Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Lamentations 3
There are 29 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 281, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
On Justice and Goodness. (HTML)
... of all things, to which Creator he gave no appellation of goodness. Let us see now if, in the Old Testament, the God of the prophets and the Creator and Legislator of the word is not called good. What are the expressions which occur in the Psalms? “How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart!” and, “Let Israel now say that He is good, that His mercy endureth for ever;” the language in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, “The Lord is good to them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.”[Lamentations 3:25] As therefore God is frequently called good in the Old Testament, so also the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is styled just in the Gospels. Finally, in the Gospel according to John, our Lord Himself, when praying to the Father, says, “O just Father, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 527, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Chapter LXVI (HTML)
... certain secrets regarding the origin of evils, but chose rather to keep silence, and say only what was suitable to the multitude, continues as follows: “It is sufficient to say to the multitude regarding the origin of evils, that they do not proceed from God, but cleave to matter, and dwell among mortal things.” It is true, certainly, that evils do not proceed from God; for according to Jeremiah, one of our prophets, it is certain that “out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth not evil and good.”[Lamentations 3:38] But to maintain that matter, dwelling among mortal things, is the cause of evils, is in our opinion not true. For it is the mind of each individual which is the cause of the evil which arises in him, and this is evil (in the abstract); while the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 622, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXV (HTML)
... who wish to make a difference between the God of the Gospel and the God of the law, we must say in reply, that this precept, “Whosoever shall strike thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other,” is not unknown in the older Scriptures. For thus, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, it is said, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth: he sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.”[Lamentations 3:27-28] There is no discrepancy, then, between the God of the Gospel and the God of the law, even when we take literally the precept regarding the blow on the face. So, then, we infer that neither “Jesus nor Moses has taught falsely.” The Father in sending ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 622, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXV (HTML)
... who wish to make a difference between the God of the Gospel and the God of the law, we must say in reply, that this precept, “Whosoever shall strike thee on the one cheek, turn to him the other,” is not unknown in the older Scriptures. For thus, in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, it is said, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth: he sitteth alone, and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him; he is filled full with reproach.”[Lamentations 3:30] There is no discrepancy, then, between the God of the Gospel and the God of the law, even when we take literally the precept regarding the blow on the face. So, then, we infer that neither “Jesus nor Moses has taught falsely.” The Father in sending ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 661, footnote 2 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter LIV (HTML)
When Celsus adds, “We must therefore believe that men are entrusted to certain beings who are the keepers of this prison-house,” our answer is, that the souls of those who are called by Jeremiah “prisoners of the earth,”[Lamentations 3:34] when eager in the pursuit of virtue, are even in this life delivered from the bondage of evil; for Jesus declared this, as was foretold long before His advent by the prophet Isaiah, when he said that “the prisoners would go forth, and they that were in darkness would show themselves.” And Jesus Himself, as Isaiah also foretold of Him, arose as “a light to them that sat in darkness and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 288, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To the Martyrs and Confessors. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2202 (In-Text, Margin)
... broke forth from the martyr’s mouth when the most blessed Mappalicus said to the proconsul in the midst of his torments, “You shall see a contest to-morrow.” And that which he said with the testimony of virtue and faith, the Lord fulfilled. A heavenly contest was exhibited, and the servant of God was crowned in the struggle of the promised fight. This is the contest which the prophet Isaiah of old predicted, saying, “It shall be no light contest for you with men, since God appoints the struggle.”[Lamentations 3:26] And in order to show what this struggle would be, he added the words, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and ye shall call His name Emmanuel.” This is the struggle of our faith in which we engage, in which we conquer, in which we are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 593, footnote 12 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
Exhortation to Repentance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4913 (In-Text, Margin)
Also in the same: “Let us search out our ways, and be turned to the Lord. Let us purge our hearts with our hands, and let us look unto the Lord who dwelleth in the heavens. We have sinned, and we have provoked Thee, and Thou hast not been propitiated.”[Lamentations 3:40]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 593, footnote 16 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
Exhortation to Repentance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4917 (In-Text, Margin)
Also in the same: “The Lord will not reject for ever; and when He has made low, He will have pity according to the multitude of His mercy. Because He will not bring low from His whole heart, neither will He reject the children of men.”[Lamentations 3:31]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 217, footnote 16 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Archelaus. (HTML)
The Acts of the Disputation with the Heresiarch Manes. (HTML)
Chapter XLII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1931 (In-Text, Margin)
... it whom he has bidden enter along with him. And the Lord Jesus Christ Himself gave His testimony to what we affirm, when He said with His heavenly voice, “Can ye make the children of the bride-chamber fast so long as the bridegroom is with them?” And again, He did not actually reject circumcision; but we should rather say that He received in Himself and in our stead the cause of circumcision, relieving us by what He Himself endured, and not permitting us to have to suffer any pain to no purpose.[Lamentations 3:33] For what, indeed, can it profit a man to circumcise himself, if nevertheless he cherishes the worst of thoughts against his neighbour? He desired, accordingly, rather to open up to us the ways of the fullest life by a brief path, lest perchance, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 326, footnote 2 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity. (HTML)
Thallousa. (HTML)
Far Best to Cultivate Virtue from Boyhood. (HTML)
... Lord.[Lamentations 3:27] and “that his soul should not depart from the Lord.” It is good, indeed, from boyhood, to submit the neck to the divine Hand, and not to shake off, even to old age, the Rider who guides with pure mind, when the Evil One is ever dragging down the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 325, footnote 5 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily XVIII. (HTML)
The Unrevealed God. (HTML)
... according to the law, and moreover by the just and unjust, and the whole world, does your teacher, coming after all these, say, ‘No one has known the Father but the Son, even as no one knoweth the Son but the Father, and those to whom the Son may wish to reveal Him?’ But he would not have made this statement, had he not proclaimed a Father who was still unrevealed, whom the law speaks of as the highest, and who has not given any utterance either good or bad (as Jeremiah testifies in the Lamentations[Lamentations 3:38]); who also, limiting the nations to seventy languages, according to the number of the sons of Israel who entered Egypt, and according to the boundaries of these nations, gave to his own Son, who is also called Lord, and who brought into order the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 481, footnote 3 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Apocrypha of the New Testament. (HTML)
Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. (HTML)
Acts of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2081 (In-Text, Margin)
... Son of God, tell what I have in my mind; disclose, if thou canst, what I have just done in secret. For Peter, having blessed the barley loaf which he had received, and hawing broken it with his right hand and his left, had heaped it up in his sleeves. Then Simon, enraged that he was not able to tell the secret of the apostle, cried out, saying: Let great dogs come forth, and eat him up before Cæsar. And suddenly there appeared great dogs, and rushed at Peter. But Peter, stretching forth his hands[Lamentations 3:41] to pray, showed to the dogs the loaf which he had blessed; which the dogs seeing, no longer appeared. Then Peter said to Nero: Behold, I have shown thee that I knew what Simon was thinking of, not by words, but by deeds; for he, having promised that ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 478, footnote 6 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)
Book XIII. (HTML)
Influence of the Moon and Stars on Men. (HTML)
... the cause of all the disorders which exist on the earth, whether of such generally or of each in detail, arises from the disposition of the stars; and such have truly “set their mouth against the heaven,” when they say that some of the stars have a malevolent, and others a benevolent influence; since no star was formed by the God of the universe to work evil, according to Jeremiah as it is written in the Lamentations, “Out of the mouth of the Lord shall come things noble and that which is good.”[Lamentations 3:38] And it is probable that as this impure spirit, producing what is called lunacy, observes the phases of the moon, that it may work on him who for certain causes has been committed to it, and who has not made himself worthy of the guardianship of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 159, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Having manifested what he was and what he is, he shows the great fruit of his confession; and being about to examine by what method God and the happy life may be found, he enlarges on the nature and power of memory. Then he examines his own acts, thoughts and affections, viewed under the threefold division of temptation; and commemorates the Lord, the one mediator of God and men. (HTML)
He is Forcibly Goaded on by the Love of Praise. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 955 (In-Text, Margin)
60. By these temptations, O Lord, are we daily tried; yea, unceasingly are we tried. Our daily “furnace” is the human tongue. And in this respect also dost Thou command us to be continent. Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt. Regarding this matter, Thou knowest the groans of my heart, and the rivers[Lamentations 3:48] of mine eyes. For I am not able to ascertain how far I am clean of this plague, and I stand in great fear of my “secret faults,” which Thine eyes perceive, though mine do not. For in other kinds of temptations I have some sort of power of examining myself; but in this, hardly any. For, both as regards the pleasures of the flesh and an ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 250, footnote 9 (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 is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 718 (In-Text, Margin)
... words, "The stroke of a whip maketh a wound; but the stroke of the tongue breaketh the bones." Against adultery in the heart, "Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife." It is not, "Thou shall not commit adultery;" but, "Thou shall not covet." The apostle, in quoting this, says: "I had not known lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Regarding patience in not offering resistance, a man is praised who "giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, and who is filled full with reproach."[Lamentations 3:30] Of love to enemies it is said: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink." This also is quoted by the apostle. In the Psalm, too, it is said, "I was a peace maker among them that hated peace;" and in many similar passages. In ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 274, footnote 6 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)
To Eusebius, Bishop of Persian Armenia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1744 (In-Text, Margin)
... iniquity but his blood shall I require at thine hand.” With this agree the words spoken in parables by the Lord. “Thou wicked and slothful servant…Thou oughtest to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received the same with usury.” Up then, I beseech you, let us fight for the Lord’s sheep. Their Lord is near. He will certainly appear and scatter the wolves and glorify the shepherds. “The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him.”[Lamentations 3:25] Let us not murmur at the storm that has arisen for the Lord of all knoweth what is good for us. Wherefore also when the Apostle asked for release from his trials He would not grant his supplication but said, “My grace is sufficient for thee, for my ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 553, footnote 13 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
A Commentary on the Apostles' Creed. (HTML)
Sectino 27 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3346 (In-Text, Margin)
27. Next it is written that “He gave up the ghost.” This also had been foretold, by the Prophet, who says, addressing the Father in the Person of the Son, “Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit.” He is related also to have been buried, and a great stone laid at the door of the sepulchre. Hear what the word of prophecy foretold by Jeremiah concerning this also, “They have cut off my life in the pit, and have laid a stone upon Me.”[Lamentations 3:53] These words of the Prophet point most plainly to His burial. Here are yet others, “The righteous hath been taken away from beholding iniquity, and his place is in peace.” And in another place, “I will give the malignant for his burial;” and yet once more, “He hath lain down and slept ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 540, footnote 11 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 341.) Coss. Marcellinus, Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii, xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57. (HTML)
... aliens from the kingdom of heaven. Had they however known that ‘tribulation perfecteth patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed,’ they would have exercised themselves, after the example of Paul, who said, ‘I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.’ They would easily have borne the afflictions which were brought upon them to prove them from time to time, if the prophetic admonition[Lamentations 3:27] had been listened to by them; ‘It is good for a man to take up Thy yoke in his youth; he shall sit alone and shall be silent, because he hath taken Thy yoke upon him. He will give his cheek to him who smiteth him; he will be filled with reproaches. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 38, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 619 (In-Text, Margin)
... the monasteries into the deserts, with nothing but bread and salt. Paul introduced this way of life; Antony made it famous, and—to go farther back still—John the Baptist set the first example of it. The prophet Jeremiah describes one such in the words: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever.”[Lamentations 3:27-28] The struggle of the anchorites and their life—in the flesh, yet not of the flesh—I will, if you wish, explain to you at some other time. I must now return to the subject of covetousness, which I left to speak of the monks. With them before your eyes ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 38, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 619 (In-Text, Margin)
... the monasteries into the deserts, with nothing but bread and salt. Paul introduced this way of life; Antony made it famous, and—to go farther back still—John the Baptist set the first example of it. The prophet Jeremiah describes one such in the words: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever.”[Lamentations 3:30-31] The struggle of the anchorites and their life—in the flesh, yet not of the flesh—I will, if you wish, explain to you at some other time. I must now return to the subject of covetousness, which I left to speak of the monks. With them before your eyes ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 38, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 620 (In-Text, Margin)
... his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off forever.” The struggle of the anchorites and their life—in the flesh, yet not of the flesh—I will, if you wish, explain to you at some other time. I must now return to the subject of covetousness, which I left to speak of the monks. With them before your eyes you will despise, not only gold and silver in general, but earth itself and heaven. United to Christ, you will sing, “The Lord is my portion.”[Lamentations 3:24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 81, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Domnio. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1218 (In-Text, Margin)
4. Let him spare himself, let him spare me, let him spare the Christian name. Let him realize his position as a monk, not by talking and arguing, but by holding his peace and sitting still. Let him read the words of Jeremiah: “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.”[Lamentations 3:27-28] Or if he has really the right to apply the censor’s rod to all writers, and fancies himself a man of learning because he alone understands Jovinian (you know the proverb: Balbus best knows what Balbus means); yet, as Atilius reminds us, “we are not all writers.” Jovinian himself—an unlettered man of letters if ever ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 91, footnote 24 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On the words, Crucified and Buried. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1641 (In-Text, Margin)
... ground? Is the Sepulchre made of stones joined together? And what is laid upon it? Tell us, O Prophets, the exact truth concerning His tomb also, where He is laid, and where we shall seek Him? And they say, Look into the solid rock which ye have hewn. Look in and behold. Thou hast in the Gospels In a sepulchre hewn in stone, which was hewn out of a rock. And what happens next? What kind of door has the sepulchre? Again another Prophet says, They cut off My life in a dungeon[Lamentations 3:53], and cast a stone upon Me. I, who am the Chief corner-stone, the elect, the precious, lie for a little time within a stone—I who am a stone of stumbling to the Jews, and of salvation to them who believe. The Tree of life, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 222, footnote 17 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2814 (In-Text, Margin)
90. For I own that I am too weak for this warfare, and therefore turned my back, hiding my face in the rout, and sat solitary,[Lamentations 3:28] because I was filled with bitterness and sought to be silent, understanding that it is an evil time, that the beloved had kicked, that we were become backsliding children, who are the luxuriant vine, the true vine, all fruitful, all beautiful, springing up splendidly with showers from on high. For the diadem of beauty, the signet of glory, the crown of magnificence has been changed for me into shame; and if anyone, in face of these ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 293, footnote 2 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Second Theological Oration. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3456 (In-Text, Margin)
Therefore this darkness of the body has been placed between us and God, like the cloud of old between the Egyptians and the Hebrews; and this is perhaps what is meant by “He made darkness His secret place,” namely our dulness, through which few can see even a little. But as to this point, let those discuss it whose business it is; and let them ascend as far as possible in the examination. To us who are (as Jeremiah saith), “prisoners of the earth,”[Lamentations 3:34] and covered with the denseness of carnal nature, this at all events is known, that as it is impossible for a man to step over his own shadow, however fast he may move (for the shadow will always move on as fast as it is being overtaken) or, as it is impossible for the eye ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 333, footnote 2 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter V. The objection from the unchangeableness of God is answered from several passages of Scripture, wherein God promises forgiveness to sinners on their repentance. St. Ambrose also shows that mercy will be more readily accorded to such as have sinned, as it were, against their will, which he illustrates by the case of prisoners taken in war, and by language put into the mouth of the devil. (HTML)
23. Jeremiah, too, may certainly teach when he says: “For the Lord will not cast off for ever; for after He has humbled, He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies, Who hath not humbled from His whole heart nor cast off the children of men.”[Lamentations 3:31-32] This passage we certainly find in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and from it, and from what follows, we note that the Lord humbles all the prisoners of the earth under His feet, in order that we may escape His judgment. But He does not bring down the sinner even to the earth with His whole heart Who raises the poor even from the dust and the needy from the dunghill. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 333, footnote 3 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter V. The objection from the unchangeableness of God is answered from several passages of Scripture, wherein God promises forgiveness to sinners on their repentance. St. Ambrose also shows that mercy will be more readily accorded to such as have sinned, as it were, against their will, which he illustrates by the case of prisoners taken in war, and by language put into the mouth of the devil. (HTML)
23. Jeremiah, too, may certainly teach when he says: “For the Lord will not cast off for ever; for after He has humbled, He will have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies, Who hath not humbled from His whole heart nor cast off the children of men.” This passage we certainly find in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and from it, and from what follows, we note that the Lord humbles all the prisoners of the earth under His feet,[Lamentations 3:34] in order that we may escape His judgment. But He does not bring down the sinner even to the earth with His whole heart Who raises the poor even from the dust and the needy from the dunghill. For He brings not down with His whole heart Who reserves the intention of forgiving.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 493, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)
Conference XIX. Conference of Abbot John. On the Aim of the Cœnobite and Hermit. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. The answer to the question proposed. (HTML)
... mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” But the perfection for a hermit is to have his mind freed from all earthly things, and to unite it, as far as human frailty allows, with Christ: and such a man the prophet Jeremiah describes when he says: “Blessed is the man who hath borne the yoke from his youth. He shall sit solitary and hold his peace, because he hath taken it upon himself;” the Psalmist also: “I am become like a pelican in the desert. I watched and became as a sparrow alone upon the housetop.”[Lamentations 3:27-28] To this aim then, which we have described as that of either life, unless each of them attains, in vain does the one adopt the system of the Cœnobium, and the other of the hermitage: for neither of them will get the good of his method of life.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 13, page 366, footnote 5 (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 Monks. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 890 (In-Text, Margin)
... counsel is becoming and right and good, that I give to myself and you, my beloved solitaries, who do not take wives, and to the virgins who do not marry, and to those who have loved holiness. It is just and right and becoming, that even if a man should be distressed, he should continue alone. And thus it becomes him to dwell, as it is written in the Prophet Jeremiah:— Blessed is the man who shall take up Thy yoke in his youth, and sit alone and be silent, because he has taken upon him Thy yoke.[Lamentations 3:27-28] For thus, my beloved, it becomes him who takes up the yoke of Christ, to preserve his yoke in purity.