Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Jeremiah 2

There are 77 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 144, footnote 6 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Barnabas (HTML)

The Epistle of Barnabas (HTML)

Chapter XI.—Baptism and the cross prefigured in the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1593 (In-Text, Margin)

... took any care to foreshadow the water [of baptism] and the cross. Concerning the water, indeed, it is written, in reference to the Israelites, that they should not receive that baptism which leads to the remission of sins, but should procure another for themselves. The prophet therefore declares, “Be astonished, O heaven, and let the earth tremble at this, because this people hath committed two great evils: they have forsaken Me, a living fountain, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns.[Jeremiah 2:12-13] Is my holy hill Zion a desolate rock? For ye shall be as the fledglings of a bird, which fly away when the nest is removed.” And again saith the prophet, “I will go before thee and make level the mountains, and will break the brazen gates, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 256, footnote 6 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter CXIV.—Some rules for discerning what is said about Christ. The circumcision of the Jews is very different from that which Christians receive. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2381 (In-Text, Margin)

... drink of the water of life. But you do not comprehend me when I speak these things; for you have not understood what it has been prophesied that Christ would do, and you do not believe us who draw your attention to what has been written. For Jeremiah thus cries: ‘Woe unto you! because you have forsaken the living fountain, and have digged for yourselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. Shall there be a wilderness where Mount Zion is, because I gave Jerusalem a bill of divorce in your sight?’[Jeremiah 2:13]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 269, footnote 3 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter CXL.—In Christ all are free. The Jews hope for salvation in vain because they are sons of Abraham. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2482 (In-Text, Margin)

... remarked before, being himself a type of Christ, had married the two handmaids of his two free wives, and of them begat sons, for the purpose of indicating beforehand that Christ would receive even all those who amongst Japheth’s race are descendants of Canaan, equally with the free, and would have the children fellow-heirs. And we are such; but you cannot comprehend this, because you cannot drink of the living fountain of God, but of broken cisterns which can hold no water, as the Scripture says.[Jeremiah 2:13] But they are cisterns broken, and holding no water, which your own teachers have digged, as the Scripture also expressly asserts, ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’ And besides, they beguile themselves and you, supposing that the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 301, footnote 4 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Other Fragments from the Lost Writings of Justin (HTML)

XIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2640 (In-Text, Margin)

He speaks not of the Gentiles in foreign lands, but concerning [the people] who agree with the Gentiles, according to that which is spoken by Jeremiah: “It is a bitter thing for thee, that thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord thy God, that of old thou hast broken thy yoke, and torn asunder thy bands, and said, I will not serve Thee, but will go to every high hill, and underneath every tree, and there shall I become dissolute in my fornication.”[Jeremiah 2:19]From manuscript of the writings of Justin.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 458, footnote 11 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)

Chapter XXIV.—Recapitulation of the various arguments adduced against Gnostic impiety under all its aspects. The heretics, tossed about by every blast of doctrine, are opposed by the uniform teaching of the Church, which remains so always, and is consistent with itself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3785 (In-Text, Margin)

... join themselves to the Church, but defraud themselves of life through their perverse opinions and infamous behaviour. For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth. Those, therefore, who do not partake of Him, are neither nourished into life from the mother’s breasts, nor do they enjoy that most limpid fountain which issues from the body of Christ; but they dig for themselves broken cisterns[Jeremiah 2:13] out of earthly trenches, and drink putrid water out of the mire, fleeing from the faith of the Church lest they be convicted; and rejecting the Spirit, that they may not be instructed.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 520, footnote 8 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXVII.—Men are possessed of free will, and endowed with the faculty of making a choice. It is not true, therefore, that some are by nature good, and others bad. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4415 (In-Text, Margin)

... shall be the more glorious in the presence of God. The Lord has therefore endured all these things on our behalf, in order that we, having been instructed by means of them all, may be in all respects circumspect for the time to come, and that, having been rationally taught to love God, we may continue in His perfect love: for God has displayed long-suffering in the case of man’s apostasy; while man has been instructed by means of it, as also the prophet says, “Thine own apostasy shall heal thee;”[Jeremiah 2:19] God thus determining all things beforehand for the bringing of man to perfection, for his edification, and for the revelation of His dispensations, that goodness may both be made apparent, and righteousness perfected, and that the Church may be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 229, footnote 11 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter IX.—That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1225 (In-Text, Margin)

... employs as in the highest degree necessary, by reason of the feebleness of the faith of many. For He says by Esaias, “Ye have forsaken the Lord, and have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.” And He says also by Jeremiah: “Heaven was astonished at this, and the earth shuddered exceedingly. For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewn out to themselves broken cisterns, which will not be able to hold water.”[Jeremiah 2:12-13] And again, by the same: “Jerusalem hath sinned a sin; therefore it became commotion. All that glorified her dishonoured her, when they saw her baseness.” And He uses the bitter and biting language of reproof in His consolations by Solomon, tacitly ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 232, footnote 10 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Instructor (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Chapter X.—That the Same God, by the Same Word, Restrains from Sin by Threatening, and Saves Humanity by Exhorting. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1276 (In-Text, Margin)

... Ezekiel, “If ye return with your whole heart, and say, Father, I will hear you, as a holy people.” And again He says, “Come all to Me, who labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest;” and that which is added the Lord speaks in His own person. And very clearly He calls to goodness by Solomon, when He says, “Blessed is the man who hath found wisdom, and the mortal who hath found understanding.” “For the good is found by him who seeks it, and is wont to be seen by him who has found it.”[Jeremiah 2:24] By Jeremiah, too, He sets forth prudence, when he says, “Blessed are we, Israel; for what is pleasing to God is known by us; —and it is known by the Word, by whom we are blessed and wise. For wisdom and knowledge are mentioned by the same prophet, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 514, footnote 8 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XVI.—Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3472 (In-Text, Margin)

... either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from, knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry, in following the prophet, who says: “[My people] hath committed fornication with stock and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me.”[Jeremiah 2:27]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 170, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1407 (In-Text, Margin)

... baptismal water of the “tree” of the passion of Christ, have revived,—a faith from which Israel has fallen away, (as foretold) through Jeremiah, who says, “Send, and ask exceedingly whether such things have been done, whether nations will change their gods (and these are not gods!). But My People hath changed their glory: whence no profit shall accrue to them: the heaven turned pale thereat” (and when did it turn pale? undoubtedly when Christ suffered), “and shuddered,” he says, “most exceedingly;”[Jeremiah 2:10-12] and “the sun grew dark at mid-day:” (and when did it “shudder exceedingly” except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also trembled to her centre, and the veil of the temple was rent, and the tombs were burst asunder? “because these two evils ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 170, footnote 11 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1410 (In-Text, Margin)

... shall accrue to them: the heaven turned pale thereat” (and when did it turn pale? undoubtedly when Christ suffered), “and shuddered,” he says, “most exceedingly;” and “the sun grew dark at mid-day:” (and when did it “shudder exceedingly” except at the passion of Christ, when the earth also trembled to her centre, and the veil of the temple was rent, and the tombs were burst asunder? “because these two evils hath My People done; Me,” He says, “they have quite forsaken, the fount of water of life,[Jeremiah 2:10-13] and they have digged for themselves worn-out tanks, which will not be able to contain water.” Undoubtedly, by not receiving Christ, the “fount of water of life,” they have begun to have “worn-out tanks,” that is, synagogues for the use of the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 401, footnote 21 (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)
Christ's Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator's Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament.  Marcion's Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4746 (In-Text, Margin)

... admonisher of the guests. “Yet my people hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck.” This was reported to the Master of the family. Then He was moved (He did well to be moved; for, as Marcion denies emotion to his god, He must be therefore my God), and commanded them to invite out of “the streets and lanes of the city.” Let us see whether this is not the same in purport as His words by Jeremiah: “Have I been a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a land left uncultivated?”[Jeremiah 2:31] That is to say: “Then have I none whom I may call to me; have I no place whence I may bring them?” “Since my people have said, We will come no more unto thee.” Therefore He sent out to call others, but from the same city. My third remark is this, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 401, footnote 22 (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)
Christ's Advice to Invite the Poor in Accordance with Isaiah. The Parable of the Great Supper a Pictorial Sketch of the Creator's Own Dispensations of Mercy and Grace. The Rejections of the Invitation Paralleled by Quotations from the Old Testament.  Marcion's Christ Could Not Fulfil the Conditions Indicated in This Parable. The Absurdity of the Marcionite Interpretation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4747 (In-Text, Margin)

... He was moved (He did well to be moved; for, as Marcion denies emotion to his god, He must be therefore my God), and commanded them to invite out of “the streets and lanes of the city.” Let us see whether this is not the same in purport as His words by Jeremiah: “Have I been a wilderness to the house of Israel, or a land left uncultivated?” That is to say: “Then have I none whom I may call to me; have I no place whence I may bring them?” “Since my people have said, We will come no more unto thee.”[Jeremiah 2:31] Therefore He sent out to call others, but from the same city. My third remark is this, that although the place abounded with people, He yet commanded that they gather men from the highways and the hedges. In other words, we are now gathered out of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 151, footnote 9 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

Appendix (HTML)

Five Books in Reply to Marcion. (HTML)
Of the Harmony of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1463 (In-Text, Margin)

The waters of the living fount,[Jeremiah 2:13] and drinks—

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 376, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

To Januarius and Other Numidian Bishops, on Baptizing Heretics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2812 (In-Text, Margin)

... ought to be consulted, we put forward our opinion, not as a new one, but we join with you in equal agreement, in an opinion long since decreed by our predecessors, and observed by us,—judging, namely, and holding it for certain that no one can be baptized abroad outside the Church, since there is one baptism appointed in the holy Church. And it is written in the words of the Lord, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out broken cisterns, which can hold no water.”[Jeremiah 2:13] And again, sacred Scripture warns, and says, “Keep thee from the strange water, and drink not from a fountain of strange water.” It is required, then, that the water should first be cleansed and sanctified by the priest, that it may wash away by its ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 425, footnote 2 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Unity of the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3132 (In-Text, Margin)

... who walketh in the error of his heart, no evil shall come upon him. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. If they had stood on my foundation (substantia, ὑποστάσει), and had heard my words, and taught my people, I would have turned them from their evil thoughts.” Again, the Lord points out and designates these same, saying, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out broken cisterns which can hold no water.”[Jeremiah 2:13] Although there can be no other baptism but one, they think that they can baptize; although they forsake the fountain of life, they promise the grace of living and saving water. Men are not washed among them, but rather are made foul; nor are sins ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 459, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

An Address to Demetrianus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3415 (In-Text, Margin)

... drought stanches the fountain; a pestilent breeze corrupts the air; the weakness of disease wastes away man; although all these things come as the consequence of the sins that provoke them, and God is more deeply indignant when such and so great evils avail nothing! For that these things occur either for the discipline of the obstinate or for the punishment of the evil, the same God declares in the Holy Scriptures, saying, “In vain have I smitten your children; they have not received correction.”[Jeremiah 2:30] And the prophet devoted and dedicated to God answers to these words in the same strain, and says, “Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast scourged them, but they have refused to receive correction.” Lo, stripes are inflicted ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 509, 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 it was previously foretold that they would neither know the Lord, nor understand, nor receive Him. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3831 (In-Text, Margin)

... shall not understand; and seeing, ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For the heart of this people hath waxed gross, and they hardly hear with their ears, and they have shut up their eyes, lest haply they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should return, and I should heal them.” Also in Jeremiah the Lord says: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves worn-out cisterns, which could not hold water.”[Jeremiah 2:13] Moreover, in the same: “Behold, the word of the Lord has become unto them a reproach, and they do not wish for it.” Again in the same the Lord says: “The kite knoweth his time, the turtle, and the swallow; the sparrows of the field keep the time of ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 549, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Of the idols which the Gentiles think to be gods. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4488 (In-Text, Margin)

... thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord thy God, and thou hast not hoped in me, saith thy Lord. Because of old time thou hast resented my yoke, and hast broken thy bonds, and hast said, I will not serve, but I will go upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, and upon every shady tree: there I will be confounded with fornication. To the wood and to the stone they have said, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me: and they turned to me their back, and not their face.”[Jeremiah 2:12-13] In Isaiah: “The dragon hath fallen or is dissolved; their carved works have become as beasts and cattle. Labouring and hungry, and without strength, ye shall bear them bound upon your neck as a heavy burden.” And again: “Gathered together, they ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 549, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Of the idols which the Gentiles think to be gods. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4488 (In-Text, Margin)

... thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord thy God, and thou hast not hoped in me, saith thy Lord. Because of old time thou hast resented my yoke, and hast broken thy bonds, and hast said, I will not serve, but I will go upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, and upon every shady tree: there I will be confounded with fornication. To the wood and to the stone they have said, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me: and they turned to me their back, and not their face.”[Jeremiah 2:19-20] In Isaiah: “The dragon hath fallen or is dissolved; their carved works have become as beasts and cattle. Labouring and hungry, and without strength, ye shall bear them bound upon your neck as a heavy burden.” And again: “Gathered together, they ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 549, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Of the idols which the Gentiles think to be gods. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4488 (In-Text, Margin)

... thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord thy God, and thou hast not hoped in me, saith thy Lord. Because of old time thou hast resented my yoke, and hast broken thy bonds, and hast said, I will not serve, but I will go upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, and upon every shady tree: there I will be confounded with fornication. To the wood and to the stone they have said, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me: and they turned to me their back, and not their face.”[Jeremiah 2:27] In Isaiah: “The dragon hath fallen or is dissolved; their carved works have become as beasts and cattle. Labouring and hungry, and without strength, ye shall bear them bound upon your neck as a heavy burden.” And again: “Gathered together, they ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 592, footnote 5 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)

Exhortation to Repentance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4890 (In-Text, Margin)

Also in Jeremiah: “Withdraw thy foot from a rough way, and thy face from thirst. But she said, I will be comforted, I am willing; for she loved strangers, and went after them.”[Jeremiah 2:25]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 592, footnote 16 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)

Exhortation to Repentance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4901 (In-Text, Margin)

Also in Jeremiah: “Shall a bride forget her adornment, or a virgin the girdle of her breast? But my people has forgotten my days, whereof there is no number.”[Jeremiah 2:32]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 325, footnote 6 (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)

Theopatra. (HTML)
Virginity to Be Cultivated and Commended in Every Place and Time. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2632 (In-Text, Margin)

Further, the expression in Jeremiah,[Jeremiah 2:32] “That a maid should not forget her ornaments, nor a bride her attire,” shows that she should not give up or loosen the band of chastity through wiles and distractions. For by the heart are properly denoted our heart and mind. Now the breastband, the girdle which gathers together and keeps firm the purpose of the soul to chastity, is love to God, which our Captain and Shepherd, Jesus, who is also our Ruler and Bridegroom, O illustrious virgins, commands both you and me to hold ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 133, footnote 2 (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. XXX.—Of avoiding heresies and superstitions, and what is the only true Catholic Church (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 898 (In-Text, Margin)

But since many heresies have existed, and the people of God have been rent into divisions at the instigation of demons, the truth must be briefly marked out by us, and placed in its own peculiar dwelling-place, that if any one shall desire to draw the water of life, he may not be borne to broken cisterns[Jeremiah 2:13] which hold no water, but may know the abundant fountain of God, watered by which he may enjoy perpetual light. Before all things, it is befitting that we should know both that He Himself and His ambassadors foretold that there must be numerous sects and heresies, which would break the unity of the sacred body; and that they admonished us to be ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 423, footnote 5 (Image)

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

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)

Sec. VII.—On Assembling in the Church (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2845 (In-Text, Margin)

... walked according to the ordinances of the heathen, and you have in a manner exceeded them.” And again: “Israel has justified his soul more than treacherous Judah.” And afterwards: “Will the Gentiles change their gods which are not gods? Wherefore pass over to the isles of Chittim, and behold, and send to Kedar, and observe diligently whether such things have been done. For those nations have not changed their ordinances; but,” says He, “my people has changed its glory for that which will not profit.”[Jeremiah 2:10] How, therefore, will any one make his apology who has despised or absented himself from the church of God?

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 423, footnote 5 (Image)

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

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book II. Of Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons (HTML)

Sec. VII.—On Assembling in the Church (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2845 (In-Text, Margin)

... walked according to the ordinances of the heathen, and you have in a manner exceeded them.” And again: “Israel has justified his soul more than treacherous Judah.” And afterwards: “Will the Gentiles change their gods which are not gods? Wherefore pass over to the isles of Chittim, and behold, and send to Kedar, and observe diligently whether such things have been done. For those nations have not changed their ordinances; but,” says He, “my people has changed its glory for that which will not profit.”[Jeremiah 2:11] How, therefore, will any one make his apology who has despised or absented himself from the church of God?

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 555, footnote 3 (Image)

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

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

Martyrdom of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Bartholomew. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2419 (In-Text, Margin)

... baptized, and wishest thyself to be enlightened, I will make thee behold Him, and learn from how great evils thou hast been redeemed. At the same time hear also by what means he injures all those who are lying sick in the temple. The devil himself by his own art causes the men to be sick, and again to be healed, in order that they may the more believe in the idols, and in order that he may have place the more in their souls, in order that they may say to the stock and the stone, Thou art our God.[Jeremiah 2:27] But that demon who dwells in the idol is held in subjection, conquered by me, and is able to give no response to those who sacrifice and pray there. And if thou wishest to prove that it is so, I order him to return into the idol, and I will make him ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 623, footnote 6 (Image)

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

The Decretals. (HTML)

The Epistles of Pope Pontianus. (HTML)

To All Bishops. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2788 (In-Text, Margin)

... children of God always think and strive to do things which are of God, and give help unceasingly to their brethren, and wish to injure no one. But, on the other hand, the children of the devil are always meditating things evil and hurtful, because their deeds are evil. And of them the Lord, speaking by the prophet Jeremiah, says: “I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness.” “Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord; and with your children’s children will I plead.”[Jeremiah 2:9] “Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you.” These things, brethren, are greatly to be feared, and to be guarded against by all; for the man on whom the judgment of God may fall will not depart unhurt. And therefore let every ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 455, footnote 9 (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 XII. (HTML)
Concerning the Question of Jesus in Cæsarea, Who Do Men Say that I Am?  Different Conceptions of Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5613 (In-Text, Margin)

... opinions concerning Jesus; while Peter as not a disciple “of flesh and blood,” but as one fit to receive the revelation of the Father in heaven, confessed that He was the Christ. The saying of Peter to the Saviour, “Thou art the Christ,” when the Jews did not know that He was Christ, was indeed a great thing, but greater that he knew Him not only to be Christ, but also “the Son of the living God,” who had also said through the prophets, “I live,” and “They have forsaken Me the spring of living water;”[Jeremiah 2:13] —and He is life also, as from the Father the spring of life, who said, “I am the Life;” and consider carefully, whether, as the spring of the river is not the same thing as the river, the spring of life is not the same as life. And these things we ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 56, footnote 5 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

He advances to puberty, and indeed to the early part of the sixteenth year of his age, in which, having abandoned his studies, he indulged in lustful pleasures, and, with his companions, committed theft. (HTML)

Concerning His Father, a Freeman of Thagaste, the Assister of His Son’s Studies, and on the Admonitions of His Mother on the Preservation of Chastity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 199 (In-Text, Margin)

... Thy creature instead of Thee, from the invisible wine of its own perversity turning and bowing down to the most infamous things. But in my mother’s breast Thou hadst even now begun Thy temple, and the commencement of Thy holy habitation, whereas my father was only a catechumen as yet, and that but recently. She then started up with a pious fear and trembling; and, although I had not yet been baptized, she feared those crooked ways in which they walk who turn their back to Thee, and not their face.[Jeremiah 2:27]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 200, footnote 7 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the goodness of God explained in the creation of things, and of the Trinity as found in the first words of Genesis. The story concerning the origin of the world (Gen. I.) is allegorically explained, and he applies it to those things which God works for sanctified and blessed man. Finally, he makes an end of this work, having implored eternal rest from God. (HTML)

Concerning the Living Soul, Birds, and Fishes (Ver. 24)—The Sacrament of the Eucharist Being Regarded. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1359 (In-Text, Margin)

... affecting. Restrain yourselves from the unbridled wildness of pride, from the indolent voluptuousness of luxury, and from the false name of knowledge; so that wild beasts may be tamed, the cattle subdued, and serpents harmless. For these are the motions of the mind in allegory; that is to say, the haughtiness of pride, the delight of lust, and the poison of curiosity are the motions of the dead soul; for the soul dies not so as to lose all motion, because it dies by forsaking the fountain of life,[Jeremiah 2:13] and so is received by this transitory world, and is conformed unto it.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 493, footnote 1 (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 is considered the Council of Carthage, held under the authority and presidency of Cyprian, to determine the question of the baptism of heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 29 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1699 (In-Text, Margin)

... Church, that is, to that rock outside which are all who hear the words of Christ and do them not; but being already washed with the sacred and divine laver, and now further enlightened with the light of truth, should be received into the Church no longer as enemies but as peaceful, for the unrighteous have no peace; no longer as strangers, but of the household of the faith of the Lord, for to the unrighteous it is said, "How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?"[Jeremiah 2:21] no longer as bastards, but the sons of God, for the unrighteous are the sons of the devil, partaking not of error but of salvation, for un-righteousness cannot save. And by the Church I mean that rock, that dove, that garden enclosed and fountain ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 50, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)

Job Was Not Without Sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 516 (In-Text, Margin)

... “How shall a mortal man be just before the Lord? For if He should enter into judgment with him, he would not be able to obey Him;” in other words, if, when challenged to judgment, he wished to show that nothing could be found in him which He could condemn, “he would not be able to obey him,” since he misses even that obedience which might enable him to obey Him who teaches that sins ought to be confessed. Accordingly [the Lord] rebukes certain men, saying, “Why will ye contend with me in judgment?”[Jeremiah 2:29] This [the Psalmist] averts, saying, “Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified.” In accordance with this, Job also asks: “For who shall resist his judgment? Even if I should seem righteous, my mouth ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 344, footnote 2 (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 XV. 1–3. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1380 (In-Text, Margin)

... “true”? For it is by similitude, and not by any personal propriety, that He is thus called a vine; just as He is also termed a sheep, a lamb, a lion, a rock, a corner-stone, and other names of a like kind, which are themselves rather the true ones, from which these are drawn as similitudes, not as realities. But when He says, “I am the true vine,” it is to distinguish Himself, doubtless, from that [vine] to which the words are addressed: “How art thou turned into sourness, as a strange vine?”[Jeremiah 2:21] For how could that be a true vine which was expected to bring forth grapes and brought forth thorns?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 219, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2080 (In-Text, Margin)

3. What therefore meaneth that which to the title itself still belongeth, namely, that “the Allophyli held him in Geth”? Geth was a certain city of the Allophyli, that is, of strangers, to wit, of people afar from holy men. All they that refuse Christ for King become strangers. Wherefore strangers are they made? Because even that vine, though by Him planted, when it had become sour what heard it? “Wherefore hast thou been turned into sourness, O alien vine?”[Jeremiah 2:21] It hath not been said, My vine: because if Mine, sweet; if sour, not Mine; if not Mine, surely alien. “There held him,” then, “Allophyli in Geth.” We find indeed, brethren, David himself, son of Jesse, king of Israel, to have been in a strange land among the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 280, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2640 (In-Text, Margin)

... in ourselves, in our parents. And what saith the Apostle? “Ye know, when Gentiles ye were, to idols without speech how ye went up, being led.” Let the Church now say, “how great things He hath done to my soul.” “To Him with my mouth I have cried.” I a man to a stone was crying, to a deaf stock I was crying, to idols deaf and dumb I was speaking: now the image of God hath been turned to the Creator thereof. I that was “saying to a stock, My father thou art; and to a stone, Thou hast begotten me:”[Jeremiah 2:27] now say, “Our Father, which art in Heaven.” …“To Him with my mouth I have cried, and I have exalted Him under my tongue.” See how in secret He would be uncorrupt that offereth marrowed holocausts. This do ye, brethren, this imitate, so that ye may ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 551, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5050 (In-Text, Margin)

7. But I would not that ye should seek without yourselves, how the Jordan was turned back, I would not ye should augur anything evil. For the Lord chideth those who have “turned” their “back” unto Him, “and not their face.”[Jeremiah 2:27] And whoever forsaketh the source of his being, and turneth away from his Creator; as a river into the sea, he glides into the bitter wickedness of this world. It is therefore good for him that he turn back, and that God whom he had set behind his back, may be before his face as he returneth; and that the sea of this world, which he had set before his face, when he was gliding on ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 552, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5062 (In-Text, Margin)

... and silver? They have indeed both bronze, and wood, and earthenware idols, and of different materials of this description; but the Holy Spirit preferred mentioning the more precious material, because when every man hath blushed for that which he sets more by, he is much more easily turned away from the worship of meaner objects. For it is said in another passage of Scripture concerning the worshippers of images, “Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth.”[Jeremiah 2:27] But lest that man who speaketh thus not to a stone or stock, but to gold and silver, seem wiser to himself; let him look this way, let him turn hitherwards the ear of his heart: “The idols of the Gentiles are gold and silver.” Nothing mean and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 652, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXLIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5816 (In-Text, Margin)

... hast not seen; wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and Thou takest no knowledge?” As though they would say, “We have done what Thou hast commanded, wherefore dost Thou not render to us what Thou hast promised?” God answereth thee: I will give to thee to receive what I have promised: I have given thee that thou shouldest do that whereby thou mayest receive. Finally, to such proud ones the Prophet speaketh; “Wherefore will ye plead with Me? ye have all transgressed against Me, saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 2:29] Why will ye enter into judgment with Me, and recount your own righteousnesses?…“For before Thee every one living shall not be justified.” “Every one living;” living, that is, here, living in the flesh, living in expectation of death; born a man; ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 84, footnote 1 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
The Letter of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, concerning the same Council. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 565 (In-Text, Margin)

... forsooth, accept their own words? In their own ten or a dozen synods they have laid down, as has been narrated already, now one thing now another; and at the present time these synods, one after another, they are themselves openly denouncing. They are now suffering the fate undergone of old by the traitors of the Jews. For as is written in the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah “ they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water,[Jeremiah 2:13] so these men, in their opposition to the Œcumenical synod, have hewed for themselves many synods which have all proved vain and like “ buds that yield no meal, ” let us not therefore admit those who cite the council of Ariminum or any other ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 124, footnote 3 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Narrative of events at Alexandria in the time of Lucius the Arian, taken from a letter of Petrus, Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 747 (In-Text, Margin)

... two-edged blade. So he bade them put out to sea, though they had got no provisions on board, and were starting without one single comfort for their exile. Strange and almost incredible to relate, the sea was all afoam; grieved, I think, and unwilling, if I may so say, to receive the good men upon its surface, and so have part or lot in an unrighteous sentence. Now even to the ignorant was made manifest the savage purpose of the judge and it may truly be said “at this, the heavens stood astonished.”[Jeremiah 2:12]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 158, footnote 5 (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 826 (In-Text, Margin)

... and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him,’ therefore the sacred writers to whom the Son has revealed Him, have given us a certain image from things visible, saying, ‘Who is the brightness of His glory, and the Expression of His Person;’ and again, ‘For with Thee is the well of life, and in Thy light shall we see light;’ and when the Word chides Israel, He says, ‘Thou hast forsaken the Fountain of wisdom;’ and this Fountain it is which says, ‘They have forsaken Me the Fountain of living waters[Jeremiah 2:13].’ And mean indeed and very dim is the illustration compared with what we desiderate; but yet it is possible from it to understand something above man’s nature, instead of thinking the Son’s generation to be on a level with ours. For who can even ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 309, footnote 8 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse I (HTML)
Extracts from the Thalia of Arius. Arius maintains that God became a Father, and the Son was not always; the Son out of nothing; once He was not; He was not before his generation; He was created; named Wisdom and Word after God's attributes; made that He might make us; one out of many powers of God; alterable; exalted on God's foreknowledge of what He was to be; not very God; but called so as others by participation; foreign in essence from the Father; does not know or see the Father; does not know Himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1847 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Thalia, but must hate, and justly hate, this Arius jesting on such matters as on a stage? who but must regard him, when he pretends to name God and speak of God, but as the serpent counselling the woman? who, on reading what follows in his work, but must discern in his irreligious doctrine that error, into which by his sophistries the serpent in the sequel seduced the woman? who at such blasphemies is not transported? ‘The heaven,’ as the Prophet says, ‘was astonished, and the earth shuddered[Jeremiah 2:12] ’ at the transgression of the Law. But the sun, with greater horror, impatient of the bodily contumelies, which the common Lord of all voluntarily endured for us, turned away, and recalling his rays made that day sunless. And shall not all human ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 317, footnote 2 (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)
Subject Continued. Third proof of the Son's eternity, viz. from other titles indicative of His coessentiality; as the Creator; One of the Blessed Trinity; as Wisdom; as Word; as Image. If the Son is a perfect Image of the Father, why is He not a Father also? because God, being perfect, is not the origin of a race. Only the Father a Father because the Only Father, only the Son a Son because the Only Son. Men are not really fathers and really sons, but shadows of the True. The Son does not become a Father, because He has received from the Father to be immutable and ever the same. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1940 (In-Text, Margin)

19. If God be, and be called, the Fountain of wisdom and life—as He says by Jeremiah, ‘They have forsaken Me the Fountain of living waters[Jeremiah 2:13];’ and again, ‘A glorious high throne from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary; O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters;’ and in the book of Baruch it is written, ‘Thou hast forsaken the Fountain of wisdom,’—this implies that life and wisdom are not foreign to the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 365, footnote 18 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) (HTML)

Discourse II (HTML)
Introduction to Proverbs viii. 22 continued. Contrast between the Father's operations immediately and naturally in the Son, instrumentally by the creatures; Scripture terms illustrative of this. Explanation of these illustrations; which should be interpreted by the doctrine of the Church; perverse sense put on them by the Arians, refuted. Mystery of Divine Generation. Contrast between God's Word and man's word drawn out at length. Asterius betrayed into holding two Unoriginates; his inconsistency. Baptism how by the Son as well as by the Father. On the Baptism of heretics. Why Arian worse than other heresies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2416 (In-Text, Margin)

... Psalmist says, a sharp sword for irreligion? For they neither feared the voice of the Father, nor reverenced the Saviour’s words, nor trusted the Saints, one of whom writes, ‘Who being the Brightness of His glory and the Expression of His subsistence,’ and ‘Christ the power of God and the Wisdom of God;’ and another says in the Psalm, ‘With Thee is the well of life, and in Thy Light shall we see light,’ and ‘Thou madest all things in Wisdom;’ and the Prophets say, ‘And the Word of the Lord came to me[Jeremiah 2:1];’ and John, ‘In the beginning was the Word;’ and Luke, ‘As they delivered them unto us which from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word;’ and as David again says, ‘He sent His Word and healed them.’ All these passages proscribe ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 525, footnote 9 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4169 (In-Text, Margin)

... last thou shalt find it more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.’ Thus then he eats and rejoices for a little time; afterwards he spurneth it when he hath removed his soul afar. For the fool knoweth not that those who depart far from God shall perish. And besides, there is the restraint of the prophetic admonition which says, ‘What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Gihon? And what hast thou to do in the way of Asshur, to drink the waters of the rivers[Jeremiah 2:18]?’ And the Wisdom of God which loves mankind forbids these things, crying, ‘But depart quickly, tarry not in the place, neither fix thine eye upon it; for thus thou shalt pass over strange waters, and depart quickly from the strange river.’ She also ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 86, footnote 12 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

From Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1274 (In-Text, Margin)

... placed…cherubims and a flaming sword…to keep the way of the tree of life.” He says nothing about an ascent to it. “And a river went out of Eden.” He does not say “went down from Eden.” “It was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison…and the name of the second is Gihon.” I myself have seen the waters of Gihon, have seen them with my bodily eyes. It is this Gihon to which Jeremiah points when he says, “What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the muddy water of Gihon?”[Jeremiah 2:18] I have drunk also from the great river Euphrates, not spiritual but actual water, such as you can touch with your hand and imbibe with your mouth. But where there are rivers which admit of being seen and of being drunk, it follows that there also ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 138, footnote 5 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Pammachius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1963 (In-Text, Margin)

... he follows Christ who forsakes his sins and walks hand in hand with virtue. We know that Christ is wisdom. He is the treasure which in the scriptures a man finds in his field. He is the peerless gem which is bought by selling many pearls. But if you love a captive woman, that is, worldly wisdom, and if no beauty but hers attracts you, make her bald and cut off her alluring hair, that is to say, the graces of style, and pare away her dead nails. Wash her with the nitre of which the prophet speaks,[Jeremiah 2:22] and then take your ease with her and say “Her left hand is under my head, and her right hand doth embrace me.” Then shall the captive bring to you many children; from a Moabitess she shall become an Israelitish woman. Christ is that sanctification ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 172, footnote 7 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2519 (In-Text, Margin)

... said nothing of any dogmatic difference between himself and pope Epiphanius. What then can have “forced” him—I use his own word—publicly to argue a point which no one had yet raised? One so full of wisdom as you knows well the danger of such discussions and that silence is in such cases the safest course; except, indeed, on some occasion which renders it imperative to deal with great matters. What ability and eloquence it must have needed to compress into a single sermon—as he boasts to have done[Jeremiah 2] —all the topics which the most learned writers have treated in detail in voluminous treatises! But this is nothing to me: it is for the hearers of the sermon to notice and for the writer of the letter to realize. But as for me he ought of his own ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 202, footnote 9 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2871 (In-Text, Margin)

... while on the way at Socoh, and at Samson’s well which he clave in the hollow place that was in the jaw. Here I will lave my parched lips and refresh myself before visiting Moresheth; in old days famed for the tomb of the prophet Micah, and now for its church. Then skirting the country of the Horites and Gittites, Mareshah, Edom, and Lachish, and traversing the lonely wastes of the desert where the tracks of the traveller are lost in the yielding sand, I will come to the river of Egypt called Sihor,[Jeremiah 2:18] that is “the muddy river,” and go through the five cities of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan, and through the land of Goshen and the plains of Zoan on which God wrought his marvellous works. And I will visit the city of No, which has since ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 207, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2962 (In-Text, Margin)

22. However, she has finished her course, she has kept the faith, and now she enjoys the crown of righteousness. She follows the Lamb whithersoever he goes. She is filled now because once she was hungry. With joy does she sing: “as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.” O blessed change! Once she wept but now laughs for evermore. Once she despised the broken cisterns of which the prophet speaks;[Jeremiah 2:13] but now she has found in the Lord a fountain of life. Once she wore haircloth but now she is clothed in white raiment, and can say: “thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” Once she ate ashes like bread and mingled her drink with weeping; saying “my ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 219, footnote 1 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To a Mother and Daughter Living in Gaul. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3067 (In-Text, Margin)

... would certainly return to your own) pay more regard to appearances in harbouring him as your companion. Live in a separate building and take your meals apart; for if you remain under one roof with him slanderers will say that you share with him your bed. You may thus easily get help from him when you feel you need it, and yet to a considerable degree escape public discredit. Yet you must take care not to contract the stain of which Jeremiah tells us that no nitre or fuller’s soap can wash it out.[Jeremiah 2:22] When you wish him to come to see you, always have witnesses present; either friends, or freedmen, or slaves. A good conscience is afraid of no man’s eyes. Let him come in unembarrassed and go out at his ease. Let his silent looks, his unspoken words ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 225, footnote 16 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Rusticus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3129 (In-Text, Margin)

... “turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Nothing makes God so angry as when men from despair of better things cleave to those which are worse; and indeed this despair in itself is a sign of unbelief. One who despairs of salvation can have no expectation of a judgment to come. For if he dreaded such, he would by doing good works prepare to meet his Judge. Let us hear what God says through Jeremiah, “withhold thy foot from a rough way and thy throat from thirst”[Jeremiah 2:25] and again “shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?” Let us hear also what God says by Isaiah: “When thou shalt turn and bewail thyself, then shalt thou be saved, and then shalt thou know where thou hast hitherto been.” We ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 226, footnote 20 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Rusticus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3152 (In-Text, Margin)

... towers, and saying to each in turn, “O wall, let tears run down.” In this way, it is prophetically implied, you will fulfil the apostolic precept: “rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep,” and by your tears you will melt the hard hearts of sinners till they too weep; whereas, if they persist in evil doing they will find these words applied to them, “I…planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?”[Jeremiah 2:21] and again “saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face.” He means, they would not turn towards God in penitence; but in the hardness of their hearts ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 226, footnote 21 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Rusticus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3153 (In-Text, Margin)

... them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep,” and by your tears you will melt the hard hearts of sinners till they too weep; whereas, if they persist in evil doing they will find these words applied to them, “I…planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?” and again “saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face.”[Jeremiah 2:27] He means, they would not turn towards God in penitence; but in the hardness of their hearts turned their backs upon Him to insult Him. Wherefore also the Lord says to Jeremiah: “hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 259, footnote 5 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Gaudentius. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3600 (In-Text, Margin)

... circumcised,”— that is, as a virgin?—“let him not become uncircumcised” —that is, let him not seek the coat of marriage given to Adam on his expulsion from the paradise of virginity. “Is any called in uncircumcision,”—that is, having a wife and enveloped in the skin of matrimony? let him not seek the nakedness of virginity and of that eternal chastity which he has lost once for all. No, let him “possess his vessel in sanctification and honour,” let him drink of his own wells not out of the dissolute cisterns[Jeremiah 2:13] of the harlots which cannot hold within them the pure waters of chastity. The same Paul also in the same chapter, when discussing the subjects of virginity and marriage, calls those who are married slaves of the flesh, but those not under the yoke ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 370, footnote 10 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4483 (In-Text, Margin)

... whom he called daughter the prophet also gave the title virgin, for fear that if he spoke only of a daughter, it might be supposed that she was married. This is the virgin daughter whom elsewhere he thus addresses: “Sing, O barren, thou that dost not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate, than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord.” This is she of whom God by the mouth of Jeremiah speaks, saying:[Jeremiah 2:32] “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire.” Concerning her we read of a great miracle in the same prophecy —that a woman should compass a man, and that the Father of all things should be contained in a virgin’s womb.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 8, footnote 2 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On Repentance and Remission of Sins, and Concerning the Adversary. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 493 (In-Text, Margin)

1. A fearful thing is sin, and the sorest disease of the soul is transgression, secretly cutting its sinews, and becoming also the cause of eternal fire; an evil of a man’s own choosing, an offspring of the will. For that we sin of our own free will the Prophet says plainly in a certain place: Yet I planted thee a fruitful vine, wholly true:  how art thou turned to bitterness, (and become) the strange vine[Jeremiah 2:21]? The planting was good, the fruit coming from the will is evil; and therefore the planter is blameless, but the vine shall be burnt with fire since it was planted for good, and bore fruit unto evil of its own will. For God, according to the Preacher, made man upright, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 24, footnote 3 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Ten Points of Doctrine. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 715 (In-Text, Margin)

... iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Remember also the Scripture, which saith, Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge: and, That which may be known of God is mani festin them; and again, their eyes they have closed. Also remember how God again accuseth them, and saith, Yet I planted thee a fruitful vine, wholly true:  how art thou turned to bitterness, thou the strange vine[Jeremiah 2:21]?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 46, footnote 18 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

The Father. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1010 (In-Text, Margin)

... passages just before mentioned, in which God was addressed as the Father of men, I am greatly amazed at men’s insensibility. For God with unspeakable loving-kindness deigned to be called the Father of men,—He in heaven, they on earth,—and He the Maker of Eternity, they made in time,—He who holdeth the earth in the hollow of His hand, they upon the earth as grasshoppers. Yet man forsook his heavenly Father, and said to the stock, Thou art my father, and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me[Jeremiah 2:27]. And for this reason, methinks, the Psalmist says to mankind, Forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house, whom thou hast chosen for a father, whom thou hast drawn upon thyself to thy destruction.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 222, footnote 23 (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 2820 (In-Text, Margin)

90. For I own that I am too weak for this warfare, and therefore turned my back, hiding my face in the rout, and sat solitary, because I was filled with bitterness and sought to be silent, understanding that it is an evil time, that the beloved had kicked, that we were become backsliding children, who are the luxuriant vine, the true vine, all fruitful, all beautiful,[Jeremiah 2:21] springing up splendidly with showers from on high. For the diadem of beauty, the signet of glory, the crown of magnificence has been changed for me into shame; and if anyone, in face of these things, is daring and courageous, he has my blessing on his daring and courage.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 19, footnote 8 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

Statement of the reason why in the writings of Paul the angels are associated with the Father and the Son. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 968 (In-Text, Margin)

... judge his people.” And so Moses when about to deliver his oracles to the people says, “I call heaven and earth to witness this day;” and again in his song he says, “Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth;” and Isaiah, “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;” and Jeremiah describes astonishment in heaven at the tidings of the unholy deeds of the people: “The heaven was astonished at this, and was horribly afraid, because my people committed two evils.”[Jeremiah 2:12-13] And so the apostle, knowing the angels to be set over men as tutors and guardians, calls them to witness. Moreover, Joshua, the son of Nun, even set up a stone as witness of his words (already a heap somewhere had been called a witness by Jacob), ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 116, footnote 4 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To the Cæsareans.  A defence of his withdrawal, and concerning the faith. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1784 (In-Text, Margin)

... begotten ” into our faith, and asserts that there was once a time when the Everlasting was not; that He who is by nature and eternally a Father became a Father; that the Holy Ghost is not eternal? He bewitches our Patriarch’s sheep that they may not drink “of the well of water springing up into everlasting life,” but may rather bring upon themselves the words of the prophet, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water;”[Jeremiah 2:13] when all the while they ought to confess that the Father is God, the Son God, and the Holy Ghost God, as they have been taught by the divine words, and by those who have understood them in their highest sense. Against those who cast it in our teeth ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 150, footnote 13 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To a fallen virgin. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2133 (In-Text, Margin)

... has come to pass which I shrink from saying, and yet cannot leave unsaid, for it is as a burning and blazing fire in my bones, and I am undone and cannot endure. You have taken the members of Christ and made them the members of a harlot. This is an evil with which no other can be matched. This outrage in life is new. “For pass over the Isles of Chittim and see; and send unto Chedar and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods.”[Jeremiah 2:10-11] But the virgin has changed her glory, and her glory is in her shame. The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth is horribly afraid, saith the Lord, for the virgin has committed two evils; she has forsaken Me, the true and holy Bridegroom of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 150, footnote 14 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

The Letters. (HTML)

To a fallen virgin. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2134 (In-Text, Margin)

... the members of a harlot. This is an evil with which no other can be matched. This outrage in life is new. “For pass over the Isles of Chittim and see; and send unto Chedar and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods which are yet no gods.” But the virgin has changed her glory, and her glory is in her shame. The heavens are astonished at this, and the earth is horribly afraid, saith the Lord, for the virgin has committed two evils; she has forsaken[Jeremiah 2:12-13] Me, the true and holy Bridegroom of holy souls, and has betaken herself to an impious and lawless destroyer of body and soul alike. She has revolted from God, her Saviour, and yielded her members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity. She forgot ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 20, footnote 5 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XXV. A reason is given why this book did not open with a discussion of the above-mentioned virtues. It is also concisely pointed out that the same virtues existed in the ancient fathers. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 168 (In-Text, Margin)

117. Prudence held the first place in holy Abraham. For of him the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and that was counted to him for righteousness;” for no one is prudent who knows not God. Again: “The fool hath said, There is no God;” for a wise man would not say so. How is he wise who looks not for his Maker, but says to a stone: “Thou art my father”?[Jeremiah 2:27] Who says to the devil as the Manichæan does: “Thou art the author of my being”? How is Arius wise, who prefers an imperfect and inferior creator to one who is a true and perfect one? How can Marcion or Eunomius be wise, who prefer to have an evil rather than a good God? And how can he be wise who does not fear his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 85, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XVIII. In the narration of that event already mentioned, and especially of the sacrifice offered by Nehemiah, is typified the Holy Spirit and Christian baptism. The sacrifice of Moses and Elijah and the history of Noah are also referred to the same. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 725 (In-Text, Margin)

105. This fire is hidden in the time of captivity, during which sin reigns, but in the time of liberty it is brought forth. And though it is changed into the appearance of water, yet it preserves its nature as fire so as to consume the sacrifice. Do not wonder when thou readest that God the Father said: “I am a consuming fire.” And again: “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water.”[Jeremiah 2:13] The Lord Jesus, too, like a fire inflamed the hearts of those who heard Him, and like a fount of waters cooled them. For He Himself said in His Gospel that He came to send fire on the earth and to supply a draught of living waters to those who thirst.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 94, footnote 6 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Preface. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 795 (In-Text, Margin)

7. So when the whole world was parched with the drought of Gentile superstition, then came that dew of the heavenly visits on the fleece. But after that the lost sheep of the house of Israel (whom I think that the figure of the Jewish fleece shadowed forth), after that those sheep, I say,[Jeremiah 2:13] “had refused the fountain of living water,” the dew of moistening faith dried up in the breasts of the Jews, and that divine Fountain turned away its course to the hearts of the Gentiles. Whence it has come to pass that now the whole world is moistened with the dew of faith, but the Jews have lost their prophets and counsellors.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 283, footnote 9 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XII. The comparison, found in the Gospel of St. John, of the Son to a Vine and the Father to a husbandman, must be understood with reference to the Incarnation. To understand it with reference to the Divine Generation is to doubly insult the Son, making Him inferior to St. Paul, and bringing Him down to the level of the rest of mankind, as well as in like manner the Father also, by making Him not merely to be on one footing with the same Apostle, but even of no account at all. The Son, indeed, in so far as being God, is also the husbandman, and, as regards His Manhood, a grape-cluster. True statement of the Father's pre-eminence. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2499 (In-Text, Margin)

... known to me, that I may know; then saw I their thoughts. I was led as a harmless lamb to the slaughter and knew it not: they took counsel together against me, saying, Come, let us throw wood into his bread.” For if the Son here speaks of the mystery of His coming Incarnation—for it were blasphemy to suppose that the words are spoken concerning the Father—then surely it is the Son Who speaks in an earlier passage: “I have planted thee as a fruitful vine—how art Thou become bitter, and a wild vine?”[Jeremiah 2:21]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 358, footnote 8 (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 VI. Conference of Abbot Theodore. On the Death of the Saints. (HTML)
Chapter XI. Of the two kinds of trials, which come upon us in a three-fold way. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1409 (In-Text, Margin)

... correct us but with judgment: not in Thine anger.” And again: “I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me: Thy wrath is turned away, and Thou hast comforted me.” But as a punishment for sins, the blows of trial are inflicted, as where the Lord threatens that He will send plagues upon the people of Israel: “I will send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the fury of creatures that trail upon the ground:” and “In vain have I struck your children: they have not received correction.”[Jeremiah 2:30] In the Psalms also: “Many are the scourges of the sinners:” and in the gospel: “Behold thou art made whole: now sin no more, lest a worse thing happen unto thee.” We find, it is true, a fourth way also in which we know on the authority of Scripture ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 403, footnote 2 (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 X. The Second Conference of Abbot Isaac. On Prayer. (HTML)
Chapter V. The answer on the heresy described above. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1666 (In-Text, Margin)

... of some figure, as they believe that they can grasp and hold nothing if they have not some image set before them, which they can continually address while they are at their devotions, and which they can carry about in their mind and have always fixed before their eyes. And against this mistake of theirs this text may be used: “And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man.” Jeremiah also says: “My people have changed their glory for an idol.[Jeremiah 2:11] Which error although by this its origin, of which we have spoken, it is engrained in the notions of some, yet none the less is it contracted in the hearts also of those who have never been stained with the superstition of the heathen world, under ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 525, footnote 2 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)

Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter IX. Of the care with which a monk should preserve the recollection of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2262 (In-Text, Margin)

... depths are the authors of our own death, or rather the very fall becomes death to the faller. For it says: “Woe to them for they have departed from Me: they shall be wasted because they have transgressed against Me;” and again: “Woe to them when I shall depart from them.” For “thine own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee to have left the Lord thy God;” for “every man is bound by the cords of his sins.”[Jeremiah 2:19] To whom this rebuke is aptly directed by the Lord: “Behold,” He says, “all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk ye in the light of your fire and in the flames which you have kindled;” and again: “He that kindleth iniquity, shall ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 528, footnote 3 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)

Conference XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. What is the body of sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2280 (In-Text, Margin)

This then is that body of death from which we cannot escape, pent in which those who are perfect, who have tasted “how gracious the Lord is,” daily feel with the prophet “how bad for himself and bitter it is for a man to depart from the Lord his God.”[Jeremiah 2:19] This is the body of death which restrains us from the heavenly vision and drags us back to earthly things, which causes men while singing Psalms and kneeling in prayer to have their thoughts filled with human figures, or conversations, or business, or unnecessary actions. This is the body of death, owing to which those, who would emulate the sanctity of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 542, footnote 2 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)

Conference XXIV. Conference of Abbot Abraham. On Mortification. (HTML)
Chapter XXIV. Why the Lord's yoke is felt grievous and His burden heavy. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2335 (In-Text, Margin)

... the deadly strokes of impatience at the slightest reproach, and it may be said to us by the prophet Jeremiah: “And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river? Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee to have left the Lord thy God, and that My fear is not with thee, saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 2:18-19] How then is it that the wondrous sweetness of the Lord’s yoke is felt to be bitter, but because the bitterness of our dislike injures it? How is it that the exceeding lightness of the Divine burden becomes heavy, but because in our obstinate ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 395, footnote 14 (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 Persecution. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1119 (In-Text, Margin)

... Deborah. The Moabites ruled over them in the days of Ehud; the Ammonites in the days of Jephthah; the Philistines in the days of Samson, and also in the days of Eli and of Samuel the Prophet; the Edomites in the days of Ahab; the Assyrians in the days of Hezekiah. The king of Babylon uprooted them from their place and dispersed them; and after he had tried and persecuted them much, they did not amend, as He said to them:— In vain have I smitten your sons, for they did not accept chastisement.[Jeremiah 2:30] And again He said:— I have cut off the Prophets, and slain them by the word of My mouth. And to Jerusalem He said:— By afflictions and scourges be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest thy life depart from thee. But they forsook Him, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 395, footnote 17 (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 Persecution. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1122 (In-Text, Margin)

... from their place and dispersed them; and after he had tried and persecuted them much, they did not amend, as He said to them:— In vain have I smitten your sons, for they did not accept chastisement. And again He said:— I have cut off the Prophets, and slain them by the word of My mouth. And to Jerusalem He said:— By afflictions and scourges be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest thy life depart from thee. But they forsook Him, and worshipped idols, as Jeremiah said concerning them:[Jeremiah 2:10-13]Go to the distant isles, and send to Kedar, and consider well and see, whether there has been (anything) like this, whether the nations change their gods, those that are no gods.  But My people has changed My honour for that which is not ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs