Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Psalms 68
There are 86 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 107, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Tarsians (HTML)
Chapter I.—His own sufferings: exhortation to stedfastness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1180 (In-Text, Margin)
... life dear unto myself,” in such a way as to love it better than the Lord. Wherefore I am prepared for [encountering] fire, wild beasts, the sword, or the cross, so that only I may see Christ my Saviour and God, who died for me. I therefore, the prisoner of Christ, who am driven along by land and sea, exhort you: “stand fast in the faith,” and be ye steadfast, “for the just shall live by faith;” be ye unwavering, for “the Lord causes those to dwell in a house who are of one and the same character.”[Psalms 68:7]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 113, footnote 14 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to Hero, a Deacon of Antioch (HTML)
Chapter III.—Exhortations as to ecclesiastical duties. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1279 (In-Text, Margin)
“Honour widows that are widows indeed.” Be the friend of orphans; for God is “the Father of the fatherless, and the Judge of the widows.”[Psalms 68:5] Do nothing without the bishops; for they are priests, and thou a servant of the priests. They baptize, offer sacrifice, ordain, and lay on hands; but thou ministerest to them, as the holy Stephen did at Jerusalem to James and the presbyters. Do not neglect the sacred meetings [of the saints]; inquire after every one by name. “Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example to the believers, both in word and conduct.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 214, footnote 8 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)
Chapter XXXIX.—The Jews hate the Christians who believe this. How great the distinction is between both! (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2052 (In-Text, Margin)
And I said to him, “Listen, O friend, for I am not mad or beside myself; but it was prophesied that, after the ascent of Christ to heaven, He would deliver us from error and give us gifts. The words are these: ‘He ascended up on high; He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men.’[Psalms 68:19] Accordingly, we who have received gifts from Christ, who has ascended up on high, prove from the words of prophecy that you, ‘the wise in yourselves, and the men of understanding in your own eyes,’ are foolish, and honour God and His Christ by lip only. But we, who are instructed in the whole truth, honour Them both in acts, and in knowledge, and in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 243, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)
Chapter LXXXVII.—Trypho maintains in objection these words: “And shall rest on Him,” etc. They are explained by Justin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2295 (In-Text, Margin)
... whom, in the times of this dispensation wrought out by Him amongst men, it was requisite that such gifts should cease from you; and having received their rest in Him, should again, as had been predicted, become gifts which, from the grace of His Spirit’s power, He imparts to those who believe in Him, according as He deems each man worthy thereof. I have already said, and do again say, that it had been prophesied that this would be done by Him after His ascension to heaven. It is accordingly said,[Psalms 68:18] ‘He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, He gave gifts unto the sons of men.’ And again, in another prophecy it is said: ‘And it shall come to pass after this, I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and on My servants, and on My handmaids, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 388, footnote 5 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)
Chapter XX.—Futility of the arguments adduced to demonstrate the sufferings of the twelfth Æon, from the parables, the treachery of Judas, and the passion of our Saviour. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3102 (In-Text, Margin)
... to knowledge and to His fellowship. The search into the greatness of the Father became to her a passion leading to destruction; but the Lord, having suffered, and bestowing the knowledge of the Father, conferred on us salvation. Her passion, as they declare, gave origin to a female offspring, weak, infirm, unformed, and ineffective; but His passion gave rise to strength and power. For the Lord, through means of suffering, “ascending into the lofty place, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men,”[Psalms 68:18] and conferred on those that believe in Him the power “to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy,” that is, of the leader of apostasy. Our Lord also by His passion destroyed death, and dispersed error, and put an end to ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 474, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter XIV.—Greek Plagiarism from the Hebrews. (HTML)
Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, “At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles?”[Psalms 68:8] In addition to these, the most prophetic Apollo is compelled—thus testifying to the glory of God—to say of Athene, when the Medes made war against Greece, that she besought and supplicated Zeus for Attica. The oracle is as follows:—
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 341, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book III. Wherein Christ is shown to be the Son of God, Who created the world; to have been predicted by the prophets; to have taken human flesh like our own, by a real incarnation. (HTML)
The Success of the Apostles, and Their Sufferings in the Cause of the Gospel, Foretold. (HTML)
... of God would ascribe glory to God the Father, in the person of Christ Himself addressing His Father; “I will declare Thy name unto my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto Thee.” For that which had to come to pass in our day in His name, and by His Spirit, He rightly foretold would be of Him. And a little afterwards He says: “My praise shall be of Thee in the great congregation.” In the sixty-seventh Psalm He says again: “In the congregations bless ye the Lord God.”[Psalms 68:26] So that with this agrees also the prophecy of Malachi: “I have no pleasure in you, saith the Lord; neither will I accept your offerings: for from the rising of the sun, even unto the going down of the same, my name shall be great among the Gentiles; ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 392, footnote 9 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book IV. In Which Tertullian Pursues His Argument. Jesus is the Christ of the Creator. He Derives His Proofs from St. Luke's Gospel; That Being the Only Historical Portion of the New Testament Partially Accepted by Marcion. This Book May Also Be Regarded as a Commentary on St. Luke. It Gives Remarkable Proof of Tertullian's Grasp of Scripture, and Proves that “The Old Testament is Not Contrary to the New.“ It Also Abounds in Striking Expositions of Scriptural Passages, Embracing Profound Views of Revelation, in Connection with the Nature of Man. (HTML)
From St. Luke's Eleventh Chapter Other Evidence that Christ Comes from the Creator. The Lord's Prayer and Other Words of Christ. The Dumb Spirit and Christ's Discourse on Occasion of the Expulsion. The Exclamation of the Woman in the Crowd. (HTML)
... can I ask for His Holy Spirit? Of him who gives not even the mundane spirit; or of Him “who maketh His angels spirits,” and whose Spirit it was which in the beginning hovered upon the waters. Whose kingdom shall I wish to come—his, of whom I never heard as the king of glory; or His, in whose hand are even the hearts of kings? Who shall give me my daily bread? Shall it be he who produces for me not a grain of millet-seed; or He who even from heaven gave to His people day by day the bread of angels?[Psalms 68:25] Who shall forgive me my trespasses? He who, by refusing to judge them, does not retain them; or He who, unless He forgives them, will retain them, even to His judgment? Who shall suffer us not to be led into temptation? He before whom the tempter ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 446, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
Man the Image of the Creator, and Christ the Head of the Man. Spiritual Gifts. The Sevenfold Spirit Described by Isaiah. The Apostle and the Prophet Compared. Marcion Challenged to Produce Anything Like These Gifts of the Spirit Foretold in Prophecy in His God. (HTML)
... Spirit of the Creator never breathed amongst them. From Judah were taken away “the wise man, and the cunning artificer, and the counsellor, and the prophet;” that so it might prove true that “the law and the prophets were until John.” Now hear how he declared that by Christ Himself, when returned to heaven, these spiritual gifts were to be sent: “He ascended up on high,” that is, into heaven; “He led captivity captive,” meaning death or slavery of man; “He gave gifts to the sons of men,”[Psalms 68:18] that is, the gratuities, which we call charismata. He says specifically “ sons of men,” and not men promiscuously; thus exhibiting to us those who were the children of men truly so ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 468, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
Another Foolish Erasure of Marcion's Exposed. Certain Figurative Expressions of the Apostle, Suggested by the Language of the Old Testament. Collation of Many Passages of This Epistle, with Precepts and Statements in the Pentateuch, the Psalms, and the Prophets. All Alike Teach Us the Will and Purpose of the Creator. (HTML)
... might be made known to Him, and then to the principalities and powers of God, whosoever He might be, with whom the Creator was destined to share their knowledge.” So palpable is the erasure in this passage, when thus read, consistently with its own true bearing. I, on my part, now wish to engage with you in a discussion on the allegorical expressions of the apostle. What figures of speech could the novel god have found in the prophets (fit for himself)? “He led captivity captive,” says the apostle.[Psalms 68:19] With what arms? In what conflicts? From the devastation of what country? From the overthrow of what city? What women, what children, what princes did the Conqueror throw into chains? For when by David Christ is sung as “girded with His sword upon ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 424, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
I (HTML)
Chapter LXII (HTML)
... this also, Paul, referring in terms of commendation, as we have stated a little above, says: “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” For, according to the predictions in the prophets, foretelling the preaching of the Gospel, “the Lord gave the word in great power to them who preached it, even the King of the powers of the Beloved,”[Psalms 68:11] in order that the prophecy might be fulfilled which said, “His words shall run very swiftly.” And we see that “the voice of the apostles of Jesus has gone forth into all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” On this account are they ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 543, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter I (HTML)
... faith of those whom we wish to aid may not depend upon human wisdom, but that, receiving the “mind” of Christ from His Father, who alone can bestow it, and being strengthened by participating in the word of God, we may pull down “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,” and the imagination of Celsus, who exalts himself against us, and against Jesus, and also against Moses and the prophets, in order that He who “gave the word to those who published it with great power”[Psalms 68:11] may supply us also, and bestow upon us “great power,” so that faith in the word and power of God may be implanted in the minds of all who will peruse our work.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 575, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter II (HTML)
... not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” For the word of God declares that the preaching (although in itself true and most worthy of belief) is not sufficient to reach the human heart, unless a certain power be imparted to the speaker from God, and a grace appear upon his words; and it is only by the divine agency that this takes place in those who speak effectually. The prophet says in the sixty-seventh Psalm, that “the Lord will give a word with great power to them who preach.”[Psalms 68:11] If, then, it should be granted with respect to certain points, that the same doctrines are found among the Greeks as in our own Scriptures, yet they do not possess the same power of attracting and disposing the souls of men to follow them. And ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 286, footnote 6 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To the Clergy, Concerning Prayer to God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2183 (In-Text, Margin)
... and ye shall obtain.” Then, afterwards, that the attending people were bidden to pray for certain persons pointed out to them, but that in their petitions there were dissonant voices, and wills disagreeing, and that this excessively displeased Him who had said, “Ask, and ye shall obtain,” because the disagreement of the people was out of harmony, and there was not a consent of the brethren one and simple, and a united concord; since it is written, “God who maketh men to be of one mind in a house;”[Psalms 68:6] and we read in the Acts of the Apostles, “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” And the Lord has bidden us with His own voice, saying, “This is my command, that ye love one another.” And again, “I say unto you, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 398, footnote 9 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Magnus, on Baptizing the Novatians, and Those Who Obtain Grace on a Sick-Bed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2981 (In-Text, Margin)
... esteemed a pastor, who,—while the true shepherd remains and presides over the Church of God by successive ordination,—succeeding to no one, and beginning from himself, becomes a stranger and a profane person, an enemy of the Lord’s peace and of the divine unity, not dwelling in the house of God, that is, in the Church of God, in which none dwell except they are of one heart and one mind, since the Holy Spirit speaks in the Psalms, and says, “It is God who maketh men to dwell of one mind in a house.”[Psalms 68:6]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 424, footnote 6 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Unity of the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3128 (In-Text, Margin)
... law of the Exodus than that the lamb which is slain in the figure of Christ should be eaten in one house. God speaks, saying, “In one house shall ye eat it; ye shall not send its flesh abroad from the house.” The flesh of Christ, and the holy of the Lord, cannot be sent abroad, nor is there any other home to believers but the one Church. This home, this household of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and points out in the Psalms, saying, “God, who maketh men to dwell with one mind in a house.”[Psalms 68:6] In the house of God, in the Church of Christ, men dwell with one mind, and continue in concord and simplicity.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 449, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3321 (In-Text, Margin)
... effectual, because a peaceful, and sincere, and spiritual prayer deserved well of the Lord. Thus also we find that the apostles, with the disciples, prayed after the Lord’s ascension: “They all,” says the Scripture, “continued with one accord in prayer, with the women, and Mary who was the mother of Jesus, and with His brethren.” They continued with one accord in prayer, declaring both by the urgency and by the agreement of their praying, that God, “who maketh men to dwell of one mind in a house,”[Psalms 68:6] only admits into the divine and eternal home those among whom prayer is unanimous.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 454, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3363 (In-Text, Margin)
... rebuke. “When ye stand praying,” says He, “forgive if ye have aught against any, that your Father which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you your trespasses.” There remains no ground of excuse in the day of judgment, when you will be judged according to your own sentence; and whatever you have done, that you also will suffer. For God commands us to be peacemakers, and in agreement, and of one mind in His house;[Psalms 68:6] and such as He makes us by a second birth, such He wishes us when new-born to continue, that we who have begun to be sons of God may abide in God’s peace, and that, having one spirit, we should also have one heart and one mind. Thus God does not ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 518, footnote 7 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
... iniquity: wherefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows.” So, too, in the forty-fifth Psalm: “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.” Also in the eighty-first Psalm: “They have not known, neither have they understood: they will walk on in darkness.” Also in the sixty-seventh Psalm: “Sing unto God, sing praises unto His name: make a way for Him who goeth up into the west: God is His name.”[Psalms 68:4] Also in the Gospel according to John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.” Also in the same: “The Lord said to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands: and be not faithless, but believing. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 526, footnote 18 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
... unto God, sing praises unto His name: make a way to Him who goeth up into the west. God is His name. They shall be put to confusion from the face of Him who is the Father of the orphans, and the Judge of the widows. God is in His holy place: God, who maketh men to dwell with one mind in an house, bringing forth them that are bound with might, and equally those who provoke unto anger, who dwell in the sepulchres: God, when Thou wentest forth in the sight of Thy people, in passing into the desert.”[Psalms 68:1-7] Also in the eighty-first Psalm: “Arise, O God; judge the earth: for Thou wilt exterminate among all nations.” Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: “What have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of David? why art Thou come hither to punish us before the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 553, footnote 16 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... in unity!” Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “But I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you; but that ye be all joined together in the same mind and in the same opinion.” Also in the sixty-seventh Psalm: “God, who maketh men to dwell with one mind in a house.”[Psalms 68:6]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 556, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... and will be angry in mind against you; and I will destroy you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans.” Also in Isaiah: “Judge for the fatherless, and justify the widow; and come let us reason, saith the Lord.” Also in Job: “I have preserved the poor man from the hand of the mighty, and I have helped the fatherless who had no helper: the mouth of the widow hath blessed me.” Also in the sixty-seventh Psalm: “The Father of the orphans, and the Judge of the widows.”[Psalms 68:5]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 618, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise of Novatian Concerning the Trinity. (HTML)
It is This God, Therefore, that the Church Has Known and Adores; And to Him the Testimony of Things as Well Visible as Invisible is Given Both at All Times and in All Forms, by the Nature Which His Providence Rules and Governs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5060 (In-Text, Margin)
... God are fiery, and are not darksome, but flourish. Or, moreover, lest, because those things had arisen from earthly beginnings, they should naturally be inactive, from the rigidity of their origin, the hot nature of an interior spirit was added to all things; and that this nature concreted with the cold bodies might minister for the purpose of life equal measures for all. This, therefore, according to David, is God’s chariot. “For the chariot of God,” says he, “is multiplied ten thousand times;”[Psalms 68:18] that is, it is innumerable, infinite, immense. For, under the yoke of the natural law given to all things, some things are restrained, as if withheld by reins; others, as if stimulated, are urged on with relaxed reins. For the world, which is that ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 395, footnote 3 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
Oration on the Palms. (HTML)
Oration on the Palms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3124 (In-Text, Margin)
... you? Who brought you together? What were your tablets? Who were your teachers? Do but you, they say, join us as our companions in this song and festivity, and you will learn the things which were by Moses and the prophet earnestly longed for. Since then the children have invited us, and have given unto us the right hand of fellowship, let us come, beloved, and ourselves emulate that holy chorus, and with the apostles, let us make way for Him who ascends over the heaven of heavens towards the East,[Psalms 68:4] and who, of His good pleasure, is upon the earth mounted upon an ass’s colt. Let us, with the children, raise the branches aloft, and with the olive branches make glad applaud, that upon us also the Holy Spirit may breathe, and that in due order we ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 395, footnote 3 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
Oration on the Palms. (HTML)
Oration on the Palms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3124 (In-Text, Margin)
... you? Who brought you together? What were your tablets? Who were your teachers? Do but you, they say, join us as our companions in this song and festivity, and you will learn the things which were by Moses and the prophet earnestly longed for. Since then the children have invited us, and have given unto us the right hand of fellowship, let us come, beloved, and ourselves emulate that holy chorus, and with the apostles, let us make way for Him who ascends over the heaven of heavens towards the East,[Psalms 68:34] and who, of His good pleasure, is upon the earth mounted upon an ass’s colt. Let us, with the children, raise the branches aloft, and with the olive branches make glad applaud, that upon us also the Holy Spirit may breathe, and that in due order we ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 115, footnote 6 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Lactantius (HTML)
The Divine Institutes (HTML)
Book IV. Of True Wisdom and Religion (HTML)
Chap. XV.—Of the life and miracles of Jesus, and testimonies concerning them (HTML)
... wash away in the spiritual laver not His own sins, for it is evident that He had none, but those of the flesh, which He bare; that as He saved the Jews by undergoing circumcision, so He might save the Gentiles also by baptism—that is, by the pouring forth of the purifying dew. Then a voice from heaven was heard: “Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten Thee.” Which voice is found to have been foretold by David. And the Spirit of God descended upon Him, formed after the appearance of a white dove.[Psalms 68:13] From that time He began to perform the greatest miracles, not by magical tricks, which display nothing true and substantial, but by heavenly strength and power, which were foretold even long ago by the prophets who announced Him; which works are so ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 445, footnote 18 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Sec. III.—On Feast Days and Fast Days (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3095 (In-Text, Margin)
... for by Him; and you who have believed in Him have hearkened to His call, and have left the madness of polytheism, and have fled to the true monarchy, to Almighty God, through Christ Jesus, and are become the completion of the number of the saved—“ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;” as it is written in David, “A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand;” and again, “The chariots of God are by tens of thousands, and thousands of the prosperous.”[Psalms 68:17] But unto unbelieving Israel He says: “All the day long have I stretched out mine hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people, which go in a way that is not good, but after their own sins, a people provoking me before my face.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 451, footnote 20 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Sec. II.—History and Doctrines of Heresies (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3188 (In-Text, Margin)
... has therefore “left His people as a tent in a vineyard, and as a garner in a fig or olive yard, and as a besieged city.” He has taken away from them the Holy Spirit, and the prophetic rain, and has replenished His Church with spiritual grace, as the “river of Egypt in the time of first-fruits;” and has advanced the same “as an house upon an hill, or as an high mountain; as a mountain fruitful for milk and fatness, wherein it has pleased God to dwell. For the Lord will inhabit therein to the end.”[Psalms 68:16] And He says in Jeremiah: “Our sanctuary is an exalted throne of glory.” And He says in Isaiah: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord shall be glorious, and the house of the Lord shall be upon the top of the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 450, footnote 2 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
The Gospel of Nicodemus; Part II.--Christ's Descent into Hell: Latin. First Version. (HTML)
Chapter 5. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1979 (In-Text, Margin)
... princes; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates; and the King of glory shall come in. Hades hearing this, said to Prince Satan: Retire from me, and go outside of my realms: if thou art a powerful warrior, fight against the King of glory. But what hast thou to do with Him? And Hades thrust Satan outside of his realms. And Hades said to his impious officers: Shut the cruel gates of brass, and put up the bars of iron, and resist bravely, that we, holding captivity, may not take Him captive.[Psalms 68:18]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 761, footnote 14 (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 3670 (In-Text, Margin)
The ascent of the Lord —the raising up of man, who is taken from earth to heaven. In the Psalm: “Who ascendeth above the heaven of heavens to the east.”[Psalms 68:33]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 125, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. (HTML)
He Refutes the Opinion of the Manichæans as to Two Kinds of Minds,—One Good and the Other Evil. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 664 (In-Text, Margin)
22. Let them perish from Thy presence,[Psalms 68:2] O God, as “vain talkers and deceivers” of the soul do perish, who, observing that there were two wills in deliberating, affirm that there are two kinds of minds in us,—one good, the other evil. They themselves verily are evil when they hold these evil opinions; and they shall become good when they hold the truth, and shall consent unto the truth, that Thy apostle may say unto them, “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.” But, they, desiring to be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 130, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica. (HTML)
He Retires to the Villa of His Friend Verecundus, Who Was Not Yet a Christian, and Refers to His Conversion and Death, as Well as that of Nebridius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 706 (In-Text, Margin)
... thinking on the exceeding kindness of our friend to us, and unable to count him in Thy flock, we should be tortured with intolerable grief. Thanks be unto Thee, our God, we are Thine. Thy exhortations, consolations, and faithful promises assure us that Thou now repayest Verecundus for that country house at Cassiacum, where from the fever of the world we found rest in Thee, with the perpetual freshness of Thy Paradise, in that Thou hast forgiven him his earthly sins, in that mountain flowing with milk,[Psalms 68:16] that fruitful mountain,—Thine own.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 135, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica. (HTML)
Of the Conversion of Evodius, and the Death of His Mother When Returning with Him to Africa; And Whose Education He Tenderly Relates. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 762 (In-Text, Margin)
17. Thou, who makest men to dwell of one mind in a house,[Psalms 68:6] didst associate with us Evodius also, a young man of our city, who, when serving as an agent for Public Affairs, was converted unto Thee and baptized prior to us; and relinquishing his secular service, prepared himself for Thine. We were together, and together were we about to dwell with a holy purpose. We sought for some place where we might be most useful in our service to Thee, and were going back together to Africa. And when we were at the Tiberine Ostia my ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 139, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He speaks of his design of forsaking the profession of rhetoric; of the death of his friends, Nebridius and Verecundus; of having received baptism in the thirty-third year of his age; and of the virtues and death of his mother, Monica. (HTML)
How He Mourned His Dead Mother. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 788 (In-Text, Margin)
... entreated Thee, as I was able, to heal my sorrow, but Thou didst not; fixing, I believe, in my memory by this one lesson the power of the bonds of all habit, even upon a mind which now feeds not upon a fallacious word. It appeared to me also a good thing to go and bathe, I having heard that the bath [balneum] took its name from the Greek βαλανεῖον, because it drives trouble from the mind. Lo, this also I confess unto Thy mercy, “Father of the fatherless,”[Psalms 68:5] that I bathed, and felt the same as before I had done so. For the bitterness of my grief exuded not from my heart. Then I slept, and on awaking found my grief not a little mitigated; and as I lay alone upon my bed, there came into my mind those true ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 356, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)
Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in Which the Death and Resurrection of the Lord are Prophesied. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1108 (In-Text, Margin)
... hope: for Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see corruption.” Who but He that rose again the third day could say his flesh had rested in this hope; that His soul, not being left in hell, but speedily returning to it, should revive it, that it should not be corrupted as corpses are wont to be, which they can in no wise say of David the prophet and king? The 68th Psalm also cries out, “Our God is the God of Salvation: even of the Lord the exit was by death.”[Psalms 68:20] What could be more openly said? For the God of salvation is the Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or Healing One. For this reason this name was given, when it was said before He was born of the virgin: “Thou shall bring forth a Son, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 70, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
Augustin explains for what the Son of God was sent; but, however, that the Son of God, although made less by being sent, is not therefore less because the Father sent Him; nor yet the Holy Spirit less because both the Father sent Him and the Son. (HTML)
We are Made Perfect by Acknowledgement of Our Own Weakness. The Incarnate Word Dispels Our Darkness. (HTML)
... shown also what manner of men we are whom He loved, lest being proud, as if of our own merits, we should recede the more from Him, and fail the more in our own strength. And hence He so dealt with us, that we might the rather profit by His strength, and that so in the weakness of humility the virtue of charity might be perfected. And this is intimated in the Psalm, where it is said, “Thou, O God, didst send a spontaneous rain, whereby Thou didst make Thine inheritance perfect, when it was weary.”[Psalms 68:9] For by “spontaneous rain” nothing else is meant than grace, not rendered to merit, but given freely, whence also it is called grace; for He gave it, not because we were worthy, but because He willed. And knowing this, we shall not trust in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 174, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian faith. (HTML)
There Was No Other More Suitable Way of Freeing Man from the Misery of Mortality Than The Incarnation of the Word. The Merits Which are Called Ours are the Gifts of God. (HTML)
14. Since those also which are called our deserts, are His gifts. For, that faith may work by love, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” And He was then given, when Jesus was glorified by the resurrection. For then He promised that He Himself would send Him, and He sent Him; because then, as it was written and foretold of Him, “He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.”[Psalms 68:18] These gifts constitute our deserts, by which we arrive at the chief good of an immortal blessedness. “But God,” says the apostle, “commendeth His love towards as, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 218, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He embraces in a brief compendium the contents of the previous books; and finally shows that the Trinity, in the perfect sight of which consists the blessed life that is promised us, is here seen by us as in a glass and in an enigma, so long as it is seen through that image of God which we ourselves are. (HTML)
The Holy Spirit is Called the Gift of God in the Scriptures. By the Gift of the Holy Spirit is Meant the Gift Which is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is Specially Called Love, Although Not Only the Holy Spirit in the Trinity is Love. (HTML)
... captivity captive, and hath given gifts to men.” And every one knows that the Lord Jesus, when He had ascended into heaven after the resurrection from the dead, gave the Holy Spirit, with whom they who believed were filled, and spake with the tongues of all nations. And let no one object that he says gifts, not gift: for he quoted the text from the Psalm. And in the Psalm it is read thus, “Thou hast ascended up on high, Thou hast led captivity captive, Thou hast received gifts in men.”[Psalms 68:18] For so it stands in many., especially in the Greek., and so we have it translated from the Hebrew. The apostle therefore said gifts, as the prophet did, not gift. But whereas the prophet said, “Thou hast received gifts in men,” the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined. (HTML)
Chapter 50 (HTML)
98. It is indeed worth while to consider the whole of the passage in the aforesaid letter to Magnus, which he has put together as follows: "Not dwelling," he says, "in the house of God—that is to say, in the Church of Christ—in which none dwell save those that are of one heart and of one mind, as the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms, speaking of ‘God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house.’[Psalms 68:6] Finally, the very sacrifices of the Lord declare that Christians are united among themselves by a firm and inseparable love for one another. For when the Lord calls bread, which is compacted together by the union of many grains, His body, He is signifying one people, whom He bore, compacted into one ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 512, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined. (HTML)
Chapter 51 (HTML)
... and a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, a well of living water, an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits; which house also received the keys, and the power of binding and loosing. If any one shall neglect this house when it arrests and corrects him, the Lord says, "Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican." Of this house it is said, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, and the place where Thine honor dwelleth;" and, "He maketh men to be of one mind in an house;"[Psalms 68:6] and, "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord;" and, "Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, O Lord; they will be still praising Thee;" with countless other passages to the same effect. This house is also called ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 90, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Exclusion of Boasting. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 777 (In-Text, Margin)
... boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.” He may either mean, the laudable boasting, which is in the Lord; and that it is excluded, not in the sense that it is driven off so as to pass away, but that it is clearly manifested so as to stand out prominently. Whence certain artificers in silver are called “ exclusores.” In this sense it occurs also in that passage in the Psalms: “That they may be excluded, who have been proved with silver,”[Psalms 68:30] —that is, that they may stand out in prominence, who have been tried by the word of God. For in another passage it is said: “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver which is tried in the fire.” Or if this be not his meaning, he must have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 104, footnote 18 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
Righteousness is the Gift of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 974 (In-Text, Margin)
Let no man therefore boast of that which he seems to possess, as if he had not received it; nor let him think that he has received it merely because the external letter of the law has been either exhibited to him to read, or sounded in his ear for him to hear. For “if righteousness is by the law, then Christ has died in vain.” Seeing, however, that if He has not died in vain, He has ascended up on high, and has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men,[Psalms 68:18] it follows that whosoever has, has from this source. But whosoever denies that he has from Him, either has not, or is in great danger of being deprived of what he has. “For it is one God which justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 247, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Under the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1984 (In-Text, Margin)
... law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. If, therefore, it is now manifested, it even then existed, but it was hidden. This concealment was symbolized by the veil of the temple. When Christ was dying, this veil was rent asunder, to signify the full revelation of Him. Even of old, therefore there existed amongst the people of God this grace of the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; but like the rain in the fleece which God sets apart for His inheritance,[Psalms 68:9] not of debt, but of His own will, it was latently present, but is now patently visible amongst all nations as its “floor,” the fleece being dry,—in other words, the Jewish people having become reprobate.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 450, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
The Pelagians Profess that the Only Grace Which is Not Given According to Our Merits is that of the Forgiveness of Sins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3038 (In-Text, Margin)
... they are evil; and God does not crown them; but if they are good, they are God’s gifts, because, as the Apostle James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.” In accordance with which John also, the Lord’s forerunner, declares: “A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven” —from heaven, of course, because from thence came also the Holy Ghost, when Jesus ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.[Psalms 68:18] If, then, your good merits are God’s gifts, God does not crown your merits as your merits, but as His own gifts.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 492, 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, John v. 31, ‘If I bear witness of myself,’ etc.; and on the words of the apostle, Galatians v. 16, ‘Walk by the spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3821 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Of Him it is said, “He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, He gave gifts unto men.”[Psalms 68:18] What is, “He led captivity captive”? He conquered death. What is, “He led captivity captive”? The devil was the author of death, and the devil was himself by the Death of Christ led captive. “He ascended up on high.” What do we know higher than heaven? Visibly and before the eyes of His disciples He ascended into heaven. This we know, this we believe, this we confess. “He gave gifts unto men.” What gifts? The Holy Spirit. He who giveth such a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 172, 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 VI. 41–59. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 528 (In-Text, Margin)
14. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They strove, and that among themselves, since they understood not, neither wished to take the bread of concord: “for they who eat such bread do not strive with one another; for we being many are one bread, one body.” And by this bread, “God makes people of one sort to dwell in a house.”[Psalms 68:6]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 242, footnote 8 (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. 48–59. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 807 (In-Text, Margin)
11. Thus spake the Lord (it is scarcely sufficient to say), as one dying to dying men; for “to the Lord also belong the issues from death,”[Psalms 68:20] as saith the psalm. Seeing, then, He was both speaking to those destined to die, and speaking as one appointed to death Himself, what mean His words, “He who keepeth my saying shall never see death;” save that the Lord saw another death, from which He was come to deliver us—the second death, death eternal, the death of hell, the death of damnation with the devil and his angels? This is real death; for that other is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 337, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. 22–24. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1345 (In-Text, Margin)
... have not love, though they speak with the tongues of men and angels, are become a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal; and though they had the gift of prophecy, and knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and had all faith so that they could remove mountains, they are nothing; and though they distributed all their substance, and gave their body to be burnt, it profiteth them nothing. The saints are distinguished from the world by that love which maketh the one-minded to dwell [together] in a house.[Psalms 68:6] In this house Father and Son make their abode, and impart that very love to those whom They shall also honor at last with this promised self manifestation; of which the disciple questioned his Master, that not only those who then listened might ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 437, 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. 10–29. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1923 (In-Text, Margin)
... recalling the Teacher of whom she was learning to discern things human and divine. She called one lord (sir), whose handmaid she was not, in order by him to get at the Lord to whom she belonged. In one sense, therefore, she used the word Lord when she said, “They have taken away my Lord; and in another, when she said, Sir (lord), if thou hast borne Him hence.” For the prophet also called those lords who were mere men, but in a different sense from Him of whom it is written, “The Lord is His name.”[Psalms 68:4] But how was it that this woman, who had already turned herself back to see Jesus, when she supposed Him to be the gardener, and was actually talking with Him, is said to have again turned herself, in order to say unto Him “Rabboni,” but just ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 452, 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 XXI. 19–25. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1987 (In-Text, Margin)
... may be apparent, so that, knowing how far he will be believed, he, orally, either diminishes or magnifies his subject beyond the limit to which credit will be given. This mode of speaking is called by the Greek name hyperbole, by the masters not only of Greek, but also of Latin literature. And this mode is found not only here, but in several other parts also of the divine literature: as, “They set their mouths against the heavens;” and, “The top of the hair of such as go on in their trespasses;”[Psalms 68:21] and many others of the same kind, which are no more wanting in the sacred Scriptures than other tropes or modes of speaking. Of these I might give a more elaborate discussion, were it not that, as the evangelist here terminates his Gospel, I am also ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 7, footnote 13 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 75 (In-Text, Margin)
... night.” Let them say moreover, “I will not fear the thousands of people that surround me;” of the heathen verily that compass me about to extinguish everywhere, if they could, the Christian name. But how should they be feared, when by the blood of the martyrs in Christ, as by oil, the ardour of love is inflamed? “Arise, O Lord, save me, O my God.” The body can address this to its own Head. For at His rising the body was saved; who “ascended up on high, led captivity captive, gave gifts unto men.”[Psalms 68:18] For this is said by the Prophet, in the secret purpose of God, until that ripe harvest which is spoken of in the Gospel, whose salvation is in His Resurrection, who vouchsafed to die for us, shed out our Lord to the earth. “Since Thou hast smitten ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 216, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2055 (In-Text, Margin)
... drawn near”? In such sort, that we may understand His will. For by heretics hath been vindicated the Catholic Church, and by those that think evil have been proved those that think well. For many things lay hid in the Scriptures: and when heretics had been cut off, with questions they troubled the Church of God: then those things were opened which lay hid, and the will of God was understood. Thence is said in another Psalm, “In order that they might be excluded that have been proved with silver.”[Psalms 68:30] For let them be excluded, He hath said, let them come forth, let them appear. Whence even in silver-working men are called “excluders,” that is, pressers out of form from the sort of confusion of the lump. Therefore many men that could understand ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 287, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2707 (In-Text, Margin)
... of each kind are made meet persons, whereof to construct His holy place; those being loosened, these being raised to life. For even of the woman, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, by His command He loosed the bonds; and Lazarus’ death by His voice He overcame. He that hath done these things in bodies, is able to do more marvellous things in characters, and to make men of one mood to dwell in a house: “leading forth men fettered in strength, likewise men provoking that dwell in the tombs.”[Psalms 68:6]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 288, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2710 (In-Text, Margin)
... stirred up. But whence was it moved? “For the heavens dropped from the face of God.” Perchance here some one calleth to mind that time, when in the desert God was going over before His people, before the sons of Israel, by day in the pillar of cloud, by night in the brightness of fire; and determineth that thus it is that “the heavens dropped from the face of God,” for manna He rained upon His people: that the same thing also is that which followeth, “Mount Sina from the face of the God of Israel,”[Psalms 68:8] “with voluntary rain severing God to Thine inheritance” (ver. 9), namely, the God that on Mount Sina spake to Moses, when He gave the Law, so that the manna is the voluntary rain, which God severed for His inheritance, that is, for His people; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 288, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2717 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Gospel was passing, “the Heavens dropped from the face of God.” These are the Heavens, whereof in another Psalm is sung, “The Heavens are telling forth the glory of God.” … So here also, “the Heavens dropped;” but “from the face of God.” For even these very persons have been “saved through faith, and this not of themselves, but God’s gift it is, not of works, lest perchance any man should be lifted up. For of Himself we are the workmanship,” “that maketh men of one mood to dwell in a house.”[Psalms 68:6]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 294, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2810 (In-Text, Margin)
... caught, and caught because subjugated, being sent under that gentle yoke, being delivered from sin whereof they were servants, and being made servants of righteousness whereof they were children. Whence also He is Himself in them, that hath given gifts to men, and hath received gifts in men. And thus in that captivity, in that servitude, in that chariot, under that yoke, there are not thousands of men lamenting, but thousands of men rejoicing. For the Lord is in them, in Sina, in the holy place.[Psalms 68:17] …
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 295, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2821 (In-Text, Margin)
28. “The Lord hath said, Out of Basan I will be turned” (ver. 22): or, as some copies have, “Out of Basan I will turn.” For He turneth that we may be safe, of whom above hath been said, “God of our healths, and God of saving men.”[Psalms 68:19] For to Him elsewhere also is said, “O God of virtues, turn Thou us, and show Thy face, and safe we shall be.” Also in another place, “Turn us, O God of our healths.” But he hath said, “Out of Basan I will turn.” Basan is interpreted confusion. What is then, I will turn out of confusion, but that there is confounded because of his sins, he that is praying of the mercy of God that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 362, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3497 (In-Text, Margin)
... Psalm. For therein is the voice of the same: “weariness hath bowed me down, because of sinners forsaking Thy law.” He saith then that he was overcome with so great weariness because of this sort of evil thing; so as that his soul refused to be comforted. Weariness had well nigh swallowed him up, and sorrow had ingulfed him altogether beyond remedy, he refuseth to be comforted. What then re mained? In the first place, see whence he is comforted. Had he not waited for one who might condole with him?[Psalms 68:20] …“I have been mindful of God, and I have been delighted” (ver. 3). My hands had not wrought in vain, they had found a great comforter. While not being idle, “I have been mindful of God, and I have been delighted.” God must therefore be praised, of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 571, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Teth. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5225 (In-Text, Margin)
69. “Their heart is curdled as milk” (ver. 70). Whose, save the proud, whose iniquity he hath said hath been multiplied upon him? But he wisheth it to be understood by this word, and in this passage, that their heart hath become hard. It is used also in a good sense,[Psalms 68:15] and is understood to mean, full of grace: for this word, some have also interpreted “curdled.”…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 122, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Letter to a Young Widow. (HTML)
Letter to a Young Widow. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 337 (In-Text, Margin)
For as long as that blessed husband of thine was with thee, thou didst enjoy honour, and care and zealous attention; in fact you enjoyed such as you might expect to enjoy from a husband; but since God took him to Himself He has supplied his place to thee. And this is not my saying but that of the blessed prophet David for he says “He will take up the fatherless and the widow,” and elsewhere he calls Him “father of the fatherless and judge of the widow;”[Psalms 68:5] thus in many passages thou wilt see that He earnestly considereth the cause of this class of mankind.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 103, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians. (HTML)
Homilies on Ephesians. (HTML)
Ephesians 4:4-7 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 286 (In-Text, Margin)
As though he had said, Why art thou high-minded? The whole is of God. The Prophet saith in the Psalm, “Thou hast received gifts among men” (Ps. lxviii. 18.), whereas the Apostle saith, “He gave gifts unto men.” The one is the same as the other.[Psalms 68:18]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 483, footnote 2 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
It is hard that an old friend with whom I had been reconciled should attack me in a book secretly circulated among his disciples. (HTML)
I have learned not only from your letter but from those of many others that cavils are raised against me in the school of Tyrannus, “by the tongue of my dogs from the enemies by himself”[Psalms 68:23] because I have translated the books Περὶ ᾽Αρχῶν into Latin. What unprecedented shamelessness is this! They accuse the physician for detecting the poison: and this in order to protect their vendor of drugs, not in obtaining the reward of innocence but in his partnership with the criminal; as if the number of the offenders diminished the crime, or as if the accusation ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 555, footnote 7 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed. (HTML)
Section 31. He Ascended into Heaven, and Sitteth on the Right Hand of the Father: from Thence He Shall Come to Judge the Quick and the Dead (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3375 (In-Text, Margin)
... plain, but the question is how and in what sense it is to be understood. For to “ascend,” and to “sit,” and to “come,” unless you understand the words in accordance with the dignity of the divine nature, appear to point to something of human weakness. For having consummated what was to be done on earth, and having recalled souls from the captivity of hell, He is spoken of as ascending up to heaven, as the Prophet had foretold, “Ascending up on high He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men,”[Psalms 68:18] those gifts, namely, which Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles, spoke of concerning the Holy Ghost, “Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this gift which ye do see and hear.” He gave the gift of the Holy Ghost to men, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 199, footnote 3 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) (HTML)
Life of Antony. (Vita Antoni.) (HTML)
How Antony took up his abode in a ruined fort across the Nile, and how he defeated the demons. His twenty years' sojourn there. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1015 (In-Text, Margin)
... who are cowardly. Sign yourselves therefore with the cross, and depart boldly, and let these make sport for themselves.’ So they departed fortified with the sign of the Cross. But he remained in no wise harmed by the evil spirits, nor was he wearied with the contest, for there came to his aid visions from above, and the weakness of the foe relieved him of much trouble and armed him with greater zeal. For his acquaintances used often to come expecting to find him dead, and would hear him singing[Psalms 68:1], ‘Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered, let them also that hate Him flee before His face. As smoke vanisheth, let them vanish; as wax melteth before the face of fire, so let the sinners perish from the face of God;’ and again, ‘All nations ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 118, footnote 4 (Image)
Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises; Select Writings and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises. (HTML)
Against Eunomius. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
He explains the phrase “The Lord created Me,” and the argument about the origination of the Son, the deceptive character of Eunomius' reasoning, and the passage which says, “My glory will I not give to another,” examining them from different points of view. (HTML)
... is true that “before the springs of the waters came forth, before the mountains were settled, before He made the depths, and before all hills, He begetteth Me.” For it is possible, accord ing to the usage of the Book of Proverbs, for each of these phrases, taken in a tropical sense, to be applied to the Word. For the great David calls righteousness the “mountains of God,” His judgments “deeps,” and the teachers in the Churches “fountains,” saying “Bless God the Lord from the fountains of Israel[Psalms 68:26] ”; and guilelessness he calls “hills,” as he shows when he speaks of their skipping like lambs. Before these therefore is born in us He Who for our sakes was created as man, that of these things also the creation may find place in us. But we may, I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 5, page 133, footnote 10 (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)
... as it were by a blow? “Leading us to that which is expedient for us.” This the Father and the Son likewise do: for “He leadeth Joseph like a sheep,” and, “led His people like sheep,” and, “the good Spirit leadeth us in a land of righteousness.” “Strengthening us to godliness.” To strengthen man to godliness David says is the work of God; “For Thou art my strength and my refuge,” says the Psalmist, and “the Lord is the strength of His people,” and, “He shall give strength and power unto His people[Psalms 68:35].” If then the expressions of Eunomius are meant in accordance with the mind of the Psalmist, they are a testimony to the Divinity of the Holy Ghost: but if they are opposed to the word of prophecy, then by this very fact a charge of blasphemy lies ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 47, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Marcella. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 763 (In-Text, Margin)
... tempted to slay his son the trial only serves to strengthen his faith. When Joseph is sold into Egypt, his sojourn there enables him to support his father and his brothers. When Hezekiah is panic-stricken at the near approach of death, his tears and prayers obtain for him a respite of fifteen years. If the faith of the apostle, Peter, is shaken by his Lord’s passion, it is that, weeping bitterly, he may hear the soothing words: “Feed my sheep.” If Paul, that ravening wolf, that little Benjamin,[Psalms 68:27] is blinded in a trance, it is that he may receive his sight, and may be led, by the sudden horror of surrounding darkness, to call Him Lord Whom before he persecuted as man.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 138, footnote 17 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1975 (In-Text, Margin)
... of him, let him not go. And if you fall asleep for a moment and He escapes from your hands, do not forthwith despair. Go out into the streets and charge the daughters of Jerusalem: then shall you find him lying down in the noontide weary and drunk with passion, or wet with the dew of night by the flocks of his companions, or fragrant with many kinds of spices, amid the apples of the garden. There give to him your breasts, let him suck your learned bosom, let him rest in the midst of his heritage,[Psalms 68:13] his feathers as those of a dove overlaid with silver and his inward parts with the brightness of gold. This young child, this mere boy, who is fed on butter and honey, and who is reared among curdled mountains, quickly grows up to manhood, speedily ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 138, footnote 19 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Pammachius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1977 (In-Text, Margin)
... down in the noontide weary and drunk with passion, or wet with the dew of night by the flocks of his companions, or fragrant with many kinds of spices, amid the apples of the garden. There give to him your breasts, let him suck your learned bosom, let him rest in the midst of his heritage, his feathers as those of a dove overlaid with silver and his inward parts with the brightness of gold. This young child, this mere boy, who is fed on butter and honey, and who is reared among curdled mountains,[Psalms 68:14] quickly grows up to manhood, speedily spoils all that is opposed to him in you, and when the time is ripe plunders [the spiritual] Damascus and puts in chains the king of [the spiritual] Assyria.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 208, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2975 (In-Text, Margin)
... others have for their portion diseased frames and poverty stricken homes; and by imprisonment in the present world and in bodies pay the penalty of their former sins. Paula listened and reported what she heard to me, at the same time pointing out the man. Thus upon me was laid the task of opposing this most noxious viper and deadly pest. It is of such that the Psalmist speaks when he writes: “deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove unto the wild beast,” and “Rebuke the wild beast of the reeds;”[Psalms 68:30] creatures who write iniquity and speak lies against the Lord and lift up their mouths against the Most High. As the fellow had tried to deceive Paula, I at her request went to him, and by asking him a few questions involved him in a dilemma. Do you ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 46, footnote 11 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
The Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1003 (In-Text, Margin)
... then at present, in the way of a digression, to put you in remembrance. Let me, however, add yet another testimony in proof that God is called the Father of men in an improper sense. For when in Esaias God is addressed thus, For Thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Sarah travailed not with us, need we inquire further on this point? And if the Psalmist says, Let them be troubled from His countenance, the Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows[Psalms 68:5], is it not manifest to all, that when God is called the Father of orphans who have lately lost their own fathers, He is so named not as begetting them of Himself, but as caring for them and shielding them. But whereas God, as we have said, is in an ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 78, footnote 3 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words Incarnate, and Made Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1440 (In-Text, Margin)
But that you may learn more plainly that even a virgin is called in Holy Scripture a “damsel,” hear the Book of the Kings, speaking of Abishag the Shunamite, And the damsel was very fair[Psalms 68:25]: for that as a virgin she was chosen and brought to David is admitted.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 101, footnote 6 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Words, And Rose Again from the Dead on the Third Day, and Ascended into the Heavens, and Sat on the Right Hand of the Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1779 (In-Text, Margin)
... and ascended into Heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Father.” I suppose then certainly that thou rememberest the exposition; yet I will now again cursorily put thee in mind of what was then said. Remember what is distinctly written in the Psalms, God is gone up with a shout; remember that the divine powers also said to one another, Lift up your gates, ye Princes, and the rest; remember also the Psalm which says, He ascended on high, He led captivity captive[Psalms 68:18]; remember the Prophet who said, Who buildeth His ascension unto heaven; and all the other particulars mentioned yesterday because of the gainsaying of the Jews.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 101, footnote 11 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Words, And Rose Again from the Dead on the Third Day, and Ascended into the Heavens, and Sat on the Right Hand of the Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1784 (In-Text, Margin)
... own power to make His ascent into the Heavens on a cloud from the Mount of Olives. Wonders like this thou mayest call to mind, but reserve the preeminence for the Lord, the Worker of wonders; for the others were borne up, but He bears up all things. Remember that Enoch was translated; but Jesus ascended: remember what was said yesterday concerning Elias, that Elias was taken up in a chariot of fire; but that the chariots of Christ are ten thousand-fold even thousands upon thousands[Psalms 68:17]: and that Elias was taken up, towards the east of Jordan; but that Christ ascended at the east of the brook Cedron: and that Elias went as into heaven; but Jesus, into heaven: and that Elias said that a double portion in the Holy Spirit ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 130, footnote 9 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2196 (In-Text, Margin)
... fellowship of the Holy Ghost, from which Simon Magus alone was declared an alien, and that justly. And at another time Philip was called by the Angel of the Lord in the way, for the sake of that most godly Ethiopian, the Eunuch, and heard distinctly the Spirit Himself saying, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. He instructed the Eunuch, and baptized him, and so having sent into Ethiopia a herald of Christ, according as it is written, Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hand unto God[Psalms 68:31], he was caught away by the Angel, and preached the Gospel in the cities in succession.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 140, footnote 7 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the Words, And in One Holy Catholic Church, and in the Resurrection of the Flesh, and the Life Everlasting. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2307 (In-Text, Margin)
25. Of old the Psalmist sang, Bless ye God in the congregations, even the Lord, (ye that are) from the fountains of Israel[Psalms 68:26]. But after the Jews for the plots which they made against the Saviour were cast away from His grace, the Saviour built out of the Gentiles a second Holy Church, the Church of us Christians, concerning which he said to Peter, And upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And David prophesying of both these, said plainly of the first which was rejected, I have hated the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 227, footnote 24 (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 2910 (In-Text, Margin)
117. Such is my defence: its reasonableness I have set forth: and may the God of peace, Who made both one, and has restored us to each other, Who setteth kings upon thrones, and raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, Who chose David His servant and took him away from the sheepfolds, though he was the least and youngest of the sons of Jesse, Who gave the word[Psalms 68:11] to those who preach the gospel with great power for the perfection of the gospel,—may He Himself hold me by my right hand, and guide me with His counsel, and receive me with glory, Who is a Shepherd to shepherds and a Guide to guides: that we may feed His flock with knowledge, not with the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 227, 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 2915 (In-Text, Margin)
... Jesse, Who gave the word to those who preach the gospel with great power for the perfection of the gospel,—may He Himself hold me by my right hand, and guide me with His counsel, and receive me with glory, Who is a Shepherd to shepherds and a Guide to guides: that we may feed His flock with knowledge, not with the instruments of a foolish shepherd, according to the blessing, and not according to the curse pronounced against the men of former days: may He give strength and power unto his people,[Psalms 68:35] and Himself present to Himself His flock resplendent and spotless and worthy of the fold on high, in the habitation of them that rejoice, in the splendour of the saints, so that in His temple everyone, both flock and shepherds together may say, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 356, footnote 5 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Oration on the Holy Lights. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3957 (In-Text, Margin)
... all things may be filled with the glory of God (forasmuch as they are filled with God Himself); therefore man was created and honored with the hand and Image of God. But to despise man, when by the envy of the Devil and the bitter taste of sin he was pitiably severed from God his Maker—this was not in the Nature of God. What then was done, and what is the great Mystery that concerns us? An innovation is made upon nature, and God is made Man. “He that rideth upon the Heaven of Heavens in the East”[Psalms 68:4] of His own glory and Majesty, is glorified in the West of our meanness and lowliness. And the Son of God deigns to become and to be called Son of Man; not changing what He was (for It is unchangeable); but assuming what He was not (for He is full of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 372, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4117 (In-Text, Margin)
... But as you now are, so walk, mindful of the command, Behold thou art made whole; sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee if thou prove thyself bad after the blessing thou hast received. You have heard the loud voice, Lazarus, come forth, as you lay in the tomb; not, however, after four days, but after many days; and you were loosed from the bonds of your graveclothes. Do not again become dead, nor live with those who dwell in the tombs; nor bind yourself with the bonds of your own sins;[Psalms 68:9] for it is uncertain whether you will rise again from the tomb till the last and universal resurrection, which will bring every work into judgment, not to be healed, but to be judged, and to give account of all which for good or evil it has treasured ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 92, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Hexæmeron. (HTML)
The creation of moving creatures. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1622 (In-Text, Margin)
... feelings to the pleasure of each. It is difficult to escape them and to put ourselves on guard against their mischief; because it is under the mask of friendship that they hide their clever wickedness. Men like this are ravening wolves covered with sheep’s clothing, as the Lord calls them. Flee then fickleness and pliability; seek truth, sincerity, simplicity. The serpent is shifty; so he has been condemned to crawl. The just is an honest man, like Job. Wherefore God setteth the solitary in families.[Psalms 68:6] So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. Yet a wise and marvellous order reigns among these animals. Fish do not always deserve our reproaches; often they offer us useful examples. How is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 81b, footnote 15 (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 Worship towards the East. (HTML)
Since, therefore, God is spiritual light, and Christ is called in the Scriptures Sun of Righteousness and Dayspring, the East is the direction that must be assigned to His worship. For everything good must be assigned to Him from Whom every good thing arises. Indeed the divine David also says, Sing unto God, ye kingdoms of the earth: O sing praises unto the Lord: to Him that rideth upon the Heavens of heavens towards the East[Psalms 68:32-33]. Moreover the Scripture also says, And God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed: and when he had transgressed His command He expelled him and made him to dwell over against the delights of Paradise, which clearly is the West. So, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 89b, footnote 8 (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 Scripture. (HTML)
... accomplished. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Wherefore let us knock at that very fair garden of the Scriptures, so fragrant and sweet and blooming, with its varied sounds of spiritual and divinely-inspired birds ringing all round our ears, laying hold of our hearts, comforting the mourner, pacifying the angry and filling him with joy everlasting: which sets our mind on the gold-gleaming, brilliant back of the divine dove[Psalms 68:13], whose bright pinions bear up to the only-begotten Son and Heir of the Husbandman of that spiritual Vineyard and bring us through Him to the Father of Lights. But let us not knock carelessly but rather zealously and constantly: lest knocking we grow ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 259, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. The Son is of one substance with the Father. (HTML)
119. Those mountains, then, are fallen,[Psalms 68:16] and it is revealed that in Christ was the substance of God, in the words of those who had seen Him: “Truly Thou art the Son of God,” for it was in virtue of divine, not human power, that He commanded devils. Jeremiah also saith: “Make mourning upon the mountains, and beat your breasts upon the desert tracks, for they have failed; forasmuch as there are no men, they have not heard the word of substance: from flying fowl to beasts of burden, they trembled, they have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 198, footnote 3 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On the Feast of S. Laurence the Martyr (Aug. 10). (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1182 (In-Text, Margin)
... was less keen than that which blazed within. Thou didst but serve the martyr in thy rage, O persecutor: thou didst but swell the reward in adding to the pain. For what did thy cunning devise, which did not redound to the conqueror’s glory, when even the instruments of torture were counted as part of the triumph? Let us rejoice, then, dearly-beloved, with spiritual joy, and make our boast over the happy end of this illustrious man in the Lord, Who is “wonderful in His saints[Psalms 68:35],” in whom He has given us a support and an example, and has so spread abroad his glory throughout the world, that, from the rising of the sun to its going down, the brightness of his deacon’s light doth shine, and Rome is become as famous in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 295, footnote 6 (Image)
Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat
Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)
Ephraim Syrus: The Pearl. Seven Hymns on the Faith. (HTML)
Hymn III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 530 (In-Text, Margin)
He made disciples and taught, and out of black men he made men white. And the dark Ethiopic women[Psalms 68:31] became pearls for the Son; He offered them up to the Father, as a glistening crown from the Ethiopians.