Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Matthew 25:41
There are 73 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 236, footnote 12 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Justin Martyr (HTML)
Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)
Chapter LXXVI.—From other passages the same majesty and government of Christ are proved. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2238 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.’ And, ‘Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten, and drunk, and prophesied, and cast out demons in Thy name? And I will say to them, Depart from Me.’ Again, in other words, by which He shall condemn those who are unworthy of salvation, He said, ‘Depart into outer darkness, which the Father has prepared for Satan and his, angels.’[Matthew 25:41] And again, in other words, He said, ‘I give unto you power to tread on serpents, and on scorpions, and on scolopendras, and on all the might of the enemy.’ And now we, who believe on our Lord Jesus, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 367, footnote 1 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)
Chapter VII.—Created things are not the images of those Æons who are within the Pleroma. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3020 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Æons. Moreover, since there are in the world some creatures that are gentle, and others that are fierce, some that are innocuous, while others are hurtful and destroy the rest; some have their abode on the earth, others in the water, others in the air, and others in the heaven; in like manner, they are bound to show that the Æons possess such properties, if indeed the one are the images of the others. And besides; “the eternal fire which the Father has prepared for the devil and his angels,”[Matthew 25:41] — they ought to show of which of those Æons that are above it is the image; for it, too, is reckoned part of the creation.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 408, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book II (HTML)
Chapter XXXII.—Further exposure of the wicked and blasphemous doctrines of the heretics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3268 (In-Text, Margin)
... opposed to His teaching? And, again, if there were really no such thing as good and evil, but certain things were deemed righteous, and certain others unrighteous, in human opinion only, He never would have expressed Himself thus in His teaching: “The righteous shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father;” but He shall send the unrighteous, and those who do not the works of righteousness, “into everlasting fire, where their worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be quenched.”[Matthew 25:41]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 456, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)
Chapter XXIII.—Arguments in opposition to Tatian, showing that it was consonant to divine justice and mercy that the first Adam should first partake in that salvation offered to all by Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3762 (In-Text, Margin)
... remaining unreprimanded, should be led to despise God. But the curse in all its fulness fell upon the serpent, which had beguiled them. “And God,” it is declared, “said to the serpent: Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above all the beasts of the earth.” And this same thing does the Lord also say in the Gospel, to those who are found upon the left hand: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my Father hath prepared for the devil and his angels;”[Matthew 25:41] indicating that eternal fire was not originally prepared for man, but for him who beguiled man, and caused him to offend—for him, I say, who is chief of the apostasy, and for those angels who became apostates along with him; which [fire], indeed, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 500, footnote 4 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXVII—The sins of the men of old time, which incurred the displeasure of God, were, by His providence, committed to writing, that we might derive instruction thereby, and not be filled with pride. We must not, therefore, infer that there was another God than He whom Christ preached; we should rather fear, lest the one and the same God who inflicted punishment on the ancients, should bring down heavier upon us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4189 (In-Text, Margin)
... state of degeneracy; but that there was another Father declared by Christ, and that this Being is He who has been conceived by the mind of each of them; not understanding that as, in the former case, God showed Himself not well pleased in many instances towards those who sinned, so also in the latter, “many are called, but few are chosen.” As then the unrighteous, the idolaters, and fornicators perished, so also is it now: for both the Lord declares, that such persons are sent into eternal fire;[Matthew 25:41] and the apostle says, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, not effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 501, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XXVIII.—Those persons prove themselves senseless who exaggerate the mercy of Christ, but are silent as to the judgment, and look only at the more abundant grace of the New Testament; but, forgetful of the greater degree of perfection which it demands from us, they endeavour to show that there is another God beyond Him who created the world. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4202 (In-Text, Margin)
... God; so is also our walk in life required to be more circumspect, when we are directed not merely to abstain from evil actions, but even from evil thoughts, and from idle words, and empty talk, and scurrilous language: thus also the punishment of those who do not believe the Word of God, and despise His advent, and are turned away backwards, is increased; being not merely temporal, but rendered also eternal. For to whomsoever the Lord shall say, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,”[Matthew 25:41] these shall be damned for ever; and to whomsoever He shall say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you for eternity,” these do receive the kingdom for ever, and make constant advance in it; since there is one and the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 509, footnote 9 (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 4298 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Lord Jesus from heaven, with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire.” Others again, speaking of Him as a judge, and [referring], as if it were a burning furnace, [to] the day of the Lord, who “gathers the wheat into His barn, but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,” were accustomed to threaten those who were unbelieving, concerning whom also the Lord Himself declares, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] And the apostle in like manner says [of them], “Who shall be punished with everlasting death from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in those who believe in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 523, footnote 5 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XL.—One and the same God the Father inflicts punishment on the reprobate, and bestows rewards on the elect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4425 (In-Text, Margin)
1. It is therefore one and the same God the Father who has prepared good things with Himself for those who desire His fellowship, and who remain in subjection to Him; and who has the eternal fire for the ringleader of the apostasy, the devil, and those who revolted with him, into which [fire] the Lord[Matthew 25:41] has declared those men shall be sent who have been set apart by themselves on His left hand. And this is what has been spoken by the prophet, “I am a jealous God, making peace, and creating evil things;” thus making peace and friendship with those who repent and turn to Him, and bringing [them to] unity, but preparing for the impenitent, those ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 524, footnote 3 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XL.—One and the same God the Father inflicts punishment on the reprobate, and bestows rewards on the elect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4429 (In-Text, Margin)
... other]; one, indeed, sending [men] into the Father’s kingdom, but the other into eternal fire. But inasmuch as one and the same Lord has pointed out that the whole human race shall be divided at the judgment, “as a shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats,” and that to some He will say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which has been prepared for you,” but to others, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which My Father has prepared for the devil and his angels,”[Matthew 25:41] one and the same Father is manifestly declared [in this passage], “making peace and creating evil things,” preparing fit things for both; as also there is one Judge sending both into a fit place, as the Lord sets forth in the parable of the tares ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 525, footnote 11 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)
Chapter XLI.—Those persons who do not believe in God, but who are disobedient, are angels and sons of the devil, not indeed by nature, but by imitation. Close of this book, and scope of the succeeding one. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4448 (In-Text, Margin)
... from your souls before mine eyes; cease from your iniquities.” Thus, no doubt, since they had transgressed and sinned in the same manner, so did they receive the same reproof as did the Sodomites. But when they should be converted and come to repentance, and cease from evil, they should have power to become the sons of God, and to receive the inheritance of immortality which is given by Him. For this reason, therefore, He has termed those “angels of the devil,” and “children of the wicked one,”[Matthew 25:41] who give heed to the devil, and do his works. But these are, at the same time, all created by the one and the same God. When, however, they believe and are subject to God, and go on and keep His doctrine, they are the sons of God; but when they have ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 566, footnote 6 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)
Chapter XXXV.—He contends that these testimonies already alleged cannot be understood allegorically of celestial blessings, but that they shall have their fulfilment after the coming of Antichrist, and the resurrection, in the terrestrial Jerusalem. To the former prophecies he subjoins others drawn from Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Apocalypse of John. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4776 (In-Text, Margin)
... and the judgment, mentioning “the dead, great and small.” “The sea,” he says, “gave up the dead which it had in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead that they contained; and the books were opened. Moreover,” he says, “the book of life was opened, and the dead were judged out of those things that were written in the books, according to their works; and death and hell were sent into the lake of fire, the second death.” Now this is what is called Gehenna, which the Lord styled eternal fire.[Matthew 25:41] “And if any one,” it is said, “was not found written in the book of life, he was sent into the lake of fire.” And after this, he says, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth have passed away; also there was no more sea. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 195, footnote 13 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
Exhortation to the Heathen (HTML)
Chapter IX.—“That Those Grievously Sin Who Despise or Neglect God’s Gracious Calling.” (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 960 (In-Text, Margin)
... God, who first were wrenched away from our sins, first severed from the devil. And now the more benevolent God is, the more impious men are; for He desires us from slaves to become sons, while they scorn to become sons. O the prodigious folly of being ashamed of the Lord! He offers freedom, you flee into bondage; He bestows salvation, you sink down into destruction; He confers everlasting life, you wait for punishment, and prefer the fire which the Lord “has prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] Wherefore the blessed apostle says: “I testify in the Lord, that ye walk no longer as the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind; having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 166, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)
Concerning the Passion of Christ, and Its Old Testament Predictions and Adumbrations. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1342 (In-Text, Margin)
... through which Jesus was to win the victory? Why, again, did the same Moses, after the prohibition of any “likeness of anything,” set forth a brazen serpent, placed on a “tree,” in a hanging posture, for a spectacle of healing to Israel, at the time when, after their idolatry, they were suffering extermination by serpents, except that in this case he was exhibiting the Lord’s cross on which the “serpent” the devil was “made a show of,” and, for every one hurt by such snakes—that is, his angels[Matthew 25:41] —on turning intently from the peccancy of sins to the sacraments of Christ’s cross, salvation was outwrought? For he who then gazed upon that (cross) was freed from the bite of the serpents.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 483, footnote 13 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Against Hermogenes. (HTML)
Hermogenes Makes Great Efforts to Remove Evil from God to Matter. How He Fails to Do This Consistently with His Own Argument. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 6237 (In-Text, Margin)
... be invincible and insuperable, as being eternal; and in that case it will be in vain that we labour “to put away evil from the midst of us;” in that case, moreover, God vainly gives us such a command and precept; nay more, in vain has God appointed any judgment at all, when He means, indeed, to inflict punishment with injustice. But if, on the other hand, there is to be an end of evil, when the chief thereof, the devil, shall “go away into the fire which God hath prepared for him and his angels”[Matthew 25:41] —having been first “cast into the bottomless pit;” when likewise “the manifestation of the children of God” shall have “delivered the creature” from evil, which had been “made subject to vanity;” when the cattle restored in the innocence and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 533, footnote 17 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Flesh of Christ. (HTML)
Christ Took Not on Him an Angelic Nature, But the Human. It Was Men, Not Angels, Whom He Came to Save. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7139 (In-Text, Margin)
... Christ, they say, bare (the nature of) an angel. For what reason? The same which induced Him to become man? Christ, then, was actuated by the motive which led Him to take human nature. Man’s salvation was the motive, the restoration of that which had perished. Man had perished; his recovery had become necessary. No such cause, however, existed for Christ’s taking on Him the nature of angels. For although there is assigned to angels also perdition in “the fire prepared for the devil and his angels,”[Matthew 25:41] yet a restoration is never promised to them. No charge about the salvation of angels did Christ ever receive from the Father; and that which the Father neither promised nor commanded, Christ could not have undertaken. For what object, therefore, did ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 306, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter I. translated from the Greek: On the Freedom of the Will, With an Explanation and Interpretation of Those Statements of Scripture Which Appear to Nullify It. (HTML)
... that heareth them, but doeth them not, is like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand,” etc. And when He says to those on His right hand, “Come, ye blessed of My Father,” etc.; “for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me to eat; I was athirst, and ye gave Me to drink,” it is exceedingly manifest that He gives the promises to these as being deserving of praise. But, on the contrary, to the others, as being censurable in comparison with them, He says, “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire!”[Matthew 25:41] And let us observe how Paul also converses with us as having freedom of will, and as being ourselves the cause of ruin or salvation, when he says, “Dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and of His patience, and of His long-suffering; not ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 483, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On Works and Alms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3579 (In-Text, Margin)
... drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer Him, saying, Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and ministered not unto Thee? And He shall answer them, Verily I say unto you, In so far as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting burning: but the righteous into life eternal.”[Matthew 25:31-46] What more could Christ declare unto us? How more could He stimulate the works of our righteousness and mercy, than by saying that whatever is given to the needy and poor is given to Himself, and by saying that He is aggrieved unless the needy and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 528, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
... stranger, and ye received me not: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer and say, Lord, when saw we Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and have not ministered unto Thee? And He shall answer unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have not done it to one of the least of these, ye have not done it unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal.”[Matthew 25:31-46]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 532, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: I was naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer, and say, Lord, when saw we Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee? And He shall answer them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not unto me. And these shall go away into everlasting burning: but the righteous into life eternal.”[Matthew 25:31-46] Concerning this same matter in the Gospel according to Luke: “Sell your possessions, and give alms.” Also in the same place: “He who made that which is within, made that which is without also. But give alms, and, behold, all things are pure unto ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 234, footnote 8 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Archelaus. (HTML)
A Fragment of the Same Disputation. (HTML)
Chapter I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2164 (In-Text, Margin)
... blasphemy. For he said: If the God of the Old Testament, according to your allegation, calls Himself a fire, whose son is He who says, “I am come to send fire upon the earth?” If you find fault with one who says, “The Lord killeth and maketh alive,” why do you honour Peter, who raised Tabitha to life, but also put Sapphira to death? And if again, you find fault with the one because He has prepared a fire, why do you not find fault with the other, who says, “Depart from me into everlasting fire?”[Matthew 25:41] If you find fault with Him who says, “I, God, make peace, and create evil,” explain to us how Jesus says, “I came not to send peace, but a sword.” Since both persons speak in the same terms, one or other of these two things must follow: namely, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 331, footnote 9 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Pseudo-Clementine Literature. (HTML)
The Clementine Homilies. (HTML)
Homily XIX. (HTML)
The Existence of the Devil Affirmed. (HTML)
... heaven. And elsewhere He said, ‘He who sowed the bad seed is the devil.’ And again, ‘Give no pretext to the evil one.’ Moreover, in giving advice, He said, ‘Let your yea be yea, and your nay nay; for what is more than these is of the evil one.’ Also, in the prayer which He delivered to us, we have it said, ‘Deliver us from the evil one.’ And in another place, He promised that He would say to those who are impious, ‘Go ye into outer darkness, which the Father prepared for the devil and his angels.’[Matthew 25:41] And not to prolong this statement further, I know that my Teacher often said that there is an evil one. Wherefore I also agree in thinking that he exists. If, then, in future you have anything to say in accordance with this belief, say it, as you ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 342, 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 XX. (HTML)
Why the Wicked One is Appointed Over the Wicked by the Righteous God. (HTML)
When Peter said this, Lazarus, who also was one of his followers, said: “Explain to us the harmony, how it can be reasonable that the wicked one should be appointed by the righteous God to be the punisher of the impious, and yet should himself afterwards be sent into lower darkness along with his angels and with sinners: for I remember that the Teacher Himself said this.”[Matthew 25:41] And Peter said: “I indeed allow that the evil one does no evil, inasmuch as he is accomplishing the law given to him. And although he has an evil disposition, yet through fear of God he does nothing unjustly; but, accusing the teachers of truth so as to entrap the unwary, he is himself named the accuser (the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 110, footnote 43 (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 XLIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3011 (In-Text, Margin)
... and ye visited me; and I was in prison, and ye cared for me. Then shall those righteous say unto him, Our Lord, when saw we thee hungry, and fed thee? [50] or thirsty, and gave thee to drink? And when saw we thee a stranger, and took [51] thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? And when saw we thee sick, or imprisoned, and [52] cared for thee? The King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, What [53] [Arabic, p. 166] ye did to one of these my brethren, the little ones, ye did unto me.[Matthew 25:41] Then shall he say unto those that are on his left also, Depart from me, ye cursed, [54] into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his hosts: I hungered, and ye fed me [55] not; and I thirsted, and ye did not give me to drink; and I was a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 424, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
The Passages in Which the Saviour Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgment in the End of the World. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1332 (In-Text, Margin)
I shall now cite from the Gospel according to Matthew the passage which speaks of the separation of the good from the wicked by the most efficacious and final judgment of Christ: “When the Son of man,” he says, “shall come in His glory, . . . then shall He say also unto them on His left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:34-41] Then He in like manner recounts to the wicked the things they had not done, but which He had said those on the right hand had done. And when they ask when they had seen Him in need of these things, He replies that, inasmuch as they had not done it to the least of His brethren, they had not done it unto ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 432, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
Whether the Fire that Came Down Out of Heaven and Devoured Them Refers to the Last Punishment of the Wicked. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1378 (In-Text, Margin)
The words, “And fire came down out of heaven and devoured them,” are not to be understood of the final punishment which shall be inflicted when it is said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;”[Matthew 25:41] for then they shall be cast into the fire, not fire come down out of heaven upon them. In this place “fire out of heaven” is well understood of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to yield obedience to those who rage against them. For the firmament is “heaven,” by whose firmness these assailants shall be pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw away the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 461, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Whether the Fire of Hell, If It Be Material Fire, Can Burn the Wicked Spirits, that is to Say, Devils, Who are Immaterial. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1512 (In-Text, Margin)
Here arises the question: If the fire is not to be immaterial, analogous to the pain of the soul, but material, burning by contact, so that bodies may be tormented in it, how can evil spirits be punished in it? For it is undoubtedly the same fire which is to serve for the punishment of men and of devils, according to the words of Christ: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;”[Matthew 25:41] unless, perhaps, as learned men have thought, the devils have a kind of body made of that dense and humid air which we feel strikes us when the wind is blowing. And if this kind of substance could not be affected by fire, it could not burn when heated in the baths. For in order to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 468, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Against Those Who are of Opinion that the Punishment Neither of the Devil Nor of Wicked Men Shall Be Eternal. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1541 (In-Text, Margin)
... protracted punishment. For so many holy men, imbued with the spirit of the Old and New Testament, did not grudge to angels of any rank or character that they should enjoy the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by suffering, but rather they perceived that they could not invalidate nor evacuate the divine sentence which the Lord predicted that He would pronounce in the judgment, saying, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] For here it is evident that the devil and his angels shall burn in everlasting fire. And there is also that declaration in the Apocalypse, “The devil their deceiver was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where also are the beast and the false ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 469, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Against Those Who are of Opinion that the Punishment Neither of the Devil Nor of Wicked Men Shall Be Eternal. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1544 (In-Text, Margin)
... last day, when eternal fire shall receive them, in which they shall be tormented world without end. And if this be so, how can it be believed that all men, or even some, shall be withdrawn from the endurance of punishment after some time has been spent in it? how can this be believed without enervating our faith in the eternal punishment of the devils? For if all or some of those to whom it shall be said, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,”[Matthew 25:41] are not to be always in that fire, then what reason is there for believing that the devil and his angels shall always be there? Or is perhaps the sentence of God, which is to be pronounced on wicked men and angels alike, to be true in the case of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 470, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Against Those Who Fancy that in the Judgment of God All the Accused Will Be Spared in Virtue of the Prayers of the Saints. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1549 (In-Text, Margin)
... which is to come, it could not be truly said, “They shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in that which is to come.” But when the Judge of quick and dead has said, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” and to those on the other side, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels,” and “These shall go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life,”[Matthew 25:41] it were excessively presumptuous to say that the punishment of any of those whom God has said shall go away into eternal punishment shall not be eternal, and so bring either despair or doubt upon the corresponding promise of life eternal.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 471, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
Against Those Who Fancy that in the Judgment of God All the Accused Will Be Spared in Virtue of the Prayers of the Saints. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1555 (In-Text, Margin)
As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth in such passages as these: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire;” and “These shall go away into eternal punishment;”[Matthew 25:41] and “They shall be tormented for ever and ever;” and “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched,” —such persons, I say, are most emphatically and abundantly refuted, not by me so much as by the divine Scripture itself. For the men of Nineveh repented in this life, and therefore their repentance was fruitful, inasmuch as they sowed in that field which the Lord meant to be sown in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 474, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it. (HTML)
What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1578 (In-Text, Margin)
But if this passage [of Corinthians] is to interpret that fire of which the Lord shall say to those on His left hand, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,”[Matthew 25:41] so that among these we are to believe there are those who build on the foundation wood, hay, stubble, and that they, through virtue of the good foundation, shall after a time be liberated from the fire that is the award of their evil deserts, what then shall we think of those on the right hand, to whom it shall be said, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you,” unless that they are ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 36, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The unity and equality of the Trinity are demonstrated out of the Scriptures; and the true interpretation is given of those texts which are wrongly alleged against the equality of the Son. (HTML)
Diverse Things are Spoken Concerning the Same Christ, on Account of the Diverse Natures of the One Hypostasis [Theanthropic Person]. Why It is Said that the Father Will Not Judge, But Has Given Judgment to the Son. (HTML)
... to the righteous. For He still goes on to call these to the kingdom which has been prepared for them from the foundation of the world. For, as He will say to those, “Depart into everlasting fire;” so to these, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you.” And as those will go into everlasting burning; so the righteous will go into life eternal. But what is life eternal, except “that they may know Thee,” He says, “the One true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent?”[Matthew 25:41] but know Him now in that glory of which He says to the Father, “Which I had with Thee before the world was.” For then He will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that the good servant may enter into the joy of his Lord, and that He may ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 260, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
It is Not Impossible that Some Believers May Pass Through a Purgatorial Fire in the Future Life. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1227 (In-Text, Margin)
... their sins be forgiven them. When I say “suitable,” I mean that they are not to be unfruitful in almsgiving; for Holy Scripture lays so much stress on this virtue, that our Lord tells us beforehand, that He will ascribe no merit to those on His right hand but that they abound in it, and no defect to those on His left hand but their want of it, when He shall say to the former, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom,” and to the latter, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”[Matthew 25:31-46]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 301, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)
The Specimen of Catechetical Discourse Continued, in Reference Specially to the Reproval of False Aims on the Catechumen’s Part. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1434 (In-Text, Margin)
27. “But as to the man who has in view that everlasting blessedness and perpetual rest which is promised as the lot destined for the saints after this life, and who desires to become a Christian, in order that he may not pass into eternal fire with the devil, but enter into the eternal kingdom together with Christ,[Matthew 25:41] such an one is truly a Christian; (and he will be) on his guard in every temptation, so that he may neither be corrupted by prosperity nor be utterly broken in spirit by adversity, but remain at once modest and temperate when the good things of earth abound with him, and brave and patient when tribulations overtake him. A person of this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 374, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Creed. (HTML)
Section 12 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1794 (In-Text, Margin)
... his own. To the just He will say in the judgment, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” For this prepare yourselves, for these things hope, for this live, and so live, for this believe, for this be baptized, that it may be said to you, “Come ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” To them on the left hand, what? “Go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] Thus will they be judged by Christ, the quick and the dead. We have spoken of Christ’s first nativity, which is without time; spoken of the other in the fullness of time, Christ’s nativity of the Virgin; spoken of the passion of Christ; spoken of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 358, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans. (HTML)
From God Also is the Very Power to Be Hurtful. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1124 (In-Text, Margin)
... was damned so that he should hang himself. When, therefore, through the power which He has given the Devil, God Himself shall have done all things righteously, nevertheless punishment shall at last be rendered to the Devil not for these things justly done, but for the unrighteous willing to be hurtful, which belonged to himself, when it shall be said to the impious who persevered in consenting to his wickedness, "Go ye into everlasting fire which my God has prepared for the Devil and his angels."[Matthew 25:41]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 456, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 13 (HTML)
... case of some men to God, but even in the case of some to their fellow-men; for, by regarding their openly abandoned life and confirmed wickedness, and comparing it with the rules of God’s commandments, they understand to what a multitude of tares and chaff, situated now some within and some without, but destined to be most manifestly separated at the last day, the Lord will then say, "Depart from me, ye that work iniquity," and "Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."[Matthew 25:41]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 459, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 19 (HTML)
... any one of the less heinous of these vices, as if you choose more than one, or some one which you saw was more atrocious; and because those will inherit the kingdom of God whom the Judge shall set on His right hand, and for those who shall not be found worthy to be set at the right hand nothing will remain but to be at the left, no other announcement is left for them to hear like goats from the mouth of the Shepherd, except, "Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;"[Matthew 25:41] though in that fire, as I said before, it may be that different punishments will be awarded corresponding to the difference of the sins.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 539, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 18 (HTML)
... divine excellence, they have ceased to be angels, yet retain the name of angels, and always esteem themselves as angels, though, being released from the service of God, they have passed from the likeness of their character into the army of the devil, as the great God declares, ‘My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.’ To those guilty ones and to you the Lord Christ will say, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.’[Matthew 25:41] If there were no evil angels, the devil would have no angels; of whom the apostle says, that in the judgment of the resurrection they shall be condemned by the saints: ‘Know ye not,’ says he, ‘that we shall judge angels?’ If they were true angels, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 544, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 23 (HTML)
... the apostle says, "Nor shall thieves inherit the kingdom of God." But those who shall not inherit the kingdom of God will certainly not be on His right hand among those whom it shall be said, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." If they are not there, where will they be except on the left hand? Therefore among those to whom it shall be said, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."[Matthew 25:41] In vain, therefore, do you indulge in your security, thinking it a trivial fault which separates you from the kingdom of God, and sends you into everlast ing fire. How much better will you do to betake yourself to true confusion, saying, Every one ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 224, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Of Christ’s Subsequent Manifestations of Himself to the Disciples, and of the Question Whether a Thorough Harmony Can Be Established Between the Different Narratives When the Notices Given by the Four Several Evangelists, as Well as Those Presented by the Apostle Paul and in the Acts of the Apostles, are Compared Together. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1584 (In-Text, Margin)
... which does not involve His leaving us, although He has preceded us thither. That will be a revelation which may be spoken of as a true Galilee, when we shall be like Him; there shall we see Him as He is. Then, also, will there be for us the more blessed transmigration, from this world into that eternity, if we embrace His precepts so as to be counted worthy of being set apart on His right hand. For there, those on the left hand shall go away into eternal burning, but the righteous into life eternal.[Matthew 25:33-46] Hence they shall pass thither, and there, shall they see Him, as the wicked do not see Him. For the wicked shall be taken away, so that he shall not see the brightness of the Lord; and the unrighteousness shall not see the light. For He says, “And ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 276, footnote 4 (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 Lord’s Prayer in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. vi. 9, etc. to the Competentes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1979 (In-Text, Margin)
... not resist Thy will. Therefore here again it is for thyself thou prayest, and not for God. For the will of God will be done in thee, though it be not done by thee. For both in them to whom He shall say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world;” shall the will of God be done, that the saints and righteous may receive the kingdom; and in them to whom He shall say, “Depart ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,”[Matthew 25:41] shall the will of God be done, that the wicked may be condemned to everlasting fire. That His will may be done by thee is another thing. It is not then without a cause, but that it may be well with thee, that thou dost pray that His will may be done ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 285, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again on the Lord’s Prayer, Matt. vi. To the Competentes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2039 (In-Text, Margin)
... that His kingdom may come, is nothing else than to wish of Him, that He would make us worthy of His kingdom, lest haply, which God forbid, it should come, and not come to us. For to many that will never come, which nevertheless must come. For to them will it come, to whom it shall be said, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But it will not come to them to whom it shall be said, “Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.”[Matthew 25:41] Therefore when we say, “Thy kingdom come,” we pray that it may come to us. What is, “may come to us”? May find us good. This we pray for then, that He would make us good; for then to us will His kingdom come.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 339, footnote 4 (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. xiv. 24, ‘But the boat was now in the midst of the sea, distressed by the waves.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2561 (In-Text, Margin)
... voice aright, who saith, “It is I; be not afraid;” believe at once all the words of the Lord, so that as they hope for the rewards He promises, so do they fear the punishments He threatens. For as that is true which He will say to those who are set on the right hand, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;” so is that true, which they on the left hand will hear, “Depart ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his Angels.”[Matthew 25:41] For this very opinion, by which men think that Christ’s threatenings against the unrighteous and the abandoned are not true, has arisen from this, that they see many nations and multitudes innumerable subject to His Name; so that hence Christ ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 143, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter V. 20–23. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 437 (In-Text, Margin)
... God hidden in the body they will not see: after the judgment He will be seen by those who will be on the right hand. This, then, is what He means when He saith, “The Father judgeth not any man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son,”—that the Son will come to judgment manifest, apparent to men in human body; saying to those on the right, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom;” and to those on the left, “Go into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 247, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter IX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 835 (In-Text, Margin)
... generations still to come. “Lo,” He says,” I am with you always, even to the end of the world.” That day, which is completed by the circuit of yonder sun, has but few hours; the day of Christ’s presence extends even to the end of the world. But after the resurrection of the living and the dead, when He shall say to those placed at His right hand, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom;” and to those at His left, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels;”[Matthew 25:41] then shall be the night when no man can work, but only get back what he has wrought before. There is a time for working, another for receiving; for the Lord shall render to every one according to his works. While thou livest, be doing, if thou art ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 369, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. 8–11. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1541 (In-Text, Margin)
... cloak for their sin”? And that no one may take it to his head to say that this applied properly to the Jews, and not to the world, did He not say in another place, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own”? Did He not reprove it of righteousness, when He said, “O righteous Father, the world hath not known Thee”? And did He not reprove it of judgment when He declared that He would say to those on the left hand, “Depart ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”?[Matthew 25:41] And many other passages are to be found in the holy evangel, where Christ reproveth the world of these things. Why is it, then, He attributeth this to the Holy Spirit, as if it were His proper prerogative? Is it that, because Christ spake only among ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 480, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John II. 18–27. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2175 (In-Text, Margin)
... these are the wages, so to say, for which he exhorts us to endure in labor. What are these wages called? “eternal life.” Ye have heard, and in your joy ye have cried out: love that which ye have heard, and ye are delivered from your labors into the rest of eternal life. Lo, this is what God promises; “eternal life.” Lo, this what God threatens; eternal fire. What to those set on the right hand? “Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.”[Matthew 25:41] To those on the left, what? “Go into eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Thou dost not yet love that: at least fear this.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 484, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John II. 27–III. 8. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2210 (In-Text, Margin)
... form, a man, but yet God: for “cursed is every one that putteth his trust in man.” A man, He came to be judged, a man, He will come to judge. And if He shall not be seen, what is this that is written, “They shall look on Him whom they pierced?” For of the ungodly it is said, that they shall see and be confounded. How shall the ungodly not see, when He shall set some on the right hand, others on the left? To those on the right hand He will say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom:”[Matthew 25:41] to those on the left He will say, “Go into everlasting fire.” They will see but the form of a servant, the form of God they will not see. Why? because they were ungodly; and the Lord Himself saith, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 100, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVII (HTML)
Part 3 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 913 (In-Text, Margin)
... not given them? That which on earth would have been lost, has been preserved in heaven. Therefore what we are to receive is that which hath been preserved. It is thy desert that hath been preserved, thy desert hath been made thy treasure. For consider what it is that thou art to receive. Receive—“the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” On the other hand, what shall be their sentence, who would not “lend”? “Go ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] And what is the kingdom which we receive called? Consider what follows: “And these shall go into everlasting burning; but the righteous into life eternal.” Make interest for this; purchase this. Give your money on usury to earn this. You have Christ ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 153, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1441 (In-Text, Margin)
“Upon Thy right hand did stand the Queen” (ver. 9). She which stands on the left is no Queen. For there will be one standing on “the left” also, to whom it will be said, “Go into everlasting fire.”[Matthew 25:41] But she shall stand on the right hand, to whom it will be said, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” On Thy right hand did stand the Queen, “in a vesture of gold, clothed about with divers colours.” What is the vesture of this Queen? It is one both precious, and also of divers colours: it is the mysteries of doctrine in all the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 170, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XLIX (HTML)
Part 1 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1619 (In-Text, Margin)
... Nay, for let not man fear, he saith, who hath not power to escape. For example, he who feareth death, what shall he do to escape death? Let him tell me how he is to escape what Adam oweth, he who is born of Adam. But let him consider that he is born of Adam, and hath followed Christ, and ought to pay what Adam oweth, and obtain what Christ hath promised. Therefore, he who feareth death can no wise escape: but he who feareth the damnation which the ungodly shall hear, “Go ye into everlasting fire,”[Matthew 25:41] hath an escape. Let him not fear then. For why should he fear? Will the iniquity of his heel compass him? If then he avoid “the iniquity of his heel,” and walk in the ways of God, he shall not come to the evil day: the evil day, the last day, shall ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 199, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1902 (In-Text, Margin)
... thyself, since the grass shall wither, and the bloom shall fall down, “God shall destroy thee at the end:” and if not now, certainly at the end He shall destroy, when that winnowing shall have come, and the heap of chaff from the solid grain shall have been separated. Is not the solid grain for the barns, and the chaff for the fire? Shall not the whole of that Doeg stand at the left hand, when the Lord is to say, “Go ye into fire everlasting, which hath been prepared for the devil and his angels”?[Matthew 25:41] Therefore “God shall destroy at the end: shall pluck thee out, and shall remove thee from thy dwelling.” Now then this Doeg the Edomite is in a dwelling: “But a servant abideth not in the house for ever.” Even he worketh something of good, even if ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 234, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2196 (In-Text, Margin)
... hell, fire everlasting. For future punishment hath two kinds: either of the lower places it is, where was burning that rich man, who was wishing for himself a drop of water to be dropped on his tongue off the finger of the poor man, whom before his gate he had spurned, when he saith, “For I am tormented in this flame.” And the second is that at the end, whereof they are to hear, that on the left hand are to be set: “Go ye into fire everlasting, that hath been prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] Those punishments shall be manifest at that time, when we shall have departed out of this life, or when at the end of the world men shall have come to the resurrection of the dead. Now therefore is there no punishment, and doth God suffer sins ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 243, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LIX (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2270 (In-Text, Margin)
... anger of consuming. For every vengeance of God is called anger: sometimes God avengeth, to the end that He may make perfect; sometimes He avengeth, to the end that He may condemn. How doth He avenge, to the end that He may make perfect? “He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” How doth He avenge, to the end that He may condemn? When He shall have set ungodly men on the left hand, and shall have said to them, “Go ye into fire everlasting, that hath been prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] This is the anger of consuming, not that of consummation. But “there shall be declared consummations in the anger of consummation;” it shall be preached by the Apostles, that “where sin hath abounded, grace shall much more abound,” and the weakness ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 255, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2428 (In-Text, Margin)
... the multitude of guests. They conspire, they all seek things temporal, and they that are carnal things carnal, and for the future they hope them, whosoever do hope: even if because of variety of opinions they are in division, nevertheless because of vanity they are at one. Divers indeed are errors and of many forms, and the kingdom against itself divided shall not stand: but alike in all is the will vain and lying, belonging to one king, with whom into fire everlasting it is to be thrown headlong[Matthew 25:41] —“these men because of vanity are at one.” And for them see how He thirsteth, see how He runneth in thirst.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 267, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2531 (In-Text, Margin)
... now, choose while there is time.…If of crooked heart thou hast become, there will come that Judgment, there will appear all the reasons on account of which God doeth all these things: and thou that wouldest not in this life correct thy heart by the rectitude of God, and prepare thyself for the right hand, where “there shall be praised all men right in heart,” wilt be on the left, where at that time thou shalt hear, “Go ye into fire everlasting, that hath been prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] And will there be then time to correct the heart? Now therefore correct, brethren, now correct. Who doth hinder? Psalm is chanted, Gospel is read, Reader crieth, Preacher crieth; long-suffering is the Lord; thou sinnest, and He spareth; still thou ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 449, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XCI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4305 (In-Text, Margin)
... permitted them, and Thine own have thence received a brighter crown, “nevertheless,” etc. For the evil which they willed, not the good they unconsciously were the agents of, will be recompensed them. All that is wanting is the eye of faith, by which we may see that they are raised for a time only, while they shall mourn for evermore; and to those into whose hands is given temporal power over the servants of God, it shall be said, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] But if every man have but eyes in the sense in which it is said, “With thine eyes shalt thou behold,” it is no unimportant thing to look upon the wicked flourishing in this life, and to have an eye to him, to consider what will become of him in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 475, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XCVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4458 (In-Text, Margin)
5. “There shall go a fire before Him, and burn up His enemies on every side” (ver. 3). We remember having read in the Gospel, He shall say, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] I do not think it is said of that fire. Why do I not? Because he speaketh of some fire, which shall go before Him, before He cometh to judgment. For it is said, that the fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies on every side, that is, throughout the whole world. That fire will burn after His advent: this, on the contrary, will go before Him. What fire then is this?…Behold, we have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 548, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5022 (In-Text, Margin)
... world.” For no works of theirs, save works of mercy, are there mentioned. He therefore shall hear, “Come, ye blessed of My Father;” for, “the generation of the right ones shall be blessed.” Thus, “the righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” “He will not be afraid of any evil hearing; for his heart standeth fast and believeth in the Lord” (ver. 7). Such as the words which he will hear addressed to those on the left hand, “Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] He therefore who seeketh here not his own things, but those of Jesus Christ, most patiently endureth sufferings, waiteth for the promises with faith. Nor is he broken down by any temptations: “His heart is established, and will not shrink, until he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 636, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5721 (In-Text, Margin)
... ancient ones” (ver. 5). Thou hast known my latest doings, when I fed swine; Thou hast known my ancient doings, when I asked of Thee my portion of goods. Ancient doings were the beginnings to me of latest ills: ancient sin, when we fell; latest punishment, when we came into this toilsome and dangerous mortality. And would that this may be “latest” to us; it will be, if now we will to return. For there is another “latest” for certain wicked ones, to whom it shall be said, “Go ye into everlasting fire.”[Matthew 25:41] …“Thou hast fashioned me, and hast laid Thine hand upon me.” “Fashioned me,” where? In this mortality; now, to the toils whereunto we all are born. For none is born, but God has fashioned him in his mother’s womb; nor is there any creature, whereof ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 650, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5801 (In-Text, Margin)
5. “I considered upon the right hand, and saw” (ver. 4). He considered upon the right hand, and saw: whoso considereth upon the left hand, is blinded. What is to consider on the right hand? Where they will be to whom shall be said, “Come, ye blessed of My Father,” etc.,[Matthew 25:41] …He goeth on to say, “and there was none that knew me.” For when thou fearest all things, who knoweth what thou regardest, whether thou directest thine eyes to the right hand or to the left? If, in bearing, thou seekest the praise of men, thou hast regarded the left: if, in bearing, thou seekest the promises of God, thou hast regarded the right hand. Hast thou ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 659, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5872 (In-Text, Margin)
... they are. And wilt thou know how “His compassions are over all His works”? Thence is that long-suffering, whereby “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good.” Are not “His compassions over all His works, who sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust”? In His long-suffering He waiteth for the sinner, saying, “Turn ye to Me, and I will turn to you.” Are not “His compassions over all His works”? And when He saith, “Go ye into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,”[Matthew 25:41] this is not His compassion, but His severity. His compassion is given to His works: His severity is not over His works, but over thy works. Lastly, if thou remove thine own evil works, and there remain in thee nought but His work, His compassion ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 676, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5970 (In-Text, Margin)
... discipline, smitest the ground to terrify a child. Sometimes too He smiteth a man, whom He will. But thou sayest to me, Behold, He smiteth the more innocent, and passeth over the more guilty. Wonder not; death, whencesoever it come, is good to the good man. And whence dost thou know what punishment is reserved in secret for that more guilty man, if he be unwilling to be converted? Would not they rather be scorched by lightning, to whom it shall be said in the end, “Depart into everlasting fire”?[Matthew 25:41] The needful thing is, that thou be guileless. Why so? Is it an evil thing to die by shipwreck, and a good thing to die by fever? Whether he die in this way or in that, ask what sort of man he is who dieth; ask whither he will go after death, not how ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 218, footnote 2 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Impassible. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1416 (In-Text, Margin)
Eran. —He prepared for him the unquenchable flame of Gehenna, for, He says, “Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”[Matthew 25:41] And the reason why he did not here share death with his disciples is because he has an immortal nature.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 63, footnote 12 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
Paula and Eustochium to Marcella. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 992 (In-Text, Margin)
... leaders of the Christian host, have shed their blood for Christ? If the confession of men and servants is glorious, must there not be glory likewise in the confession of their Lord and God? Everywhere we venerate the tombs of the martyrs; we apply their holy ashes to our eyes; we even touch them, if we may, with our lips. And yet some think that we should neglect the tomb in which the Lord Himself is buried. If we refuse to believe human testimony, let us at least credit the devil and his angels.[Matthew 25:41] For when in front of the Holy Sepulchre they are driven out of those bodies which they have possessed, they moan and tremble as if they stood before Christ’s judgment-seat, and grieve, too late that they have crucified Him in whose presence they now ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 169, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
From Rufinus to Macarius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2485 (In-Text, Margin)
In the sight of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I adjure and require everyone who shall either read or copy these books of mine, by his belief in a kingdom to come, by the mystery of the resurrection from the dead, by the eternal fire which is “prepared for the devil and his angels;”[Matthew 25:41] as he hopes not to inherit eternally that place where “there is weeping and gnashing of teeth,” and where “their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched,” let him add nothing to what is written, let him subtract nothing, let him insert nothing, let him alter nothing, but let him compare his transcript with the copies from which it is made, let ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 402, footnote 7 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4836 (In-Text, Margin)
18. His fourth and last contention is that there are two classes, the sheep and the goats, the just and the unjust: that the just stand on the right hand, the other on the left: and that to the just the words are spoken: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” But that sinners are thus addressed:[Matthew 25:41] “Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.” That a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, nor an evil tree good fruit. Hence it is that the Saviour says to the Jews: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do.” He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 41, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Concerning the Unity of God. On the Article, I Believe in One God. Also Concerning Heresies. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 930 (In-Text, Margin)
... Archelaus undermined his blasphemous argument by saying, “If the God of the Old Testament, as thou sayest, calls Himself a fire, whose Son is He who saith, I came to send fire on the earth? If thou findest fault with Him who saith, The Lord killeth, and maketh alive, why dost thou honour Peter, who raised up Tabitha, but struck Sapphira dead? If again thou findest fault, because He prepared fire, wherefore dost thou not find fault with Him who saith, Depart from Me into everlasting fire[Matthew 25:41]? If thou findest fault with Him who saith, I am God that make peace, and create evil, explain how Jesus saith, I came not to send peace but a sword. Since both speak alike, of two things one, either both are good, because of their agreement, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 373, footnote 15 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4142 (In-Text, Margin)
... fire which Christ came to send upon the earth, and He Himself is anagogically called a Fire. This Fire takes away whatsoever is material and of evil habit; and this He desires to kindle with all speed, for He longs for speed in doing us good, since He gives us even coals of fire to help us. I know also a fire which is not cleansing, but avenging; either that fire of Sodom which He pours down on all sinners, mingled with brimstone and storms, or that which is prepared for the Devil and his Angels[Matthew 25:41] or that which proceeds from the face of the Lord, and shall burn up his enemies round about; and one even more fearful still than these, the unquenchable fire which is ranged with the worm that dieth not but is eternal for the wicked. For all these ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 212, footnote 6 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
Title Page (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book XI (HTML)
32. The meaning of the abolishing of every power which is against Him is not obscure. The prince of the air, the power of spiritual wickedness, shall be delivered to eternal destruction, as Christ says, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire which My Father hath prepared for the devil and his angels[Matthew 25:41]. The abolishing is not the same as the subjecting. To abolish the power of the enemy is to sweep away for ever his prerogative of power, so that by the abolition of his power is brought to an end the rule of his kingdom. Of this the Lord testifies when He says, My kingdom is not of this world: as He had once before testified that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 21b, footnote 1 (Image)
Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus
John of Damascus: Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Concerning the devil and demons. (HTML)
All wickedness, then, and all impure passions are the work of their mind. But while the liberty to attack man has been granted to them, they have not the strength to over-master any one: for we have it in our power to receive or not to receive the attack. Wherefore there has been prepared for the devil and his demons, and those who follow him, fire unquenchable and everlasting punishment[Matthew 25:41].
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 61, footnote 1 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of Sulpitius Severus. (HTML)
The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus. (HTML)
Letter II. A Letter of Sulpitius Severus to His Sister Claudia Concerning Virginity. (HTML)
Chapter VII. (HTML)
... unless he also has fulfilled the duties implied in good works, as is very distinctly proved by that statement in which the Lord threatened that those will be doomed to eternal fire, who, although they have done no evil, have not done all that is good, declaring, “Then will the king say to those who are on his right hand: depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no[Matthew 25:41] drink,” with what follows. He did not say, “Depart from me, ye cursed, because ye have committed murder, or adultery, or theft”; for it is not because they had done evil, but because they had not done good, that they are condemned, and doomed to the ...