Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 7:13
There are 28 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 415, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter V.—On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things. (HTML)
... habit of our old conversation what we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth, “the bag that waxeth not old,” the provisions of eternal life, “the treasure that faileth not in heaven.” “For I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,” saith the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness’ sake. For they have heard in the commandment that “the broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in by it.”[Matthew 7:13] It is not of anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, “Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 307, footnote 11 (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)
Further Description of the Divine Justice; Since the Fall of Man It Has Regulated the Divine Goodness. God's Claims on Our Love and Our Fear Reconciled. (HTML)
... itself by itself alone. At all events, if it could do so much, it could not keep its ground; for it had lost its impregnability through the foe, unless some power of fear supervened, such as might compel the very unwilling to seek after good, and take care of it. But who, when so many incentives to evil were assailing him, would desire that good, which he could despise with impunity? Who, again, would take care of what he could lose without danger? You read how broad is the road to evil,[Matthew 7:13] how thronged in comparison with the opposite: would not all glide down that road were there nothing in it to fear? We dread the Creator’s tremendous threats, and yet scarcely turn away from evil. What, if He threatened not? Will you call this ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 114, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Fasting. (HTML)
Conclusion. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1123 (In-Text, Margin)
... us fast, brethren and sisters, lest to-morrow perchance we die.” Openly let us vindicate our disciplines. Sure we are that “they who are in the flesh cannot please God;” not, of course, those who are in the substance of the flesh, but in the care, the affection, the work, the will, of it. Emaciation displeases not us; for it is not by weight that God bestows flesh, any more than He does “the Spirit by measure.” More easily, it may be, through the “strait gate”[Matthew 7:13-14] of salvation will slenderer flesh enter; more speedily will lighter flesh rise; longer in the sepulchre will drier flesh retain its firmness. Let Olympic cestus-players and boxers cram themselves to satiety. To them bodily ambition is suitable to ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 54, footnote 2 (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)
... Mesopotamia, that is, when from a child he was now becoming a youth and a man; that is, (the entrance and gate) were made known unto him as he journeyed into Mesopotamia. But Mesopotamia, he says, is the current of the great ocean flowing from the midst of the Perfect Man; and he was astonished at the celestial gate, exclaiming, “How terrible is this place! it is nought else than the house of God, and this (is) the gate of heaven.” On account of this, he says, Jesus uses the words, “I am the true gate.”[Matthew 7:13] Now he who makes these statements is, he says, the Perfect Man that is imaged from the unportrayable one from above. The Perfect Man therefore cannot, he says, be saved, unless, entering in through this gate, he be born again. But this very one the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 56, footnote 3 (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)
... garments, and become all of them bridegrooms, emasculated through the virginal spirit. For this is the virgin who carries in her womb and conceives and brings forth a son, not animal, not corporeal, but blessed for evermore. Concerning these, it is said, the Saviour has expressly declared that “straight and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there are that enter upon it; whereas broad and spacious is the way that leadeth unto destruction, and many there are that pass through it.”[Matthew 7:13-14]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Hippolytus. (HTML)
The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus. (HTML)
Exegetical. (HTML)
On Daniel. (HTML)
18. “And they went out at privy doors;” showing thus by anticipation, that he who desires to partake of the water in the garden must renounce the broad gate, and enter by the strait and narrow.[Matthew 7:13-14]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 534, footnote 20 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... God. And not only so, but we also glory in afflictions: knowing that affliction worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope does not confound; because the love of God is infused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.” On this same subject, according to Matthew: “How broad and spacious is the way which leadeth unto death, and many there are who go in thereby: how straight and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it!”[Matthew 7:13-14] Of this same thing in Tobias: “Where are thy righteousnesses? behold what thou sufferest.” Also in the Wisdom of Solomon: “In the places of the wicked the righteous groan; but at their ruin the righteous will abound.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 377, footnote 2 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (HTML)
The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (HTML)
Chapter I.—The Two Ways; The First Commandment (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2371 (In-Text, Margin)
1. There are two ways, one of life and one of death;[Matthew 7:13-14] but a great difference between the two ways. 2. The way of life, then, is this: First, thou shalt love God who made thee; second, thy neighbour as thyself; and all things whatsoever thou wouldst should not occur to thee, thou also to another do not do. 3. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless them that curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for them that persecute you. For what thank is there, if ye love them that love you? Do not ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 329, footnote 3 (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 Way to the Kingdom Not Concealed from the Israelites. (HTML)
... Israel (for do not say, O Jacob, The way is hid from me),’ he ought to understand that the things that belong to the kingdom had been hid from them, but that the way that leads to the kingdom, that is, the mode of life, had not been hid from them. Wherefore it is that He says, ‘For say not that the way has been hid from me.’ But by the way is meant the mode of life; for Moses says, ‘Behold, I have set before thy face the way of life and the way of death.’ And the Teacher spoke in harmony with this:[Matthew 7:13-14] ‘Enter ye through the strait and narrow way, through which ye shall enter into life.’ And somewhere else, when one asked Him, ‘What shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ He pointed out to him the commandments of the law.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 60, footnote 3 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
The Diatessaron of Tatian. (HTML)
The Diatessaron. (HTML)
Section X. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 793 (In-Text, Margin)
[32][Matthew 7:13] Enter ye by the narrow gate; for the wide gate and the broad way lead to destruction, [33] and many they be which go therein. How narrow is the gate and straitened the way leading to life! and few be they that find it.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 93, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of Ambrose, discovered more and more the truth of the Catholic doctrine, and deliberates as to the better regulation of his life. (HTML)
Faith is the Basis of Human Life; Man Cannot Discover that Truth Which Holy Scripture Has Disclosed. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 452 (In-Text, Margin)
... language and lowliness of its style, yet exercising the application of such as are not light of heart; that it might receive all into its common bosom, and through narrow passages waft over some few towards Thee, yet many more than if it did not stand upon such a height of authority, nor allured multitudes within its bosom by its holy humility. These things I meditated upon, and Thou wert with me; I sighed, and Thou heardest me; I vacillated, and Thou didst guide me; I roamed through the broad way[Matthew 7:13] of the world, and Thou didst not desert me.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 100, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
Attaining his thirtieth year, he, under the admonition of the discourses of Ambrose, discovered more and more the truth of the Catholic doctrine, and deliberates as to the better regulation of his life. (HTML)
The Design of Establishing a Common Household with His Friends is Speedily Hindered. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 475 (In-Text, Margin)
... than that of the rest. We had arranged, too, that two officers should be chosen yearly, for the providing of all necessary things, whilst the rest were left undisturbed. But when we began to reflect whether the wives which some of us had already, and others hoped to have, would permit this, all that plan, which was being so well framed, broke to pieces in our hands, and was utterly wrecked and cast aside. Thence we fell again to sighs and groans, and our steps to follow the broad and beaten ways[Matthew 7:13] of the world; for many thoughts were in our heart, but Thy counsel standeth for ever. Out of which counsel Thou didst mock ours, and preparedst Thine own, purposing to give us meat in due season, and to open Thy hand, and to fill our souls with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 543, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Knowledge Both of Language and Things is Helpful for the Understanding of Figurative Expressions. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1796 (In-Text, Margin)
... as it were, be destroyed in us, if to save the body we deny our God! Or again, the statement that the serpent gets rid of its old skin by squeezing itself through a narrow hole, and thus acquires new strength—how appropriately it fits in with the direction to imitate the wisdom of the serpent, and to put off the old man, as the apostle says, that we may put on the new; and to put it off, too, by coming through a narrow place, according to the saying of our Lord, “Enter ye in at the strait gate!”[Matthew 7:13] As, then, knowledge of the nature of the serpent throws light upon many metaphors which Scripture is accustomed to draw from that animal, so ignorance of other animals, which are no less frequently mentioned by way of comparison, is a very great ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 336, footnote 2 (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 1049 (In-Text, Margin)
... correspond with the Jewish observance, for we take in the Lord’s day, on which Christ rose. And as to the feast of unleavened bread, all Christians sound in the faith keep it, not in the leaven of the old life, that is, of wickedness, but in the truth and sincerity of the faith; not for seven days, but always, as was typified by the number seven, for days are always counted by sevens. And if this observance is somewhat difficult in this world since the way which leads to life is strait and narrow,[Matthew 7:13] the future reward is sure; and this difficulty is typified in the bitter herbs, which are a little distasteful.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 305, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. x. 16, ‘Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves,’ etc. Delivered on a Festival of Martyrs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2219 (In-Text, Margin)
... love, that she has no gall; this I fear in the serpent, that he has poison. But now do not fear the serpent altogether; something he has for thee to hate, and something for thee to imitate. For when the serpent is weighed down with age, and he feels the burden of his many years, he contracts and forces himself into a hole, and lays aside his old coat of skin, that he may spring forth into new life. Imitate him in this, thou Christian, who dost hear Christ saying, “Enter ye in at the strait gate.”[Matthew 7:13] And the Apostle Paul saith to thee, “Put ye off the old man with his deeds, and put ye on the new man.” Thou hast then something to imitate in the serpent. Die not for the “old man,” but for the truth. Whoso dies for any temporal good dies “for the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 446, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xiii. 21 and 23, where the kingdom of God is said to be ‘like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal;’ and of that which is written in the same chapter, ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3465 (In-Text, Margin)
... are saved.” He did not say this. But what said He, when He had heard, “Are there few that be saved? Strive to enter by the strait gate.” When thou hearest then, “Are there few that be saved?” the Lord confirmed what He heard. Through the “strait gate” but “few” can “enter.” In another place He saith Himself, “Strait and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that go thereby: but broad and spacious is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which walk thereby.”[Matthew 7:13-14] Why rejoice we in great numbers? Give ear to me, ye “few.” I know that ye are “many,” who hear me, yet but “few” of you hear to obey. I see the floor, I look for the corn. And hardly is the corn seen, when the floor is being threshed; but the time ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 533, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the same words of the Gospel, John xiv. 6, ‘I am the way,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4211 (In-Text, Margin)
5. But he had been swollen up by pride, and by this swelling could not return by the strait way. He who became the Way, crieth out, “Enter ye in by the strait gate.”[Matthew 7:13] He tries to enter in, the swelling impedes him; and his trying is so much the more hurtful, in proportion as the swelling is a greater impediment. For the straitness irritates his swelling; and being irritated he will swell the more; and swelling more, when will he enter in? So then let him bring down the swelling. And how? Let him take the medicine of humility; let him against the swelling drink the bitter but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 31, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm VIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 316 (In-Text, Margin)
... see that the Churches for a while, now in this time, unto the last time of judgment, contain not only sheep and oxen, that is, holy laymen and holy ministers, but “moreover beasts of the field, birds of the air, and birds of the sea, that walk through the paths of the sea.” For the beasts of the field were very fitly understood, as men rejoicing in the pleasure of the flesh where they mount up to nothing high, nothing laborious. For the field is also “the broad way, that leadeth to destruction:”[Matthew 7:13] and in a field is Abel slain. Wherefore there is cause to fear, lest one coming down from the mountains of God’s righteousness (“for thy righteousness,” he says, “is as the mountains of God”) making choice of the broad and easy paths of carnal ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 62, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 635 (In-Text, Margin)
4. “Let them be confounded who do vain things unrighteously.” Let them be confounded who act unrighteously for the acquiring things that pass away. “Make Thy ways, O Lord, known to me, and teach me Thy paths” (ver. 4): not those which are broad, and lead the many to destruction;[Matthew 7:13] but Thy paths, narrow, and known to few, teach Thou me.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 93, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVII (HTML)
Part 1 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 865 (In-Text, Margin)
... road, happiness in its termination. “The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; and the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Thou walkest those ways which “the Lord knoweth,” and if thou dost suffer toil in them, they do not deceive thee. The “way of the ungodly” is but a transitory happiness; at the end of the way the happiness is at an end also. Why? Because that way is “the broad road;” its termination leads to the pit of hell. Now, thy way is narrow; and “few there be” that enter in through it:[Matthew 7:13-14] but into how ample a field it comes at the last, thou oughtest to consider. “Fret not thyself at him who prospereth in his way; because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 121, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XL (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1110 (In-Text, Margin)
7. “Blessed is that man that maketh the name of the Lord his trust, and hath not respected vanities or lying madnesses” (ver. 4). Behold the way by which thou wouldest fain have gone. Behold the “multitude that fill the Broad way.” It is not without reason “that” road leads to the amphitheatre. It is not without reason it leads to Death. The “broad way” leads unto death,[Matthew 7:13] its breadth delights for time: its end is straitness to all eternity. Aye; but the multitudes murmur; the multitudes are rejoicing together; the multitudes are hastening along; the multitudes are flocking together! Do not thou imitate them; do not turn aside after them: they are “vanities, and lying madnesses.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 144, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1347 (In-Text, Margin)
... suffering many things; ye have already lost many things that ye loved in this life: but I have not abandoned you on the way, the narrow way that I am teaching you. Ye were seeking “broad ways.” What do I tell you? This is the way we go to everlasting life; by the way ye wish to walk, ye are going to death. How “broad and wide is the road that leads to destruction: and” how “many there be that find it! How strait and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and” how “few there be” that walk therein![Matthew 7:13-14] Who are the few? They who patiently endure tribulations, patiently endure temptations; who in all these troubles do not “fall away:” who do not rejoice in the word “for a season” only; and in the time of tribulation fade away, as on the sun’s ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 664, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5899 (In-Text, Margin)
... “evil communications corrupt good manners.” But here perhaps thou wilt say, “Wherefore then are they prosperous? Behold, they worship not God, and commit every kind of evil daily: yet they abound in those things, through want of which I toil.” Be not envious against sinners. What they receive, thou seest; what is in store for them, seest thou not?…Wilt thou not believe even the Lord thy God, who saith, “Broad and spacious is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that walk by it”?[Matthew 7:13] This “way the Lord will root out.” And, when “the way of sinners” has been “rooted out,” what remaineth for us? “Come, ye blessed of My father, enjoy the Kingdom;” “The Lord shall reign for ever” (ver. 10). “O Sion, thy God” shall reign for ever; ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 125, footnote 16 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Martyrdom of James, who was called the Brother of the Lord. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 498 (In-Text, Margin)
8. Now some of the seven sects, which existed among the people and which have been mentioned by me in the Memoirs, asked him, ‘What is the gate of Jesus?’[Matthew 7:13-14] and he replied that he was the Saviour.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 529, footnote 7 (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 338. Coss. Ursus and Polemius; Præf. the same Theodorus, of Heliopolis, and of the Catholics. After him, for the second year, Philagrius; Indict. xi; Easter-day, vii Kal. Ap. xxx Phamenoth; Moon 18½; Æra Dioclet. 54. (HTML)
... within the wall, and all of us enter within the same fence, the adversary being cast out, and all his host expelled thence. For apart from light there is darkness, and apart from blessing there is a curse, the devil also is apart from the saints, and sin far from virtue. Therefore the Gospel rebukes Satan, saying, ‘Get thee behind Me, Satan.’ But us it calls to itself, saying, ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate.’ And again, ‘Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom which is prepared for you[Matthew 7:13].’ So also the Spirit cried aforetime in the Psalms, saying, ‘Enter into His gates with psalms.’ For through virtue a man enters in unto God, as Moses did into the thick cloud where God was. But through vice a man goes out from the presence of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 277, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3845 (In-Text, Margin)
You say that the commandments of God are easy, and yet you cannot produce any one who has fulfilled them all. Answer me this: are they easy or are they difficult? If they are easy, then produce some one who has fulfilled them all. Explain also the words of the psalmist: “thou dost cause toil by thy law,” and “because of the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways.” And make plain our Lord’s sayings in the gospel: “enter ye in at the strait gate;”[Matthew 7:13] and “love your enemies;” and “pray for them which persecute you.” If on the other hand the commandments are difficult and if no man has kept them all, how have you presumed to say that they are easy? Do not you see that you contradict yourself? For either they are easy and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 16, footnote 7 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
On Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 602 (In-Text, Margin)
... of John is a redemption from the threat of the fire, hear how he says, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ? Be not then henceforth a viper, but as thou hast been formerly a viper’s brood, put off, saith he, the slough of thy former sinful life. For every serpent creeps into a hole and casts its old slough, and having rubbed off the old skin, grows young again in body. In like manner enter thou also through the strait and narrow gate[Matthew 7:13-14]: rub off thy former self by fasting, and drive out that which is destroying thee. Put off the old man with his doings, and quote that saying in the Canticles, I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 237, footnote 13 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Panegyric on His Brother S. Cæsarius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2986 (In-Text, Margin)
23. Would that I might mortify my members that are upon the earth, would that I might spend my all upon the spirit, walking in the way that is narrow and trodden by few, not that which is broad and easy.[Matthew 7:13] For glorious and great are its consequences, and our hope is greater than our desert. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? What is this new mystery which concerns me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I share one condition with the lower world, the other with God; one with the flesh, the other with the spirit. I must be buried with Christ, ...