Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Jeremiah 23

There are 61 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 80, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)

Chapter II.—Maintain union with the bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 890 (In-Text, Margin)

Wherefore, as children of light and truth, avoid the dividing of your unity, and the wicked doctrine of the heretics, from whom “a defiling influence has gone forth into all the earth.”[Jeremiah 23:15] But where the shepherd is, there do ye as sheep follow. For there are many wolves in sheep’s clothing, who, by means of a pernicious pleasure, carry captive those that are running towards God; but in your unity they shall have no place.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 487, footnote 3 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XIX.—Earthly things may be the type of heavenly, but the latter cannot be the types of others still superior and unknown; nor can we, without absolute madness, maintain that God is known to us only as the type of a still unknown and superior being. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4061 (In-Text, Margin)

... deep below, and the height above of the whole creation; which is seen, which is heard and understood, and which is invisible? And for this reason God is “above all principality, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named,” of all things which have been created and established. He it is who fills the heavens, and views the abysses, who is also present with every one of us. For he says, “Am I a God at hand, and not a God afar off? If any man is hid in secret places, shall I not see him?”[Jeremiah 23:23] For His hand lays hold of all things, and that it is which illumines the heavens, and lightens also the things which are under the heavens, and trieth the reins and the hearts, is also present in hidden things, and in our secret [thoughts], and does ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 496, footnote 12 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXVI.—The treasure hid in the Scriptures is Christ; the true exposition of the Scriptures is to be found in the Church alone. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4153 (In-Text, Margin)

... and parables. Hence His human nature could not be understood, prior to the consummation of those things which had been predicted, that is, the advent of Christ. And therefore it was said to Daniel the prophet: “Shut up the words, and seal the book even to the time of consummation, until many learn, and knowledge be completed. For at that time, when the dispersion shall be accomplished, they shall know all these things.” But Jeremiah also says, “In the last days they shall understand these things.”[Jeremiah 23:20] For every prophecy, before its fulfilment, is to men [full of] enigmas and ambiguities. But when the time has arrived, and the prediction has come to pass, then the prophecies have a clear and certain exposition. And for this reason, indeed, when at ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 545, footnote 11 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)

Chapter XVII.—There is but one Lord and one God, the Father and Creator of all things, who has loved us in Christ, given us commandments, and remitted our sins; whose Son and Word Christ proved Himself to be, when He forgave our sins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4602 (In-Text, Margin)

... previously lost. By this action the prophet pointed out that the sure word of God, which we had negligently lost by means of a tree, and were not in the way of finding again, we should receive anew by the dispensation of a tree, [viz., the cross of Christ]. For that the word of God is likened to an axe, John the Baptist declares [when he says] in reference to it, “But now also is the axe laid to the root of the trees.” Jeremiah also says to the same purport: “The word of God cleaveth the rock as an axe.”[Jeremiah 23:29] This word, then, what was hidden from us, did the dispensation of the tree make manifest, as I have already remarked. For as we lost it by means of a tree, by means of a tree again was it made manifest to all, showing the height, the length, the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 564, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)

Chapter XXXIV.—He fortifies his opinions with regard to the temporal and earthly kingdom of the saints after their resurrection, by the various testimonies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and Daniel; also by the parable of the servants watching, to whom the Lord promised that He would minister. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4751 (In-Text, Margin)

... He who in the New Testament “raises up from the stones children unto Abraham,” is He who will gather, according to the Old Testament, those that shall be saved from all the nations, Jeremiah says: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say, The Lord liveth, who led the children of Israel from the north, and from every region whither they had been driven; He will restore them to their own land which He gave to their fathers.”[Jeremiah 23:6-7]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 194, footnote 4 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—The True Doctrine is to Be Sought in the Prophets. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 933 (In-Text, Margin)

Jeremiah the prophet, gifted with consummate wisdom, or rather the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah, exhibits God. “Am I a God at hand,” he says, “and not a God afar off? Shall a man do ought in secret, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? Saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 23:23]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 348, footnote 5 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
Chapter II.—The Knowledge of God Can Be Attained Only Through Faith. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2163 (In-Text, Margin)

... through Wisdom, the artificer of all things, to the Ruler of all,—a Being difficult to grasp and apprehend, ever receding and withdrawing from him who pursues. But He who is far off has—oh ineffable marvel!—come very near. “I am a God that draws near,” says the Lord. He is in essence remote; “for how is it that what is begotten can have approached the Unbegotten?” But He is very near in virtue of that power which holds all things in its embrace. “Shall one do aught in secret, and I see him not?”[Jeremiah 23:23-24] For the power of God is always present, in contact with us, in the exercise of inspection, of beneficence, of instruction. Whence Moses, persuaded that God is not to be known by human wisdom, said, “Show me Thy glory;” and into the thick darkness ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 470, footnote 9 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XIV.—Greek Plagiarism from the Hebrews. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3148 (In-Text, Margin)

“I am a God at hand,” it is said by Jeremiah,[Jeremiah 23:23-24] “and not a God afar off. Shall a man do aught in secret places, and I shall not see him?”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 269, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
On the World. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2071 (In-Text, Margin)

... kinds, its condition, nevertheless, is not to be supposed as one of internal discrepancies and discordances; but as our one body is provided with many members, and is held together by one soul, so I am of opinion that the whole world also ought to be regarded as some huge and immense animal, which is kept together by the power and reason of God as by one soul. This also, I think, is indicated in sacred Scripture by the declaration of the prophet, “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord;”[Jeremiah 23:24] and again, “The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool;” and by the Saviour’s words, when He says that we are to swear “neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool.” To the same effect also are ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 499, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Chapter V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3699 (In-Text, Margin)

... Celsus, taking occasion I know not from what, next raises an additional objection against us, as if we asserted that “God Himself will come down to men.” He imagines also that it follows from this, that “He has left His own abode;” for he does not know the power of God, and that “the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world, and that which upholdeth all things hath knowledge of the voice.” Nor is he able to understand the words, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 23:24] Nor does he see that, according to the doctrine of Christianity, we all “in Him live, and move, and have our being,” as Paul also taught in his address to the Athenians; and therefore, although the God of the universe should through His own power ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 501, footnote 13 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3724 (In-Text, Margin)

... fiction of the same events recurring at certain intervals, and differing neither in their essential nor accidental qualities. But we do not refer either the deluge or the conflagration to cycles and planetary periods; but the cause of them we declare to be the extensive prevalence of wickedness, and its (consequent) removal by a deluge or a conflagration. And if the voices of the prophets say that God “comes down,” who has said, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord,”[Jeremiah 23:24] the term is used in a figurative sense. For God “comes down” from His own height and greatness when He arranges the affairs of men, and especially those of the wicked. And as custom leads men to say that teachers “condescend” to children, and wise ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 548, footnote 10 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4121 (In-Text, Margin)

... locally here below upon the earth, and who is with those who cleave to Him in all parts of the world, and is also in all places with those who do not know Him. Another is made manifest by that John who wrote the Gospel, when, speaking in the person of John the Baptist, he said, “There standeth one among you whom ye know not; He it is who cometh after me.” And it is absurd, when He who fills heaven and earth, and who said, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord,”[Jeremiah 23:24] is with us, and near us (for I believe Him when He says, “I am a God nigh at hand, and not afar off, saith the Lord ”) to seek to pray to sun or moon, or one of the stars, whose influence does not reach the whole of the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 548, footnote 11 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4122 (In-Text, Margin)

... who do not know Him. Another is made manifest by that John who wrote the Gospel, when, speaking in the person of John the Baptist, he said, “There standeth one among you whom ye know not; He it is who cometh after me.” And it is absurd, when He who fills heaven and earth, and who said, “Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord,” is with us, and near us (for I believe Him when He says, “I am a God nigh at hand, and not afar off, saith the Lord[Jeremiah 23:23]) to seek to pray to sun or moon, or one of the stars, whose influence does not reach the whole of the world. But, to use the very words of Celsus, let it be granted that “the sun, moon, and stars do foretell rain, and heat, and clouds, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 228, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)

Dogmatical and Historical. (HTML)
Against the Heresy of One Noetus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1669 (In-Text, Margin)

13. Now Jeremiah says, “Who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived His Word?”[Jeremiah 23:18] But the Word of God alone is visible, while the word of man is audible. When he speaks of seeing the Word, I must believe that this visible (Word) has been sent. And there was none other (sent) but the Word. And that He was sent Peter testifies, when he says to the centurion Cornelius: “God sent His Word unto the children of Israel by the preaching of Jesus Christ. This is the God who is Lord of all.” If, then, the Word is sent by Jesus Christ, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 318, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

To the People, Concerning Five Schismatic Presbyters of the Faction of Felicissimus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2392 (In-Text, Margin)

5. The Lord cries aloud, saying, “Hearken not unto the words of the false prophets, for the visions of their own hearts deceive them. They speak, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say to them that despise the word of the Lord, Ye shall have peace.”[Jeremiah 23:16-17] They are now offering peace who have not peace themselves. They are promising to bring back and recall the lapsed into the Church, who themselves have departed from the Church. There is one God, and Christ is one, and there is one Church, and one chair founded upon the rock by the word of the Lord. Another altar cannot be constituted nor a new priesthood be made, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 363, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

Cæcilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2704 (In-Text, Margin)

... away His words and to despise the Lord’s instruction, to commit not earthly, but spiritual thefts and adulteries? While any one is stealing from evangelical truth the words and doings of our Lord, he is corrupting and adulterating the divine precepts, as it is written in Jeremiah. He says, “What is the chaff to the wheat? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, who steal my words every one from his neighbour, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness.”[Jeremiah 23:28] Also in the same prophet, in another place, He says, “She committed adultery with stocks and stones, and yet for all this she turned not unto me.” That this theft and adultery may not fall unto us also, we ought to be anxiously careful, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 363, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

Cæcilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2704 (In-Text, Margin)

... away His words and to despise the Lord’s instruction, to commit not earthly, but spiritual thefts and adulteries? While any one is stealing from evangelical truth the words and doings of our Lord, he is corrupting and adulterating the divine precepts, as it is written in Jeremiah. He says, “What is the chaff to the wheat? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, who steal my words every one from his neighbour, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness.”[Jeremiah 23:30] Also in the same prophet, in another place, He says, “She committed adultery with stocks and stones, and yet for all this she turned not unto me.” That this theft and adultery may not fall unto us also, we ought to be anxiously careful, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 363, footnote 7 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)

Cæcilius, on the Sacrament of the Cup of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2704 (In-Text, Margin)

... away His words and to despise the Lord’s instruction, to commit not earthly, but spiritual thefts and adulteries? While any one is stealing from evangelical truth the words and doings of our Lord, he is corrupting and adulterating the divine precepts, as it is written in Jeremiah. He says, “What is the chaff to the wheat? Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, who steal my words every one from his neighbour, and cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness.”[Jeremiah 23:32] Also in the same prophet, in another place, He says, “She committed adultery with stocks and stones, and yet for all this she turned not unto me.” That this theft and adultery may not fall unto us also, we ought to be anxiously careful, and ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 425, footnote 1 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Unity of the Church. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3131 (In-Text, Margin)

... them. They speak, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who cast away the word of God, Ye shall have peace, and every one that walketh after his own will. Every one 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.”[Jeremiah 23:16-21] 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.” Although there can be no other baptism but one, they think that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 445, footnote 4 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Lapsed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3283 (In-Text, Margin)

... again: “Man seeth the outward appearance, but God seeth the heart.” The Lord Himself also forewarns and prepares us, saying, “And all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and the heart.” He looks into the hidden and secret things, and considers those things which are concealed; nor can any one evade the eyes of the Lord, who says, “I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man be hidden in secret places, shall not I therefore see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth?”[Jeremiah 23:23] He sees the heart and mind of every person; and He will judge not alone of our deeds, but even of our words and thoughts. He looks into the minds, and the wills, and conceptions of all men, in the very lurking-places of the heart that is still ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 448, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Lord's Prayer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3308 (In-Text, Margin)

... with moderated petitions. Moreover, in His teaching the Lord has bidden us to pray in secret—in hidden and remote places, in our very bed-chambers—which is best suited to faith, that we may know that God is everywhere present, and hears and sees all, and in the plenitude of His majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places, as it is written, “I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man shall hide himself in secret places, shall I not then see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth?”[Jeremiah 23:23-24] And again: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” And when we meet together with the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God’s priest, we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline—not ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 509, 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)
That the Jews would not understand the Holy Scriptures, but that they would be intelligible in the last times, after that Christ had come. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3841 (In-Text, Margin)

In Isaiah: “And all these words shall be unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which, if you shall give to a man that knoweth letters to read, he shall say, I cannot read, for it is sealed. But in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and they who are in darkness and in a cloud; the eyes of the blind shall see.” Also in Jeremiah: “In the last of the days ye shall know those things.”[Jeremiah 23:20] In Daniel, moreover: “Secure the words, and seal the book until the time of consummation, until many learn, and knowledge is fulfilled, because when there shall be a dispersion they shall know all these things.” Likewise in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “Brethren, I would not ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 547, footnote 23 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
That nothing that is done is hidden from God. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4459 (In-Text, Margin)

In the Wisdom of Solomon: “In every place the eyes of God look upon the good and evil.” Also in Jeremiah: “I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man should be hidden in the secret place, shall I not therefore see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 23:23-24] Also in the first of Kings: “Man looketh on the face, but God on the heart.” Also in the Apocalypse: “And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the reins and heart; and I will give to every one of you according to his works.” Also in the eighteenth Psalm: “Who understands his faults? Cleanse Thou me from my secret sins, O Lord.” Also in the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 390, footnote 14 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Methodius. (HTML)

Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna On the Day that They Met in the Temple. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3078 (In-Text, Margin)

... reservoir of life which David longed for, out of which the draught of immortality gushed forth; the mercy-seat from which God in human form was made known unto men; the spotless robe of Him who clothes Himself with light as with a garment. Thou hast lent to God, who stands in need of nothing, that flesh which He had not, in order that the Omnipotent might become that which it was his good pleasure to be. What is more splendid than this? What than this is more sublime? He who fills earth and heaven,[Jeremiah 23:24] whose are all things, has become in need of thee, for thou hast lent to God that flesh which He had not. Thou hast clad the Mighty One with that beauteous panoply of the body by which it has become possible for Him to be seen by mine eyes. And I, in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 451, footnote 15 (Image)

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

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)

Sec. II.—History and Doctrines of Heresies (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3183 (In-Text, Margin)

V. For those are most certainly to be avoided who blaspheme God. The greatest part of the ungodly, indeed, are ignorant of God; but these men, as fighters against God, are possessed with a wilful evil disposition, as with a disease. For from the wickedness of these heretics “pollution is gone out upon all the earth,”[Jeremiah 23:15] as says the prophet Jeremiah. For the wicked synagogue is now cast off by the Lord God, and His house is rejected by Him, as He somewhere speaks: “I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine inheritance.” And again, says Isaiah: “I will neglect my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, and thorns shall spring up ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 370, footnote 2 (Image)

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

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

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

Book VI. (HTML)
Heracleon's View of This Utterance of John the Baptist, and Interpretation of the Shoe of Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4920 (In-Text, Margin)

... even if, as we said, Heracleon’s idea was a lofty one, that the whole world was the shoe of Jesus, yet I think we ought not to agree with him. For how can it be harmonized with such a view, that “Heaven is My throne and the earth My footstool,” a testimony which Jesus accepts as said of the Father? “Swear not by heaven,” He says, “for it is God’s throne, nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet.” How, if he takes the whole world to be the shoe of Jesus, can he also accept the text,[Jeremiah 23:24] “Do not I fill heaven and earth?” saith the Lord. It is also worth while to enquire, whether as the Word and wisdom permeated the whole world, and as the Father was in the Son, the words are to be understood as above or in this way, that He who ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 46, footnote 3 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

Commencing with the invocation of God, Augustin relates in detail the beginning of his life, his infancy and boyhood, up to his fifteenth year; at which age he acknowledges that he was more inclined to all youthful pleasures and vices than to the study of letters. (HTML)

That the God Whom We Invoke is in Us, and We in Him. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 131 (In-Text, Margin)

... go down into hell Thou art there.” I could not therefore exist, could not exist at all, O my God, unless Thou wert in me. Or should I not rather say, that I could not exist unless I were in Thee from whom are all things, by whom are all things, in whom are all things? Even so, Lord; even so. Where do I call Thee to, since Thou art in me, or whence canst Thou come into me? For where outside heaven and earth can I go that from thence my God may come into me who has said, I fill heaven and earth”?[Jeremiah 23:24]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 72, footnote 7 (Image)

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

The Confessions (HTML)

Then follows a period of nine years from the nineteenth year of his age, during which having lost a friend, he followed the Manichæans—and wrote books on the fair and fit, and published a work on the liberal arts, and the categories of Aristotle. (HTML)

That the Love of a Human Being, However Constant in Loving and Returning Love, Perishes; While He Who Loves God Never Loses a Friend. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 303 (In-Text, Margin)

... expecting nothing from him but indications of his love. Hence that mourning if one die, and gloom of sorrow, that steeping of the heart in tears, all sweetness turned into bitterness, and upon the loss of the life of the dying, the death of the living. Blessed be he who loveth Thee, and his friend in Thee, and his enemy for Thy sake. For he alone loses none dear to him to whom all are dear in Him who cannot be lost. And who is this but our God, the God that created heaven and earth, and filleth them,[Jeremiah 23:24] because by filling them He created them? None loseth Thee but he who leaveth Thee. And he who leaveth Thee, whither goeth he, or whither fleeth he, but from Thee well pleased to Thee angry? For where doth not he find Thy law in his own punishment? ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 242, footnote 2 (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 568 (In-Text, Margin)

... world itself and the angels, without the help of world or angels. For the same divine and, so to speak, creative energy, which cannot be made, but makes, and which gave to the earth and sky their roundness,—this same divine, effective, and creative energy gave their roundness to the eye and to the apple; and the other natural objects which we anywhere see, received also their form, not from without, but from the secret and profound might of the Creator, who said, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”[Jeremiah 23:24] and whose wisdom it is that “reacheth from one end to another mightily; and sweetly doth she order all things.” Wherefore I know not what kind of aid the angels, themselves created first, afforded to the Creator in making other things. I cannot ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 379, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

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

What Jeremiah and Zephaniah Have, by the Prophetic Spirit, Spoken Before Concerning Christ and the Calling of the Nations. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1190 (In-Text, Margin)

... Some attribute this testimony not to Jeremiah, but to his secretary, who was called Baruch; but it is more commonly ascribed to Jeremiah. Again the same prophet says concerning Him, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous shoot, and a King shall reign and shall be wise, and shall do judgment and justice in the earth. In those days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name which they shall call Him, Our righteous Lord.”[Jeremiah 23:5-6] And of the calling of the nations which was to come to pass, and which we now see fulfilled, he thus spoke: “O Lord my God, and my refuge in the day of evils, to Thee shall the nations come from the utmost end of the earth, saying, Truly our fathers ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 508, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body, and the miracles of the early Church. (HTML)

Of the Beatific Vision. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1677 (In-Text, Margin)

But the question arises, whether, when their eyes are open, they shall see Him with the bodily eye? If the eyes of the spiritual body have no more power than the eyes which we now possess, manifestly God cannot be seen with them. They must be of a very different power if they can look upon that incorporeal nature which is not contained in any place, but is all in every place. For though we say that God is in heaven and on earth, as He, Himself says by the prophet, “I fill heaven and earth,”[Jeremiah 23:24] we do not mean that there is one part of God in heaven and another part on earth; but He is all in heaven and all on earth, not at alternate intervals of time, but both at once, as no bodily nature can be. The eye, then, shall have a vastly superior ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 584, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

Beauty of Diction to Be in Keeping with the Matter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1955 (In-Text, Margin)

... the synagogue of the Jews: “A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests applaud them with their hands; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” O eloquence, which is the more terrible from its purity, and the more crushing from its solidity! Assuredly it is “a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces.” For to this God Himself has by the same prophet compared His own word spoken through His holy prophets.[Jeremiah 23:29] God forbid, then, God forbid that with us the priest should applaud the false prophet, and that God’s people should love to have it so. God forbid, I say, that with us there should be such terrible madness! For what shall we do in the end thereof? ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 596, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

It is Permissible for a Preacher to Deliver to the People What Has Been Written by a More Eloquent Man Than Himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2019 (In-Text, Margin)

... eloquence by others, and commit it to memory, and deliver it to the people, they cannot be blamed, supposing them to do it without deception. For in this way many become preachers of the truth (which is certainly desirable), and yet not many teachers; for all deliver the discourse which one real teacher has composed, and there are no divisions among them. Nor are such men to be alarmed by the words of Jeremiah the prophet, through whom God denounces those who steal His words every one from his neighbor.[Jeremiah 23:30] For those who steal take what does not belong to them, but the word of God belongs to all who obey it; and it is the man who speaks well, but lives badly, who really takes the words that belong to another. For the good things he says seem to be the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 40, footnote 5 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The equality of the Trinity maintained against objections drawn from those texts which speak of the sending of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
The Son and Holy Spirit are Not Therefore Less Because Sent. The Son is Sent Also by Himself. Of the Sending of the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 228 (In-Text, Margin)

... the same evangelist says concerning Him, “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not;” and then he adds, “He came unto His own?” Certainly He was sent thither, whither He came; but if He was sent into the world, because He came forth from the Father, then He both came into the world and was in the world. He was sent therefore thither, where He already was. For consider that, too, which is written in the prophet, that God said, “Do not I fill heaven and earth?”[Jeremiah 23:24] If this is said of the Son (for some will have it understood that the Son Himself spoke either by the prophets or in the prophets), whither was He sent except to the place where He already was? For He who says, “I fill heaven and earth,” was ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 89, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

Of the Follies Which the Pagans Have Indulged in Regarding Jupiter and Saturn. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 578 (In-Text, Margin)

that is to say, the spirit of life that vivifies all things. It is not without some reason, therefore, that Varro thought that Jove was worshipped by the Jews; for the God of the Jews says by His prophet, “I fill heaven and earth.”[Jeremiah 23:24] But what is meant by that which the same poet names Ether? How do they take the term? For he speaks thus:

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 316, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xix. 28, ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,’ etc. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2316 (In-Text, Margin)

... canst not end thy labour by flying. Dost thou choose to fly from Him, and not rather to Him? Find out then whither thou canst escape, and so fly. But if thou canst not fly from Him, for that He is everywhere present; fly (it is quite nigh) to God, who is present where thou art standing. Fly. Lo in thy flight thou hast passed the heavens, He is there; thou hast descended into hell, He is there; whatever deserts of the earth thou shalt choose, there is He, who hath said, “I fill heaven and earth.”[Jeremiah 23:24] If then He fills heaven and earth, and there is no place whither thou canst fly from Him; cease this thy labour, and fly to His presence, lest thou feel His coming. Take courage from the hope that thou shalt by well-living see Him, by whom even in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 211, 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 VIII. 15–18. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 672 (In-Text, Margin)

... to be on earth. Hear him who would flee from the judgment of God, and found not a way to flee by: “Whither shall I go,” saith he, “from Thy Spirit; and whither shall I flee from Thy face? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there.” The question was about the earth; hear what follows: “If I descend unto hell, Thou art there.” If, then, He is said to be present even in hell, what in the universe remains where He is not present? For the voice of God with the prophet is, “I fill heaven and earth.”[Jeremiah 23:24] Hence He is everywhere, who is confined by no place. Turn not thou away from Him, and He is with thee. If thou wouldst come to Him, be not slow to love; for it is not with feet but with affections thou runnest. Thou comest while remaining in one ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 227, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter VIII. 28–32. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 728 (In-Text, Margin)

... Thee, not so much hath the One been sent by the other, but ye Both have come. And yet, while Both are together, One was sent, the Other was the sender; for incarnation is a sending, and the incarnation itself belongs only to the Son and not to the Father. The Father therefore sent the Son, but did not withdraw from the Son. For it was not that the Father was absent from the place to which He sent the Son. For where is not the Maker of all things? Where is He not, who said, “I fill heaven and earth”?[Jeremiah 23:24] But perhaps the Father is everywhere, and the Son not so? Listen to the evangelist: “He was in this world, and the world was made by Him.” Therefore said He, “He that sent me,” by whose power as Father I am incarnate, “is with me,—hath not left me.” ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 185, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm L (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1754 (In-Text, Margin)

... He saith. How with Him? Were they so, even before they were made? Yea, for with Him were all things to come, and with Him are all things by-gone: things to come in such sort, that there be not withdrawn from Him all things by-gone. With Him are all things by a certain cognition of the ineffable wisdom of God residing in the Word, and the Word Himself is all things. Is not the beauty of the field in a manner with Him, inasmuch as He is everywhere, and Himself hath said, “Heaven and earth I fill”?[Jeremiah 23:24] What with Him is not, of whom it is said, “If I shall have ascended into heaven, Thou art there; and if I shall have descended into hell, Thou art present”? With Him is the whole: but it is not so with Him as that He doth suffer any contamination ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 395, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXXII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3834 (In-Text, Margin)

... clear, because it cannot be denied that not a bodily but a spiritual presence of God, agreeable to His nature, exists with created things in a wonderful manner, and one which but a few do understand, and that imperfectly: as to God it is said, “If I shall ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I shall go down into hell, Thou art there also.” Hence it is rightly said, that God stands in the congregation of men invisibly, as He fills heaven and earth, which He asserts of Himself by the Prophet’s mouth;[Jeremiah 23:24] and He is not only said, but is, in a way, known to stand in those things which He hath created, as far as the human mind can conceive, if man also stands and hears Him, and rejoices greatly on account of His voice within. But I think that the Psalm ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 96, footnote 4 (Image)

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

An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall. (HTML)

Letter I (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 240 (In-Text, Margin)

8. Having then such great examples, let us not continue in evil, nor despair of reconciliation, but let us say also ourselves “I will go to my Father,” and let us draw nigh to God. For He Himself never turns away from us, but it is we who put ourselves far off: for “I am a God” we read “at hand and not a God afar off.”[Jeremiah 23:23] And again, when He was rebuking them by the mouth of this prophet He said “Do not your sins separate between you and me?” Inasmuch then as this is the cause which puts us far from God, let us remove this obnoxious barrier, which prevents any near approach being made.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 410, footnote 8 (Image)

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

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily X (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1467 (In-Text, Margin)

... correct his weakness (overrule as for example, clouds, and walls, and certain other bodies that intercept his light:—or correct his excess, as the dews, and fountains, and cool air), how can such a one be a Deity? For God must be independent, and not stand in need of assistance, be the source of all good things to all, and be hindered by nothing; even as Paul, as well as the prophet Isaiah, saith of God; the latter thus making Him speak in His own Person, “I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 23:24] And again, “Am I a God nigh at hand, and not a God afar off?” And again, David says, “I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, for Thou hast no need of my good things.” But Paul, demonstrating this independence of help, and shewing that both ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 410, footnote 9 (Image)

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

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily X (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1468 (In-Text, Margin)

... walls, and certain other bodies that intercept his light:—or correct his excess, as the dews, and fountains, and cool air), how can such a one be a Deity? For God must be independent, and not stand in need of assistance, be the source of all good things to all, and be hindered by nothing; even as Paul, as well as the prophet Isaiah, saith of God; the latter thus making Him speak in His own Person, “I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord.” And again, “Am I a God nigh at hand, and not a God afar off?”[Jeremiah 23:23] And again, David says, “I have said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, for Thou hast no need of my good things.” But Paul, demonstrating this independence of help, and shewing that both these things especially belong to God; to stand in need of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 204, footnote 3 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

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

Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)

The Unconfounded. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1327 (In-Text, Margin)

“This also we add concerning the words ‘Sit thou on my right hand,’ that they are said of the Lord’s body. For if ‘the Lord saith, do not I fill heaven and earth,’[Jeremiah 23:24] as says Jeremiah, and God contains all things, and is contained of none, on what kind of throne does He sit? It is therefore the body to which He says ‘Sit thou on my right hand,’ of which too the devil with his wicked powers was foe, and Jews and Gentiles too. Through this body too He was made and was called High Priest and Apostle through the mystery whereof He gave to us, saying ‘This is my Body for you’ and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 369, footnote 3 (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 2462 (In-Text, Margin)

39. For where at all have they found in divine Scripture, or from whom have they heard, that there is another Word and another Wisdom besides this Son, that they should frame to themselves such a doctrine? True, indeed, it is written, ‘Are not My words like fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces[Jeremiah 23:29]?’ and in the Proverbs, ‘I will make known My words unto you;’ but these are precepts and commands, which God has spoken to the saints through His proper and only true Word, concerning which the Psalmist said, ‘I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I may keep Thy words.’ Such words accordingly the Saviour signifies to be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 435, 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 IV (HTML)
The substantiality of the Word proved from Scripture. If the One Origin be substantial, Its Word is substantial. Unless the Word and Son be a second Origin, or a work, or an attribute (and so God be compounded), or at the same time Father, or involve a second nature in God, He is from the Father's Essence and distinct from Him. Illustration of John x. 30, drawn from Deut. iv. 4. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3302 (In-Text, Margin)

... things originate, when they make advance, are attached unto the Lord. The Word then is in the Father as being His own; but things originate, being external, are attached, as being by nature foreign, and attached by free choice. For a son which is by nature, is one with him who begat him; but he who is from without, and is made a son, will be attached to the family. Therefore he immediately adds, ‘What nation is there so great who hath God drawing nigh unto them?’ and elsewhere, ‘I a God drawing nigh[Jeremiah 23:23];’ for to things originate He draws nigh, as being strange to Him, but to the Son, as being His own, He does not draw nigh, but He is in Him. And the Son is not attached to the Father, but co-exists with Him; whence also Moses says again in the same ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 490, footnote 9 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) (HTML)

Synodal Letter to the Bishops of Africa. (Ad Afros Epistola Synodica.) (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3726 (In-Text, Margin)

... the others. They who assembled at Nicæa did so not after being deposed: and secondly, they confessed that the Son was of the Essence of the Father. But the others, after being deposed again and again, and once more at Ariminum itself, ventured to write that it ought not to be said that the Son had Essence or Subsistence. This enables us to see, brethren, that they of Nicæa breathe the spirit of Scripture, in that God says in Exodus, ‘I am that I am,’ and through Jeremiah, ‘Who is in His substance[Jeremiah 23:18] and hath seen His word;’ and just below, ‘if they had stood in My subsistence and heard My words:’ now subsistence is essence, and means nothing else but very being, which Jeremiah calls existence, in the words, ‘and they heard not the voice of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 229, footnote 4 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Rusticus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3204 (In-Text, Margin)

... in disbelieving the message sent to him and was at once punished with dumbness. Even Job, who at the outset of his history is spoken of as perfect and upright and uncomplaining, is afterwards proved to be a sinner both by God’s words and by his own confession. If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets also and the apostles were by no means free from sin and if the finest wheat had chaff mixed with it, what can be said of us of whom it is written: “What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?”[Jeremiah 23:28] Yet the chaff is reserved for future burning; as also are the tares which at present are mingled with the growing corn. For one shall come whose fan is in His hand, and shall purge His floor, and shall gather His wheat into the garner, and shall ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 454, footnote 11 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against the Pelagians. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5170 (In-Text, Margin)

... long as the seed of God remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. But seeing that, while the householder slept, an enemy sowed tares, and that when we know not, a sower by night scatters in the Lord’s field darnel and wild oats among the good corn, this parable of the householder in the Gospel should excite our fears. He cleanses his floor, and gathers the wheat into his garner, but leaves the chaff to be scattered by the winds, or burned by the fire. And so we read in Jeremiah,[Jeremiah 23:28] “What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord.” The chaff, moreover, is separated from the wheat at the end of the world, a proof that, while we are in the mortal body, chaff is mixed with the wheat. But if you object, and ask why did the Apostle ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 252, footnote 15 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

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

CCEL Footnote 3145 (In-Text, Margin)

16. It is a fearful thing, my brethren, to fall into the hands of a living God, and fearful is the face of the Lord against them that do evil, and abolishing wickedness with utter destruction. Fearful is the ear of God, listening even to the voice of Abel speaking through his silent blood. Fearful His feet, which overtake evildoing. Fearful also His filling of the universe, so that it is impossible anywhere to escape the action of God,[Jeremiah 23:24] not even by flying up to heaven, or entering Hades, or by escaping to the far East, or concealing ourselves in the depths and ends of the sea. Nahum the Elkoshite was afraid before me, when he proclaimed the burden of Nineveh, God is jealous, and the Lord takes vengeance in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 291, footnote 1 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3441 (In-Text, Margin)

VIII. And how shall we preserve the truth that God pervades all things and fills all, as it is written “Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord,”[Jeremiah 23:24] and “The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world,” if God partly contains and partly is contained? For either He will occupy an empty Universe, and so all things will have vanished for us, with this result, that we shall have insulted God by making Him a body, and by robbing Him of all things which He has made; or else He will be a body contained in other bodies, which is impossible; or He will be enfolded in them, or ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 295, footnote 15 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3477 (In-Text, Margin)

... over it, and Him that shewed Himself in the Firmament, and Voices, and Forces, and Deeds. And whether this was an appearance by day, only visible to Saints, or an unerring vision of the night, or an impression on the mind holding converse with the future as if it were the present; or some other ineffable form of prophecy, I cannot say; the God of the Prophets knoweth, and they know who are thus inspired. But neither these of whom I am speaking, nor any of their fellows ever stood before the Council[Jeremiah 23:18] and Essence of God, as it is written, or saw, or proclaimed the Nature of God.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 388, footnote 22 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4345 (In-Text, Margin)

... without number, I the vessels of election. For nothing is so magnificent in God’s sight as pure doctrine, and a soul perfect in all the dogmas of the truth.—For there is nothing worthy of Him Who made all things, of Him by Whom are all things, and for Whom are all things, so that it can be given or offered to God: not merely the handiwork or means of any individual, but even if we wished to honour Him, by uniting together all the property and handiwork of all mankind. Do not I fill heaven and earth?[Jeremiah 23:24] saith the Lord! and what house will ye build Me? or what is the place of My rest? But, since man must needs fall short of what is worthy, I ask of you, as approaching it most nearly, piety, the wealth which is common to all and equal in My eyes, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 3b, footnote 14 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Concerning the nature of Deity: that it is incomprehensible. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1441 (In-Text, Margin)

Again, how will it also be maintained that God permeates and fills the universe? as the Scriptures say, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord[Jeremiah 23:24]? For it is an impossibility that one body should permeate other bodies without dividing and being divided, and without being enveloped and contrasted, in the same way as all fluids mix and commingle.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 104, footnote 6 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter VII. The Holy Spirit is not a creature, seeing that He is infinite, and was shed upon the apostles dispersed through all countries, and moreover sanctifies the Angels also, to whom He makes us equal. Mary was full of the same likewise, so too, Christ the Lord, and so far all things high and low. And all benediction has its origin from His operation, as was signified in the moving of the water at Bethesda. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 895 (In-Text, Margin)

86. For it is of the Lord to fill all things, Who says: “I fill heaven and earth.”[Jeremiah 23:24] If, then, it is the Lord Who fills heaven and earth, Who can judge the Holy Spirit to be without a share in the dominion and divine power, seeing that He has filled the world, and what is beyond the whole world, filled Jesus the Redeemer of the whole world? For it is written: “But Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, departed from Jordan.” Who, then, except one who possessed the same fulness could fill Him Who fills all things?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 208, footnote 15 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book I. (HTML)
Chapter VII. The likeness of Christ to the Father is asserted on the authority of St. Paul, the prophets, and the Gospel, and especially in reliance upon the creation of man in God's image. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1769 (In-Text, Margin)

50. By means of this image the Lord showed Philip the Father, saying, “Philip, he that sees Me, sees the Father also. How then dost thou say, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” Yes, he who looks upon the Son sees, in portrait, the Father. Mark what manner of portrait is spoken of. It is Truth, Righteousness, the Power of God:[Jeremiah 23:6] not dumb, for it is the Word; not insensible, for it is Wisdom; not vain and foolish, for it is Power; not soulless, for it is the Life; not dead, for it is the Resurrection. You see, then, that whilst an image is spoken of, the meaning is that it is the Father, Whose image the Son is, seeing that no one can ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 259, footnote 13 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. The Son is of one substance with the Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2308 (In-Text, Margin)

122. Furthermore, what meaneth it that thou readest: “Who hath stood in the truth (substantia) of the Lord?” and again: “Now if they had stood in My truth, and had given ear to My words, and had taught My people, I would have turned them from their follies and transgressions”?[Jeremiah 23:18-22]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 259, footnote 16 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book III. (HTML)
Chapter XV. The Arians, inasmuch as they assert the Son to be “of another substance,” plainly acknowledge substance in God. The only reason why they avoid the use of this term is that they will not, as Eusebius of Nicomedia has made it evident, confess Christ to be the true Son of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2311 (In-Text, Margin)

... its force and consequences, that they shun, because they will not confess the Son of God to be true [God]. For though the process of the divine generation cannot be comprehended in human language, still the Fathers judged that their faith might be fitly distinguished by the use of such a term, as against that of “ ἑτεροούσιος,” following the authority of the prophet, who saith: “Who hath stood in the truth (substantia) of the Lord, and seen His Word?”[Jeremiah 23:18] Arians, therefore, admit the term “substance” when it is used so as to square with their blasphemy; contrariwise, when it is adopted in accordance with the pious devotion of the faithful, they reject and dispute against it.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 296, footnote 10 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Chapter VII. Objection is taken to the following passage: “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me.” To remove it, he shows first the impiety of the Arian explanation; then compares these words with others; and lastly, takes the whole passage into consideration. Hence he gathers that the mission of Christ, although it is to be received according to the flesh, is not to His detriment. When this is proved he shows how the divine mission takes place. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2630 (In-Text, Margin)

... to have been sent in such a way that the Word of God, out of the incomprehensible and ineffable mystery of the depths of His majesty, gave Himself for comprehension to our minds, so far as we could lay hold of Him, not only when He “emptied” Himself, but also when He dwelt in us, as it is written: “I will dwell in them.” Elsewhere also it stands that God said: “Go to, let us go down and confound their language.” God, indeed, never descends from any place; for He says: “I fill heaven and earth.”[Jeremiah 23:24] But He seems to descend when the Word of God enters our hearts, as the prophet has said: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.” We are to do this, so that, as He Himself promised, He may come together with the Father and make His ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 142, footnote 3 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

On the Festival of the Nativity, VIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 834 (In-Text, Margin)

... the sons of Adam should be born free and innocent of original transgression, to prevail for the rest both by His example and His merits. Still further, because this was not permitted by natural generation, and because there could be no offspring from our faulty stock without seed, of which the Scripture saith, “Who can make a clean thing conceived of an unclean seed? is it not Thou who art alone?” David’s Lord was made David’s Son, and from the fruit of the promised branch[Jeremiah 23:5] sprang One without fault, the twofold nature joining together into one Person, that by one and the same conception and birth might spring our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom was present both true Godhead for the performance of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 355, footnote 8 (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 Wars. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 758 (In-Text, Margin)

... head of all the streets? And again He said by the Prophet:— The stones were holy that were cast down in his land. And as to these very stones, the fire was burning in them, as Jeremiah said:— The word of the Lord became in my heart like burning fire and it was hot in my bones.   And again He said to Jeremiah:— Lo! I give My word in thy mouth as fire, and this people shall be as wood. And again He said words shall go forth as fire, and as iron that cutteth the stone.[Jeremiah 23:29] On this account the Prophets, amongst whom Hiram the Prince of Tyre was walking, were called stones of fire.

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs