Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Isaiah 48

There are 32 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 342, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book I (HTML)

Chapter XVI.—Absurd interpretations of the Marcosians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2873 (In-Text, Margin)

... as many as separate from the Church, and give heed to such old wives’ fables as these, are truly self-condemned; and these men Paul commands us, “after a first and second admonition, to avoid.” And John, the disciple of the Lord, has intensified their condemnation, when he desires us not even to address to them the salutation of “good-speed;” for, says he, “He that bids them be of good-speed is a partaker with their evil deeds;” and that with reason, “for there is no good-speed to the ungodly,”[Isaiah 48:22] saith the Lord. Impious indeed, beyond all impiety, are these men, who assert that the Maker of heaven and earth, the only God Almighty, besides whom there is no God, was produced by means of a defect, which itself sprang from another defect, so ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 480, footnote 11 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Hermogenes. (HTML)

The Shifts to Which Hermogenes is Reduced, Who Deifies Matter, and Yet is Unwilling to Hold Him Equal with the Divine Creator. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6189 (In-Text, Margin)

... safe to Him, of being the only God, and the First, and the Author of all things, and the Lord of all things, and being incomparable to any—qualities which he straightway ascribes to Matter also. He is God, to be sure. God shall also attest the same; but He has also sworn sometimes by Himself, that there is no other God like Him. Hermogenes, however, will make Him a liar. For Matter will be such a God as He—being unmade, unborn, without beginning, and without end. God will say, “I am the first!”[Isaiah 48:12] Yet how is He the first, when Matter is co-eternal with Him? Between co-eternals and contemporaries there is no sequence of rank. Is then, Matter also the first? “I,” says the Lord, “have stretched out the heavens alone.” But indeed He was not ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 502, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Hermogenes. (HTML)

Conclusion.  Contrast Between the Statements of Hermogenes and the Testimony of Holy Scripture Respecting the Creation.  Creation Out of Nothing, Not Out of Matter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6596 (In-Text, Margin)

But it is not thus that the prophets and the apostles have told us that the world was made by God merely appearing and approaching Matter. They did not even mention any Matter, but (said) that Wisdom was first set up, the beginning of His ways, for His works. Then that the Word was produced, “through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.” Indeed, “by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their hosts by the breath of His mouth.” He is the Lord’s right hand,[Isaiah 48:13] indeed His two hands, by which He worked and constructed the universe. “For,” says He, “the heavens are the works of Thine hands,” wherewith “He hath meted out the heaven, and the earth with a span.” Do not be willing so to cover God with ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 502, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

Against Hermogenes. (HTML)

Conclusion.  Contrast Between the Statements of Hermogenes and the Testimony of Holy Scripture Respecting the Creation.  Creation Out of Nothing, Not Out of Matter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6598 (In-Text, Margin)

... first set up, the beginning of His ways, for His works. Then that the Word was produced, “through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made.” Indeed, “by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their hosts by the breath of His mouth.” He is the Lord’s right hand, indeed His two hands, by which He worked and constructed the universe. “For,” says He, “the heavens are the works of Thine hands,” wherewith “He hath meted out the heaven, and the earth with a span.”[Isaiah 48:13] Do not be willing so to cover God with flattery, as to contend that He produced by His mere appearance and simple approach so many vast substances, instead of rather forming them by His own energies. For this is proved by Jeremiah when he says, “God ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 416, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

I (HTML)
Chapter XLVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3145 (In-Text, Margin)

... imagine that we, like those whom they suppose to have invented such things, had ourselves also done the same. But God is witness of our conscientious desire, not by false statements, but by testimonies of different kinds, to establish the divinity of the doctrine of Jesus. And as it is a Jew who is perplexed about the account of the Holy Spirit having descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove, we would say to him, “Sir, who is it that says in Isaiah, ‘And now the Lord hath sent me and His Spirit?’”[Isaiah 48:16] In which sentence, as the meaning is doubtful—viz., whether the Father and the Holy Spirit sent Jesus, or the Father sent both Christ and the Holy Spirit—the latter is correct. For, because the Saviour was sent, afterwards the Holy Spirit was sent ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 549, footnote 11 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4136 (In-Text, Margin)

... because it speaks obscurely of things that are sad and gloomy, in order to terrify those who cannot by any other means be saved from the flood of their sins, although even then the attentive reader will clearly discover the end that is to be accomplished by these sad and painful punishments upon those who endure them. It is sufficient, however, for the present to quote the words of Isaiah: “For My name’s sake will I show Mine anger, and My glory I will bring upon thee, that I may not destroy thee.”[Isaiah 48:9] We have thus been under the necessity of referring in obscure terms to questions not fitted to the capacity of simple believers, who require a simpler instruction in words, that we might not appear to leave unrefuted the accusation of Celsus, that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 360, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

Cæcilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2678 (In-Text, Margin)

... provide water for the elected people of God, that is, for those who were made sons of God by the generation of baptism. Moreover, it is again predicted and foretold before, that the Jews, if they should thirst and seek after Christ, should drink with us, that is, should attain the grace of baptism. “If they shall thirst,” he says, “He shall lead them through the deserts, shall bring forth water for them out of the rock; the rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow, and my people shall drink;”[Isaiah 48:21] which is fulfilled in the Gospel, when Christ, who is the Rock, is cloven by a stroke of the spear in His passion; who also, admonishing what was before announced by the prophet, cries and says, “If any man thirst, let him come and drink. He that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 511, footnote 3 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
That the old baptism should cease, and a new one should begin. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3869 (In-Text, Margin)

... ye not the former things, neither reconsider the ancient things. Behold, I make new the things which shall now arise, and ye shall know it; and I will make in the desert a way, and rivers in a dry place, to give drink to my chosen race, my people whom I acquired, that they should show forth my praises.” In the same also: “If they thirst, He will lead them through the deserts; He will bring forth water from the rock; the rock shall be cloven, and the water shall flow: and my people shall drink.”[Isaiah 48:21] Moreover, in the Gospel according to Matthew, John says: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 329, footnote 2 (Image)

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

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

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

Book II. (HTML)
How the Word is the Maker of All Things, and Even the Holy Spirit Was Made Through Him. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4684 (In-Text, Margin)

... ministrations, and the same Lord. And there are diversities of workings, but it is the same God that worketh all in all.” The statement that all things were made by Him, and its seeming corollary, that the Spirit must have been called into being by the Word, may certainly raise some difficulty. There are some passages in which the Spirit is placed above Christ; in Isaiah, for example, Christ declares that He is sent, not by the Father only, but also by the Holy Spirit. “Now the Lord hath sent Me,” He says,[Isaiah 48:16] “and His Spirit,” and in the Gospel He declares that there is forgiveness for the sin committed against Himself, but that for blasphemy against the Holy Spirit there is no forgiveness, either in this age or in the age to come. What is the reason of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 486, footnote 2 (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 XIII. (HTML)
Who Was the Little Child Called by Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5937 (In-Text, Margin)

... then, for him who has turned away from the desires of this world to humble himself not simply as the little child, but, according to what is written, “as this little child.” But to humble oneself as that little child is to imitate the Holy Spirit, who humbled Himself for the salvation of men. Now, that the Saviour and the Holy Spirit were sent by the Father for the salvation of men has been declared in Isaiah, in the person of the Saviour, saying, “And now the Lord hath sent me and His Spirit.”[Isaiah 48:16] You must know, however, that this expression is ambiguous; for either God sent, but also the Holy Spirit sent, the Saviour; or, as we have taken it, the Father sent both—the Saviour and the Holy Spirit. He, therefore, who has humbled himself more ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 151, footnote 1 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

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

A Happy Life is to Rejoice in God, and for God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 859 (In-Text, Margin)

32. Let it be far, O Lord,—let it be far from the heart of Thy servant who confesseth unto Thee; let it be far from me to think myself happy, be the joy what it may. For there is a joy which is not granted to the “wicked,”[Isaiah 48:22] but to those who worship Thee thankfully, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And the happy life is this,—to rejoice unto Thee, in Thee, and for Thee; this it is, and there is no other. But those who think there is another follow after another joy, and that not the true one. Their will, however, is not turned away from some shadow of joy.

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

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

The Confessions (HTML)

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

He is Forcibly Goaded on by the Love of Praise. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 954 (In-Text, Margin)

60. By these temptations, O Lord, are we daily tried; yea, unceasingly are we tried. Our daily “furnace”[Isaiah 48:10] is the human tongue. And in this respect also dost Thou command us to be continent. Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt. Regarding this matter, Thou knowest the groans of my heart, and the rivers of mine eyes. For I am not able to ascertain how far I am clean of this plague, and I stand in great fear of my “secret faults,” which Thine eyes perceive, though mine do not. For in other kinds of temptations I have some sort of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 369, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of Abraham to the end of the world. (HTML)

What We Should Believe Concerning the Transformations Which Seem to Happen to Men Through the Art of Demons. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1141 (In-Text, Margin)

Perhaps our readers expect us to say something about this so great delusion wrought by the demons; and what shall we say but that men must fly out of the midst of Babylon?[Isaiah 48:20] For this prophetic precept is to be understood spiritually in this sense, that by going forward in the living God, by the steps of faith, which worketh by love, we must flee out of the city of this world, which is altogether a society of ungodly angels and men. Yea, the greater we see the power of the demons to be in these depths, so much the more tenaciously must we cleave to the Mediator through whom we ...

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

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

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

That in the Books of the Old Testament, Where It is Said that God Shall Judge the World, the Person of Christ is Not Explicitly Indicated, But It Plainly Appears from Some Passages in Which the Lord God Speaks that Christ is Meant. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1477 (In-Text, Margin)

... established the heaven. I will call them, and they shall stand together, and be gathered, and hear. Who has declared to them these things? In love of thee I have done thy pleasure upon Babylon, that I might take away the seed of the Chaldeans. I have spoken, and I have called: I have brought him, and have made his way prosperous. Come ye near unto me, and hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; when they were made, there was I. And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me.”[Isaiah 48:12-16] It was Himself who was speaking as the Lord God; and yet we should not have understood that it was Jesus Christ had He not added, “And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me.” For He said this with reference to the form of a servant, speaking ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 41, footnote 3 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent Also by Himself. Of the Sending of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 235 (In-Text, Margin)

... to have so made Him without His own Spirit; but also because it is most plainly and expressly said in the Gospel in answer to the Virgin Mary, when she asked of the angel, “How shall this be?” “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee.” And Matthew says, “She was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” Although, too, in the prophet Isaiah, Christ Himself is understood to say of His own future advent, “And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me.”[Isaiah 48:16]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 116, footnote 12 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1070 (In-Text, Margin)

16. “I became dumb; and I opened not my mouth” (ver. 9). But it was to guard against “the foolish man,” that “I became dumb, and opened not my mouth.” For to whom should I tell what is going on within me? “For I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; for He will speak peace unto His people.” But “There is no peace,” saith the Lord, “to the wicked.”[Isaiah 48:22] “I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; because it is Thou that madest me.” Was this the reason that thou openedst not thy mouth, “because God made thee”? That is strange; for did not God make thy mouth, that thou shouldest speak? “He that planted the ear, doth He not hear? He that formed the eye, doth He not see?” God ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 423, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4066 (In-Text, Margin)

... joy there as we know not here. Many pleasures do I behold here, and many rejoice in this world, some in one thing, others in another; but there is nothing to compare with that delight, but it shall be “as it were” being made joyful. For if I say joyfulness, men at once think of such joyfulness as men use to have in wine, in feasting, in avarice, and in the world’s distinctions. For men are elated by these things, and mad with a kind of joy: but “there is no joy, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.”[Isaiah 48:22] There is a sort of joyfulness which the ear of man hath not heard, nor his eye seen, nor hath it entered into his heart to conceive. “As it were, the dwelling of all who shall be made joyful is in Thee.” Let us prepare for other delights: for a kind ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 633, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5704 (In-Text, Margin)

2. “And before the Angels will I sing unto Thee.” Not before men will I sing, but before the Angels. My song is my joy; but my joy in things below is before men, my joy in things above before the Angels. For the wicked knoweth not the joy of the just: “There is no joy, saith my God, to the wicked.”[Isaiah 48:22] The wicked rejoiceth in his tavern, the martyr in his chain. In what did that holy Crispina rejoice, whose festival is kept to-day? She rejoiced when she was being seized, when she was being carried before the judge, when she was being put into prison, when she was being brought forth bound, when she was being lifted up on the scaffold, when she ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 161, footnote 1 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Defence of the Nicene Definition. (De Decretis.) (HTML)

De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) (HTML)

Proof of the Catholic Sense of the Word Son. Power, Word or Reason, and Wisdom, the names of the Son, imply eternity; as well as the Father's title of Fountain. The Arians reply, that these do not formally belong to the essence of the Son, but are names given Him; that God has many words, powers, &c. Why there is but one Son and Word, &c. All the titles of the Son coincide in Him. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 864 (In-Text, Margin)

... speaking of the Image, you signify the Son; for what else is like God but the offspring from Him? Doubtless the things, which came to be through the Word, these are ‘founded in Wisdom’ and what are ‘founded in Wisdom,’ these are all made by the Hand, and came to be through the Son. And we have proof of this, not from external sources, but from the Scriptures; for God Himself says by Isaiah the Prophet; ‘My hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand hath spanned the heavens[Isaiah 48:13].’ And again, ‘And I will cover thee in the shadow of My Hand, by which I planted the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth.’ And David being taught this, and knowing that the Lord’s Hand was nothing else than Wisdom, says in the Psalm, ‘In ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 6 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 330. Easter-day xxiv Pharmuthi; xiii Kal. Mai; Æra Dioclet. 46; Coss. Gallicianus, Valerius Symmachus; Præfect, Magninianus; Indict. iii. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3948 (In-Text, Margin)

4. Now those who do not observe the feast, continue such as these even to the present day, feigning indeed and devising names of feasts, but rather introducing days of mourning than of gladness; ‘For there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord[Isaiah 48:22].’ And as Wisdom saith, ‘Gladness and joy are taken from their mouth.’ Such are the feasts of the wicked. But the wise servants of the Lord, who have truly put on the man which is created in God, have received gospel words, and reckon as a general commandment that given to Timothy, which saith, ‘Be thou an example to the believers in word, in conversation, in love, in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 513, 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 331. Easter-day xvi Pharmuthi; iii Id. April; Æra Dioclet. 47; Coss. Annius Bassus, Ablabius; Præfect, Florentius; Indict. iv. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3983 (In-Text, Margin)

2. For what else is the feast, but the service of the soul? And what is that service, but prolonged prayer to God, and unceasing thanksgiving? The unthankful departing far from these are rightly deprived of the joy springing therefrom: for ‘joy and gladness are taken from their mouth.’ Therefore, the [divine] word doth not allow them to have peace; ‘For there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord[Isaiah 48:22],’ they labour in pain and grief. So, not even to him who owed ten thousand talents did the Gospel grant forgiveness in the sight of the Lord. For even he, having received forgiveness of great things, was forgetful of kindness in little ones, so that he paid the penalty also of those former ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 250, footnote 20 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

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

CCEL Footnote 3114 (In-Text, Margin)

11. Perchance He will say to me, who am not reformed even by blows, I know that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew,[Isaiah 48:4] the heedless is heedless and the lawless man acts lawlessly, naught is the heavenly correction, naught the scourges. The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed, as I once reproached you by the mouth of Jeremiah, the founder melted the silver in vain, your wickednesses are not melted away. Can ye abide my wrath, saith the Lord. Has not My hand the power to inflict upon you other plagues also? There are still at My command the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 310, footnote 9 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Fourth Theological Oration, Which is the Second Concerning the Son. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3603 (In-Text, Margin)

III. Next is the fact of His being called Servant[Isaiah 48:29] and serving many well, and that it is a great thing for Him to be called the Child of God. For in truth He was in servitude to flesh and to birth and to the conditions of our life with a view to our liberation, and to that of all those whom He has saved, who were in bondage under sin. What greater destiny can befall man’s humility than that he should be intermingled with God, and by this intermingling should be deified, and that we should be so visited by the Dayspring ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 382, footnote 4 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On Pentecost. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4247 (In-Text, Margin)

... Counsel, of Fear (which are ascribed to Him) by Whom the Father is known and the Son is glorified; and by Whom alone He is known; one class, one service, worship, power, perfection, sanctification. Why make a long discourse of it? All that the Father hath the Son hath also, except the being Unbegotten; and all that the Son hath the Spirit hath also, except the Generation. And these two matters do not divide the Substance, as I understand it, but rather are divisions within the Substance.[Isaiah 48:16]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 31, footnote 8 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1136 (In-Text, Margin)

It is the Spirit which says, as the Lord says, “Get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.” Are these the words of an inferior, or of one in dread? “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Does a slave speak thus? And Isaiah, “The Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me,”[Isaiah 48:16] and “the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.” And pray do not again understand by this guidance some humble service, for the Word witnesses that it was the work of God;—“Thou leddest thy people,” it is said “like a flock,” and “Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock,” and “He led them on safely, so that they feared ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 31, footnote 8 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Against those who assert that the Spirit ought not to be glorified. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1136 (In-Text, Margin)

It is the Spirit which says, as the Lord says, “Get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing: for I have sent them.” Are these the words of an inferior, or of one in dread? “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.” Does a slave speak thus? And Isaiah, “The Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me,”[Isaiah 48:16] and “the Spirit came down from the Lord and guided them.” And pray do not again understand by this guidance some humble service, for the Word witnesses that it was the work of God;—“Thou leddest thy people,” it is said “like a flock,” and “Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock,” and “He led them on safely, so that they feared ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 91b, footnote 2 (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)
Regarding the things said concerning Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2562 (In-Text, Margin)

... speak of union, community, anointing, natural conjunction, conformation and the like. The former two modes, then, have their reason in this third mode. For through the union it is made clear what either has obtained from the intimate junction with and permeation through the other. For through the union in subsistence the flesh is said to be deified and to become God and to be equally God with the Word; and God the Word is said to be made flesh, and to become man, and is called creature and last[Isaiah 48:12]: not in the sense that the two natures are converted into one compound nature (for it is not possible for the opposite natural qualities to exist at the same time in one nature), but in the sense that the two natures are united in subsistence and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 233, footnote 7 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter IX. The objection that the Son, being sent by the Father, is, in that regard at least, inferior, is met by the answer that He was also sent by the Spirit, Who is yet not considered greater than the Son. Furthermore, the Spirit, in His turn, is sent by the Father to the Son, in order that Their unity in action might be shown forth. It is our duty, therefore, carefully to distinguish what utterances are to be fitly ascribed to Christ as God, and what to be ascribed to Him as man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2008 (In-Text, Margin)

75. Regard not, therefore, the narrow bounds of human language, but the plain meaning of the words, and believe facts accomplished. Bethink you that our Lord Jesus Christ said in Isaiah that He had been sent by the Spirit. Is the Son, therefore, less than the Spirit because He was sent by the Spirit? Thus you have the record, that the Son declares Himself sent by the Father and His Spirit. “I am the beginning,” He saith,[Isaiah 48:12] “and I live for ever, and My hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, My right hand hath made the heaven to stand abidingly;” and further on: “I have spoken, and I have called; I have brought him, and have made his way to prosper. Draw ye near to Me, and hear these things: not in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 233, footnote 9 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter IX. The objection that the Son, being sent by the Father, is, in that regard at least, inferior, is met by the answer that He was also sent by the Spirit, Who is yet not considered greater than the Son. Furthermore, the Spirit, in His turn, is sent by the Father to the Son, in order that Their unity in action might be shown forth. It is our duty, therefore, carefully to distinguish what utterances are to be fitly ascribed to Christ as God, and what to be ascribed to Him as man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2010 (In-Text, Margin)

... that the Son declares Himself sent by the Father and His Spirit. “I am the beginning,” He saith, “and I live for ever, and My hand hath laid the foundations of the earth, My right hand hath made the heaven to stand abidingly;” and further on: “I have spoken, and I have called; I have brought him, and have made his way to prosper. Draw ye near to Me, and hear these things: not in secret have I spoken from the beginning. When they were made, I was there: and now hath the Lord and His Spirit sent Me.”[Isaiah 48:15-16] Here, indeed, He Who made the heaven and the earth Himself saith that He is sent by the Lord and His Spirit. Ye see, then, that the poverty of language takes not from the honour of His mission. He, then, is sent by the Father; by the Spirit also is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 276, footnote 1 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter IX. Various quibbling arguments, advanced by the Arians to show that the Son had a beginning of existence, are considered and refuted, on the ground that whilst the Arians plainly prove nothing, or if they prove anything, prove it against themselves, (inasmuch as He Who is the beginning of all cannot Himself have a beginning), their reasonings do not even hold true with regard to facts of human existence. Time could not be before He was, Who is the Author of time--if indeed at some time He was not in existence, then the Father was without His Power and Wisdom. Again, our own human experience shows that a person is said to exist before he is born. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2426 (In-Text, Margin)

108. But neither had the Son of God any beginning, seeing that He already was at the beginning, nor shall He come to an end, Who is the Beginning and the End of the Universe;[Isaiah 48:12] for being the Beginning, how could He take and receive that which He already had, or how shall He come to an end, being Himself the End of all things, so that in that End we have an abiding-place without end? The Divine Generation is not an event occurring in the course of time, and within its limits, and therefore before it time is not, and in it time has no place.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 345, footnote 1 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)

Conference V. Conference of Abbot Serapion. On the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Chapter XII. How vainglory may be useful to us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1335 (In-Text, Margin)

... and so by means of a smaller evil they overcome a greater one. For it is better for a man to be troubled by the sin of vainglory than for him to fall into the desire for fornication, from which he either cannot recover at all or only with great difficulty after he has fallen. And this thought is admirably expressed by one of the prophets speaking in the person of God, and saying: “For My name’s sake I will remove My wrath afar off: and with My praise I will bridle thee lest thou shouldest perish,”[Isaiah 48:9] i.e., while you are enchained by the praises of vainglory, you cannot possibly rush on into the depths of hell, or plunge irrevocably into the commission of deadly sins. Nor need we wonder that this passion has the power of checking anyone from ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 389, footnote 1 (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)

Aphrahat:  Select Demonstrations. (HTML)

Of Christ the Son of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1060 (In-Text, Margin)

... conception of Adam, He brought him forth and gave him authority over all his creation. Concerning this the Prophet said:— Thou, Lord, hast been our habitation for generations, before the mountains were conceived, and before the earth travailed and before the world was framed.  From age unto age Thou art the Lord. That no one should suppose that there is another God, either before or afterwards, he said:— From age and unto age, just as Isaiah said:— I am the first and I am the last.[Isaiah 48:12] And after that God brought forth Adam from within His thought, He fashioned him, and breathed into him of His Spirit, and gave him the knowledge of discernment, that he might discern good from evil, and might know that God made him. And inasmuch as ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs