Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Acts 15:9
There are 15 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 76, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
On Idolatry. (HTML)
General Conclusion. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 343 (In-Text, Margin)
... every eddy thereof sucks down unto Hades. Let no one say, “Who will so safely foreguard himself? We shall have to go out of the world!” As if it were not as well worth while to go out, as to stand in the world as an idolater! Nothing can be easier than caution against idolatry, if the fear of it be our leading fear; any “necessity” whatever is too trifling compared to such a peril. The reason why the Holy Spirit did, when the apostles at that time were consulting, relax the bond and yoke for us,[Acts 15:1-31] was that we might be free to devote ourselves to the shunning of idolatry. This shall be our Law, the more fully to be administered the more ready it is to hand; (a Law) peculiar to Christians, by means whereof we are recognised and examined by ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 99, footnote 11 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Of the Difference Between Discipline and Power, and of the Power of the Keys. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 982 (In-Text, Margin)
... his feet he “absolved” from his defect of health. Moreover, in that dispute about the observance or non-observance of the Law, Peter was the first of all to be endued with the Spirit, and, after making preface touching the calling of the nations, to say, “And now why are ye tempting the Lord, concerning the imposition upon the brethren of a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to support? But however, through the grace of Jesus we believe that we shall be saved in the same way as they.”[Acts 15:7-11] This sentence both “loosed” those parts of the law which were abandoned, and “bound” those which were reserved. Hence the power of loosing and of binding committed to Peter had nothing to do with the capital sins of believers; and if the Lord had ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 670, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Appendix. (HTML)
Anonymous Treatise on Re-baptism. (HTML)
A Treatise on Re-Baptism by an Anonymous Writer. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5439 (In-Text, Margin)
... Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit. For they heard them speak with their tongues, and they magnified God. Then answered Peter, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Even as Peter also subsequently most abundantly taught us about the same Gentiles, saying: “And He put no difference between us and them, their hearts being purified by faith.”[Acts 15:9] And there will be no doubt that men may be baptized with the Holy Ghost without water,—as thou observest that these were baptized before they were baptized with water; that the announcements of both John and of our Lord Himself were ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 455, footnote 6 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Sec. III.—The Heresies Attacked by the Apostles (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3219 (In-Text, Margin)
... difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. And I perceived that God is no respecter of persons; but that in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, will be accepted with Him. But even the believers which were of the circumcision were astonished at this. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to lay an heavy yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? But by the grace of the Lord, we believe we shall be saved, even as they.[Acts 15:9-10] For the Lord has loosed us from our bonds, and has made our burden light, and has loosed the heavy yoke from us by His clemency.” While I spake these things, the whole multitude kept silence. But James the Lord’s brother answered and said: “Men and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 26, footnote 16 (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)
The Texts of Scripture Explained Respecting the Subjection of the Son to the Father, Which Have Been Misunderstood. Christ Will Not So Give Up the Kingdom to the Father, as to Take It Away from Himself. The Beholding Him is the Promised End of All Actions. The Holy Spirit is Sufficient to Our Blessedness Equally with the Father. (HTML)
... and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” But because He intended him, before he could see this, to live by faith, He went on to say, “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” For “while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight.” For contemplation is the recompense of faith, for which recompense our hearts are purified by faith; as it is written, “Purifying their hearts by faith.”[Acts 15:9] And that our hearts are to be purified for this contemplation, is proved above all by this text, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” And that this is life eternal, God says in the Psalm, “With long life will I satisfy him, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 261, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
The Enchiridion. (HTML)
The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1239 (In-Text, Margin)
... give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.” Are we to understand this as meaning that to the Pharisees who have not the faith of Christ all things are clean, if only they give alms in the way these men count almsgiving, even though they have never believed in Christ, nor been born again of water and of the Spirit? But the fact is, that all are unclean who are not made clean by the faith of Christ, according to the expression, “purifying their hearts by faith;”[Acts 15:9] and that the apostle says, “Unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.” How, then, could all things be clean to the Pharisees, even though they gave alms, if they were not believers? ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 245, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 697 (In-Text, Margin)
... people of God without being made proselytes in the usual way by circumcision and the other legal observances. Some also of the converted Gentiles were bent on these ceremonies, from fear of the Jews among whom they lived. Against these Gentiles the Apostle Paul often wrote, and when Peter was carried away by their hypocrisy, he corrected him with a brotherly rebuke. Afterwards, when the apostles met in council, decreed that these works of the law were not obligatory in the case of the Gentiles,[Acts 15:6-11] some Christians of the circumcision were displeased, because they failed to understand that these observances were permissible only in those who had been trained in them before the revelation of faith, to bring to a close the prophetic life in those ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 625, footnote 3 (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 this book Augustin refutes the second letter which Petilianus wrote to him after having seen the first of Augustin’s earlier books. This letter had been full of violent language; and Augustin rather shows that the arguments of Petilianus had been deficient and irrelevant, than brings forward arguments in support of his own statements. (HTML)
Chapter 54 (HTML)
... planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase," except that he who is something in one point of view may be nothing in another? For ministering and dispensing the word and sacrament he is something, but for purifying and justifying he is nothing, seeing that this is not accomplished in the inner man, except by Him by whom the whole man was created, and who while He remained God was made man,—by Him, that is, of whom it was said, "Purifying their hearts by faith;"[Acts 15:9] and "To him that believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly." And this testimony Petilianus has been willing to set forth in my words, whilst in his own he has neither handled it nor even touched it.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 268, footnote 9 (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. Chap. v. 3 and 8, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit:' etc., but especially on that, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1909 (In-Text, Margin)
10. If then we desire to see God, whereby shall our eye be purified? For who would not care for, and diligently seek the means of purifying that eye whereby he may see Him whom he longeth after with an entire affection? The Divine record has expressly mentioned this when it says, “purifying their hearts by faith.”[Acts 15:9] The faith of God then purifies the heart, the pure heart sees God. But because this faith is sometimes so defined by men who deceive themselves, as though it were enough only to believe (for some promise themselves even the sight of God and the kingdom of heaven, who believe and live evilly); against these, the Apostle James, incensed and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 269, 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. Chap. v. 3 and 8, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit:' etc., but especially on that, 'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.' (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1913 (In-Text, Margin)
... have we to do with Thee?” When thou hearest the devils say this, thinkest thou that they do not acknowledge Him? “We know,” they say, “who Thou art: Thou art the Son of God.” This Peter says, and is commended; the devil says it, and is condemned. Whence cometh this, but that though the words be the same, the heart is different? Let us then make a distinction in our faith, and not be content to believe. This is no such faith as purifieth the heart. “Purifying their hearts,” it is said, “by faith.”[Acts 15:9] But by what, and what kind of faith, save that which the Apostle Paul defines when he says, “Faith which worketh by love.” That faith distinguishes us from the faith of devils, and from the infamous and abandoned conduct of men. “Faith,” he says. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 435, 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)
On the words of the Gospel, Luke xi. 39, ‘Now do ye Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and the platter,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3383 (In-Text, Margin)
... the outside of the platter; but within ye are full of guile and ravening.” What! is this to come to a feast! how did He not spare the man by whom He had been invited? Yea rather by rebuking He did spare him, that being reformed He might spare him in the judgment. And what is it that He showeth to us? That Baptism also which is conferred once for all, cleanses by faith. Now faith is within, not without. Wherefore it is said and read in the Acts of the Apostles, “Cleansing their hearts by faith.”[Acts 15:9] And the Apostle Peter thus speaks in his Epistle; “So too hath He given you a similitude from Noah’s ark, how that eight souls were saved by water.” And then he added, “So also in a like figure will baptism save us, not the putting away of the filth ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 323, footnote 12 (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)
On the Same Passage. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1274 (In-Text, Margin)
... ourselves that are the subjects in need of preparation, His doing so will be hindered by leaving us behind? I explain it, Lord, as I can: it was surely this Thou didst signify by the preparation of those mansions, that the just ought to live by faith. For he who is sojourning at a distance from the Lord has need to be living by faith, because by this we are prepared for beholding His countenance. For “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;” and “He purifieth their hearts by faith.”[Acts 15:9] The former we find in the Gospel, the latter in the Acts of the Apostles. But the faith by which those who are yet to see God have their hearts purified, while sojourning at a distance here, believeth what it doth not see; for if there is sight, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 344, footnote 8 (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 XV. 1–3. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1386 (In-Text, Margin)
... even in the word itself the passing sound is one thing, the abiding efficacy another. “This is the word of faith which we preach,” says the apostle, “that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Accordingly, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, “Purifying their hearts by faith;”[Acts 15:9] and, says the blessed Peter in his epistle, “Even as baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience.” “This is the word of faith which we preach,” whereby baptism, doubtless, is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 438, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4214 (In-Text, Margin)
... cleansing” (ver. 44). What is this? Amongst all the evils, this is a matter for great fear; for howsoever God may beat, howsoever He may be wroth, howsoever He may flog and scourge, yet let Him scourge him bound, whom He is to cleanse, not “loose him from cleansing.” For if He loose him from being purified, he becomes incapable of cleansing, and must be an outcast. From what cleansing then is the Jew loosed? From faith; for by faith we live: and it is said of faith, “purifying their hearts by faith:”[Acts 15:9] and as it is only the faith of Christ that cleanses; by disbelief in Christ, they are loosed from purification. “Thou hast loosed him from cleansing, and cast his throne down to the ground.” And so Thou hast broken it. “The days of his seat hast ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 129, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter X. Being about to prove that the will, the calling, and the commandment of the Trinity is one, St. Ambrose shows that the Spirit called the Church exactly as the Father and the Son did, and proves this by the selection of SS. Paul and Barnabas, and especially by the mission of St. Peter to Cornelius. And by the way he points out how in the Apostle's vision the calling of the Gentiles was shadowed forth, who having been before like wild beasts, now by the operation of the Spirit lay aside that wildness. Then having quoted other passages in support of this view, he shows that in the case of Jeremiah cast into a pit by Jews, and rescued by Abdemelech, is a type of the slighting of the Holy Spirit by the Jews, and of His being honoured (HTML)
110. And not only in this place, but also elsewhere in the same book, the Apostle Peter declared that the Church was built by the Holy Spirit. For you read that he said: “God, Which knoweth the hearts of men, bare witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as also to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.”[Acts 15:8-9] In which is to be considered, that as Christ is the Cornerstone, Who joined together both peoples into one, so, too, the Holy Spirit made no distinction between the hearts of each people, but united them.