, when He said to the Jews, “Behold your house is left unto you desolate.” Also, in another place, “The king sent ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 109, footnote 16 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Lactantius (HTML)

The Divine Institutes (HTML)

Book IV. Of True Wisdom and Religion (HTML)
Chap. XI.—Of the cause of the incarnation of Christ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 588 (In-Text, Margin)

... transfer the sacred religion of God to the Gentiles, that is, to those who were ignorant of God, and might teach them righteousness, which the perfidious people had cast aside. And He had long before threatened that He would do this, as the prophet Malachi shows, saying: “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord, and I will not accept an offering from your hands; for from the rising of the sun even unto its setting, my name shall be great among the Gentiles.” David also in the seventeenth Psalm[Psalms 18:43] says: “Thou wilt make me the head of the heathen; a people whom I have not known shall serve me.” Isaiah also thus speaks: “I come to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and see my glory; and I will send among them a sign, and I will ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 416, footnote 7 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)

Sec. VI.—The Disputes of the Faithful to Be Settled by the Decisions of the Bishop, and the Faithful to Be Reconciled (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2789 (In-Text, Margin)

Do thou therefore, O bishop, together with thy subordinate clergy, endeavour rightly to divide the word of truth. For the Lord says: “If you walk cross-grained to me, I will walk cross-grained to you.” And elsewhere: “With the holy Thou wilt be holy, and with the perfect man Thou wilt be perfect, and with the froward Thou wilt be froward.”[Psalms 18:26] Walk therefore holily, that you may rather appear worthy of praise from the Lord than of complaint from the adversary.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 446, footnote 21 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book V (HTML)

Sec. III.—On Feast Days and Fast Days (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3116 (In-Text, Margin)

... have also killed the stewards of the Lord of the vineyard, —one with stones, another with the sword; one they sawed asunder, another they slew in the holy place, “between the temple and the altar;” nay, at last they “cast the Heir Himself out of the vineyard, and slew Him.” And by them He was rejected as an unprofitable stone, but by you was received as the corner-stone. Wherefore He says concerning you: “A people whom I knew not have served me, and at the hearing of the ear have they obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:43-44]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 48, footnote 8 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 260 (In-Text, Margin)

XLI. Scripture says that infants which are exposed are delivered to a guardian angel, and that by him they are trained and reared. “And they shall be,” it says, “as the faithful in this world of a hundred years of age.” Wherefore also Peter, in the Revelation, says: “And a flash of fire, leaping from those infants, and striking the eyes of the women.” For the just shines: forth as a spark in a reed, and will judge the nations.XLII. “With the holy Thou wilt be holy.”[Psalms 18:26] “According to thy praise is thy name glorified;” God being glorified through our knowledge, and through the inheritance. Thus also it is said, “The Lord liveth,” and “The Lord hath risen.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 48, footnote 10 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 262 (In-Text, Margin)

... years of age.” Wherefore also Peter, in the Revelation, says: “And a flash of fire, leaping from those infants, and striking the eyes of the women.” For the just shines: forth as a spark in a reed, and will judge the nations.XLII. “With the holy Thou wilt be holy.” “According to thy praise is thy name glorified;” God being glorified through our knowledge, and through the inheritance. Thus also it is said, “The Lord liveth,” and “The Lord hath risen.”XLIII. “A people whom I knew not hath served me;”[Psalms 18:43] —by covenant I knew them not, alien sons, who desired what pertained to another.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 48, footnote 11 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 263 (In-Text, Margin)

... eyes of the women.” For the just shines: forth as a spark in a reed, and will judge the nations.XLII. “With the holy Thou wilt be holy.” “According to thy praise is thy name glorified;” God being glorified through our knowledge, and through the inheritance. Thus also it is said, “The Lord liveth,” and “The Lord hath risen.”XLIII. “A people whom I knew not hath served me;” —by covenant I knew them not, alien sons, who desired what pertained to another.XLIV. “Magnifying the salvations of His king.”[Psalms 18:50] All the faithful are called kings, brought to royalty through inheritance.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 49, footnote 6 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 274 (In-Text, Margin)

... on earth by angels were done by the first-created angels to the glory of God.LII. It is the Lord that is principally denominated the Heavens, and then the First-created; and after these also the holy men before the Law, as the patriarchs, and Moses, and the prophets; then also the apostles. “And the firmament showeth His handiwork.” He applies the term “firmament” to God, the passionless and immoveable, as also elsewhere the same David says, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength and my refuge.”[Psalms 18:1] Accordingly, the firmament itself shows forth the work of His hands,—that is, shows and manifests the work of His angels. For He shows forth and manifests those whom He hath made.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 64, footnote 6 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Two Epistles Concerning Virginity. (HTML)

The Second Epistle of the Same Clement. (HTML)

David's Sin, So Admonitory to Us Weak Men. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 480 (In-Text, Margin)

... was cleansing herself and washing unclothed. This woman the holy man saw, and was thoroughly captivated with desire by the sight of her. See, then, what evils he committed because of a woman, and how this righteous man sinned, and gave command that the husband of this woman should be killed in battle. Ye have seen what wicked schemes he laid and executed, and how, because of his passion for a woman, he perpetrated a murder— he, David, who was called “the anointed of the Lord.”[Psalms 18:50] Be admonished, O man: for, if such men as these have been brought to ruin through women, what is thy righteousness, or what art thou among the holy, that thou consortest with women and with maidens day and night, with much silliness, without ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 109, footnote 9 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)

The Recognitions of Clement. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
The Serpent, the Author of Polytheism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 651 (In-Text, Margin)

... Jews, ‘The Lord our God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords.’ Him alone the Scripture also commands to be worshipped, saying, ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve;’ and, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.’ Yea, also the saints, filled with the Spirit of God, and bedewed with the drops of His mercy, cried out, saying, ‘Who is like unto Thee among the gods? O Lord, who is like unto Thee?’ And again, ‘Who is God, but the Lord; and who is God, but our Lord?’[Psalms 18:31] Therefore Moses, when he saw that the people were advancing, by degrees initiated them in the understanding of the monarchy and the faith of one God, as he says in the following words: ‘Thou shalt not make mention of the names of other gods;’ ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 585, footnote 3 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

Revelation of John. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2592 (In-Text, Margin)

... and to receive judgment? And I heard a voice saying to me, The unclean spirits, along with the adversary. I bid them go into outer darkness, where the depths are. And I said: Lord, and in what place does it lie? And I heard a voice saying to me: Hear, righteous John. As big a stone as a man of thirty years old can roll, and let go down into the depth, even falling down for twenty years will not arrive at the bottom of Hades; as the prophet David said before, And He made darkness His secret place.[Psalms 18:11]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 585, footnote 8 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

Revelation of John. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2597 (In-Text, Margin)

... again I said: Lord, and after them whom wilt Thou judge? And I heard a voice saying to me: Hear, righteous John. Then the race of the Hebrews shall be examined, who nailed me to the tree like a malefactor. And I said: And what punishment will these get, and in what place, seeing that they did such things to Thee? And I heard a voice saying to me: They shall go away into Tartarus, as the prophet David foretold, They cried out, and there was none to save; to the Lord, and He did not hearken to them.[Psalms 18:41] And again the Apostle Paul said: As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in law shall be judged by means of law.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 632, footnote 3 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

The Decretals. (HTML)

The Epistles of Pope Fabian. (HTML)

To All the Ministers of the Church Catholic. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2838 (In-Text, Margin)

... and rejected, if they show themselves injurious. For the laws of the world, no less than those of the Church, do not admit the injurious, but reject them. Whence it is written, “The mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.” And the Lord, speaking by the prophet, saith, “With the holy thou wilt show thyself holy; and with the froward thou wilt show thyself froward; and with the excellent thou wilt show thyself excellent (electus); and with the innocent man thou wilt show thyself innocent.”[Psalms 18:25-26] And the apostle says, “Evil communications corrupt good manners.” Wherefore, as has already been indicated, the wicked are always to be avoided and shunned, and the good and rightly-disposed are to be stedfastly followed, in order that, as far as ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 761, footnote 8 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Remains of the Second and Third Centuries. (HTML)

Melito, the Philosopher. (HTML)

From 'The Key.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3664 (In-Text, Margin)

The feet of the Lord —His immoveableness and eternity. In the Psalm: “And thick darkness was under His feet.”[Psalms 18:9]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 243, footnote 9 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

The Epistles of Clement. (HTML)

The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. (HTML)

Let Us Cleave to the Righteous:  Your Strife is Pernicious. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4248 (In-Text, Margin)

Such examples, therefore, brethren, it is right that we should follow; since it is written, “Cleave to the holy, for those that cleave to them shall [themselves] be made holy.” And again, in another place, [the Scripture] saith, “With a harmless man thou shalt prove thyself harmless, and with an elect man thou shalt be elect, and with a perverse man thou shalt show thyself perverse.”[Psalms 18:25-26] Let us cleave, therefore, to the innocent and righteous, since these are the elect of God. Why are there strifes, and tumults, and divisions, and schisms, and wars among you? Have we not [all] one God and one Christ? Is there not one Spirit of grace poured out upon us? And have we not one calling in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 339, footnote 3 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
There is a Divine Darkness Which is Not Evil, and Which Ultimately Becomes Light. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4745 (In-Text, Margin)

... every time it is mentioned, in a bad sense; Scripture speaks of it sometimes in a good sense. The heterodox have failed to observe this distinction, and have accordingly adopted most shameful doctrines about the Maker of the world, and have indeed revolted from Him, and addicted themselves to fictions and myths. We must, therefore, show how and when the name of darkness is taken in a good sense. Darkness and clouds and tempest are said in Exodus to be round about God, and in the seventeenth Psalm,[Psalms 18:11] “He made darkness His secret place, His tent round about Him, dark water in clouds of the air.” Indeed, if one considers the multitude of speculation and knowledge about God, beyond the power of human nature to take in, beyond the power, perhaps, of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 46, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters. (HTML)

The Majesty of God is Supreme, and His Virtues Inexplicable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 134 (In-Text, Margin)

4. What, then, art Thou, O my God—what, I ask, but the Lord God? For who is Lord but the Lord? or who is God save our God?[Psalms 18:31] Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent; most piteous and most just; most hidden and most near; most beauteous and most strong, stable, yet contained of none; unchangeable, yet changing all things; never new, never old; making all things new, yet bringing old age upon the proud and they know it not; always working, yet ever at rest; gathering, yet needing nothing; sustaining, pervading, and protecting; creating, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 76, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. (HTML)

While Writing, Being Blinded by Corporeal Images, He Failed to Recognise the Spiritual Nature of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 332 (In-Text, Margin)

... depraved, and carry itself insolently and mutinously; and in acts of passion, if that affection of the soul whereby carnal pleasures are imbibed is unrestrained,—so do errors and false opinions contaminate the life, if the reasonable soul itself be depraved, as it was at that time in me, who was ignorant that it must be enlightened by another light that it may be partaker of truth, seeing that itself is not that nature of truth. “For Thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness;[Psalms 18:28] and “of His fulness have all we received,” for “that was the true Light which lighted every man that cometh into the world;” for in Thee there is “no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 117, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. (HTML)

He, Now Given to Divine Things, and Yet Entangled by the Lusts of Love, Consults Simplicianus in Reference to the Renewing of His Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 602 (In-Text, Margin)

... not, out of the good things which are seen, find out Him who is good. But I was no longer in that vanity; I had surmounted it, and by the united testimony of Thy whole creation had found Thee, our Creator, and Thy Word, God with Thee, and together with Thee and the Holy Ghost one God, by whom Thou createdst all things. There is yet another kind of impious men, who “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” Into this also had I fallen; but Thy right hand held me up,[Psalms 18:35] and bore me away, and Thou placedst me where I might recover. For Thou hast said unto man, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;” and desire not to seem wise, because, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” But I had now ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 159, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and men. (HTML)

A Third Kind is ‘Pride’ Which is Pleasing to Man, Not to God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 950 (In-Text, Margin)

59. The desire to be feared and loved of men, with no other view than that I may experience a joy therein which is no joy, is a miserable life, and unseemly ostentation. Hence especially it arises that we do not love Thee, nor devoutly fear Thee. And therefore dost Thou resist the proud, but givest grace unto the humble; and Thou thunderest upon the ambitious designs of the world, and “the foundations of the hills” tremble.[Psalms 18:7] Because now certain offices of human society render it necessary to be loved and feared of men, the adversary of our true blessedness presseth hard upon us, everywhere scattering his snares of “well done, well done;” that while acquiring them eagerly, we may be caught unawares, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 192, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

That Nothing Whatever, Short of God, Can Yield to the Rational Creature a Happy Rest. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1190 (In-Text, Margin)

... changeable. Otherwise, even the heaven of heavens itself would have been a darksome deep, whereas now it is light in the Lord. For even in that wretched restlessness of the spirits who fell away, and, when unclothed of the garments of Thy light, discovered their own darkness, dost Thou sufficiently disclose how noble Thou hast made the rational creature; to which nought which is inferior to Thee will suffice to yield a happy rest, and so not even herself. For Thou, O our God, shalt enlighten our darkness;[Psalms 18:28] from Thee are derived our garments of light, and then shall our darkness be as the noonday. Give Thyself unto me, O my God, restore Thyself unto me; behold, I love Thee, and if it be too little, let me love Thee more strongly. I cannot measure my ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 283, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)

Of the Nature of the Two Cities, the Earthly and the Heavenly. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 764 (In-Text, Margin)

... of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.” In the one, the princes and the nations it subdues are ruled by the love of ruling; in the other, the princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter obeying, while the former take thought for all. The one delights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its rulers; the other says to its God, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.”[Psalms 18:1] And therefore the wise men of the one city, living according to man, have sought for profit to their own bodies or souls, or both, and those who have known God “glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 333, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

The Reason Why Jacob Was Also Called Israel. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 966 (In-Text, Margin)

... God, which will at last be the reward of all the saints. The angel also touched him on the breadth of the thigh when he was overcoming him, and in that way made him lame. So that Jacob was at one and the same time blessed and lame: blessed in those among that people who believed in Christ, and lame in the unbelieving. For the breadth of the thigh is the multitude of the family. For there are many of that race of whom it was prophetically said beforehand, “And they have halted in their paths.”[Psalms 18:45]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 354, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

Of the Things Pertaining to Christ and the Church, Said Either Openly or Tropically in the 45th Psalm. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1087 (In-Text, Margin)

... Israelites only in the flesh and not by faith, enemies also of this great King Himself, and of His queen. For Christ, having come to them, and been slain by them, has the more become the King of others, whom He did not see in the flesh. Whence our King Himself says through the prophecy of a certain psalm, “Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; Thou wilt make me head of the nations. A people whom I have not known hath served me: in the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:43] Therefore this people of the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily presence, yet has believed in that Christ as announced to it; so that it might be said of it with good reason, “In the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me,” for “faith is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 449, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)

That in the Books of the Old Testament, Where It is Said that God Shall Judge the World, the Person of Christ is Not Explicitly Indicated, But It Plainly Appears from Some Passages in Which the Lord God Speaks that Christ is Meant. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1482 (In-Text, Margin)

... of Israel,” which He here compared to the pupil of God’s eye, to signify the profoundest love. And to this class of sheep the apostles themselves belonged. But after the glory, to wit, of His resurrection,—for before it happened the evangelist said that “Jesus was not yet glorified,” —He was sent unto the nations in the persons of His apostles; and thus the saying of the psalm was fulfilled, “Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people; Thou wilt set me as the head of the nations,”[Psalms 18:43] so that those who had spoiled the Israelites, and whom the Israelites had served when they were subdued by them, were not themselves to be spoiled in the same fashion, but were in their own persons to become the spoil of the Israelites. For this had ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 157, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God. (HTML)
Why This Opinion is to Be Rejected. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 751 (In-Text, Margin)

... true God, because the Trinity itself is the one true God? Such expressions are innumerable in the Scriptures, but it will suffice to have produced these. It is so said in the Psalms, “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord; Thy blessing is upon Thy people;” as if the words were spoken to some one else, not to Him of whom it had been said, “Salvation belongeth unto the Lord.” And again, “For by Thee,” he says, “I shall be delivered from temptation, and by hoping in my God I shall leap over the wall;”[Psalms 18:29] as if he said to some one else, “By Thee I shall be delivered from temptation.” And again, “In the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under Thee;” as if he were to say, in the heart of Thy enemies. For he had said to that King, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 494, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Against Lying. (HTML)

Section 27 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2433 (In-Text, Margin)

... And He did on this account feign that He knew not, that He might signify somewhat else by that His seeming ignorance: and since this signification was truthful, it was assuredly not a lie. For those were signified, whether by her which had the issue, or by him which had been four days dead, whom even He Who knew all things did in a certain sort know not. For both she bore the type of the people of the Gentiles, whereof the prophecy had gone before, “A people whom I have not known hath served Me:”[Psalms 18:44] and Lazarus, removed from the living, did as it were in that place lie in significative similitude where He lay, Whose voice that is, “I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes.” And with that intent, as though it were not known by Christ, both who ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 274, footnote 12 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 797 (In-Text, Margin)

... are ascribed to God. For we read, "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all;" and again, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts." So also, in the Old Testament, the name "Brightness of eternal light" is given to the wisdom of God, which certainly was not created, for by it all things were made; and of the light which exists only as the production of this wisdom it is said, "Thou wilt light my candle, O Lord; my God, Thou wilt enlighten my darkness."[Psalms 18:28] In the same way, in the beginning, when darkness was over the deep, God said, "Let there be light, and there was light," which only the light-giving light, which is God Himself, could have made.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 307, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 946 (In-Text, Margin)

... repentance and the remission of sins be preached among all nations in His name, beginning at Jerusalem." In the dress Tamar put on there is a confession of sins; and Tamar sitting in this dress at the gate of Ænan or Ænaim, which means fountain, is a type of the Church called from among the nations. She ran as a hart to the springs of water, to meet with the seed of Abraham; and there she is made fruitful by one who knows her not, as it is foretold, "A people whom I have not known shall serve me."[Psalms 18:43] Tamar received under her disguise a ring, a bracelet, a staff; she is sealed in her calling, adorned in her justification, raised in her glorification. For "whom He predestinated, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 637, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

The Correction of the Donatists. (HTML)

Chapter 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2493 (In-Text, Margin)

... we shall find that the handmaid rather persecuted Sarah by her haughtiness, than Sarah the handmaid by her severity: for the handmaid was doing wrong to her mistress; the mistress only imposed on her a proper discipline in her haughtiness. Again I ask, if good and holy men never inflict persecution upon any one, but only suffer it, whose words they think that those are in the psalm where we read, "I have pursued mine enemies, and overtaken them; neither did I turn again till they were consumed?"[Psalms 18:37] If, therefore, we wish either to declare or to recognize the truth, there is a persecution of unrighteousness, which the impious inflict upon the Church of Christ; and there is a righteous persecution, which the Church of Christ inflicts upon the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 166, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness. (HTML)

Who May Be Said to Walk Without Spot; Damnable and Venial Sins. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1442 (In-Text, Margin)

... that is offered to you: . . . as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.’ Whence blessed David likewise says: ‘O Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle, or who shall rest on Thy holy mountain? He that walketh without blame, and worketh righteousness.’ And in another passage: ‘I shall be blameless with Him.’[Psalms 18:23] And yet again: ‘Blessed are the blameless in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.’ To the same effect it is written in Solomon: ‘The Lord loveth holy hearts, and all they that are blameless are acceptable unto Him.’” Now some of these passages ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 408, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)

Why One of the Covenants is Called Old, the Other New. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2733 (In-Text, Margin)

... the bond of the law, and is in bondage with her children. In the time, then, of the old testament, we say that the Holy Spirit, in those who even then were the children of promise according to Isaac, was not only an assistant, which these men think is sufficient for their opinion, but also a bestower of virtue; and this they deny, attributing it rather to their free will, in contradiction to those fathers who knew how to cry unto God with truthful piety, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.”[Psalms 18:1]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 288, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

Again, on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2085 (In-Text, Margin)

... Apostle, “How shall they call on Him, in whom they have not believed?” Therefore have you first learned the Creed, where is a brief and sublime rule of your faith; brief in the number of its words, sublime in the weight of its contents. But the prayer which you receive to-day to be learned by heart, and to be repeated eight days hence, was dictated (as you heard when the Gospel was being read) by the Lord Himself to His disciples, and came from them unto us, since “their sound went into all the earth.”[Psalms 18:5]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 313, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xi. 25, ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2283 (In-Text, Margin)

... themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Before they professed this, what do we find? “And their foolish heart was darkened.” Acknowledge then that thou art not to thyself a light. At best thou art but an eye, thou art not the light. And what good is even an open and a sound eye, if the light be wanting? Acknowledge therefore that of thine own self thou art no light to thyself; and cry out as it is written, “Thou, Lord, wilt light my candle: Thou wilt enlighten, O Lord, my darkness with Thy Light.”[Psalms 18:28] For myself I was all darkness; but Thou art the Light that scattereth the darkness, and enlighteneth me; of myself I am no light to myself, yea I have no portion of light but in Thee.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 313, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xi. 25, ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2287 (In-Text, Margin)

... themselves to be light, and were darkness; and who because they were darkness, and thought themselves to be light, could not even be enlightened. But they who were darkness, and confessed that they were darkness, were little babes, not great; were humble, not proud. Rightly therefore did they say, “O Lord, Thou wilt lighten my candle.” They knew themselves, they praised the Lord. They did not stray from the way of salvation; “They in praise called upon the Lord, and they were saved from their enemies.”[Psalms 18:3]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 96, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter III. 29–36. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 319 (In-Text, Margin)

... speaking of earth. God’s grace is apart by itself, the nature of man apart by itself. Do but examine the nature of man: man is born and grows, he learns the customs of men. What does he know but earth, of earth? He speaks the things of men, knows the things of men, minds the things of men; carnal, he judges carnally, conjectures carnally: lo! it is man all over. Let the grace of God come, and enlighten his darkness, as it saith, “Thou wilt lighten my candle, O Lord; my God, enlighten my darkness;”[Psalms 18:28] let it take the mind of man, and turn it to its own light; immediately he begins to say, as the apostle says, “Yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me;” and, “Now I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” That is to say, “He must ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 192, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter VII. 25–36. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 609 (In-Text, Margin)

... was, whence Christ never withdrew, whither He was to return, where He was all the while dwelling. How was it possible for the human heart to conceive this, least of all to explain it with the tongue? This, then, they in no wise understood; and yet by occasion of this they foretold our salvation, that the Lord would go to the dispersion of the Gentiles, and would fulfill that which they read but did not understand. “A people whom I have not known served me, and by the hearing of the ear obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:44] They before whose eyes He was, heard Him not; those heard Him in whose ears He was sounded.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 329, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter XIV. 10–14. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1291 (In-Text, Margin)

... that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.” And so He promised that He Himself would also do those greater works. Let not the servant exalt himself above his Lord, or the disciple above his Master. He says that they will do greater works than He doeth Himself; but it is all by His doing such in or by them, and not as if they did them of themselves. Hence the song that is addressed to Him, “I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.”[Psalms 18:1] But what, then, are those greater works? Was it that their very shadow, as they themselves passed by, healed the sick? For it is a mightier thing for a shadow, than for the hem of a garment, to possess the power of healing. The one work was done by ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 22, footnote 14 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 229 (In-Text, Margin)

7. It can be taken also in this sense: “Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger, and be exalted in the borders of mine enemies:” that is, arise in Thine anger, and let not mine enemies understand Thee; so that to “be exalted,” should be this, become high, that Thou mayest not be understood; which has reference to the silence spoken of above. For it is of this exaltation thus said in another Psalm, “And He ascended upon Cherubim, and flew:” and, “He made darkness His secret place.”[Psalms 18:10-11] In which exaltation, or concealment, when for their sins’ desert they shall not understand Thee, who shall crucify Thee, “the congregation” of believers “shall surround Thee.” For in His very humiliation He was exalted, that is, was not understood. So that, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 23, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 238 (In-Text, Margin)

... me,” it can refer not only to harmlessness, but can be understood also with reference to righteousness; that the sense should be this, Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to my harmlessness, which righteousness and harmlessness is upon me. By which addition he shows that this very thing, that the soul is righteous and harmless, she has not by herself, but by God who giveth brightness and light. For of this he says in another Psalm, “Thou, O Lord, wilt light my candle.”[Psalms 18:28] And of John it is said, that “he was not the light, but bore witness of the light.” “He was a burning and shining candle.” That light then, whence souls, as candles, are kindled, shines forth not with borrowed, but with original, brightness, which ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 29, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 295 (In-Text, Margin)

... declarations of all the Scriptures: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise,” that they should begin by belief in the Scriptures, who would arrive at the knowledge of Thy glory: which hath been raised above the Scriptures, in that it passeth by and transcends the announcements of all words and languages. Therefore hath God lowered the Scriptures even to the capacity of babes and sucklings, as it is sung in another Psalm, “And He lowered the heaven, and came down:”[Psalms 18:9] and this did He because of the enemies, who through pride of talkativeness, being enemies of the cross of Christ, even when they do speak some truth, still cannot profit babes and sucklings. So is the enemy and defender destroyed, who, whether he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 67, footnote 13 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 678 (In-Text, Margin)

To the end, the psalm of the canticle[Psalms 18] of the dedication of the house, of David himself.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 153, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XLV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1446 (In-Text, Margin)

... address them as “fathers,” they may address us as children: and it is one father’s voice addressing one daughter. “Hearken, O daughter, and see.” “Hear” first; afterward “see.” For they came to us with the Gospel; and that has been preached to us, which as yet we do not see, and which on hearing of it we believed, which by believing it, we shall come to see: even as the Bridegroom Himself speaks in the Prophet, “A people whom I have not known served me. In the hearing of me with the ear it obeyed me.”[Psalms 18:43-44] What is meant by on “hearing of me with the ear”? That they did not “see.” The Jews saw Him, and crucified Him; the Gentiles saw Him not, and believed. Let the Queen who comes from the Gentiles come in “the vesture of gold, clothed with divers ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 157, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XLVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1483 (In-Text, Margin)

... carrying Him? The Apostles, to whom He had said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and it shall be done:” that is, through your most faithful preaching it shall come to pass, that this mountain, that is, I Myself, be preached among the Gentiles, be glorified among the Gentiles, be acknowledged among the Gentiles, and that be fulfilled which was predicted of Me, “A people whom I have not known shall serve Me.”[Psalms 18:43]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 279, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2632 (In-Text, Margin)

17. “I will render to Thee my vows, which my lips have distinguished” (ver. 14). What is the distinction in vows? This is the distinction, that thyself thou censure, Him thou praise: perceive thyself to be a creature, Him the Creator: thyself darkness, Him the Enlightener, to whom thou shouldest say, “Thou shalt light my lamp, O Lord my God, Thou shalt enlighten my darkness.”[Psalms 18:28] For whenever thou shalt have said, O soul, that from thyself thou hast light, thou wilt not distinguish. If thou wilt not distinguish, thou wilt not render distinct vows. Render distinct vows, confess thyself changeable, Him unchangeable: confess thyself without Him to be nothing, but Himself without thee to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 282, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2656 (In-Text, Margin)

... how great value Thou art, think what hath been given for Thee. Let us say, therefore, and let us long that He “may lighten His face upon us.” We wear His face: in like manner as the faces of emperors are spoken of, truly a kind of sacred face is that of God in His own image: but unrighteous men know not in themselves the image of God. In order that the countenance of God may be lightened upon them, they ought to say what? “Thou shalt light my candle, O Lord my God, Thou shalt light my darkness.”[Psalms 18:28] I am in the darkness of sins, but by the ray of Thy wisdom dispelled be my darkness, may Thy countenance appear; and if perchance through me it appeareth somewhat deformed, by Thee be there reformed that which by Thee hath been formed.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 314, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3061 (In-Text, Margin)

7. Behold, “Be the Lord magnified:” wilt thou never, wilt thou nowhere? In Him was something, in me nothing: but if in Him is whatsoever I am, be He, not I. But thou then what? “But I am needy and poor” (ver. 5). He is rich, He abounding, He needing nothing. Behold my light, behold whence I am illumined; for I cry, “Thou shalt illumine my candle, O Lord.”[Psalms 18:28] What then of thee? “But I am needy and poor.” I am like an orphan, my soul is like a widow destitute and desolate: help I seek, alway mine infirmity I confess. There have been forgiven me my sins, now I have begun to follow the commandments of God: still, however, I am needy and poor. Why still needy and poor? Because ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 329, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3203 (In-Text, Margin)

... Shepherd.” Hence also the Apostle: “for I say,” he saith, “that Christ was a minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers.” Thus rain came down upon the fleece, the floor being yet dry. But inasmuch as he continueth, “but that the nations should glorify God for His mercy:” that when the time came on, that should be fulfilled which by the Prophet He saith, “a people whom I have not known hath served Me, in the hearkening of the ear it hath obeyed Me:”[Psalms 18:43] we now see, that of the grace of Christ the nation of the Jews hath remained dry, and the whole round world through all nations is being rained upon by clouds full of Christian grace. For by another word he hath indicated the same rain, saying, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 335, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3265 (In-Text, Margin)

6. “How good is the God of Israel!” But to whom? “To men right in heart” (ver. 1). To men perverse what? Perverse He seemeth. So also in another Psalm He saith: “With a holy man holy Thou shalt be, and with the innocent man innocent Thou shalt be, and with the perverse man perverse Thou shalt be.”[Psalms 18:25] What is, perverse Thou shalt be with the perverse man? Perverse the perverse man shall think Thee. Not that by any means God is made perverse. Far be it: what He is, He is. But in like manner as the sun appeareth mild to one having clear, sound, healthy, strong eyes, but against weak eyes doth dart hard spears, so to say; the former looking at it ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 339, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3281 (In-Text, Margin)

... undertook to know, and was helped, and learned something, and declared it to us. “And I undertook,” he saith, “to know.” “In this labour is before me.” Truly a great labour; to know in what manner both God doth care for things human, and it is well with evil men, and good men labour. Great is the importance of the question; therefore, “and this labour is before me.” As it were there is standing in my face a sort of wall, but thou hast the voice of a Psalm, “In my God I shall pass over the wall.”[Psalms 18:29]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 360, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3486 (In-Text, Margin)

... anything of the Lord, and not to desire the Lord Himself; as if forsooth that which He giveth could be sweeter than Himself that giveth. Whosoever therefore doth cry unto the Lord for the sake of any other thing, is not yet one that leapeth over.…He doth indeed hearken to thee at the time when thou dost seek Himself, not when through Himself thou dost seek any other thing. It hath been said of some men, “They cried, and there was no one to save them; to the Lord, and He hearkened not unto them.”[Psalms 18:41] For why? Because the voice of them was not unto the Lord. This the Scripture doth express in another place, where it saith of such men, “On the Lord they have not called.” Unto Him they have not ceased to cry, and yet upon the Lord they have not ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 515, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4740 (In-Text, Margin)

25. What then followeth? “The loftiest hills are for the stags” (ver. 18). The stags are mighty, spiritual, passing in their course over all the thorny places of the thickets and woods. “He maketh my feet like harts’ feet, and setteth me up on high.”[Psalms 18:33] Let them hold to the lofty hills, the lofty commandments of God; let them think on sublime subjects, let them hold those which stand forth most in the Scriptures, let them be justified in the highest: for those loftiest hills are for the stags. What of the humble beasts? what of the hare? what of the hedgehog? The hare is a small and weak animal: the hedgehog is also ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 637, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5727 (In-Text, Margin)

11. “For darkness shall not be darkened by Thee” (ver. 12). Do not thou then darken thy darkness; God darkeneth it not, but enlighteneth it yet more; for to Him is said in another Psalm, “Thou, Lord, shalt light my candle: my God shall enlighten my darkness.”[Psalms 18:28] But who are they who “darken their darkness,” which God darkeneth not? Evil men, perverse men; when they sin, verily they are darkness; when they confess not their sins which they have committed but go on to defend them, they “darken their darkness.” Wherefore now if thou hast sinned thou art in darkness, but by confessing thy darkness thou shalt obtain to have thy ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 353, footnote 4 (Image)

Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily II (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1120 (In-Text, Margin)

... surpassed all the wealthy, in that he was so poor, and this very poverty of his was his own choice from an opulence of mind. For since he accounted the wealth of all riches to be beneath his magnanimity, and not worthy of his spiritual wisdom, therefore he welcomed this kind of poverty; so that if he had considered present things as of much worth, he would not have possessed only a mantle. But so did he contemn the vanity of the life that now is, and regard all gold as clay cast into the street,[Psalms 18:42] that he possessed himself of nothing more than that covering. Therefore the king had need of the poor man, and he who had so much gold hung upon the words of him who had nothing more than a sheepskin. Thus was the sheepskin more splendid than the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 39, footnote 1 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)

Homily VI on Acts ii. 22. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 156 (In-Text, Margin)

... it in the middle of his discourse: for the former matters had been confessed; both the miracles and the signs and the slaying—“Whom God,” says he, “raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be kept in its power.” It is something great and sublime that he has hinted at here. For the expression, “It was not possible,” even itself is that of one assigning something. It shows that death itself in holding Him had pangs as in travail, and was sore bestead:[Psalms 18:5] whereas, by pains, or, travail-pangs, of death, the Old Testament means danger and disaster: and that He so rose as never more to die. For the assertion, “Seeing that it was not possible that He should be holden of it,” means this, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 105, footnote 9 (Image)

Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine

The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

The Course pursued by the Apostles after the Ascension of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 264 (In-Text, Margin)

... a woman. He, first among the Gentiles, received of the mysteries of the divine word from Philip in consequence of a revelation, and having become the first-fruits of believers throughout the world, he is said to have been the first on returning to his country to proclaim the knowledge of the God of the universe and the life-giving sojourn of our Saviour among men; so that through him in truth the prophecy obtained its fulfillment, which declares that “Ethiopia stretcheth out her hand unto God.”[Psalms 18:31]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 374, footnote 7 (Image)

Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine

The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)

Book X (HTML)

Panegyric on the Splendor of Affairs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2860 (In-Text, Margin)

30. ‘The wicked have drawn out the sword, they have bent their bow, to slay the righteous in heart; let their sword enter into their own heart and their bows be broken.’ And again: ‘Their memorial is perished with a sound’ and ‘their name hast thou blotted out forever and ever’; for when they also were in trouble they ‘cried out and there was none to save: unto the Lord, and he heard them not.’[Psalms 18:41] But ‘their feet were bound together, and they fell, but we have arisen and stand upright.’ And that which was announced beforehand in these words,—‘O Lord, in thy city thou shalt set at naught their image,’ —has been shown to be true to the eyes of all.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 304, footnote 4 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John, Bishop of Germanicia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1964 (In-Text, Margin)

... of the gospels, and refuting the attack of falsehood. When once this refutation is finished, and the victory of the truth is secured, it is my purpose to quit public life, and withdraw to the rest that I so greatly long for. As to the foes of the truth I cry with the prophet, “Their memorial is perished with a noise, but the Lord shall endure for ever.” As to ourselves, I sing with the Psalmist, “He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters, He delivered me from my strong enemy.”[Psalms 18:16-17]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 461, footnote 5 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)

The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Jerome's commentaries on Ephesians follow Origen's interpretation of the texts about a secret federation to whom higher truths are to be told. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2930 (In-Text, Margin)

... each man to his neighbour, so that day unto day may utter speech and night to night shew knowledge, that is, that a man should show all those clear and lucid truths which he knows to those to whom the words can be worthily addressed: “Ye are the light of the world.” On the other hand, he should exhibit everything involved in darkness and wrapped up in the mist of symbols to others who are themselves nothing but mist and darkness, those of whom it is said “And there was darkness under his feet,”[Psalms 18:9] that is, of course, under the feet of God. For on Mount Sinai Moses enters into the whirlwind and the mist where God was; and it is written of God, “He has made darkness his secret place.” Let each man then thus speak truth in a mystery to his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 461, footnote 6 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)

The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Jerome's commentaries on Ephesians follow Origen's interpretation of the texts about a secret federation to whom higher truths are to be told. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2931 (In-Text, Margin)

... to whom the words can be worthily addressed: “Ye are the light of the world.” On the other hand, he should exhibit everything involved in darkness and wrapped up in the mist of symbols to others who are themselves nothing but mist and darkness, those of whom it is said “And there was darkness under his feet,” that is, of course, under the feet of God. For on Mount Sinai Moses enters into the whirlwind and the mist where God was; and it is written of God, “He has made darkness his secret place.”[Psalms 18:11] Let each man then thus speak truth in a mystery to his neighbour, and not give that which is holy to dogs nor cast his pearls before swine; but those who are anointed with the oil of truth, them let him lead into the bridechamber of the spouse, into ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 555, footnote 12 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)

A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed. (HTML)

Section 31. He Ascended into Heaven, and Sitteth on the Right Hand of the Father: from Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and the Dead (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3380 (In-Text, Margin)

... battle.” Which words are spoken not with reference to the power of the divine nature, but with reference to the novelty of flesh ascending to the right hand of God. The same David says elsewhere, “God hath ascended jubilantly, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet.” For conquerors are wont to return from battle with the sound of the trumpet. Of Him also it is said, “Who buildeth up His ascent in heaven.” And again, “Who hath ascended above the cherubims, flying upon the wings of the winds.”[Psalms 18:10]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 328, footnote 11 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse I (HTML)
Texts Explained; And First, Phil. II. 9, 10. Various texts which are alleged against the Catholic doctrine: e.g. Phil. ii. 9, 10. Whether the words 'Wherefore God hath highly exalted' prove moral probation and advancement. Argued against, first, from the force of the word 'Son;' which is inconsistent with such an interpretation. Next, the passage examined. Ecclesiastical sense of 'highly exalted,' and 'gave,' and 'wherefore;' viz. as being spoken with reference to our Lord's manhood. Secondary sense; viz. as implying the Word's 'exaltation' through the resurrection in the same sense in which Scripture speaks of His descent in the Incarnation; how the phrase does not derogate from the nature of the Word. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2034 (In-Text, Margin)

... Him in the tent, and Moses in the bush? and, as Daniel saw, myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands were ministering unto Him? And if, as they say, He had His promotion now, how did the Son Himself make mention of that His glory before and above the world, when He said, ‘Glorify Thou Me, O Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.’ If, as they say, He was then exalted, how did He before that ‘bow the heavens and come down;’ and again, ‘The Highest gave His thunder[Psalms 18:9]?’ Therefore, if, even before the world was made, the Son had that glory, and was Lord of glory and the Highest, and descended from heaven, and is ever to be worshipped, it follows that He had not promotion from His descent, but rather Himself ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 328, footnote 11 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse I (HTML)
Texts Explained; And First, Phil. II. 9, 10. Various texts which are alleged against the Catholic doctrine: e.g. Phil. ii. 9, 10. Whether the words 'Wherefore God hath highly exalted' prove moral probation and advancement. Argued against, first, from the force of the word 'Son;' which is inconsistent with such an interpretation. Next, the passage examined. Ecclesiastical sense of 'highly exalted,' and 'gave,' and 'wherefore;' viz. as being spoken with reference to our Lord's manhood. Secondary sense; viz. as implying the Word's 'exaltation' through the resurrection in the same sense in which Scripture speaks of His descent in the Incarnation; how the phrase does not derogate from the nature of the Word. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2034 (In-Text, Margin)

... Him in the tent, and Moses in the bush? and, as Daniel saw, myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands were ministering unto Him? And if, as they say, He had His promotion now, how did the Son Himself make mention of that His glory before and above the world, when He said, ‘Glorify Thou Me, O Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.’ If, as they say, He was then exalted, how did He before that ‘bow the heavens and come down;’ and again, ‘The Highest gave His thunder[Psalms 18:13]?’ Therefore, if, even before the world was made, the Son had that glory, and was Lord of glory and the Highest, and descended from heaven, and is ever to be worshipped, it follows that He had not promotion from His descent, but rather Himself ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 401, footnote 4 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse III (HTML)
Texts Explained; Ninthly, John x. 30; xvii. 11, &c. Arian explanation, that the Son is one with the Father in will and judgment; but so are all good men, nay things inanimate; contrast of the Son. Oneness between Them is in nature, because oneness in operation. Angels not objects of prayer, because they do not work together with God, but the Son; texts quoted. Seeing an Angel, is not seeing God. Arians in fact hold two Gods, and tend to Gentile polytheism. Arian explanation that the Father and Son are one as we are one with Christ, is put aside by the Regula Fidei, and shewn invalid by the usage of Scripture in illustrations; the true force of the comparison; force of the terms used. Force of 'in us;' force of 'as;' confirmed by S. John. In (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2891 (In-Text, Margin)

... other than God Himself that David too besought concerning his deliverance, ‘When I was in trouble, I called upon the Lord, and He heard me; deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue.’ To Him also giving thanks he spoke the words of the Song in the seventeenth Psalm, in the day in which the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, saying, ‘I will love Thee, O Lord my strength; the Lord is my strong rock and my defence and deliverer[Psalms 18:1-2].’ And Paul, after enduring many persecutions, to none other than God gave thanks, saying, ‘Out of them all the Lord delivered me; and He will deliver in Whom we trust.’ And none other than God blessed Abraham and Isaac; and Isaac praying for Jacob, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 515, footnote 6 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 331. Easter-day xvi Pharmuthi; iii Id. April; Æra Dioclet. 47; Coss. Annius Bassus, Ablabius; Præfect, Florentius; Indict. iv. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4015 (In-Text, Margin)

... times, urges us in the same manner to draw near to God saying, ‘Let your requests, with thanksgiving, be made known unto God.’ And being desirous that we should always continue in this resolution, he says, ‘At all times give thanks; pray without ceasing.’ For he knew that believers are strong while employed in thanksgiving, and that rejoicing they pass over the walls of the enemy, like those saints who said, ‘Through Thee will we pierce through our enemies, and by my God I will leap over a wall[Psalms 18:29].’ At all times let us stand firm, but especially now, although many afflictions overtake us, and many heretics are furious against us. Let us then, my beloved brethren, celebrate with thanksgiving the holy feast which now draws near to us, ‘girding ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 529, footnote 16 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 338. Coss. Ursus and Polemius; Præf. the same Theodorus, of Heliopolis, and of the Catholics. After him, for the second year, Philagrius; Indict. xi; Easter-day, vii Kal. Ap. xxx Phamenoth; Moon 18½; Æra Dioclet. 54. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4237 (In-Text, Margin)

... examined with their understanding the things which were written, they would not have carefully fulfilled the prophecies which were against themselves, so as for their city to be now desolate, grace taken from them, and they themselves without the law, being no longer called children, but strangers. For thus in the Psalms was it before declared, saying, ‘The strange children have acted falsely by Me.’ And by Isaiah the prophet; ‘I have begotten and brought up children, and they have rejected Me.[Psalms 18:45] ’ And they are no longer named the people of God, and a holy nation, but rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah; having exceeded in this even the iniquity of the Sodomites, as the prophet also saith, ‘Sodom is justified before thee.’ For the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 545, footnote 8 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 347.) Coss. Rufinus, Eusebius; Præf. the same Nestorius; Indict. v; Easter-day, Prid. Id. Apr., Pharmuthi xvii; Æra Dioclet. 63; Moon 15. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4451 (In-Text, Margin)

... the law; conforming to the letter, but not submitting to the spirit. And when Moses was veiled, they looked on him, but turned away their faces from him when he was uncovered. For they knew not what they read, but erroneously substituted one thing for another. The prophet, therefore, cried against them, saying, ‘Falsehood and faithlessness have prevailed among them.’ The Lord also therefore said concerning them, ‘The strange children have dealt falsely with Me; the strange children have waxen old[Psalms 18:44-45].’ But how gently does He reprove them, saying, ‘Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me.’ But being faithless, they went on to deal falsely with the law, affirming things after their own pleasure, but not understanding ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 547, footnote 14 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 347.) Coss. Rufinus, Eusebius; Præf. the same Nestorius; Indict. v; Easter-day, Prid. Id. Apr., Pharmuthi xvii; Æra Dioclet. 63; Moon 15. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4486 (In-Text, Margin)

... continue faithful, and awaking the Lord Who is with them, they are delivered. So, passing through water and fire, they find relief and duly keep the feast, offering up prayers with thanksgiving to God Who has redeemed them. For either being tempted they are known, like Abraham, or suffering they are approved, like Job, or being oppressed and deceitfully treated, like Joseph, they patiently endure it, or being persecuted, they are not overtaken; but as it is written, through God they ‘leap over the wall[Psalms 18:29] ’ of wickedness, which divides and separates between brethren, and turns them from the truth. In this manner the blessed Paul, when he took pleasure in infirmities, in reproach, in necessities, in persecutions, and in distresses for Christ, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 67, footnote 2 (Image)

Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)

Against Eunomius. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
His elaborate account of degrees and differences in 'works' and 'energies' within the Trinity is absurd. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 145 (In-Text, Margin)

It was this kind of honour that the great David fully paid, when he confessed to the Lord in a prelude[Psalms 18:1] of his psalmody that he loved the Lord, and told all the reasons for his love, calling Him his “rock” and “fortress,” and “refuge,” and “deliverer,” and “God-helper,” and “hope,” and “buckler,” and “horn of salvation,” and “protector.” If the Only-begotten Son is not all these to mankind, let the excess of honour be reduced to this extent as this heresy dictates: but if we have always believed Him to be, and to be entitled to, all this and even ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 226, footnote 4 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Rusticus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3136 (In-Text, Margin)

... confidence that the righteous man prays and says, “Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease,” and again, “Lord, by thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong: thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled.” He means to say, “when I forsook the foulness of my faults for the beauty of virtue, God strengthened my weakness with His grace.” Lo, I hear His promise: “I will pursue mine enemies and overtake them: neither will I turn again till they are consumed,”[Psalms 18:37] so that I who was once thine enemy and a fugitive from thee, shall be laid hold of by thine hand. Cease not from pursuing me till my wickedness is consumed, and I return to my old husband who will give me my wool and my flax, my oil and my fine ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 327, footnote 6 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

The Dialogue Against the Luciferians. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4102 (In-Text, Margin)

... they make of none effect the cross of Christ, subject the Son of God to the devil, and would have us now understand the Lord’s lamentation over sinners to apply to all men, “What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit?” But God forbid that our Lord should have died in vain. The strong man is bound, and his goods are spoiled. What the Father says is fulfilled, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”[Psalms 18:15] “Then the channels of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare.” “In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” The Psalmist fully possessed by God sings, “The swords of the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 425, footnote 8 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4993 (In-Text, Margin)

... simply tell us our own faults, or to openly defend those of other men. I dislike ambiguities; I dislike to be told what is capable of two meanings. Let us contemplate with unveiled face the glory of the Lord. Once upon a time the people of Israel halted between two opinions. But, said Elias, which is by interpretation the strong one of the Lord, “How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, go after him; but if Baal, follow him.” And the Lord himself says concerning the Jews,[Psalms 18:45] “the strange children lied unto me; the strange children became feeble, and limped out of their by-paths.” If there really is no ground for suspecting him of heresy (as I wish and believe), why does he not speak out my opinion in my own words? He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 74, footnote 15 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the words Incarnate, and Made Man. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1380 (In-Text, Margin)

... The Israelites rejected salvation through Me: I come to gather all nations and tongues. For He came to His own and His own received Him not. Thou comest and what dost Thou bestow on the nations? I come to gather all nations, and I will leave on them a sign. For from My conflict upon the Cross I give to each of My soldiers a royal seal to bear upon his forehead. Another also of the Prophets said, He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under His feet[Psalms 18:9]. For His coming down from heaven was not known by men.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 222, footnote 11 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2808 (In-Text, Margin)

... however, I am at a loss what course to pursue, what alliance, what word of wisdom, what grace to devise, with what panoply to arm myself, against the wiles of the wicked one. What Moses is to conquer him by stretching out his hands upon the mount, in order that the cross, thus typified and prefigured, may prevail? What Joshua, as his successor, arrayed alongside the Captain of the Lord’s hosts? What David, either by harping, or fighting with his sling, and girded by God with strength unto the battle,[Psalms 18:39] and with his fingers trained to war? What Samuel, praying and sacrificing for the people, and anointing as king one who can gain the victory? What Jeremiah, by writing lamentations for Israel, is fitly to lament these things?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 249, footnote 11 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3086 (In-Text, Margin)

... to time is more distressing than that which is not present. But more terrible still are those which the treasures of God’s wrath contain, of which God forbid that you should make trial; nor will you, if you fly for refuge to the mercies of God, and win over by your tears Him Who will have mercy, and avert by your conversion what remains of His wrath. As yet, this is gentleness and loving-kindness and gentle reproof, and the first elements of a scourge to train our tender years: as yet, the smoke[Psalms 18:8] of His anger, the prelude of His torments; not yet has fallen the flaming fire, the climax of His being moved; not yet the kindled coals, the final scourge, part of which He threatened, when He lifted up the other over us, part He held back by ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 250, footnote 16 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3110 (In-Text, Margin)

... and gives to the despisers the spirit of sorrow and deep sleep to drink: to whom He also says, See, ye despisers, behold, and wonder and perish? How shall we bear His convictions; or what reply shall we make, when He reproaches us not only with the multitude of the benefits for which we have continued ungrateful, but also with His chastisements, and reckons up the remedies with which we have refused to be healed? Calling us His children indeed, but unworthy children, and His sons, but strange sons[Psalms 18:46] who have stumbled from lameness out of their paths, in the trackless and rough ground. How and by what means could I have instructed you, and I have not done so? By gentler measures? I have applied them. I passed by the blood drunk in Egypt from the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 276, footnote 3 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On the Great Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3346 (In-Text, Margin)

... and the illegal enquiry into the actions of life, and the hired informers, and the pur chased sentences. Some were unjustly deposed from their sees, others intruded, and among other necessary qualifications, made to sign the bonds of iniquity: the ink was ready, the informer at hand. This the majority even of us, who were not overcome, had to endure, not falling in mind, though prevailed upon to sign, and so uniting with men who were in both respects wicked, and involving ourselves in the smoke,[Psalms 18:9] if not in the flame. Over this I have often wept, when contemplating the confusion of impiety at that time, and the persecution of the orthodox teaching which now arose at the hands of the patrons of the Word.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 293, footnote 1 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3455 (In-Text, Margin)

Therefore this darkness of the body has been placed between us and God, like the cloud of old between the Egyptians and the Hebrews; and this is perhaps what is meant by “He made darkness His secret place,”[Psalms 18:11] namely our dulness, through which few can see even a little. But as to this point, let those discuss it whose business it is; and let them ascend as far as possible in the examination. To us who are (as Jeremiah saith), “prisoners of the earth,” and covered with the denseness of carnal nature, this at all events is known, that as it is impossible for a man to step over his own shadow, however ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 430, footnote 2 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Second Oration on Easter. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4628 (In-Text, Margin)

... Passover purely, having mortified your members which are upon the earth, and copying the girdle of John, the Hermit and Forerunner and great Herald of the Truth. Another girdle I know, the soldierly and manly one, I mean, from which the Euzoni of Syria and certain Monozoni take their name. And it is in respect of this too that God saith in an oracle to Job, “Nay, but gird up thy loins like a man, and give a manly answer.” With this also holy David boasts that he is girded with strength from God,[Psalms 18:32] and speaks of God Himself as clothed with strength and girded about with power—against the ungodly of course—though perhaps some may prefer to see in this a declaration of the abundance of His power, and, as it were, its restraint, just as also He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 67, footnote 2 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Hexæmeron. (HTML)

On the Firmament. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1468 (In-Text, Margin)

Now we must say something about the nature of the firmament, and why it received the order to hold the middle place between the waters. Scripture constantly makes use of the word firmament to express extraordinary strength. “The Lord my firmament and refuge.”[Psalms 18:2] “I have strengthened the pillars of it.” “Praise him in the firmament of his power.” The heathen writers thus call a strong body one which is compact and full, to distinguish it from the mathematical body. A mathematical body is a body which exists only in the three dimensions, breadth, depth, and height. A firm body, on the contrary, adds resistance to the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 71, footnote 3 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Hexæmeron. (HTML)

On the Firmament. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1515 (In-Text, Margin)

... movements. Let us reject these theories as dreams and old women’s tales. Let us understand that by water water is meant; for the dividing of the waters by the firmament let us accept the reason which has been given us. Although, however, waters above the heaven are invited to give glory to the Lord of the Universe, do not let us think of them as intelligent beings; the heavens are not alive because they “declare the glory of God,” nor the firmament a sensible being because it “sheweth His handiwork.”[Psalms 18:1] And if they tell you that the heavens mean contemplative powers, and the firmament active powers which produce good, we admire the theory as ingenious without being able to acknowledge the truth of it. For thus dew, the frost, cold and heat, which ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 122, footnote 4 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1868 (In-Text, Margin)

... scents, nor taste, flavours and savours, nor touch, soft and hard, hot and cold. Nor would any one teach the mind to reach objects of mental perception; and just as the senses in the case of their being in any way diseased, or injured, require only proper treatment and then readily fulfil their own functions; just so the mind, imprisoned in flesh, and full of the thoughts that arise thence, requires faith and right conversation which make “its feet like hinds’ feet, and set it on its high places.”[Psalms 18:33] The same advice is given us by Solomon the wise, who in one passage offers us the example of the diligent worker the ant, and recommends her active life; and in another the work of the wise bee in forming its cells, and thereby suggests a natural ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 85b, footnote 13 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Concerning our Lord's genealogy and concerning the holy Mother of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2453 (In-Text, Margin)

... created things in becoming the Mother of the Creator). Further, Joachim was born in the house of the Probatica, and was brought up to the temple. Then planted in the House of God and increased by the Spirit, like a fruitful olive tree, she became the home of every virtue, turning her mind away from every secular and carnal desire, and thus keeping her soul as well as her body virginal, as was meet for her who was to receive God into her bosom: for as He is holy, He finds rest among the holy[Psalms 18:25-26]. Thus, therefore, she strove after holiness, and was declared a holy and wonderful temple fit for the most high God.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 29, footnote 8 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XXXIII. Good-will exists especially in the Church, and nourishes kindred virtues. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 255 (In-Text, Margin)

171. The desire to attain to like virtues also stands one in good stead; just as again good-will brings about a likeness in character. For Jonathan the king’s son imitated the gentleness of holy David, because he loved him. Wherefore those words: “With the holy thou shalt be holy,”[Psalms 18:26] seem not only to be concerned with our ordinary intercourse, but also to have some connection with good-will. The sons of Noah indeed dwelt together, and yet their characters were not at all alike. Esau and Jacob also dwelt together in their father’s house, but were very unlike. There was, however, no good-will between them to make the one prefer the other ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 243, footnote 12 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter II. The incidents properly affecting the body which Christ for our sake took upon Him are not to be accounted to His Godhead, in respect whereof He is the Most Highest. To deny which is to say that the Father was incarnate. When we read that God is one, and that there is none other beside Him, or that He alone has immortality, this must be understood as true of Christ also, not only to avoid the sinful heresy above-mentioned (Patripassianism), but also because the activity of the Father and the Son is declared to be one and the same. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2113 (In-Text, Margin)

9. Who indeed can deny that we have plain evidence that Christ is the Most High? He who knows otherwise makes the sacrament of Incarnation to be the work of God the Father. But that Christ is the Most High is removed beyond doubt by what Scripture hath said in another place, concerning the mystery of the Passion: “The Most High sent forth His Voice, and the earth was shaken.”[Psalms 18:7] And in the Gospel you may read: “And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare His ways.” Who is “the Highest”? The Son of God. He, then, Who is the Most High God is Christ.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 243, footnote 12 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter II. The incidents properly affecting the body which Christ for our sake took upon Him are not to be accounted to His Godhead, in respect whereof He is the Most Highest. To deny which is to say that the Father was incarnate. When we read that God is one, and that there is none other beside Him, or that He alone has immortality, this must be understood as true of Christ also, not only to avoid the sinful heresy above-mentioned (Patripassianism), but also because the activity of the Father and the Son is declared to be one and the same. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2113 (In-Text, Margin)

9. Who indeed can deny that we have plain evidence that Christ is the Most High? He who knows otherwise makes the sacrament of Incarnation to be the work of God the Father. But that Christ is the Most High is removed beyond doubt by what Scripture hath said in another place, concerning the mystery of the Passion: “The Most High sent forth His Voice, and the earth was shaken.”[Psalms 18:14] And in the Gospel you may read: “And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare His ways.” Who is “the Highest”? The Son of God. He, then, Who is the Most High God is Christ.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 105, footnote 5 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Letters. (HTML)

To Leo Augustus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 601 (In-Text, Margin)

... ones, who after being fed with milk desire to be satisfied with more solid food: and as we do not scorn the simple folk, so we will have no dealings with rebel heretics, remembering the Lord’s command, who says, “Give not that which is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine.” Surely it is altogether unworthy and unjust to admit to freedom of discussion men whom the Holy Spirit describes in the words of the prophet, “the sons of the stranger have lied unto me[Psalms 18:44].” For even though they resist not the Gospel, yet they have shown themselves to be of those of whom it is written “they profess that they know God but by their deeds they deny Him,” while the blood of just Abel still cries ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs