Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 32:9
There are 15 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 151, footnote 12 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book X. (HTML)
The Doctrine of the Truth Continued. (HTML)
... regard of our desiring anything that is wicked, or our meditating upon it, that what is evil is so denominated. Evil had no existence from the beginning, but came into being subsequently. Since man has free will, a law has been defined for his guidance by the Deity, not without answering a good purpose. For if man did not possess the power to will and not to will, why should a law be established? For a law will not be laid down for an animal devoid of reason, but a bridle and a whip;[Psalms 32:9] whereas to man has been given a precept and penalty to perform, or for not carrying into execution what has been enjoined. For man thus constituted has a law been enacted by just men in primitive ages. Nearer our own day was there established a law, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 145, footnote 3 (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)
That God is to Be Found Neither from the Powers of the Body Nor of the Soul. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 850 (In-Text, Margin)
11. What then is it that I love when I love my God? Who is He that is above the head of my soul? By my soul itself will I mount up unto Him. I will soar beyond that power of mine whereby I cling to the body, and fill the whole structure of it with life. Not by that power do I find my God; for then the horse and the mule, “which have no understanding,”[Psalms 32:9] might find Him, since it is the same power by which their bodies also live. But there is another power, not that only by which I quicken, but that also by which I endow with sense my flesh, which the Lord hath made for me; bidding the eye not to hear, and the ear not to see; but that, for me to see by, and this, for me ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 370, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Wide and Narrow Sense of the Word 'Spirit.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2517 (In-Text, Margin)
... you have plainly asserted what is certainly most true, that man is endowed with reason and capable of intelligence, which, of course, animals void of reason are not. And you have, in accordance with this view, quoted a passage of Scripture, and, adopting its language, have compared men of no understanding to the cattle, which, of course, have not intellect. A statement the like to which occurs in another passage of Scripture: “Be ye not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9] This being the case, I want you also to observe in what terms you have defined and described the spirit when trying to distinguish it from the soul: “This soul,” you say, “which has its origin from the breath of God, could not have possibly been ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 445, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2961 (In-Text, Margin)
... He make this requisition, if there is no free will? What means “the happy man,” of whom the Psalmist says that “his will has been the law of the Lord”? Does he not clearly enough show that a man by his own will takes his stand in the law of God? Then again, there are so many commandments which in some way are expressly adapted to the human will; for instance, there is, “Be not overcome of evil,” and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;”[Psalms 32:9] and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;” and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;” and, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord;” and, “Forget not my law;” and, “Forbear not to do good to the poor;” and, “Devise not evil against thy friend;” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 446, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
He Shows that Ignorance Affords No Such Excuse as Shall Free the Offender from Punishment; But that to Sin with Knowledge is a Graver Thing Than to Sin in Ignorance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2992 (In-Text, Margin)
... without reason: “Pour out Thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known Thee;” nor again according to what the apostle says: “When He shall come from heaven in a flame of fire to take vengeance on them that know not God.” But yet in order that we may have that knowledge that will prevent our saying, each one of us, “I did not know,” “I did not hear,” “I did not understand;” the human will is summoned, in such words as these: “Wish not to be as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding;”[Psalms 32:9] although it may show itself even worse, of which it is written, “A stubborn servant will not be reproved by words; for even if he understand, yet he will not obey.” But when a man says, “I cannot do what I am commanded, because I am mastered by my ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 477, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3706 (In-Text, Margin)
... foolishness understand, that He who made all things by the Word, could not be wearied. Let them read, and tell me how could God be wearied, who said, “Let it be made, and it was made.” To-day if a man could so do, as God did, how would he be wearied? He said, “Let there be light, and the light was made.” Again, “Let there be a firmament, and it was made:” if indeed He said, and it was not done, He was wearied. In another place briefly, “He spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created.”[Psalms 32:9] He then who worketh thus, how doth He labour? But if He labour not, how doth He rest? But in that sabbath, in which it is said that God rested from all His works, in the Rest of God our rest was signified; because the sabbath of this world shall be, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 482, footnote 5 (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, John v. 19, ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father doing.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3747 (In-Text, Margin)
4. These things thou disregardedst, nor didst look upon them as a man, but as an irrational animal. The Prophet cried out to thee, and cried in vain. “Be ye not like to horse and mule, which have no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9] These things I say thou didst see, and disregard. God’s daily miracles were disesteemed, not for their easiness, but their constant repetition. For what is more difficult to understand than a man’s birth, that one who was in existence should by dying depart into darkness, and that one who was not, by being born should come forth to light? What so marvellous, what so difficult to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 509, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John IV. 12–16. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2410 (In-Text, Margin)
... in the mind, in the inner man; in that he understands truth, distinguishes between right and wrong, knows by whom he was made, is able to understand his Creator, to praise his Creator: he hath this intelligence, who hath prudence. Therefore when many by evil lusts wore out in themselves the image of God, and by perversity of their manners extinguished the very flame, so to say, of intelligence, the Scripture cried aloud to them, “Become not ye as the horse and mule which have no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9] That is to say, I have set thee above the horse and mule; thee, I made after mine image, I have given thee power over these. Why? Because they have not the rational mind: but thou by the rational mind art capable of truth, understandest what is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 74, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 707 (In-Text, Margin)
... Lord, are not humble, but fierce, rough, lifted up, proud. Gentle cattle would the Lord have; be thou the Lord’s jumentum; that is, be thou humble. He sitteth upon thee, He ruleth thee: fear not lest thou stumble, and fall headlong: that indeed is thy infirmity; but consider Who sitteth upon thee. Thou art an ass’s colt, but thou carriest Christ. For even He on an ass’s colt came into the city; and that beast was gentle.…“Be not ye as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9] For horse and mule sometimes lift up their neck, and by their own fierceness throw off their rider. They are tamed with the bit, with bridle, with stripes, until they learn to submit, and to carry their master. But thou, before thy jaws are bruised ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 140, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1305 (In-Text, Margin)
... Light” and “God’s Truth.” It is the same mind by which we apprehend right and wrong: it is by the same that we discern truth from falsehood. It is this same that we call “understanding;” which “understanding,” indeed, is wanting to the brutes. And this “understanding” whoever neglects in himself, and holds it in less account than the other parts of his nature, and casts it off, just as if he had it not, is addressed in the Psalm, “Be ye not as the horse and the mule, which have no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9] It is our “understanding” then that is addressing our soul. The latter is withered away from tribulations, worn out in anguish, made “sorrowful” in temptations, fainting in toils. The mind, catching a glimpse of Truth above, would fain rouse her ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 174, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIX (HTML)
Part 1 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1646 (In-Text, Margin)
... is, “being in honour”? Being made after the image and likeness of God, man is preferred to beasts. For God hath not so made man as He made a beast: but God hath made man for beasts to minister to: is it to his strength then, and not to his understanding? Nay. But he “understood not;” and he who was made after the image of God, “is compared to the beasts without sense, and is made like unto them.” Whence it is said elsewhere, “Be ye not like to horse and mule, in which there is no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 210, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1990 (In-Text, Margin)
... therein something in himself he acknowledgeth to be more than hath been given to dumb animals. But on consideration of all those things which a man hath, he findeth himself in this thing peculiarly distinguished from a dumb animal, in that he hath himself an understanding. Whence certain men despising in themselves that peculiar and especial thing which from their Maker they had received, the Maker Himself reproveth, saying, “Do not become like horse and mule, in which there is no understanding.”[Psalms 32:9] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 404, footnote 5 (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)
... shewn here also, come let us shortly, as we have received from the fathers, expose their heterodoxy from the passage. It is a custom with divine Scripture to take the things of nature as images and illustrations for mankind; and this it does, that from these physical objects the moral impulses of man may be explained; and thus their conduct shewn to be either bad or righteous. For instance, in the case of the bad, as when it charges, ‘Be ye not like to horse and mule which have no understanding[Psalms 32:9].’ Or as when it says, complaining of those who have become such, ‘Man, being in honour, hath no understanding, but is compared unto the beasts that perish.’ And again, ‘They were as wanton horses.’ And the Saviour to expose Herod said, ‘Tell that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 510, footnote 13 (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 330. Easter-day xxiv Pharmuthi; xiii Kal. Mai; Æra Dioclet. 46; Coss. Gallicianus, Valerius Symmachus; Præfect, Magninianus; Indict. iii. (HTML)
3. Yet even in this state, the man-loving Word, who came for this very reason, that He might seek and find that which was lost, sought to restrain them from such folly, crying and saying, ‘Be ye not as the horse and the mule which have no understanding, whose cheeks ye hold in with bit and bridle[Psalms 32:9].’ Because they were careless and imitated the wicked, the prophet prays in spirit and says, ‘Ye are to me like merchant-men of Phœnicia.’ And the avenging Spirit protests against them in these words, ‘Lord, in Thy city Thou wilt despise their image.’ Thus, being changed into the likeness of fools, they fell so low in their understanding, that by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 418, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Vigilantius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4949 (In-Text, Margin)
... who throws the reins upon the neck of lust, and by his encouragement doubles the natural heat of the flesh, which in youth is mostly at boiling point, or rather slakes it by intercourse with women; so that there is nothing to separate us from swine, nothing wherein we differ from the brute creation, or from horses, respecting which it is written: “They were toward women like raging horses; everyone neighed after his neighbour’s wife.” This is that which the Holy Spirit says by the mouth of David:[Psalms 32:9] “Be ye not like horse and mule which have no understanding.” And again respecting Dormitantius and his friends: “Bind the jaws of them who draw not near unto thee with bit and bridle.”