Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Psalms 44

There are 41 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 582, footnote 10 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3815 (In-Text, Margin)

... unicorn.” And the prophet Habakkuk sees Him bearing horns, and celebrates His defensive attitude—“horns in His hands.” Wherefore the sign shows His power and authority,—horns that pierce on both sides, or rather, on all sides, and through everything. And those who eat are so strengthened, and retain such strength from the life-giving food in them, that they themselves are stronger than their enemies, and are all but armed with the horns of a bull; as it is said, “In thee shall we butt our enemies.”[Psalms 44:5]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 162, footnote 17 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Of the Prophecies of the Birth and Achievements of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1276 (In-Text, Margin)

Moreover, this our interpretation will be supported while (we find that) elsewhere as well the Scriptures designate Christ a warrior, as we gather from the names of certain weapons, and words of that kind. But by a comparison of the remaining senses the Jews shall be convicted. “Gird thee,” says David, “the sword upon the thigh.”[Psalms 44:4] But what do you read above concerning the Christ? “Blooming in beauty above the sons of men; grace is outpoured in thy lips.” But very absurd it is if he was complimenting on the bloom of his beauty and the grace of his lips, one whom he was girding for war with a sword; of whom he proceeds subjunctively to say, “Outstretch and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 299, footnote 19 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
The Next Stage Occurs in the Creation of Man by the Eternal Word. Spiritual as Well as Physical Gifts to Man. The Blessings of Man's Free-Will. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2743 (In-Text, Margin)

... habitation for him, the vast fabric (of the world) to begin with, and then afterwards the vaster one (of a higher world,) that he might on a great as well as on a smaller stage practise and advance in his probation, and so be promoted from the good which God had given him, that is, from his high position, to God’s best; that is, to some higher abode. In this good work God employs a most excellent minister, even His own Word. “My heart,” He says, “hath emitted my most excellent Word.”[Psalms 44:1] Let Marcion take hence his first lesson on the noble fruit of this truly most excellent tree. But, like a most clumsy clown, he has grafted a good branch on a bad stock. The sapling, however, of his blasphemy shall be never strong: it shall wither ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 289, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
On the Soul (Anima). (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2223 (In-Text, Margin)

... of God, being implanted in it; and perhaps to indicate this mystery is God either called or described in Scripture as a body. We must, indeed, take into consideration whether it is not perhaps on this account that the soul of God may be understood to mean His only-begotten Son, because He Himself came into this world of affliction, and descended into this valley of tears, and into this place of our humiliation; as He says in the Psalm, “Because Thou hast humiliated us in the place of affliction.”[Psalms 44:19] Finally, I am aware that certain critics, in explaining the words used in the Gospel by the Saviour, “My soul is sorrowful, even unto death,” have interpreted them of the apostles, whom He termed His soul, as being better than the rest of His body. ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 529, footnote 9 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Chapter LXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3990 (In-Text, Margin)

... thirty-seventh Psalm, “Cease from anger, and forsake wrath,” and which commands us by the mouth of Paul to “put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication,” would not involve God in the same passion from which it would have us to be altogether free. It is manifest, further, that the language used regarding the wrath of God is to be understood figuratively from what is related of His “sleep,” from which, as if awaking Him, the prophet says: “Awake, why sleepest Thou, Lord?”[Psalms 44:23] and again: “Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.” If, then, “sleep” must mean something else, and not what the first acceptation of the word conveys, why should not “wrath” also be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 632, footnote 12 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter L (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4805 (In-Text, Margin)

... “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, all is vanity.” Who has given so severe an estimate of the life of the human soul here on earth, as he who says: “Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity?” He does not hesitate at all as to the difference between the present life of the soul and that which it is to lead hereafter. He does not say, “Who knows if to die is not to live, and if to live is not death” But he boldly proclaims the truth, and says, “Our soul is bowed down to the dust;”[Psalms 44:25] and, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death;” and similarly, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?” also, “Who will change the body of our humiliation.” It is a prophet also who says, “Thou hast brought us down in a place of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 175, footnote 12 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)

Exegetical. (HTML)
On Proverbs. (HTML)
Another Fragment. St. Hippolytus on Prov. ix. 1, “Wisdom Hath Builded Her House.” (HTML)CCEL Footnote 1269 (In-Text, Margin)

... seven pillars are the seven divine orders which sustain the creation by His holy and inspired teaching; to wit, the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs, the hierarchs, the hermits, the saints, and the righteous. And the phrase, “She hath killed her beasts,” denotes the prophets and martyrs who in every city and country are slain like sheep every day by the unbelieving, in behalf of the truth, and cry aloud, “For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we were counted as sheep for the slaughter.”[Psalms 44:2] And again, “She hath mingled her wine” in the bowl, by which is meant, that the Saviour, uniting his Godhead, like pure wine, with the flesh in the Virgin, was born of her at once God and man without confusion of the one in the other. “And she hath ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 497, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VIII. Concerning Gifts, and Ordinations, and the Ecclesiastical Canons (HTML)

Sec. IV.—Certain Prayers and Laws (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3730 (In-Text, Margin)

XXXVIII. O God, the God of spirits and of all flesh, who art beyond compare, and standest in need of nothing, who hast given the sun to have rule over the day, and the moon and the stars to have rule over the night, do Thou now also look down upon us with gracious eyes, and receive our morning thanksgivings, and have mercy upon us; for we have not “spread out our hands unto a strange God;”[Psalms 44:20] for there is not among us any new God, but Thou, the eternal God, who art without end, who hast given us our being through Christ, and given us our well-being through Him. Do Thou vouchsafe us also, through Him, eternal life; with whom glory, and honour, and worship be to Thee and to the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 610, footnote 3 (Image)

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

The Decretals. (HTML)

The Epistles of Zephyrinus. (HTML)

To All the Bishops of Sicily. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2701 (In-Text, Margin)

... embodied both in the constitutions of the apostles and their successors, and in very many others in harmony with these. For the apostles have prefixed seventy decrees, together with very many other bishops, and have appointed them to be kept. For to judge rashly of the secrets of another’s heart is sin; and it is unjust to reprove him on suspicion whose works seem not other than good, since God alone is Judge of those things which are unknown to men. He, however, “knoweth the secrets of the heart,”[Psalms 44:21] and not another. For unjust judgments are to be guarded against by all, especially however by the servants of God. “And the servant of the Lord must not strive,” nor harm any one. For bishops are to be borne by laity and clergy, and masters by ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 611, footnote 3 (Image)

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

The Decretals. (HTML)

The Epistles of Zephyrinus. (HTML)

To the Bishops of the Province of Egypt. (HTML)
On the Spoliation or Expulsion of certain Bishops. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2710 (In-Text, Margin)

... are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” Sustained by these testimonies, we ought not greatly to fear the reproach of men, nor be overcome by their up-braidings, since the Lord gives us this command by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, my people, in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings;” considering what is written in the Psalm, “Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart,[Psalms 44:21] and the thoughts of such men, that they are vanity,” “They spoke vanity every one with his neighbour: with deceitful lips in their heart, and with an evil heart they spoke. But the Lord shall cut off all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 761, footnote 30 (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 3686 (In-Text, Margin)

... As in the book of Kings: “It repented me that I have made Saul king.”The anger and wrath of the Lord —the vengeance of the Deity upon sinners, when He bears with them with a view to punishment, does not at once judge them according to strict equity. As in the Psalm: “In His anger and in His wrath will He trouble them.”The sleeping of the Lord —when, in the thoughts of some, His faithfulness is not sufficiently wakeful. In the Psalm: “Awake, why sleepest Thou, O Lord?”[Psalms 44:23]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 495, footnote 8 (Image)

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

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

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)

Book XIV. (HTML)
The Power of Harmony in Relation to Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6053 (In-Text, Margin)

... which is translated, “possession of God,” and the third Abiasaph, which in the Greek tongue might be rendered, “congregation of the father,” yet the prophecies were not divided but were both spoken and written by one spirit, and one voice, and one soul, which wrought with true harmony, and the three speak as one, “As the heart panteth after the springs of the water, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.” But also they say in the plural in the forty-fourth Psalm, “O God, we have heard with our ears.”[Psalms 44:1] But if you wish still further to see those who are making symphony on earth look to those who heard the exhortation, “that ye may be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment,” and who strove after the goal, “the soul and the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 133, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)

Pride Even in Such Things as are Done Aright Must Be Avoided. Free Will is Not Taken Away When Grace is Preached. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1219 (In-Text, Margin)

So will He bestow on us whatever pleases Him, that if there be anything displeasing to Him in us, it will also be displeasing to us. “He will,” as the Scripture has said, “turn aside our paths from His own way,”[Psalms 44:18] and will make that which is His own to be our way; because it is by Himself that the favour is bestowed on such as believe in Him and hope in Him that we will do it. For there is a way of righteousness of which they are ignorant “who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,” and who, wishing to frame a righteousness of their own, “have not submitted themselves to the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 450, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)

Abstract. (HTML)

Paul Fought, But God Gave the Victory: He Ran, But God Showed Mercy. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3043 (In-Text, Margin)

... for me this great power; but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, how it is He that giveth thee strength to acquire such power.” And what avails “the good fight,” unless followed by victory? And who gives the victory but He of whom the apostle says himself, “Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”? Then, in another passage, having quoted from the Psalm these words: “Because for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for slaughter,”[Psalms 44:22] he went on to declare: “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us.” Not by ourselves, therefore, is the victory accomplished, but by Him who hath loved us. In the second clause he says, “I have finished my ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 406, footnote 11 (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, Mark viii. 5, etc., where the miracle of the seven loaves is related. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3144 (In-Text, Margin)

... the house who had invited them, as it is written, “found there a man which had not on a wedding garment.” For to the marriage had that Bridegroom invited them who is “fair in beauty above the children of men.” That Bridegroom became deformed because of His deformed spouse, that he might make her fair. How did the Fair One become deformed? If I do not prove it, I am blaspheming. The testimony of his fair beauty the Prophet gives me, who saith, “Thou art fair in beauty above the children of men.”[Psalms 44:3] The testimony of his deformity another Prophet gives me, who saith, “We saw Him, and He had no grace, nor beauty; but His countenance was marred, and His whole look deformed.” O Prophet, who saidst, “Thou art fair in beauty above the children of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 445, 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, Luke xiii. 6, where we are told of the fig-tree, which bare no fruit for three years; and of the woman which was in an infirmity eighteen years; and on the words of the ninth Psalm, v. 19, ‘Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the nations be judged in thy sight.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3454 (In-Text, Margin)

4. Ah! unfruitful tree, mock not, because thou art yet spared; the axe is delayed, be not thou secure; He will come and thou shalt be cut down. Believe that He will come. All these things which now ye see, once were not. Once the Christian people were not over the whole world. It was read of in prophecy, not seen in the earth; now it is both read and seen. Thus was the Church herself completed. It was not said to her, “See, O daughter, and hear;” but, “Hear and see.”[Psalms 44:11] Hear the predictions, see the completions. As then, my beloved Brethren, Christ had once not been born of a Virgin, but His birth was promised, and He was born; He had once not done His miracles, they were promised, and He did them: He had not yet suffered, it ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 36, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm IX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 373 (In-Text, Margin)

13. “For requiring their blood He hath remembered” (ver. 12). As if they, who were sent to preach the Gospel, should make answer to that injunction which has been mentioned, “Show forth His wonders among the heathen,” and should say, “O Lord, who hath believed our report?” and again, “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;”[Psalms 44:22] the Psalmist suitably goes on to say, That Christians not without great reward of eternity will die in persecution, “for requiring their blood He hath remembered.” But why did he choose to say, “their blood”? Was it, as if one of imperfect knowledge and less faith should ask, How will they “show them forth,” seeing that the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 117, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1075 (In-Text, Margin)

... righteousness.” I have been “afflicted,” and at the same time “it is good for me;” it is at once a punishment, and an act of favour. What hath He in store for us after punishment is over, who inflicts punishment itself by way of favour? For He it is of whom it was said, “I was brought low, and He made me whole:” and, “It is good for me that Thou hast afflicted me, that I might learn Thy righteousness.” “Thou chastenest man for iniquity.” And that which is written, “Thou formest my grief in teaching me,”[Psalms 44:20] could only be said unto God by one who was “leaping beyond” his fellows; “Thou formest my grief in teaching me;” Thou makest, that is to say, a lesson for me out of my sorrow. It is Thou that formest that very grief itself; Thou dost not leave it ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 159, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XLVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1507 (In-Text, Margin)

... by presuming on themselves, by too much prevailing by their own strength. This is that, the shield whereof Job also named concerning one ungodly. “He runneth against God, upon the stiff neck of his shield.” What is, “upon the stiff neck of his shield”? Presuming too much upon his own protection. Were they such who said, “God is our refuge and strength, a Helper in tribulations which have found us out too much”? or in another Psalm, “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.”[Psalms 44:6] When one learneth that in himself he is nothing, and help in himself has none, arms in him are broken in pieces, wars are made to cease. Such wars then destroyed that Voice of the Most High out of His holy clouds, whereby the earth was moved, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 439, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4223 (In-Text, Margin)

... our purifier, we now possess Him in whom Thy promises were to be fulfilled; show forth in Him what Thou hast promised. It is He Himself that shall live, and not see death: Himself who delivers His own soul from the hand of Hell: and yet we are still in suffering. Thus spoke the Martyrs, whose birthdays we are celebrating. He shall live, and not see death: He delivers His soul from the hands of Hell: yet “for Thy sake we are killed all the day long: and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain.”[Psalms 44:22] “Lord, where are Thy old loving-kindnesses which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth?”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 568, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

Zain. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5199 (In-Text, Margin)

50. “O remember Thy word unto Thy servant, wherein Thou hast given me hope” (ver. 49). Is forgetfulness incident to God, as it is to man? Why then is it said unto Him, “O remember”? Although in other passages of holy Scripture this very word is used, as, “Why hast Thou forgotten me?” and, “Wherefore forgettest Thou our misery?”[Psalms 44:24] …These expressions are borrowed from moral discourses on human affections; although God doth these things according to a fixed dispensation, with no failing memory, nor with an understanding obscured, nor with a will changed. When therefore it is said unto Him, “O remember,” the desire of him who prayeth is displayed, because he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 256, footnote 16 (Image)

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

Two Homilies on Eutropius. (HTML)

Homily II. After Eutropius having been found outside the Church had been taken captive. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 842 (In-Text, Margin)

... by devils, and He delivered His own Son to save it. For words spoken in reference to God have not the same force as when spoken in reference to ourselves: for instance we say God is jealous, God is wroth, God repents, God hates. These words are human, but they have a meaning which becomes the nature of God. How is God jealous? “I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God.” Is God wroth? “O Lord reproach me not in thine indignation.” Doth God slumber? “Awake, wherefore sleepest thou, O Lord?”[Psalms 44:23] Doth God repent? “I repent that I have made man.” Doth God hate? “My soul hateth your feasts and your new moons.” Well do not consider the poverty of the expressions: but grasp their divine meaning. God is jealous, for He loves, God is wroth, not as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 371, footnote 3 (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 2821 (In-Text, Margin)

5. It was long ago permitted us to raise hymns and songs to God, when we learned from hearing the Divine Scriptures read the marvelous signs of God and the benefits conferred upon men by the Lord’s wondrous deeds, being taught to say ‘Oh God! we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us the work which thou didst in their days, in days of old.’[Psalms 44:1]

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

Socrates: Church History from A.D. 305-438; Sozomenus: Church History from A.D. 323-425

The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Division begins in the Church from this Controversy; and Alexander Bishop of Alexandria excommunicates Arius and his Adherents. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 126 (In-Text, Margin)

... not condemn those that say, ‘There was a period when the Word was not’? or who, hearing in the Gospel of ‘the only-begotten Son,’ and that ‘all things were made by him,’ will not abhor those that pronounce the Son to be one of the things made? How can he be one of the things which were made by himself? Or how can he be the only-begotten, if he is reckoned among created things? And how could he have had his existence from nonentities, since the Father has said, ‘My heart has indited a good matter’;[Psalms 44:1] and ‘I begat thee out of my bosom before the dawn’? Or how is he unlike the Father’s essence, who is ‘his perfect image,’ and ‘the brightness of his glory’ and says: ‘He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father’? Again how if the Son is the Word and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 330, footnote 8 (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)

Letter or Address of Theodoret to the Monks of the Euphratensian, the Osrhoene, Syria, Phœnicia, and Cilicia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2213 (In-Text, Margin)

... setting Thy commandments at naught. O Lord we know none other than Thee. We call Thee by Thy name. ‘Make both one and break down the middle wall of the partition,’ namely the iniquity that has sprung up. Gather us one by one, Thy new Israel, building up Jerusalem and gathering together the outcasts of Israel. Let us be made once more one flock and all be fed by Thee; for Thou art the good Shepherd ‘Who giveth His life for the sheep ’ ‘Awake, why sleepest Thou O Lord, arise cast us not off forever.’[Psalms 44:23] Rebuke the winds and the sea; give Thy Church calm and safety from the waves.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 301, footnote 4 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)

Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)

Persecution in Egypt. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1804 (In-Text, Margin)

... ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of them, and be ye separate, that bear the vessels of the Lord.’ This may suffice to instruct us all, so that if any one has been deceived by them, he may go out from them, as out of Sodom, and not return again unto them, lest he suffer the fate of Lot’s wife; and if any one has continued from the beginning pure from this impious heresy, he may glory in Christ and say, ‘We have not stretched out our hands to a strange god[Psalms 44:20]; neither have we worshipped the works of our own hands, nor served the creature more than Thee, the God that hast created all things through Thy word, the Only-Begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom to Thee the Father together with the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 383, 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 II (HTML)
Texts Explained; Sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22, Continued. Our Lord not said in Scripture to be 'created,' or the works to be 'begotten.' 'In the beginning' means in the case of the works 'from the beginning.' Scripture passages explained. We are made by God first, begotten next; creatures by nature, sons by grace. Christ begotten first, made or created afterwards. Sense of 'First-born of the dead;' of 'First-born among many brethren;' of 'First-born of all creation,' contrasted with 'Only-begotten.' Further interpretation of 'beginning of ways,' and 'for the works.' Why a creature could not redeem; why redemption was necessary at all. Texts which contrast the Word and the works. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2647 (In-Text, Margin)

... both in creating, and also in being brought for the sake of all into this very world. For so it is written, ‘When He bringeth the First-born into the world, He saith, Let all the Angels of God worship Him.’ Let Christ’s enemies hear and tear themselves to pieces, because His coming into the world is what makes Him called ‘First-born’ of all; and thus the Son is the Father’s ‘Only-begotten,’ because He alone is from Him, and He is the ‘First-born of creation,’ because of this adoption of all as sons[Psalms 44:5]. And as He is First-born among brethren and rose from the dead ‘the first fruits of them that slept;’ so, since it became Him ‘in all things to have the preeminence,’ therefore He is created ‘a beginning of ways,’ that we, walking along it and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 405, footnote 8 (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 2951 (In-Text, Margin)

... of the Father and the Son, how they themselves ought to be one in spirit towards each other. Or if it needs to account for the phrase otherwise, the words ‘in Us’ may mean the same as saying, that in the power of the Father and the Son they may be one, speaking the same things; for without God this is impossible. And this mode of speech also we may find in the divine writings, as ‘In God will we do great acts;’ and ‘In God I shall leap over the wall;’ and ‘In Thee will we tread down our enemies[Psalms 44:5].’ Therefore it is plain, that in the Name of Father and Son we shall be able, becoming one, to hold firm the bond of charity. For, dwelling still on the same thought, the Lord says, ‘And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given to them, that ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 515, footnote 1 (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 4010 (In-Text, Margin)

... not to thank God. In times of ease, he failed not, and in afflictions he gloried, knowing that ‘tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and that hope maketh not ashamed.’ Let us, being followers of such men, pass no season without thanksgiving, but especially now, when the time is one of tribulation, which the heretics excite against us, will we praise the Lord, uttering the words of the saints; ‘All these things have come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee[Psalms 44:17].’ For as the Jews at that time, although suffering an assault from the tabernacles of the Edomites, and oppressed by the enemies of Jerusalem, did not give themselves up, but all the more sang praises to God; so we, my beloved brethren, though ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 523, footnote 11 (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 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4132 (In-Text, Margin)

blessed Paul wrote to the Corinthians that he always bore in his body the dying of Jesus, not as though he alone should make that boast, but also they and we too, and in this let us be followers of him, my brethren. And let this be the customary boast of all of us at all times. In this David participated, saying in the Psalms, ‘For thy sake we die all the day; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter[Psalms 44:22].’ Now this is becoming in us, especially in the days of the feast, when a commemoration of the death of our Saviour is held. For he who is made like Him in His death, is also diligent in virtuous practices, having mortified his members which are upon the earth, and crucifying the flesh with the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 537, 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 339. Coss. Constantius Augustus II, Constans I; Præfect, Philagrius the Cappadocian, for the second time; Indict. xii; Easter-day xvii Kal. Mai, xx Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 55. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4340 (In-Text, Margin)

... sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for your reward is great in heaven.’ Again, it is the Redeemer’s own word, that affliction shall not befall every man in this world, but only those who have a holy fear of Him:—on this account, the more the enemies hem us in, the more let us be at liberty; although they revile us, let us come together; and the more they would turn us aside from godliness, let us the more boldly preach it saying, ‘All these things are come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee[Psalms 44:17],’ and we have not done evil with the Ario-maniacs, who say that Thou hast existence from those things that exist not. The Word which is eternally with the Father, is also from Him.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 33, footnote 18 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 555 (In-Text, Margin)

... which receive glory one from another?” What an evil that must be the victim of which cannot believe! Let us rather say: “Thou art my glorying,” and “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,” and “If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ,” and “Far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world;” and once more: “In God we boast all the day long; my soul shall make her boast in the Lord.”[Psalms 44:8] When you do alms, let God alone see you. When you fast, be of a cheerful countenance. Let your dress be neither too neat nor too slovenly; neither let it be so remarkable as to draw the attention of passers-by, and to make men point their fingers at ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 205, footnote 32 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2942 (In-Text, Margin)

... devils.” But let us, she continued, listen to the exhortation of the apostle, “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience that in simplicity and sincerity…by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world.” And let us hear the Lord when He says to His apostles, “If ye were of the world the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world…therefore the world hateth you.” And then she turned to the Lord Himself, saying, “Thou knowest the secrets of the heart,”[Psalms 44:21] and “all this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant; our heart is not turned back.” “Yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” But “the Lord ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 205, footnote 33 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2943 (In-Text, Margin)

... in simplicity and sincerity…by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world.” And let us hear the Lord when He says to His apostles, “If ye were of the world the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world…therefore the world hateth you.” And then she turned to the Lord Himself, saying, “Thou knowest the secrets of the heart,” and “all this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant; our heart is not turned back.”[Psalms 44:17-18] “Yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” But “the Lord is on my side: I will not fear what man doeth unto me.” She had read the words of Solomon, “My son, honour the Lord and thou shalt be made ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 205, footnote 34 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2944 (In-Text, Margin)

... let us hear the Lord when He says to His apostles, “If ye were of the world the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world…therefore the world hateth you.” And then she turned to the Lord Himself, saying, “Thou knowest the secrets of the heart,” and “all this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant; our heart is not turned back.” “Yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”[Psalms 44:22] But “the Lord is on my side: I will not fear what man doeth unto me.” She had read the words of Solomon, “My son, honour the Lord and thou shalt be made strong; and beside the Lord fear thou no man.” These passages and others like them she used as ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 210, footnote 3 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2999 (In-Text, Margin)

... longer than it should be already; dreading to come to the end and vainly supposing that by saying nothing of it and by occupying myself with her praises I could postpone the evil day. Hitherto the wind has been all in my favour and my keel has smoothly ploughed through the heaving waves. But now my speech is running upon the rocks, the billows are mountains high, and imminent shipwreck awaits both you and me. We must needs cry out: “Master; save us we perish:” and “awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?”[Psalms 44:23] For who could tell the tale of Paula’s dying with dry eyes? She fell into a most serious illness and thus gained what she most desired, power to leave us and to be joined more fully to the Lord. Eustochium’s affection for her mother, always true and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 213, footnote 25 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Riparius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3048 (In-Text, Margin)

... terror. Paul says: “continue in prayer and watch in the same,” and in another place he speaks of himself as “in watchings often.” Vigilantius may sleep if he pleases and may choke in his sleep, destroyed by the destroyer of Egypt and of the Egyptians. But let us say with David: “Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” So will the Holy One and the Watcher come to us. And if ever by reason of our sins He fall asleep, let us say to Him: “Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord;”[Psalms 44:23] and when our ship is tossed by the waves let us rouse Him and say, “Master, save us: we perish.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 255, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Principia. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3546 (In-Text, Margin)

... herself that she had once been young. She often quoted with approval Plato’s saying that philosophy consists in meditating on death. A truth which our own apostle indorses when he says: “for your salvation I die daily.” Indeed according to the old copies our Lord himself says: “whosoever doth not bear His cross daily and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Ages before, the Holy Spirit had said by the prophet: “for thy sake are we killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”[Psalms 44:22] Many generations afterwards the words were spoken: “remember the end and thou shalt never do amiss,” as well as that precept of the eloquent satirist: “live with death in your mind; time flies; this say of mine is so much taken from it.” Well then, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 273, footnote 13 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Ctesiphon. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3790 (In-Text, Margin)

... meaning is that no man is perfect in comparison with God. Yet the scripture does not say: “in comparison with thee shall no man living be justified” but “in thy sight shall no man living be justified.” And when it says “in thy sight” it means that those who seem holy to men to God in his fuller knowledge are by no means holy. For “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” But if in the sight of God who sees all things and to whom the secrets of the heart lie open[Psalms 44:21] no man is just; then these heretics instead of adding to man’s dignity, clearly take away from God’s power. I might bring together many other passages of scripture of the same import; but were I to do so, I should exceed the limits I will not say of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 36, footnote 17 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

That Scripture uses the words “in” or “by,” ἐν, cf. note on p. 3, in place of “with.”  Wherein also it is proved that the word “and” has the same force as “with.” (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1217 (In-Text, Margin)

... word in [or by] implies lower dignity than the word “with;” I should maintain on the contrary that, rightly understood, it leads us up to the highest possible meaning. This is the case where, as we have observed, it often stands instead of with; as for instance, “I will go into thy house in burnt offerings,” instead of with burnt offerings and “he brought them forth also by silver and gold,” that is to say with silver and gold and “thou goest not forth in our armies”[Psalms 44:9] instead of with our armies, and innumerable similar passages. In short I should very much like to learn from this newfangled philosophy what kind of glory the Apostle ascribed by the word in, according to the interpretation which our ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 60b, footnote 5 (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 III (HTML)
Concerning the volitions and free-will of our Lord Jesus Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2119 (In-Text, Margin)

... For judgment is a disposition with reference to the decision arrived at after investigation and deliberation concerning something unknown, that is to say, after counsel and decision. And after judgment comes preference, which chooses out and selects the one rather than the other. But the Lord being not mere man but also God, and knowing all things, had no need of inquiry, and investigation, and counsel, and decision, and by nature made whatever is good His own and whatever is bad foreign to Him[Psalms 44]. For thus says Isaiah the prophet, Before the child shall know to prefer the evil, he shall choose the good; because before the child knows good or evil, he refuses wickedness by choosing the good. For the word “before” proves that it is not ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs