Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Jeremiah 1:5
There are 30 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 543, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)
Chapter XV.—Proofs of the resurrection from Isaiah and Ezekiel; the same God who created us will also raise us up. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4583 (In-Text, Margin)
3. Now, that the Word of God forms us in the womb, He says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou wentest forth from the belly, I sanctified thee, and appointed thee a prophet among the nations.”[Jeremiah 1:5] And Paul, too, says in like manner, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, that I might declare Him among the nations.” As, therefore, we are by the Word formed in the womb, this very same Word formed the visual power in him who had been blind from his birth; showing openly who it is that fashions us in secret, since the Word Himself had been made ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 224, footnote 9 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter VII.—Who the Instructor Is, and Respecting His Instruction. (HTML)
... of reproach. But the Lord hath also said in Jeremiah: “Say not that I am a youth: before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before I brought thee out of the womb I sanctified thee.” Such allusions prophecy can make to us, destined in the eye of God to faith before the foundation of the world; but now babes, through the recent fulfilment of the will of God, according to which we are born now to calling and salvation. Wherefore also He adds, “I have set thee for a prophet to the nations,”[Jeremiah 1:5] saying that he must prophesy, so that the appellation of “youth” should not become a reproach to those who are called babes.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 207, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)
Scripture Alone Offers Clear Knowledge on the Questions We Have Been Controverting. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1691 (In-Text, Margin)
... conceived. However, even these have life, each of them in his mother’s womb. Elizabeth exults with joy, (for) John had leaped in her womb; Mary magnifies the Lord, (for) Christ had instigated her within. The mothers recognise each their own offspring, being moreover each recognised by their infants, which were therefore of course alive, and were not souls merely, but spirits also. Accordingly you read the word of God which was spoken to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.”[Jeremiah 1:5] Since God forms us in the womb, He also breathes upon us, as He also did at the first creation, when “the Lord God formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life.” Nor could God have known man in the womb, except in his entire nature: “And ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 207, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Soul. (HTML)
Scripture Alone Offers Clear Knowledge on the Questions We Have Been Controverting. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1693 (In-Text, Margin)
... were therefore of course alive, and were not souls merely, but spirits also. Accordingly you read the word of God which was spoken to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.” Since God forms us in the womb, He also breathes upon us, as He also did at the first creation, when “the Lord God formed man, and breathed into him the breath of life.” Nor could God have known man in the womb, except in his entire nature: “And before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee.”[Jeremiah 1:5] Well, was it then a dead body at that early stage? Certainly not. For “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 336, footnote 13 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
On Threefold Wisdom. (HTML)
... at one time by good (spirits), and at another by bad: the grounds of which I suspect to be older than the bodily birth of the individual, as John (the Baptist) showed by his leaping and exulting in his mother’s womb, when the voice of the salutation of Mary reached the ears of his mother Elisabeth; and as Jeremiah the prophet declares, who was known to God before he was formed in his mother’s womb, and before he was born was sanctified by Him, and while yet a boy received the grace of prophecy.[Jeremiah 1:5-6] And again, on the other hand it is shown beyond a doubt, that some have been possessed by hostile spirits from the very beginning of their lives: i.e., some were born with an evil spirit; and others, according to credible histories, have practised ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 77, footnote 6 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)
Book VI. (HTML)
Simon's Interpretation of the Mosaic Hexaëmeron; His Allegorical Representation of Paradise. (HTML)
How then, he says, and in what manner, does God form man? In Paradise; for so it seems to him. Grant Paradise, he says, to be the womb; and that this is a true (assumption) the Scripture will teach, when it utters the words, “I am He who forms thee in thy mother’s womb.”[Jeremiah 1:5] For this also he wishes to have been written so. Moses, he says, resorting to allegory, has declared Paradise to be the womb, if we ought to rely on his statement. If, however, God forms man in his mother’s womb—that is, in Paradise—as I have affirmed, let Paradise be the womb, and Edem the after-birth, “a river flowing forth from Edem, for the purpose of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 210, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)
Treatise on Christ and Antichrist. (HTML)
... heaven.32. Speak with me, O blessed Daniel. Give me full assurance, I beseech thee. Thou dost prophesy concerning the lioness in Babylon; for thou wast a captive there. Thou hast unfolded the future regarding the bear; for thou wast still in the world, and didst see the things come to pass. Then thou speakest to me of the leopard; and whence canst thou know this, for thou art already gone to thy rest? Who instructed thee to announce these things, but He who formed thee in (from) thy mother’s womb?[Jeremiah 1:5] That is God, thou sayest. Thou hast spoken indeed, and that not falsely. The leopard has arisen; the he-goat is come; he hath smitten the ram; he hath broken his horns in pieces; he hath stamped upon him with his feet. He has been exalted by his ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 442, footnote 10 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Lapsed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3258 (In-Text, Margin)
... book which Thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.” He, the friend of God; he who had often spoken face to face with the Lord, could not obtain what he asked, nor could appease the wrath of an indignant God by his entreaty. God praises Jeremiah, and announces, saying, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”[Jeremiah 1:5] And to the same man He saith, when he often entreated and prayed for the sins of the people, “Pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time wherein they call on me, in the time of their ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 513, footnote 13 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
... said, We will not hear: for this cause the nations shall hear, and they who shall feed their cattle among them.” In the seventeenth Psalm: “Thou shalt establish me the head of the nations: a people whom I have not known have served me: at the hearing of the ear they have obeyed me.” Concerning this very thing the Lord says in Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou wentest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee, and established thee as a prophet among the nations.”[Jeremiah 1:5] Also in Isaiah: “Behold, I have manifested him for a witness to the nations, a prince and a commander to the peoples.” Also in the same: “Nations which have not known Thee shall call upon Thee; and peoples which were ignorant of Thee shall flee to ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 314, footnote 2 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity. (HTML)
Theophila. (HTML)
Generation Something Akin to the First Formation of Eve from the Side and Nature of Adam; God the Creator of Men in Ordinary Generation. (HTML)
Wherefore, if God still forms man, shall we not be guilty of audacity if we think of the generation of children as something offensive, which the Almighty Himself is not ashamed to make use of in working with His undefiled hands; for He says to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;”[Jeremiah 1:5] and to Job, “Didst thou take clay and form a living creature, and make it speak upon the earth?” and Job draws near to Him in supplication, saying, “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me.” Would it not, then, be absurd to forbid marriage unions, seeing that we expect that after us there will be martyrs, and those who shall oppose the evil ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 106, footnote 9 (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. VIII.—Of the birth of Jesus in the spirit and in the flesh: of spirits and the testimonies of prophets (HTML)
For we especially testify that He was twice born, first in the spirit, and afterwards in the flesh. Whence it is thus spoken by Jeremiah:[Jeremiah 1:5] “Before I formed Thee in the womb I knew Thee.” And likewise by the same: “Who was blessed before He was born;” which was the case with no one else but Christ. For though He was the Son of God from the beginning, He was born again a second time according to the flesh: and this twofold birth of His has introduced great terror into the minds of men, and overspread with darkness even those who retained the mysteries of true ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 354, footnote 1 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Victorinus (HTML)
Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John (HTML)
From the eleventh chapter (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2291 (In-Text, Margin)
... all afflictions, however many there are, shall be sent by their messengers in their word. Many think that there is Elisha, or Moses, with Elijah; but both of these died; while the death of Elijah is not heard of, with whom all our ancients have believed that it was Jeremiah. For even the very word spoken to him testifies to him, saying, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”[Jeremiah 1:5] But he was not a prophet unto the nations; and thus the truthful word of God makes it necessary, which it has promised to set forth, that he should be a prophet to the nations.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 440, footnote 22 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Sec. I.—Concerning the Martyrs (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3013 (In-Text, Margin)
... dissolved, to the souls that are still in being: for the rising again belongs to things laid down, not to things which have no being. He therefore that made the original bodies out of nothing, and fashioned various forms of them, will also again revive and raise up those that are dead. For He that formed man in the womb out of a little seed, and created in him a soul which was not in being before,—as He Himself somewhere speaks to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee;”[Jeremiah 1:5] and elsewhere, “I am the Lord who established the heaven, and laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the spirit of man in him,” —will also raise up all men, as being His workmanship; as also the divine Scripture testifies that God said to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 242, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil. (HTML)
That God Alone is the Creator of Every Kind of Creature, Whatever Its Nature or Form. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 572 (In-Text, Margin)
... increase.” Nay, not even the earth itself do we call a creator, though she seems to be the prolific mother of all things which she aids in germinating and bursting forth from the seed, and which she keeps rooted in her own breast; for we likewise read, “God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.” We ought not even to call a woman the creatress of her own offspring; for He rather is its creator who said to His servant, “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee.”[Jeremiah 1:5] And although the various mental emotions of a pregnant woman do produce in the fruit of her womb similar qualities,—as Jacob with his peeled wands caused piebald sheep to be produced,—yet the mother as little creates her offspring as she created ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 26, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Why One is Baptized and Another Not, Not Otherwise Inscrutable. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 303 (In-Text, Margin)
... undergoes no change from a wicked life, and the other survives, destined to become an impious man? Suppose both were carried off, would not both enter the kingdom of heaven? And yet there is no unrighteousness with God. How is it that no one is moved, no one is driven to the expression of wonder amidst such depths, by the circumstance that some children are vexed by the unclean spirit, while others experience no such pollution, and others again, as Jeremiah, are sanctified even in their mother’s womb;[Jeremiah 1:5] whereas all men, if there is original sin, are equally guilty; or else equally innocent if there is original sin? Whence this great diversity, except in the fact that God’s judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 155, footnote 6 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Defence of the Nicene Definition. (De Decretis.) (HTML)
De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) (HTML)
Two senses of the word Son, 1. adoptive; 2. essential; attempts of Arians to find a third meaning between these; e.g. that our Lord only was created immediately by God (Asterius's view), or that our Lord alone partakes the Father. The second and true sense; God begets as He makes, really; though His creation and generation are not like man's; His generation independent of time; generation implies an internal, and therefore an eternal, act in God; explanation of Prov. viii. 22. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 791 (In-Text, Margin)
... God, who uses His proper Word as a Hand, and in Him does all things. This God Himself shews us, when He says, ‘All these things hath My Hand made;’ while Paul taught us as he had learned, that ‘There is one God, from whom all things; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all things.’ Thus He, always as now, speaks to the sun and it rises, and commands the clouds and it rains upon one place; and where it does not rain, it is dried up. And He bids the earth yield her fruits, and fashions Jeremias[Jeremiah 1:5] in the womb. But if He now does all this, assuredly at the beginning also He did not disdain to make all things Himself through the Word; for these are but parts of the whole.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 155, footnote 11 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Defence of the Nicene Definition. (De Decretis.) (HTML)
De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) (HTML)
Two senses of the word Son, 1. adoptive; 2. essential; attempts of Arians to find a third meaning between these; e.g. that our Lord only was created immediately by God (Asterius's view), or that our Lord alone partakes the Father. The second and true sense; God begets as He makes, really; though His creation and generation are not like man's; His generation independent of time; generation implies an internal, and therefore an eternal, act in God; explanation of Prov. viii. 22. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 796 (In-Text, Margin)
9. But though we were to allow some prerogative to the Protoplast as having been deemed worthy of the hand of God, still it must be one of honour not of nature. For he came of the earth, as other men; and the hand which then fashioned Adam, is also both now and ever fashioning and giving entire consistence to those who come after him. And God Himself declares this to Jeremiah, as I said before; ‘Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee[Jeremiah 1:5];’ and so He says of all, ‘All those things hath My hand made;’ and again by Isaiah, ‘Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 314, footnote 4 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse I (HTML)
That the Son is Eternal and Increate. These attributes, being the points in dispute, are first proved by direct texts of Scripture. Concerning the 'eternal power' of God in Rom. i. 20, which is shewn to mean the Son. Remarks on the Arian formula, 'Once the Son was not,' its supporters not daring to speak of 'a time when the Son was not.' (HTML)
... the Father, for My Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye might believe.’ And concerning the creation He says by Solomon, ‘Or ever the earth was, when there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I brought forth.’ And, ‘Before Abraham was, I am.’ And concerning Jeremiah He says, ‘Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee[Jeremiah 1:5].’ And David in the Psalm says, ‘Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, Thou art, God from everlasting and world without end.’ And in Daniel, ‘Susanna cried out with a loud voice and said, O everlasting ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 411, footnote 12 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)
Discourse III (HTML)
Introductory to Texts from the Gospels on the Incarnation. Enumeration of texts still to be explained. Arians compared to the Jews. We must recur to the Regula Fidei. Our Lord did not come into, but became, man, and therefore had the acts and affections of the flesh. The same works divine and human. Thus the flesh was purified, and men were made immortal. Reference to I Pet. iv. 1. (HTML)
... truly divine? for if the works of the Word’s Godhead had not taken place through the body, man had not been deified; and again, had not the properties of the flesh been ascribed to the Word, man had not been thoroughly delivered from them; but though they had ceased for a little while, as I said before, still sin had remained in him and corruption, as was the case with mankind before Him; and for this reason:—Many for instance have been made holy and clean from all sin; nay, Jeremiah was hallowed[Jeremiah 1:5] even from the womb, and John, while yet in the womb, leapt for joy at the voice of Mary Bearer of God; nevertheless ‘death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression;’ and thus man ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 30, footnote 15 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 491 (In-Text, Margin)
... could boast of children. It was for this reason that Abraham in his old age married Keturah; that Leah hired Jacob with her son’s mandrakes, and that fair Rachel—a type of the church—complained of the closing of her womb. But gradually the crop grew up and then the reaper was sent forth with his sickle. Elijah lived a virgin life, so also did Elisha and many of the sons of the prophets. To Jeremiah the command came: “Thou shalt not take thee a wife.” He had been sanctified in his mother’s womb,[Jeremiah 1:5] and now he was forbidden to take a wife because the captivity was near. The apostle gives the same counsel in different words. “I think, therefore, that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely that it is good for a man to be as he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 43, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Marcella. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 699 (In-Text, Margin)
... blessed while still in her mother’s womb, and that, virgin-like, she was delivered to her father in a dream in a bowl of shining glass brighter than a mirror. And I say nothing of her consecration to the blessed life of virginity, a ceremony which took place when she was hardly more than ten years old, a mere babe still wrapped in swaddling clothes. For all that comes before works should be counted of grace; although, doubtless, God foreknew the future when He sanc tified Jeremiah as yet unborn,[Jeremiah 1:5] when He made John to leap in his mother’s womb, and when, before the foundation of the world, He set apart Paul to preach the gospel of His son.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 371, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4485 (In-Text, Margin)
... baptized, will be equal to virgins. If previous marriage is no prejudice to a baptized widow, and past pleas ures and the exposure of their bodies to public lust are no detriment in the case of harlots, once they have approached the laver they will gain the rewards of virginity. It is one thing to unite with God a mind pure and free from any stain of memory, another to remember the foul and forced embraces of a man, and in recollection to act a part which you do not in person. Jeremiah, who was[Jeremiah 1:5] sanctified in the womb, and was known in his mother’s belly, enjoyed the high privilege because he was predestined to the blessing of virginity. And when all were captured, and even the vessels of the temple were plundered by the King of Babylon, he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 16, footnote 1 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 596 (In-Text, Margin)
... God chose as the first minister of this grace?—a man possessing nothing, and a lover of the desert, yet no hater of mankind: who ate locusts, and winged his soul for heaven: feeding upon honey, and speaking things both sweeter and more salutary than honey: clothed with a garment of camel’s hair, and shewing in himself the pattern of the ascetic life; who also was sanctified by the Holy Ghost while yet he was carried in his mother’s womb. Jeremiah was sanctified, but did not prophesy, in the womb[Jeremiah 1:5]: John alone while carried in the womb leaped for joy, and though he saw not with the eyes of flesh, knew his Master by the Spirit: for since the grace of Baptism was great, it required greatness in its founder also.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 79, 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 1458 (In-Text, Margin)
26. And from such members He is not ashamed to assume flesh, who is the framer of those very members. But then who telleth us this? The Lord saith unto Jeremiah: Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee[Jeremiah 1:5]. If, then, in fashioning man He was not ashamed of the contact, was He ashamed in fashioning for His own sake the holy Flesh, the veil of His Godhead? It is God who even now creates the children in the womb, as it is written in Job, Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast knit ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 219, footnote 5 (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 2751 (In-Text, Margin)
67. However, to avoid unreasonably prolonging my discourse, by an enumeration of all the prophets, and of the words of them all, I will mention but one more, who was known before he was formed, and sanctified from the womb,[Jeremiah 1:5] Jeremiah: and will pass over the rest. He longs for water over his head, and a fountain of tears for his eyes, that he may adequately weep for Israel; and no less does he bewail the depravity of its rulers.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 201, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Prologue. (HTML)
2. For why, august Emperor, should your Majesty learn that Faith which, from your earliest childhood, you have ever devoutly and lovingly kept? “Before I formed thee in thy mother’s belly I knew thee,” saith the Scripture, “and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.”[Jeremiah 1:5] Sanctification, therefore, cometh not of tradition, but of inspiration; therefore keep watch over the gifts of God. For that which no man hath taught you, God hath surely given and inspired.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 277, footnote 3 (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)
... have existed before they were born. Else, let them show that Jacob, who whilst yet hidden in the secret chamber of his mother’s womb supplanted his brother, had not been appointed and ordained, ere ever he was born; let them show that Jeremiah had not likewise been so, before his birth,—Jeremiah, to whom the message comes: “Before I formed thee in thy mother’s womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the belly, I sanctified thee, and appointed thee for a prophet amongst the nations.”[Jeremiah 1:5] What testimony can we have stronger than the case of this great prophet, who was sanctified before he was born, and known before he was shaped?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 386, footnote 7 (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 VIII. The Second Conference of Abbot Serenus. On Principalities. (HTML)
Chapter XXV. How this that is said of the devil in the gospel is to be understood; viz., that “he is a liar, and his father.” (HTML)
... our flesh, but always taught that God alone was the Father of souls. Although even in the actual compacting of this body a ministerial office alone must be attributed to men, but the chief part of its formation to God the Creator of all, as David says: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:” And the blessed Job: “Hast thou not milked me as milk, and curdled me as cheese? Thou hast put me together with bones and sinews;” and the Lord to Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee.”[Jeremiah 1:5] But Ecclesiastes very clearly and accurately gathers the nature of either substance, and its beginning, by an examination of the rise and commencement, from which each originated, and by a consideration of the end to which each is tending, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 578, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Seven Books of John Cassian on the Incarnation of the Lord, Against Nestorius. (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter IX. He corroborates this statement by the authority of the old prophets. (HTML)
... more particularly of the witness, comparatively new, of evangelists and apostles, now let us bring forward the testimony of the old prophets, intermingling at times new things with old, that everybody may see that the holy Scriptures proclaim as it were with one mouth that Christ was to come in the flesh, with a body of His own complete. And so that far-famed and renowned prophet as richly endowed with God’s gifts as with his testimony, to whom alone it was given to be sanctified before His birth,[Jeremiah 1:5] Jeremiah, says, “This is our Lord, and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison with Him. He found out all the way of knowledge and gave it to Jacob His servant and Israel His beloved. Afterwards He was seen upon earth and conversed with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 23, footnote 3 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Letters. (HTML)
To Turribius, Bishop of Asturia, upon the errors of the Priscillianists. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 154 (In-Text, Margin)
... the first parent into his descendants; until the sacrament of Regeneration comes to succour him, whereby through the Holy Spirit we are re-born the sons of promise, not in the fleshly womb, but in the power of baptism. Whence David also, who certainly was a son of promise, says to God: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.” And to Jeremiah says the Lord, “Before I formed thee in the womb I knew thee, and in thy mother’s belly I sanctified thee[Jeremiah 1:5].”