Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 40
There are 39 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 482, footnote 10 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XVII.—Proof that God did not appoint the Levitical dispensation for His own sake, or as requiring such service; for He does, in fact, need nothing from men. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4009 (In-Text, Margin)
... from the love of God, and imagining that God was to be propitiated by sacrifices and the other typical observances, Samuel did even thus speak to them: “God does not desire whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices, but He will have His voice to be hearkened to. Behold, a ready obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” David also says: “Sacrifice and oblation Thou didst not desire, but mine ears hast Thou perfected; burnt-offerings also for sin Thou hast not required.”[Psalms 40:6] He thus teaches them that God desires obedience, which renders them secure, rather than sacrifices and holocausts, which avail them nothing towards righteousness; and [by this declaration] he prophesies the new covenant at the same time. Still ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 106, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
The Physical Tendencies of Fasting and Feeding Considered. The Cases of Moses and Elijah. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1049 (In-Text, Margin)
... mouth dry, arrived at Mount Horeb; where, when he had made a cave his inn, with how familiar a meeting with God was he received! “What (doest) thou, Elijah, here?” Much more friendly was this voice than, “Adam, where art thou?” For the latter voice was uttering a threat to a fed man, the former soothing a fasting one. Such is the prerogative of circumscribed food, that it makes God tent-fellow with man—peer, in truth, with peer! For if the eternal God will not hunger, as He testifies through Isaiah,[Psalms 40:28] this will be the time for man to be made equal with God, when he lives without food.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page xiv, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Augustin censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the recent sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion, and its prohibition of the worship of the gods. (HTML)
Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 28 (In-Text, Margin)
glorious city of God[Psalms 40:4] is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus, suggested, and which is due to you by my promise. I have undertaken its defence against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of this city,—a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits for, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page xiv, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Augustin censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the recent sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion, and its prohibition of the worship of the gods. (HTML)
Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 28 (In-Text, Margin)
glorious city of God[Psalms 40:6] is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus, suggested, and which is due to you by my promise. I have undertaken its defence against those who prefer their own gods to the Founder of this city,—a city surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits for, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 108, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of Varro’s threefold division of theology, and of the inability of the gods to contribute anything to the happiness of the future life. (HTML)
Of Those Who Maintain that They Worship the Gods Not for the Sake of Temporal But Eternal Advantages. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 231 (In-Text, Margin)
Now, as, in the next place (as the promised order demands), those are to be refuted and taught who contend that the gods of the nations, which the Christian truth destroys, are to be worshipped not on account of this life, but on account of that which is to be after death, I shall do well to commence my disputation with the truthful oracle of the holy psalm, “Blessed is the man whose hope is the Lord God, and who respecteth not vanities and lying follies.”[Psalms 40:4] Nevertheless, in all vanities and lying follies the philosophers are to be listened to with far more toleration, who have repudiated those opinions and errors of the people; for the people set up images to the deities, and either feigned concerning those whom they call ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 302, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred history. (HTML)
Why It is That, as Soon as Cain’s Son Enoch Has Been Named, the Genealogy is Forthwith Continued as Far as the Deluge, While After the Mention of Enos, Seth’s Son, the Narrative Returns Again to the Creation of Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 839 (In-Text, Margin)
... another psalm: “Thou, O Lord, in Thy city wilt despise their image.” But as for the son of Seth, the son of the resurrection, let him hope to call on the name of the Lord God. For he prefigures that society of men which says, “But I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God: I have trusted in the mercy of God.” But let him not seek the empty honors of a famous name upon earth, for “Blessed is the man that maketh the name of the Lord his trust, and respecteth not vanities nor lying follies.”[Psalms 40:4] After having presented the two cities, the one founded in the material good of this world, the other in hope in God, but both starting from a common gate opened in Adam into this mortal state, and both running on and running out to their proper and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 358, footnote 6 (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 David’s Reign and Merit; And of His Son Solomon, and that Prophecy Relating to Christ Which is Found Either in Those Books Which are Joined to Those Written by Him, or in Those Which are Indubitably His. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1123 (In-Text, Margin)
... belongs to the participation of this table which the Mediator of the New Testament Himself, the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes with His own body and blood? For that sacrifice has succeeded all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a shadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we recognize the voice in the 40th Psalm as that of the same Mediator speaking through prophesy, “Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire; but a body hast Thou perfected for me.”[Psalms 40:6] Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations, His body is offered, and is served up to the partakers of it. For that this Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinking, which he often repeats, and very much commends, does not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 379, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)
Of the Prophecy that is Contained in the Prayer and Song of Habakkuk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1186 (In-Text, Margin)
... such wrath of God, because, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, it wished to establish its own, he immediately says, “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord; I will joy in God my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He will set my feet in completion; He will place me above the heights, that I may conquer in His song,” to wit, in that song of which something similar is said in the psalm, “He set my feet upon a rock, and directed my goings, and put in my mouth a new song, a hymn to our God.”[Psalms 40:2-3] He therefore conquers in the song of the Lord, who takes pleasure in His praise, not in his own; that “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” But some copies have, “I will joy in God my Jesus,” which seems to me better than the version of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 381, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)
Of the Prophecy of the Three Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1204 (In-Text, Margin)
... the blood of Thy testament, hast sent forth Thy prisoners from the lake wherein is no water.” Different opinions may be held, consistently with right belief, as to what he meant by this lake. Yet it seems to me that no meaning suits better than that of the depth of human misery, which is, as it were, dry and barren, where there are no streams of righteousness, but only the mire of iniquity. For it is said of it in the Psalms, “And He led me forth out of the lake of misery, and from the miry clay.”[Psalms 40:2]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 391, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)
Of the Indiscriminate Increase of the Church, Wherein Many Reprobate are in This World Mixed with the Elect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1237 (In-Text, Margin)
... rejoicing only in hope, there are many reprobate mingled with the good, and both are gathered together by the gospel as in a drag net; and in this world, as in a sea, both swim enclosed without distinction in the net, until it is brought ashore, when the wicked must be separated from the good, that in the good, as in His temple, God may be all in all. We acknowledge, indeed, that His word is now fulfilled who spake in the psalm, and said, “I have announced and spoken; they are multiplied above number.”[Psalms 40:5] This takes place now, since He has spoken, first by the mouth of his forerunner John, and afterward by His own mouth, saying, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” He chose disciples, whom He also called apostles, of lowly birth, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 477, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
He examines the last part of the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, together with his epistle to Quintus, the letter of the African synod to the Numidian bishops, and Cyprian’s epistle to Pompeius. (HTML)
Chapter 27 (HTML)
... does "the garden enclosed and the fountain sealed," namely, through all those just persons who are Jews inwardly in the circumcision of the heart (for "the king’s daughter is all glorious within"), in whom is the fixed number of the saints predestined before the foundation of the world. But that multitude of thorns, whether in secret or in open separation, is pressing on it from without, above number. "If I would declare them," it is said, "and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."[Psalms 40:5] The number, therefore, of the just persons, "who are the called according to His purpose," of whom it is said, "The Lord knoweth them that are His," is itself "the garden enclosed, the fountain sealed, a well of living water, the orchard of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 621, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In this book Augustin refutes the second letter which Petilianus wrote to him after having seen the first of Augustin’s earlier books. This letter had been full of violent language; and Augustin rather shows that the arguments of Petilianus had been deficient and irrelevant, than brings forward arguments in support of his own statements. (HTML)
Chapter 49 (HTML)
... cleanse it with the washing of water by the word." Here you see that Christ sanctifies; here you see that Christ also Himself washes, Himself purifies with the self-same washing of water by the word, wherein the ministers are seen to do their work in the body. Let no one, therefore, claim unto himself what is of God. The hope of men is only sure when it is fixed on Him who cannot deceive, since "Cursed be every one that trusteth in man," and "Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord His trust."[Psalms 40:4] For the faithful steward shall receive as his reward eternal life; but the unfaithful steward, when he dispenses his lord’s provisions to his fellow-servants, must in no wise be conceived to make the provisions useless by his own unfaithfulness. For ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 46, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Wherein the Pharisee Sinned When He Thanked God; To God’s Grace Must Be Added the Exertion of Our Own Will. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 473 (In-Text, Margin)
... arrogantly preferred himself to the publican, who was hungering and thirsting after righteousness. What, then, is to be said of those who, whilst acknowledging that they have no righteousness, or no fulness thereof, yet imagine that it is to be had from themselves alone, not to be besought from their Creator, in whom is its store and its fountain? And yet this is not a question about prayers alone, as if the energy of our will also should not be strenuously added. God is said to be “ our Helper;”[Psalms 40:17] but nobody can be helped who does not make some effort of his own accord. For God does not work our salvation in us as if he were working in insensate stones, or in creatures in whom nature has placed neither reason nor will. Why, however, He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 404, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
The Calumny Concerning the Old Testament and the Righteous Men of Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2708 (In-Text, Margin)
... in it was prefigured the new testament, the men of God who at that time understood this according to the ordering of the times, were indeed the stewards and bearers of the old testament, but are shown to be the heirs of the new. Shall we deny that he belongs to the new testament who says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me”? or he who says, “He hath set my feet upon a rock, and directed my goings; and he hath put a new song in my mouth, even a hymn to our God”?[Psalms 40:2-3] or that father of the faithful before the old testament which is from Mount Sinai, of whom the apostle says, “Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; yet even a man’s testament, when it is confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. To ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 403, 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, Matt. xxv. 1, ‘then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3103 (In-Text, Margin)
... upon earthquake, famine upon famine, nation against nation, and still the Bridegroom comes not yet. Whilst then He is expected to come, all they who are saying, “Lo, He is coming, and the Day of Judgment will find us here,” fall asleep. Whilst they are saying this, they fall asleep. Let each one then have an eye to this his sleep, and persevere even unto his sleep in love; let sleep find him so waiting. For suppose that he has fallen asleep. “Will not He who falls asleep afterwards rise again?”[Psalms 40:9] Therefore “they all slept;” both of the wise and the foolish virgins in the parable, it is said, “they all slept.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 217, 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 VIII. 21–25. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 690 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall seek me,” not from any longing for me, but in hatred. For after His removal from human sight, He was sought for both by those who hated Him and those who loved Him; by the former in a spirit of persecution, by the latter with the desire of having Him. In the Psalms the Lord Himself says by the prophet, “A place of refuge hath failed me, and there is none that seeketh after my life;” and again He says in another place in the Psalms, “Let them be confounded and ashamed who seek after my life.”[Psalms 40:14] He blamed the former for not seeking, He condemned the latter because they did. For it is wrong not to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the way the disciples sought it; and it is wrong to seek the life of Christ, that is, in the way the Jews ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 279, 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 XI. 55–57; XII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1009 (In-Text, Margin)
... “Then sought they for Jesus:” but with evil intent. For happy are they who seek for Jesus in a way that is good. They sought for Him, with the intent that neither they nor we should have Him more: but in departing from them, He has been received by us. Some who seek Him are blamed, others who do so are commended; for it is the spirit animating the seeker that finds either praise or condemnation. Thence you have it also in the psalms, “Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul:”[Psalms 40:14] such are those who sought with evil purpose. But in another place he says, “Refuge hath failed me, and there is no one that seeketh after my soul.” Those who sought, and those who did not, are blamed alike. Therefore let us seek for Christ, that He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 442, 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 XX. 30–31, and XXI. 1-11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1937 (In-Text, Margin)
... this place, by the two hundred cubits, I am of opinion that there is symbolized, with reference to the elect of both classes, the circumcision and the uncircumcision, as it were two separate hundreds; because the number that passes to the right hand is represented summarily by hundreds. And last of all, in that former fishing the number of fishes is not expressed, as if the words were there acted on that were uttered by the prophet, “I have declared and spoken; they are multiplied beyond number:”[Psalms 40:5] while here there are none beyond calculation, but the definite number of a hundred and fifty and three; and of the reason of this number we must now, with the Lord’s help, give some account.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 115, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1052 (In-Text, Margin)
... “that man walketh in the Image, nevertheless he is disquieted in vain.” Hear the cause of his “disquieting,” and see if it be not a vain one; that thou mayest trample it under foot, that thou mayest “leap beyond it,” and mayest dwell on high, where that “vanity” is not. What “vanity” is that? “He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not for whom he may be gathering them together.” O infatuated vanity! “Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust, and hath not respected vanities, nor lying deceits.”[Psalms 40:4] To you indeed, O covetous man, to you I seem to be out of my senses, these words appear to you to be “old wives’ tales.” For you, a man of great judgment, and of great prudence, to be sure, are daily devising methods of acquiring money, by traffic, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 141, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1322 (In-Text, Margin)
... of from their fathers; as if they said, It is not of these things that we suffer, that our fathers told us! For in that other Psalm also, He said this, “Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Thou didst deliver them. But I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.” They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them; have I then hoped, and hast Thou forsaken me? And have I believed upon Thee in vain? And is it in vain that my name has been written in Thy Book,[Psalms 40:7] and Thy name has been inscribed on me? What our fathers told us was this:
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 187, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm L (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1782 (In-Text, Margin)
... peace, of what sort wouldest thou be? wouldest thou not be set down for an enemy of his life? And yet if he were to fall into a well, not in soul but in body he would die. He doth fall headlong into his vices, he doth expose before thee his evil doings: thou knowest them to be evil, and praisest and laughest to thyself. Oh that at length he were to be turned to God at whom thou laughest, and whom thou wouldest not reprove, and that he were to say, “Let them be confounded that say to me, Well, well.”[Psalms 40:15]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 255, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2430 (In-Text, Margin)
... “Do not hope upon iniquity: and for robbery be not covetous.” Thou art not rich, and wilt thou rob? What findest thou? What losest thou? O losing gains! Thou findest money, thou losest righteousness. “For robbery be not covetous.”…Therefore, vain sons of men, lying sons of men, neither rob, nor, if there flow riches, set heart upon them: no longer love vanity, and seek lying. For “blessed is the man who hath the Lord God for his hope, and who hath not had regard unto vanities, and lying follies.”[Psalms 40:4] Ye would deceive, ye would commit a fraud, what bring ye in order that ye may cheat. Deceitful balances. For “lying,” he saith, “are the sons of men in the balances,” in order that they may cheat by bringing forth deceitful balances. By a false ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 324, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3147 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Church. For if She were not to be here even unto the end of the world; to whom did the Lord say, “Behold, I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the world”? Why was it necessary that these things should be spoken in the Scriptures? Because there were to be enemies of the Christian Faith who would say, “for a short time are the Christians, hereafter they shall perish, and there shall come back idols, there shall come back that which was before. How long shall be the Christians?”[Psalms 40] “Even unto oldness and old age:” that is, even unto the end of the world. When thou, miserable unbeliever, dost expect Christians to pass away, thou art passing away thyself without Christians: and Christians even unto the end of the world shall ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 425, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4093 (In-Text, Margin)
5. “They laid Me in the lowest pit” (ver. 6), that is, the deepest pit. For so it is in the Greek. But what is the lowest pit, but the deepest woe, than which there is none more deep? Whence in another Psalm it is said, “Thou broughtest me out also of the pit of misery.”[Psalms 40:3] “In a place of darkness, and in the shadow of death,” whiles they knew not what they did, they laid Him there, thus deeming of Him; they knew not Him “whom none of the princes of this world knew.” By the “shadow of death,” I know not whether the death of the body is to be understood, or that of which it is written, “That they walked in darkness and in the land ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 451, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XCI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4318 (In-Text, Margin)
17. “Thou[Psalms 40:1] shalt go upon the asp and the basilisk; the lion and the dragon shalt thou tread under thy feet” (ver. 13). Ye know who the serpent is, and how the Church treadeth upon him, as she is not conquered, because she is on her guard against his cunning. And after what manner he is a lion and a dragon, I believe you know also, beloved. The lion openly rages, the dragon lies secretly in covert: the devil hath each of these forces and powers. When the Martyrs were being slain, it was the raging ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 666, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5909 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall reign with Him, all who are to be gathered into the Body of His only-begotten Son, He hath counted, and still counteth them. Whoso is unworthy, is not even counted. Many too have believed, or rather may, with a kind of shadowy appearance of faith, have attached themselves to His people: yet He knoweth what He counteth, what He winnoweth away. For so great is the height of the Gospel, that it hath come to pass as was said, “I have declared, and have spoken: they are multiplied above number:”[Psalms 40:5] there are then among the people certain supernumeraries, so to speak. What do I mean by supernumeraries? More than will be there. Within these walls are more than will be in the kingdom of God, in the heavenly Jerusalem; these are above the number. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 682, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CL (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6015 (In-Text, Margin)
... of speaking is such that he seem to have wished to suggest that there is but one book, yet to this it may be answered, that the words mean “in a book of the Psalms,” that is, “in any one of those five books.” And this is in common language so unprecedented, or at least so rare, that we are only convinced that the twelve Prophets made one book, because we read in like manner, “As it is written in the book of the Prophets.” There are some too who call all the canonical Scriptures together one book,[Psalms 40:8] because they agree in a very wondrous and divine unity.…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 169, footnote 3 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Immutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1037 (In-Text, Margin)
... body.[Psalms 40:7] for the divine Apostle being full of the Spirit interpreted the prediction. If then the offering of gifts is the special function of priests and Christ in His humanity was called priest and offered no other sacrifice save His own body, then the Lord ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 273, footnote 6 (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 Eulalius, Bishop of Persian Armenia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1736 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the apostles, whose confession He had fixed as a kind of groundwork and foundation of the Church, to waver to and fro, and to deny Him, and then raised Him up again. And thus He gave us two lessons: not to be confident in our own strength, and to strengthen the unstable. Reach out, therefore, I beseech you, a hand to them that are fallen, “draw them out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set their feet upon a rock,” and “put a new song into their mouth, even praise unto our God,”[Psalms 40:2] that their example of life may become an example of salvation, that “many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord.” Let them be prevented from participating in the holy mysteries, but let them not be kept from the prayer of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 273, footnote 7 (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 Eulalius, Bishop of Persian Armenia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1737 (In-Text, Margin)
... to deny Him, and then raised Him up again. And thus He gave us two lessons: not to be confident in our own strength, and to strengthen the unstable. Reach out, therefore, I beseech you, a hand to them that are fallen, “draw them out of the horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set their feet upon a rock,” and “put a new song into their mouth, even praise unto our God,” that their example of life may become an example of salvation, that “many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord.”[Psalms 40:3] Let them be prevented from participating in the holy mysteries, but let them not be kept from the prayer of the catechumens, nor from hearing the divine Scriptures and the exhortation of teachers, and let them be prohibited from partaking of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 522, footnote 4 (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 334. Easter-day, xii Pharmuthi, vii Id. April; xvii Moon; Æra Dioclet. 50; Coss. Optatus Patricius, Anicius Paulinus; Præfect, Philagrius, the Cappadocian; vii Indict. (HTML)
... out in Isaiah; ‘He shall be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers he shall be speechless;’ but He took away the sin of the world. And on this account [Abraham] was restrained from laying his hand on the lad, lest the Jews, taking occasion from the sacrifice of Isaac, should reject the prophetic declarations concerning our Saviour, even all of them, but more especially those uttered by the Psalmist; ‘Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not; a body Thou hast prepared Me[Psalms 40:6];’ and should refer all such things as these to the son of Abraham.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 134, footnote 19 (Image)
Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)
Against Eunomius. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Lastly he displays at length the folly of Eunomius, who at times speaks of the Holy Spirit as created, and as the fairest work of the Son, and at other times confesses, by the operations attributed to Him, that He is God, and thus ends the book. (HTML)
... it is I, be not afraid,” and again, “Be of good cheer: I have overcome the world.” Accordingly, even though this may not have been the intention of Eunomius, orthodoxy asserts itself by means even of the voice of an enemy. And the next sentence agrees with that which went before:—“Caring for all, and showing all concern and forethought.” For in fact it belongs to God alone to care and to take thought for all, as the mighty David has expressed it, “I am poor and needy, but the Lord careth for me[Psalms 40:20].” And if what remains seems to be resolved into empty words, with sound and without sense, let no one find fault, seeing that in most of what he says, so far as any sane meaning is concerned, he is feeble and untutored. For what on earth he means ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 229, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3209 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Father of mercy. Your former wife, who is now your sister and fellow-servant, has told me that, acting on the apostolic precept, you and she lived apart by consent that you might give yourselves to prayer; but that after a time your feet sank beneath you as if resting on water and indeed—to speak plainly—gave way altogether. For her part she heard the Lord saying to her as to Moses: “as for thee stand thou here by me;” and with the psalmist she said of Him: “He hath set my feet upon a rock.”[Psalms 40:2] But your house—she went on—having no sure foundation of faith fell before a whirlwind of the devil. Hers however still stands in the Lord, and does not refuse its shelter to you; you can still be joined in spirit to her to whom you were once joined ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 265, footnote 13 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Demetrius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3676 (In-Text, Margin)
... not wish to utter an ill-omened prophecy against you but only to warn you as an apprehensive and prudent monitor who in your case fears even what is safe. What says the scripture? “If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place.” We must always stand under arms and in battle array, ready to engage the foe. When he tries to dislodge us from our position and to make us fall back, we must plant our feet firmly down, and say with the psalmist, “he hath set my feet upon a rock”[Psalms 40:2] and “the rocks are a refuge for the conies.” In this latter passage for ‘conies’ many read ‘hedgehogs.’ Now the hedgehog is a small animal, very shy, and covered over with thorny bristles. When Jesus was crowned with thorns and bore our sins and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 222, footnote 29 (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 2826 (In-Text, Margin)
91. I have said nothing yet of the internal warfare within ourselves, and in our passions, in which we are engaged night and day against the body of our humiliation, either secretly or openly, and against the tide which tosses and whirls us hither and thither, by the aid of our senses and other sources of the pleasures of this life; and against the miry clay[Psalms 40:2] in which we have been fixed; and against the law of sin, which wars against the law of the spirit, and strives to destroy the royal image in us, and all the divine emanation which has been bestowed upon us; so that it is difficult for anyone, either by a long course of philosophic training, and gradual separation of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 376, footnote 7 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4197 (In-Text, Margin)
... rightly written on, imitate him who wrote wrongfully. Say to those who would persuade you differently, what I have written, I have written. For indeed I should be ashamed if, while that which was wrong remained inflexible, that which is right should be so easily bent aside; whereas we ought to be easily bent to that which is better from that which is worse, but immovable from the better to the worse. If it be thus, and according to this teaching that you come to Baptism, lo I will not refrain my lips,[Psalms 40:9] lo I lend my hands to the Spirit; let us hasten your salvation. The Spirit is eager, the Consecrator is ready, the Gift is prepared. But if you still halt and will not receive the perfectness of the Godhead, go and look for someone else to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 87b, footnote 3 (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 the honour due to the Saints and their remains. (HTML)
These are made treasuries and pure habitations of God: For I will dwell in them, said God, and walk in them, and I will be their God. The divine Scripture likewise saith that the souls of the just are in God’s hand and death cannot lay hold of them. For death is rather the sleep of the saints than their death. For they travailed in this life and shall to the end[Psalms 40:9-10], and Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. What then, is more precious than to be in the hand of God? For God is Life and Light, and those who are in God’s hand are in life and light.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 229, footnote 8 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VI. The passages of Scripture above cited are taken as an occasion for a digression, wherein our Lord's freedom of action is proved from the ascription to the Spirit of such freedom, and from places where it is attributed to the Son. (HTML)
... distributing to each according to His will.” “According to His will,” mark you—that is, according to the judgment of a free will, not in obedience to compulsion. Furthermore, the gifts distributed by the Spirit are no mean gifts, but such works as God is wont to do,—the gift of healing and of working deeds of power. While the Spirit, then, distributes as He will, the Son of God cannot set free whom He will. But hear Him speak when He does even as He will: “I have willed to do Thy will, O my God;”[Psalms 40:10] and again: “I will offer Thee a freewill offering.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 53b, footnote 1 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great. (HTML)
The Book of Pastoral Rule. (HTML)
How the Ruler, While Living Well, Ought to Teach and Admonish Those that are Put Under Him. (HTML)
How those are to be admonished who decline the office of preaching out of too great humility, and those who seize on it with precipitate haste. (HTML)
... his hearers with the wine of eloquence, he becomes increasingly inebriated with the drought of a multiplied gift. Let them hear how David offered this in the way of gift to God, that he did not hide the grace of preaching which he had received, saying, Lo I will not refrain my lips, O Lord, thou knowest: I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart: I have declared thy truth and thy salvation (Ps. xxxix. 10, 11[Psalms 40]). Let them hear what is said by the bridegroom in his colloquy with the bride; Thou that dwellest in the gardens, thy friends hearken: make me to hear thy voice (Cant. viii. 13). For the Church dwelleth in the gardens, in that she keeps in a ...