Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Jeremiah 31

There are 66 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 200, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter XI.—The law abrogated; the New Testament promised and given by God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1970 (In-Text, Margin)

... Me, and My judgment shall be for a light to the nations. My righteousness approaches swiftly, and My salvation shall go forth, and nations shall trust in Mine arm?’ And by Jeremiah, concerning this same new covenant, He thus speaks: ‘Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt’[Jeremiah 31:31-32]). If, therefore, God proclaimed a new covenant which was to be instituted, and this for a light of the nations, we see and are persuaded that men approach God, leaving their idols and other unrighteousness, through the name of Him who was crucified, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 238, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter LXXVIII.—He proves that this prophecy harmonizes with Christ alone, from what is afterwards written. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2245 (In-Text, Margin)

... according to the commands laid on them; and when Joseph, with Mary and the Child, had now gone into Egypt, as it was revealed to them to do; as he did not know the Child whom the Magi had gone to worship, ordered simply the whole of the children then in Bethlehem to be massacred. And Jeremiah prophesied that this would happen, speaking by the Holy Ghost thus: ‘A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and much wailing, Rachel weeping for her children; and she would not be comforted, because they are not.’[Jeremiah 31:15] Therefore, on account of the voice which would be heard from Ramah, i.e., from Arabia (for there is in Arabia at this very time a place called Rama), wailing would come on the place where Rachel the wife of Jacob called Israel, the holy patriarch, ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 261, footnote 6 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter CXXIII.—Ridiculous interpretations of the Jews. Christians are the true Israel. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2427 (In-Text, Margin)

... proceed to remove this people,’ saith the Lord; ‘and I will remove them, and destroy the wisdom of the wise, and hide the understanding of the prudent.’ Deservedly too: for you are neither wise nor prudent, but crafty and unscrupulous; wise only to do evil, but utterly incompetent to know the hidden counsel of God, or the faithful covenant of the Lord, or to find out the everlasting paths. ‘Therefore, saith the Lord, I will raise up to Israel and to Judah the seed of men and the seed of beasts.’[Jeremiah 31:27] And by Isaiah He speaks thus concerning another Israel: ‘In that day shall there be a third Israel among the Assyrians and the Egyptians, blessed in the land which the Lord of Sabaoth hath blessed, saying, blessed shall my people in Egypt and in ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 421, footnote 6 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—Answer to an objection, arising from the words of Christ (Matt. vi. 24). God alone is to be really called God and Lord, for He is without beginning and end. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3369 (In-Text, Margin)

... when we were in a state of apostasy; for he put us to whatever use he pleased, and the unclean spirit dwelt within us. For he was not strong, as opposed to Him who bound him, and spoiled his house; but as against those persons who were his tools, inasmuch as he caused their thought to wander away from God: these did the Lord snatch from his grasp. As also Jeremiah declares, “The Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and has snatched him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.”[Jeremiah 31:11] If, then, he had not pointed out Him who binds and spoils his goods, but had merely spoken of him as being strong, the strong man should have been unconquered. But he also subjoined Him who obtains and retains possession; for he holds who ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 472, footnote 5 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter IX.—There is but one author, and one end to both covenants. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3903 (In-Text, Margin)

... covenants; the old, that giving of the law which took place formerly; and He points out as the new, that manner of life required by the Gospel, of which David says, “Sing unto the Lord a new song;” and Esaias, “Sing unto the Lord a new hymn. His beginning (initium), His name is glorified from the height of the earth: they declare His powers in the isles.” And Jeremiah says: “Behold, I will make a new covenant, not as I made with your fathers”[Jeremiah 31:31] in Mount Horeb. But one and the same householder produced both covenants, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who spake with both Abraham and Moses, and who has restored us anew to liberty, and has multiplied that grace which is from Himself.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 505, footnote 8 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXI.—We should not hastily impute as crimes to the men of old time those actions which the Scripture has not condemned, but should rather seek in them types of things to come: an example of this in the incest committed by Lot. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4237 (In-Text, Margin)

... the human race the life-giving seed—that is, the Spirit of the remission of sins, through means of whom we are quickened? Was it not then, when He was eating with men, and drinking wine upon the earth? For it is said, “The Son of man came eating and drinking;” and when He had lain down, He fell asleep, and took repose. As He does Himself say in David, “I slept, and took repose.” And because He used thus to act while He dwelt and lived among us, He says again, “And my sleep became sweet unto me.”[Jeremiah 31:26] Now this whole matter was indicated through Lot, that the seed of the Father of all—that is, of the Spirit of God, by whom all things were made—was commingled and united with flesh— that is, with His own workmanship; by which commixture and unity ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 510, footnote 26 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXIII.—Whosoever confesses that one God is the author of both Testaments, and diligently reads the Scriptures in company with the presbyters of the Church, is a true spiritual disciple; and he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4334 (In-Text, Margin)

14. And those of them who declare that God would make a new covenant[Jeremiah 31:31-32] with men, not such as that which He made with the fathers at Mount Horeb, and would give to men a new heart and a new spirit; and again, “And remember ye not the things of old: behold, I make new things which shall now arise, and ye shall know it; and I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in a dry land, to give drink to my chosen people, my people whom I have acquired, that they may show forth my praise,” —plainly announced that liberty which ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 564, footnote 10 (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 4759 (In-Text, Margin)

... Mount Zion, and shall come to what is good, and into a land of wheat, and wine, and fruits, of animals and of sheep; and their soul shall be as a tree bearing fruit, and they shall hunger no more. At that time also shall the virgins rejoice in the company of the young men: the old men, too, shall be glad, and I will turn their sorrow into joy; and I will make them exult, and will magnify them, and satiate the souls of the priests the sons of Levi; and my people shall be satiated with my goodness.”[Jeremiah 31:10] Now, in the preceding book I have shown that all the disciples of the Lord are Levites and priests, they who used in the temple to profane the Sabbath, but are blameless. Promises of such a nature, therefore, do indicate in the clearest manner the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 204, footnote 1 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)

Chapter XI.—How Great are the Benefits Conferred on Man Through the Advent of Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1020 (In-Text, Margin)

having bestowed on us the truly great, divine, and inalienable inheritance of the Father, deifying man by heavenly teaching, putting His laws into our minds, and writing them on our hearts. What laws does He inscribe? “That all shall know God, from small to great;” and, “I will be merciful to them,” says God, “and will not remember their sins.”[Jeremiah 31:33-34] Let us receive the laws of life, let us comply with God’s expostulations; let us become acquainted with Him, that He may be gracious. And though God needs nothing let us render to Him the grateful recompense of a thankful heart and of piety, as a kind of house-rent for our dwelling here below.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 489, footnote 8 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book VI (HTML)
Chapter V.—The Greeks Had Some Knowledge of the True God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3259 (In-Text, Margin)

... moon be not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day.” Then he gives the finishing stroke to the question: “So that do ye also, learning holily and righteously what we deliver to you; keep them, worshipping God in a new way, by Christ.” For we find in the Scriptures, as the Lord says: “Behold, I make with you a new covenant, not as I made with your fathers in Mount Horeb.”[Jeremiah 31:31-32] He made a new covenant with us; for what belonged to the Greeks and Jews is old. But we, who worship Him in a new way, in the third form, are Christians. For clearly, as I think, he showed that the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 152, footnote 5 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

The Law Anterior to Moses. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1140 (In-Text, Margin)

For why should God, the founder of the universe, the Governor of the whole world, the Fashioner of humanity, the Sower[Jeremiah 31:27] of universal nations be believed to have given a law through Moses to one people, and not be said to have assigned it to all nations? For unless He had given it to all by no means would He have habitually permitted even proselytes out of the nations to have access to it. But—as is congruous with the goodness of God, and with His equity, as the Fashioner of mankind—He gave to all nations the selfsame law, which at definite and stated ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 154, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Of Circumcision and the Supercession of the Old Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1172 (In-Text, Margin)

... in a contumacious people, so the spiritual has been given for salvation to an obedient people; while the prophet Jeremiah says, “Make a renewal for you, and sow not in thorns; be circumcised to God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart:” and in another place he says, “Behold, days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will draw up, for the house of Judah and for the house of Jacob, a new testament; not such as I once gave their fathers in the day wherein I led them out from the land of Egypt.”[Jeremiah 31:31-32] Whence we understand that the coming cessation of the former circumcision then given, and the coming procession of a new law (not such as He had already given to the fathers), are announced: just as Isaiah foretold, saying that in the last days the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 286, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book I. Wherein is described the god of Marcion.  He is shown to be utterly wanting in all the attributes of the true God. (HTML)
Marcion, Justifying His Antithesis Between the Law and the Gospel by the Contention of St. Paul with St. Peter, Shown to Have Mistaken St. Paul's Position and Argument.  Marcion's Doctrine Confuted Out of St. Paul's Teaching, Which Agrees Wholly with the Creator's Decrees. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2560 (In-Text, Margin)

... observing times, and days, and months, and years, according to those Jewish ceremonies which they ought to have known were now abrogated, according to the new dispensation purposed by the Creator Himself, who of old foretold this very thing by His prophets. Thus He says by Isaiah: Old things have passed away. “Behold, I will do a new thing.” And in another passage: “I will make a new covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.”[Jeremiah 31:32] In like manner by Jeremiah: Make to yourselves a new covenant, “circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart.” It is this circumcision, therefore, and this renewal, which the apostle insisted on, when he forbade those ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 309, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)

Book II. Wherein Tertullian shows that the creator, or demiurge, whom Marcion calumniated, is the true and good God. (HTML)
The Severity of God Compatible with Reason and Justice. When Inflicted, Not Meant to Be Arbitrary, But Remedial. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2878 (In-Text, Margin)

... Again, if the blessing of the fathers was destined likewise for their offspring, previous to any merit on the part of these, why might not the guilt of the fathers also redound to their children? As was the grace, so was the offence; so that the grace and the offence equally ran down through the whole race, with the reservation, indeed, of that subsequent ordinance by which it became possible to refrain from saying, that “the fathers had eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth were set on edge:”[Jeremiah 31:29] in other words, that the father should not bear the iniquity of the son, nor the son the iniquity of the father, but that every man should be chargeable with his own sin; so that the harshness of the law having been reduced after the hardness of the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 346, footnote 13 (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)
Examination of the Antitheses of Marcion, Bringing Them to the Test of Marcion's Own Gospel. Certain True Antitheses in the Dispensations of the Old and the New Testaments. These Variations Quite Compatible with One and the Same God, Who Ordered Them. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3502 (In-Text, Margin)

... I will do new things, which shall now spring forth.” So by Jeremiah: “Break up for yourselves new pastures, and sow not among thorns, and circumcise yourselves in the foreskin of your heart.” And in another passage: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Jacob, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I arrested their dispensation, in order to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”[Jeremiah 31:31-32] He thus shows that the ancient covenant is temporary only, when He indicates its change; also when He promises that it shall be followed by an eternal one. For by Isaiah He says: “Hear me, and ye shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 522, footnote 12 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Anti-Marcion. (HTML)

On the Flesh of Christ. (HTML)

Marcion, Who Would Blot Out the Record of Christ's Nativity, is Rebuked for So Startling a Heresy. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6958 (In-Text, Margin)

... announcement) did he bring down Christ from heaven. “Away,” says he, “with that eternal plaguey taxing of Cæsar, and the scanty inn, and the squalid swaddling-clothes, and the hard stable. We do not care a jot for that multitude of the heavenly host which praised their Lord at night. Let the shepherds take better care of their flock, and let the wise men spare their legs so long a journey; let them keep their gold to themselves. Let Herod, too, mend his manners, so that Jeremy may not glory over him.[Jeremiah 31:15] Spare also the babe from circumcision, that he may escape the pain thereof; nor let him be brought into the temple, lest he burden his parents with the expense of the offering; nor let him be handed to Simeon, lest the old man be saddened at the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 678, footnote 18 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Ethical. (HTML)

On Baptism. (HTML)

Of the Times Most Suitable for Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8743 (In-Text, Margin)

... repeatedly proved among the disciples, and the hope of the advent of the Lord indirectly pointed to, in that, at that time, when He had been received back into the heavens, the angels told the apostles that “He would so come, as He had withal ascended into the heavens;” at Pentecost, of course. But, moreover, when Jeremiah says, “And I will gather them together from the extremities of the land in the feast-day,” he signifies the day of the Passover and of Pentecost, which is properly a “feast-day.”[Jeremiah 31:8] However, every day is the Lord’s; every hour, every time, is apt for baptism: if there is a difference in the solemnity, distinction there is none in the grace.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 14, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On the Apparel of Women. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
Introduction.  Modesty in Apparel Becoming to Women, in Memory of the Introduction of Sin into the World Through a Woman. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 80 (In-Text, Margin)

If there dwelt upon earth a faith as great as is the reward of faith which is expected in the heavens, no one of you at all, best beloved sisters, from the time that she had first “known the Lord,”[Jeremiah 31:34] and learned (the truth) concerning her own (that is, woman’s) condition, would have desired too gladsome (not to say too ostentatious) a style of dress; so as not rather to go about in humble garb, and rather to affect meanness of appearance, walking about as Eve mourning and repentant, in order that by every garb of penitence she might the more fully expiate that which she derives from Eve,—the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 64, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Monogamy. (HTML)

From Patriarchal, Tertullian Comes to Legal, Precedents. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 625 (In-Text, Margin)

... prematurely overtaken by death, should be judged equally accursed (with the other class); for this reason a vicarious and (so to say) posthumous offspring used to be supplied them. But (now), when the “extremity of the times” has cancelled (the command) “Grow and multiply,” since the apostles (another command), “It remaineth, that both they who have wives so be as if they have not,” because “the time is compressed;” and “the sour grape” chewed by “the fathers” has ceased “to set the sons’ teeth on edge,”[Jeremiah 31:29] for, “each one shall die in his own sin;” and “eunuchs” not only have lost ignominy, but have even deserved grace, being invited into “the kingdoms of the heavens:” the law of succeeding to the wife of a brother being buried, its contrary has ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 655, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter XL (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4928 (In-Text, Margin)

... given on this subject by the priest of Jupiter or Apollo of whom Celsus speaks. It is this: “The mills of the gods grind slowly.” Another describes punishment as reaching “to children’s children, and to those who came after them.” How much better are those words of Scripture: “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, nor the children for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin.” And again, “Every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.”[Jeremiah 31:30] And, “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.” If any shall say that the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 55, footnote 9 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Hippolytus. (HTML)

The Refutation of All Heresies. (HTML)

Book V. (HTML)
Further Exposition of the Heresy of the Naasseni; Profess to Follow Homer; Acknowledge a Triad of Principles; Their Technical Names of the Triad; Support These on the Authority of Greek Poets; Allegorize Our Saviour's Miracles; The Mystery of the Samothracians; Why the Lord Chose Twelve Disciples; The Name Corybas, Used by Thracians and Phrygians, Explained; Naasseni Profess to Find Their System in Scripture; Their Interpretation of Jacob's Vision; Their Idea of the “Perfect Man;” The “Perfect Man” Called “Papa” By the Phrygians; The Naasseni and Phrygians on the Resurrection; The Ecstasis of St. Paul; The Mysteries of Religion as Alluded to by Christ; Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower; Allegory of the Promised Land (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 427 (In-Text, Margin)

... the children of the desolate one, than those of her which hath an husband;” that is, things by being born again become immortal and abide for ever in great numbers, even though the things that are produced may be few; whereas things carnal, he says, are all corruptible, even though very many things (of this type) are produced. For this reason, he says, “Rachel wept for her children, and would not,” says (the prophet), “be comforted; sorrowing for them, for she knew,” says he, “that they are not.”[Jeremiah 31:15] But Jeremiah likewise utters lamentation for Jerusalem below, not the city in Phœnicia, but the corruptible generation below. For Jeremiah likewise, he says, was aware of the Perfect Man, of him that is born again—of water and the Spirit not carnal. ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 511, footnote 1 (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 another dispensation and a new covenant was to be given. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3867 (In-Text, Margin)

... disregarded them, saith the Lord: Because this is the testament which I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will give them my laws, and into their minds I will write them; and I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to me for a people; and they shall not teach every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least even to the greatest of them: for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and will no more be mindful of their sins.”[Jeremiah 31:31-34]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 511, footnote 11 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
That the old pastors should cease and new ones begin. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 3877 (In-Text, Margin)

... sheep from their mouth, and I will feed them with judgment.” In Jeremiah the Lord says: “And I will give you shepherds according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with the food of discipline.” In Jeremiah, moreover: “Hear the word of the Lord, ye nations, and tell it to the islands which are afar off. Say, He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd his flock: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and taken him out from the hand of him that was stronger than he.”[Jeremiah 31:10-11]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 540, footnote 3 (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 the foundation and strength of hope and faith is fear. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4328 (In-Text, Margin)

... fear; and they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for a God: and I will give them another way, and another heart, that they may fear me all their days in prosperity with their children: and I will perfect for them an everlasting covenant, which I will not turn away after them; and I will put my fear into their heart, that they may not depart from me: and I will visit upon them to do them good, and to plant them in their land in faith, and with all the heart, and with all the mind.”[Jeremiah 31:31-41] Also in the Apocalypse: “And the four and twenty elders which sit on their thrones in the sight (of God), fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, saying, We give Thee thanks, O Lord God omnipotent, which art and which wast; because Thou hast ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 62, footnote 6 (Image)

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

Gregory Thaumaturgus. (HTML)

Dubious or Spurious Writings. (HTML)

Four Homilies. (HTML)
On the Annunciation to the Holy Virgin Mary. Discourse Second. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 522 (In-Text, Margin)

... highly favoured!” It is our duty, therefore, to keep this feast, seeing that it has filled the whole world with joy and gladness. And let us keep it with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Of old did Israel also keep their festival, but then it was with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, of which the prophet says: “I will turn their feasts into afflictions and lamentation, and their joy into shame.” But our afflictions our Lord has assured us He will turn into joy by the fruits of penitence.[Jeremiah 31] And again, the first covenant maintained the righteous requirements of a divine service, as in the case of our forefather Abraham; but these stood in the inflictions of pain in the flesh by circumcision, until the time of the fulfilment. “The law ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 123, 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. XX.—Of the departure of Jesus into Galilee after his resurrection; and of the two testaments, the old and the new (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 789 (In-Text, Margin)

... the law and the prophets—is called the Old; but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The Jews make use of the Old, we of the New: but yet they are not discordant, for the New is the fulfilling of the Old, and in both there is the same testator, even Christ, who, having suffered death for us, made us heirs of His everlasting kingdom, the people of the Jews being deprived and disinherited. As the prophet Jeremiah testifies when he speaks such things:[Jeremiah 31:31-32] “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new testament to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 364, footnote 7 (Image)

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

Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)

The Protevangelium of James. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1591 (In-Text, Margin)

13. And she was in her sixth month; and, behold, Joseph came back from his building, and, entering into his house, he discovered that she was big with child. And he smote his face,[Jeremiah 31:19] and threw himself on the ground upon the sackcloth, and wept bitterly, saying: With what face shall I look upon the Lord my God? and what prayer shall I make about this maiden? because I received her a virgin out of the temple of the Lord, and I have not watched over her. Who is it that has hunted me down? Who has done this evil thing in my house, and defiled the virgin? Has not the history of Adam been ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 313, 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 I. (HTML)
Christ as the Door and as the Shepherd. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4598 (In-Text, Margin)

... through which one may be led by the hand and brought to the blessedness of the Father Himself, so the Saviour has the inscription “The Door.” And as He is a lover of men, and approves the impulse of human souls to better things, even of those who do not hasten to reason (the Logos), but like sheep have a weakness and gentleness apart from all accuracy and reason, so He is the Shepherd. For the Lord saves men and beasts, and Israel and Juda are sowed with the seed not of men only but also of beasts.[Jeremiah 31:27]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 201, footnote 5 (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)

He Explains the Divine Image (Ver. 26) of the Renewal of the Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1375 (In-Text, Margin)

... gospel, —that he might not always have them “babes,” whom he would feed on milk, and cherish as a nurse; “be ye transformed,” saith He, “by the renewing of your mind, that he may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” Therefore Thou sayest not, “Let man be made,” but, “Let us make man.” Nor sayest Thou, “after his kind,” but, after “our image” and “likeness.” Because, being renewed in his mind, and beholding and apprehending Thy truth, man needeth not man as his director[Jeremiah 31:34] that he may imitate his kind; but by Thy direction proveth what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of Thine. And Thou teachest him, now made capable, to perceive the Trinity of the Unity, and the Unity of the Trinity. And therefore this ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 380, footnote 3 (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 1193 (In-Text, Margin)

... profit.” But that the Jews, by whom He behoved even to be slain, were not going to acknowledge Him, this prophet thus intimates: “Heavy is the heart through all; and He is a man, and who shall know Him?” That passage also is his which I have quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the new testament, of which Christ is the Mediator. For Jeremiah himself says, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will complete over the house of Jacob a new testament,” and the rest, which may be read there.[Jeremiah 31:31]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 63, footnote 4 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)

The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed. (HTML)
In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 393 (In-Text, Margin)

... angel. Again, when it is assumed in that form which is not an angel in his own proper being; sometimes in this case it is a body itself already existing, assumed after some kind of change, in order to make that message manifest; sometimes it is one that comes into being for the purpose, and that being accomplished, is discarded. Just as, also, when men are the messengers, sometimes they speak the words of God in their own person, as when it is premised, “The Lord said,” or, “Thus saith the Lord,”[Jeremiah 31:1-2] or any other such phrase, but sometimes without any such prefix, they take upon themselves the very person of God, as e.g.: “I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go:” so, not only in word, but also in act, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 238, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

The relation of Christ to prophecy, continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 653 (In-Text, Margin)

... has been so often exposed and refuted, we must be content to repeat the refutation. The things in the law and the prophets which Christians do not observe, are only the types of what they do observe. These types were figures of things to come, and are necessarily removed when the things themselves are fully revealed by Christ, that in this very removal the law and the prophets may be fulfilled. So it is written in the prophets that God would give a new covenant, "not as I gave to their fathers."[Jeremiah 31:32] Such was the hardness of heart of the people under the Old Testament, that many precepts were given to them, not so much because they were good, as because they suited the people. Still, in all these things the future was foretold and prefigured, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 335, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus fails to understand why he should be required either to accept or reject the New Testament as a whole, while the Catholics accept or reject the various parts of the Old Testament at pleasure.  Augustin denies that the Catholics treat the Old Testament arbitrarily, and explains their attitude towards it. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1040 (In-Text, Margin)

... fathers of the Old Testament worshipped Him, we reply that God has taught us differently by the New Testament fathers, and yet in no opposition to the Old Testament, but as that Testament itself predicted. For it is thus foretold by the prophet: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt."[Jeremiah 31:31-32] Thus it was foretold that that covenant would not continue, but that there would be a new one. And to the objection that we do not belong to the house of Israel or to the house of Judah, we answer according to the teaching of the apostle, who calls ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 97, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Prophecy of Jeremiah Concerning the New Testament. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 853 (In-Text, Margin)

... Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”[Jeremiah 31:31-34] What say we to this? One nowhere, or hardly anywhere, except in this passage of the prophet, finds in the Old Testament Scriptures any mention so made of the New Testament as to indicate it by its very name. It is no doubt often referred to and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 97, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Law; Grace. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 858 (In-Text, Margin)

... fault was to be demonstrated by the law, and healed by grace. “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Accordingly, in the passage which we cited from the prophet, he says, “I will consummate a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,”[Jeremiah 31:31] —and what means I will consummate but I will fulfil? —“not, according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 97, footnote 7 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Law; Grace. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 859 (In-Text, Margin)

... in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Accordingly, in the passage which we cited from the prophet, he says, “I will consummate a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,” —and what means I will consummate but I will fulfil? —“not, according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”[Jeremiah 31:32]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 98, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Old Law; The New Law. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 861 (In-Text, Margin)

The one was therefore old, because the other is new. But whence comes it that one is old and the other new, when the same law, which said in the Old Testament, “Thou shalt not covet,” is fulfilled by the New Testament? “Because,” says the prophet, “they continued not in my covenant, I have also rejected them, saith the Lord.”[Jeremiah 31:32] It is then on account of the offence of the old man, which was by no means healed by the letter which commanded and threatened, that it is called the old covenant; whereas the other is called the new covenant, because of the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man of the fault of the old. Then consider what follows, and see in ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 98, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Old Law; The New Law. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 862 (In-Text, Margin)

... that it is called the old covenant; whereas the other is called the new covenant, because of the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man of the fault of the old. Then consider what follows, and see in how clear a light the fact is placed, that men who bare faith are unwilling to trust in themselves: “Because,” says he, “this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”[Jeremiah 31:33] See how similarly the apostle states it in the passage we have already quoted: “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,” because “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” And I apprehend that the apostle in this ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 98, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Old Law; The New Law. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 865 (In-Text, Margin)

... fleshy tables of the heart,” because “not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.” And I apprehend that the apostle in this passage had no other reason for mentioning “the New Testament” (“who hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit”), than because he had an eye to the words of the prophet, when he said “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,” inasmuch as in the prophet it runs: “I will write it in their hearts.”[Jeremiah 31:33]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 98, footnote 12 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Law Written in Our Hearts. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 871 (In-Text, Margin)

... neighbour as thyself.” Nevertheless, whereas as in the said Testament earthly and temporal promises are, as I have said, recited, and these are goods of this corruptible flesh (although they prefigure those heavenly and everlasting blessings which belong to the New Testament), what is now promised is a good for the heart itself, a good for the mind, a good of the spirit, that is, an intellectual good; since it is said, “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their hearts will I write them,”[Jeremiah 31:33] —by which He signified that men would not fear the law which alarmed them externally, but would love the very righteousness of the law which dwelt inwardly in their hearts.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 98, footnote 13 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Eternal Reward. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 872 (In-Text, Margin)

He then went on to state the reward: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”[Jeremiah 31:33] This corresponds to the Psalmist’s words to God: “It is good for me to hold me fast by God.” “I will be,” says God, “their God, and they shall be my people.” What is better than this good, what happier than this happiness,—to live to God, to live from God, with whom is the fountain of life, and in whose light we shall see light? Of this life the Lord Himself speaks in these words: “This is life eternal that they may know Thee the only true God, and ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 99, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Eternal Reward Which is Specially Declared in the New Testament, Foretold by the Prophet. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 884 (In-Text, Margin)

Accordingly, in our prophet likewise, whose testimony we are dealing with, this is added, that in God is the reward, in Him the end, in Him the perfection of happiness, in Him the sum of the blessed and eternal life. For after saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people,” he at once adds, “And they shall no more teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least even unto the greatest of them.”[Jeremiah 31:34] Now, the present is certainly the time of the New Testament, the promise of which is given by the prophet in the words which we have quoted from his prophecy. Why then does each man still say even now to his neighbour and his brother, “Know the Lord?” Or is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 99, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Eternal Reward Which is Specially Declared in the New Testament, Foretold by the Prophet. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 887 (In-Text, Margin)

... realized: “How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” Since, then, this preaching is now everywhere spreading, in what way is it the time of the New Testament of which the prophet spoke in the words, “And they shall not every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them,”[Jeremiah 31:34] unless it be that he has included in his prophetic forecast the eternal reward of the said New Testament, by promising us the most blessed contemplation of God Himself?

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 99, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

How that is to Be the Reward of All; The Apostle Earnestly Defends Grace. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 891 (In-Text, Margin)

... another perform; which would no longer be promising, but prophesying. Hence it is “not of works, but of Him that calleth,” lest the result should be their own, not God’s; lest the reward should be ascribed not to His grace, but to their due; and so grace should be no longer grace which was so earnestly defended and maintained by him who, though the least of the apostles, laboured more abundantly than all the rest,—yet not himself, but the grace of God that was with him. “They shall all know me,”[Jeremiah 31:34] He says,—“ All,” the house of Israel and house of Judah. “ All,” however, “are not Israel which are of Israel,” but they only to whom it is said in “the psalm concerning the morning aid” (that is, concerning the new refreshing light, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 100, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Law Written in the Heart, and the Reward of the Eternal Contemplation of God, Belong to the New Covenant; Who Among the Saints are the Least and the Greatest. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 905 (In-Text, Margin)

... is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away,” then, what appeared to the flesh in assumed flesh shall display Itself as It is in Itself to all who love It; then, there shall be eternal life for us to know the one very God; then shall we be like Him, because “we shall then know, even as we are known;” then “they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest of them.”[Jeremiah 31:34] Now this may be understood in several ways: Either, that in that life the saints shall differ one from another in glory, as star from star. It matters not how the expression runs,—whether (as in the passage before us) it be, “From the least unto the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 100, footnote 12 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

Difference Between the Old and the New Testaments. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 908 (In-Text, Margin)

... covenant which had been formerly made with the people of Israel when liberated from Egypt, he said nothing about a change in the sacrifices or any sacred ordinances, although such change, too, was without doubt to follow, as we see in fact that it did follow, even as the same prophetic scripture testifies in many other passages; but he simply called attention to this difference, that God would impress His laws on the mind of those who belonged to this covenant, and would write them in their hearts,[Jeremiah 31:32-33] whence the apostle drew his conclusion,—“not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart;” and that the eternal recompense of this righteousness was not the land out of which were driven ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 100, footnote 16 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

Difference Between the Old and the New Testaments. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 912 (In-Text, Margin)

... out of which were driven the Amorites and Hittites, and other nations who dwelt there, but God Himself, “to whom it is good to hold fast,” in order that God’s good that they love, may be the God Himself whom they love, between whom and men nothing but sin produces separation; and this is remitted only by grace. Accordingly, after saying, “For all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them,” He instantly added, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”[Jeremiah 31:34] By the law of works, then, the Lord says, “Thou shalt not covet:” but by the law of faith He says, “Without me ye can do nothing;” for He was treating of good works, even the fruit of the vine-branches. It is therefore apparent what dif ference ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 104, footnote 11 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)

The Grace Promised by the Prophet for the New Covenant. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 967 (In-Text, Margin)

... in Him, with whom there is no respect of persons? But whichever of these views is accepted, it is evident that the grace of God was promised to the new testament even by the prophet, and that this grace was definitively announced to take this shape,—God’s laws were to be written in men’s hearts; and they were to arrive at such a knowledge of God, that they were not each one to teach his neighbour and brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all were to know Him, from the least to the greatest of them.[Jeremiah 31:33-34] This is the gift of the Holy Ghost, by which love is shed abroad in our hearts, —not, indeed, any kind of love, but the love of God, “out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith,” by means of which the just man, while living ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 189, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)

Examination of This Point. The Phrase ‘Old Testament’ Used in Two Senses. The Heir of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament There Were Heirs of the New Testament. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1645 (In-Text, Margin)

... kingdom of heaven could be quite as well promised in those early Scriptures as even the New Testament itself, to which the kingdom of heaven belongs? At all events, in those ancient Scriptures it is most distinctly written: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will consummate a new testament with the house of Israel and with the house of Jacob; not according to the testament that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt.”[Jeremiah 31:31-32] This was done on Mount Sinai. But then there had not yet risen the prophet Daniel to say: “The saints shall receive the kingdom of the Most High.” For by these words he foretold the merit not of the Old, but of the New Testament. In the same manner ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 222, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)

On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)

The Righteousness Which is of God, and the Righteousness Which is of the Law. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1816 (In-Text, Margin)

... brethren, ye need not that I write unto you; for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another.” And then, by way of proving that they had been taught of God, he subjoined: “And indeed ye do it towards all the brethren which are in all Macedonia.” As if the surest sign that you have been taught of God, is that you put into practice what you have been taught. Of that character are all who are called accord ing to God’s purpose, as it is written in the prophets: “They shall be all taught of God.”[Jeremiah 31:34] The man, however, who has learned what ought to be done, but does it not, has not as yet been “taught of God” according to grace, but only according to the law,—not according to the spirit, but only according to the letter. Although there are many ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 348, footnote 10 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3378 (In-Text, Margin)

... not for the sake of carnal fruitfulness of sons, not for the sake of earthly riches, not for the sake of temporal welfare: “Have regard unto Thy Testament,” wherein Thou hast promised the kingdom of Heaven. Now I acknowledge Thy Testament: now understanding is Asaph, no beast is Asaph, now he seeth that which was spoken of, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will accomplish with the House of Israel and of Juda a new Testament, not after the Testament which I ordered with their Fathers.”[Jeremiah 31:31] “Have regard unto Thy Testament: for they that have been darkened have been filled of the earth of unrighteous houses:” because they had unrighteous hearts. Our “houses” are our hearts: therein gladly dwell they that are blessed with pure heart. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 521, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4792 (In-Text, Margin)

... the power of generation; what then are those “thousand generations,” not only from the time of Abraham, when that promise was made him, unto the New Testament, but from Adam himself down to the end of the world? For who would dare to say that this world should last for 15000 years? Hence it seemeth to me that we ought not to understand here the Old Testament, which it said through the prophet was to be cancelled by the New: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant.”[Jeremiah 31:31-32] …After saying, “He hath been mindful of His covenant unto an age;” which we ought to understand as lasting for evermore, the covenant, namely, of justification and an eternal inheritance, which God hath promised to faith; he addeth, “and the Word ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 493, footnote 1 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (HTML)

Homily XIX on Rom. xi. 7. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1519 (In-Text, Margin)

Ver. 27. “For this is my covenant unto them,[Jeremiah 31:31] when I shall take away their sins.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 493, footnote 1 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (HTML)

Homily XIX on Rom. xi. 7. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1519 (In-Text, Margin)

Ver. 27. “For this is my covenant unto them,[Jeremiah 31:34] when I shall take away their sins.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 62, footnote 10 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

The Incarnation of the Word. (HTML)

On the Incarnation of the Word. (HTML)

The numerous oracles,--fancied apparitions in sacred places, &c., dispelled by the sign of the Cross. The old gods prove to have been mere men. Magic is exposed. And whereas Philosophy could only persuade select and local cliques of Immortality, and goodness,--men of little intellect have infused into the multitudes of the churches the principle of a supernatural life. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 340 (In-Text, Margin)

... this was strong and active among Egyptians, and Chaldees, and Indians, and inspired awe in those who saw it; but that by the presence of the Truth, and the Appearing of the Word, it also has been thoroughly confuted, and brought wholly to nought. 5. But as to Gentile wisdom, and the sounding pretensions of the philosophers, I think none can need our argument, since the wonder is before the eyes of all, that while the wise among the Greeks had written so much, and were unable to persuade even a few[Jeremiah 31:34] from their own neighbourhood, concerning immortality and a virtuous life, Christ alone, by ordinary language, and by men not clever with the tongue, has throughout all the world persuaded whole churches full of men to despise death, and to mind the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 373, footnote 12 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

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

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

Discourse II (HTML)
Texts explained; Sixthly, Proverbs viii. 22. Proverbs are of a figurative nature, and must be interpreted as such. We must interpret them, and in particular this passage, by the Regula Fidei. 'He created me' not equivalent to 'I am a creature.' Wisdom a creature so far forth as Its human body. Again, if He is a creature, it is as 'a beginning of ways,' an office which, though not an attribute, is a consequence, of a higher and divine nature. And it is 'for the works,' which implied the works existed, and therefore much more He, before He was created. Also 'the Lord' not the Father 'created' Him, which implies the creation was that of a servant. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2518 (In-Text, Margin)

... prayed to have another heart than that he had, but meant renovation according to God and renewal; nor did Paul signify two persons created in essence in the Lord, nor again did he counsel us to put on any other man; but he called the life according to virtue the ‘man after God,’ and by the ‘created’ in Christ he meant the two people who are renewed in Him. Such too is the language of the book of Jeremiah; ‘The Lord created a new salvation for a planting, in which salvation men shall walk to and fro[Jeremiah 31:22];’ and in thus speaking, he does not mean any essence of a creature, but prophesies of the renewal of salvation among men, which has taken place in Christ for us. Such then being the difference between ‘the creatures’ and the single word ‘He ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 39, footnote 14 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Eustochium. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 636 (In-Text, Margin)

... with a man’s pen Maher-shalal-hash-baz.” And when you have gone to the prophetess, and have conceived in the womb, and have brought forth a son, say: “Lord, we have been with child by thy fear, we have been in pain, we have brought forth the spirit of thy salvation, which we have wrought upon the earth.” Then shall your Son reply: “Behold my mother and my brethren.” And He whose name you have so recently inscribed upon the table of your heart, and have written with a pen upon its renewed surface[Jeremiah 31:33] —He, after He has recovered the spoil from the enemy, and has spoiled principalities and powers, nailing them to His cross —having been miraculously conceived, grows up to manhood; and, as He becomes older, regards you no longer as His mother, but ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 370, footnote 11 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4484 (In-Text, Margin)

... 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: “Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire.” Concerning her we read of a great miracle in the same prophecy[Jeremiah 31:22] —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 6, page 409, footnote 3 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4886 (In-Text, Margin)

... implies others who are less. And “he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” You see then that in heaven one is greatest and another is least, and that among the angels and the invisible creation there is a manifold and infinite diversity. Why do the apostles say: “Lord, increase our faith,” if there is one measure for all? And why did our Lord rebuke His disciple, saying: “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” In Jeremiah also we read concerning the future kingdom:[Jeremiah 31:31] “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.” And so on after: “I will put my law in their inward parts, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 409, footnote 4 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against Jovinianus. (HTML)

Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4887 (In-Text, Margin)

... creation there is a manifold and infinite diversity. Why do the apostles say: “Lord, increase our faith,” if there is one measure for all? And why did our Lord rebuke His disciple, saying: “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” In Jeremiah also we read concerning the future kingdom: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.” And so on after:[Jeremiah 31:33-34] “I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God and they shall be my people: and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 350, footnote 2 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Concerning Repentance. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter V. As to the words of St. Peter to Simon Magus, from which the Novatians infer that there was no forgiveness for the latter, it is pointed out that St. Peter, knowing his evil heart, might well use words of doubt, and then by some Old Testament instances it is pointed out that “perchance” does not exclude forgiveness. The apostles transmitted to us that penitence, the fruits of which are shown in the case of David. St. Ambrose then adduces the example of the Ephraimites, whose penitence must be followed in order to gain the divine mercy and the sacraments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3093 (In-Text, Margin)

36. Let us, then, cover our falls by our subsequent acts; let us purify ourselves by tears, that the Lord our God may hear us when we lament, as He heard Ephraim when weeping, as it is written: “I have surely heard Ephraim weeping.”[Jeremiah 31:18] And He expressly repeats the very words of Ephraim: “Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, like a calf I was not trained.” For a calf disports itself, and leaves its stall, and so Ephraim was untrained like a calf far away from the stall; because he had forsaken the stall of the Lord, followed Jeroboam, and worshipped the calves, which future event was prophetically ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 350, footnote 3 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Concerning Repentance. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter V. As to the words of St. Peter to Simon Magus, from which the Novatians infer that there was no forgiveness for the latter, it is pointed out that St. Peter, knowing his evil heart, might well use words of doubt, and then by some Old Testament instances it is pointed out that “perchance” does not exclude forgiveness. The apostles transmitted to us that penitence, the fruits of which are shown in the case of David. St. Ambrose then adduces the example of the Ephraimites, whose penitence must be followed in order to gain the divine mercy and the sacraments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3094 (In-Text, Margin)

36. Let us, then, cover our falls by our subsequent acts; let us purify ourselves by tears, that the Lord our God may hear us when we lament, as He heard Ephraim when weeping, as it is written: “I have surely heard Ephraim weeping.” And He expressly repeats the very words of Ephraim: “Thou hast chastised me and I was chastised, like a calf I was not trained.”[Jeremiah 31:18] For a calf disports itself, and leaves its stall, and so Ephraim was untrained like a calf far away from the stall; because he had forsaken the stall of the Lord, followed Jeroboam, and worshipped the calves, which future event was prophetically indicated through Aaron, namely, that the people of the Jews would fall ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 350, footnote 6 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Concerning Repentance. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter V. As to the words of St. Peter to Simon Magus, from which the Novatians infer that there was no forgiveness for the latter, it is pointed out that St. Peter, knowing his evil heart, might well use words of doubt, and then by some Old Testament instances it is pointed out that “perchance” does not exclude forgiveness. The apostles transmitted to us that penitence, the fruits of which are shown in the case of David. St. Ambrose then adduces the example of the Ephraimites, whose penitence must be followed in order to gain the divine mercy and the sacraments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3097 (In-Text, Margin)

... because he had forsaken the stall of the Lord, followed Jeroboam, and worshipped the calves, which future event was prophetically indicated through Aaron, namely, that the people of the Jews would fall after this manner. And so repenting, Ephraim says: “Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned, for Thou art the Lord my God. Surely in the end of my captivity I repented, and after I learned I mourned over the days of confusion, and subjected myself to Thee because I received reproach and made Thee known.”[Jeremiah 31:19]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 350, footnote 8 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

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

Concerning Repentance. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter V. As to the words of St. Peter to Simon Magus, from which the Novatians infer that there was no forgiveness for the latter, it is pointed out that St. Peter, knowing his evil heart, might well use words of doubt, and then by some Old Testament instances it is pointed out that “perchance” does not exclude forgiveness. The apostles transmitted to us that penitence, the fruits of which are shown in the case of David. St. Ambrose then adduces the example of the Ephraimites, whose penitence must be followed in order to gain the divine mercy and the sacraments. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3099 (In-Text, Margin)

39. And what mercy He promises us, the Lord also shows, when He says further on: “I have satiated every thirsty soul, and have satisfied every hungry soul. Therefore, I awaked and beheld, and My sleep was sweet unto Me.”[Jeremiah 31:25-26] We observe that the Lord promises His sacraments to those who sin. Let us, then, all be converted to the Lord.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 203, footnote 3 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

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

Sermons. (HTML)

A Homily on the Beatitudes, St. Matt. v. 1-9. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1223 (In-Text, Margin)

... from the very nature of the place and act that He it was who had once honoured Moses by speaking to him: then indeed with a more terrifying justice, but now with a holier mercifulness, that what had been promised might be fulfilled when the Prophet Jeremiah says: “behold the days come when I will complete a new covenant for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws in their minds, and in their heart will I write them[Jeremiah 31:31].” He therefore who had spoken to Moses, spoke also to the apostles, and the swift hand of the Word wrote and deposited the secrets of the new covenant in the disciples’ hearts: there were no thick clouds surrounding Him as of old, nor were the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 233, footnote 4 (Image)

Gregory the Great II, Ephriam Syrus, Aphrahat

Selections from the Hymns and Homilies of Ephraim the Syrian and from the Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage. (HTML)

Ephraim Syrus:  Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh. (HTML)

Hymn III. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 438 (In-Text, Margin)

... from an abundant treasury He was nourishing all! While she that anointed Him was anointing Him, with His dew and His rain He was anointing all! The Magi brought myrrh and gold, while in Him was hidden a treasure of riches. The myrrh and spices which He had prepared and created, did the Magi bring Him of His own. It was by Power from Him that Mary was able to bear in Her bosom Him that bears up all things! It was from the great storehouse of all creatures, Mary gave Him all which she did give Him![Jeremiah 31:22] She gave Him milk from Himself that prepared it, she gave Him food from Himself that made it! He gave milk unto Mary as God: again He sucked it from her, as the Son of Man. Her hands bare Him in that He had emptied His strength; and her arm embraced ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs