Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Romans 1:28

There are 33 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 260, footnote 3 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Justin Martyr (HTML)

Dialogue with Trypho (HTML)

Chapter CXXI.—From the fact that the Gentiles believe in Jesus, it is evident that He is Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2413 (In-Text, Margin)

And as they kept silence, I went on: “[The Scripture], speaking by David about this Christ, my friends, said no longer that ‘in His seed’ the nations should be blessed, but ‘in Him.’ So it is here: ‘His name shall rise up for ever above the sun; and in Him shall all nations be blessed.’ But if all nations are blessed in Christ, and we of all nations believe in Him, then He is indeed the Christ, and we are those blessed by Him. God formerly gave the sun as an object of worship,[Romans 1:28] as it is written, but no one ever was seen to endure death on account of his faith in the sun; but for the name of Jesus you may see men of every nation who have endured and do endure all sufferings, rather than deny Him. For the word of His truth and wisdom ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 502, footnote 8 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXIX.—Refutation of the arguments of the Marcionites, who attempted to show that God was the author of sin, because He blinded Pharaoh and his servants. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4211 (In-Text, Margin)

... Him, He grants a fuller and greater illumination of mind. In accordance with this word, therefore, does the apostle say, in the Second [Epistle] to the Corinthians: “In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine [unto them].” And again, in that to the Romans: “And as they did not think fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things that are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] Speaking of antichrist, too, he says clearly in the Second to the Thessalonians: “And for this cause God shall send them the working of error, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but consented to ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 81, footnote 4 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Tatian (HTML)

Address to the Greeks (HTML)

Chapter XL. Moses More Ancient and Credible Than the Heathen Heroes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 515 (In-Text, Margin)

... philosophized like him, first that they might be considered as having something of their own, and secondly, that covering up by a certain rhetorical artifice whatever things they did not understand, they might misrepresent the truth as if it were a fable. But what the learned among the Greeks have said concerning our polity and the history of our laws, and how many and what kind of men have written of these things, will be shown in the treatise against those who have discoursed of divine things.[Romans 1:28]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 147, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

Appendix (HTML)

Five Books in Reply to Marcion. (HTML)
Of the Harmony of the Old and New Laws. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1404 (In-Text, Margin)

Reprobate in your very mind,[Romans 1:28]) to death’s

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 557, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book V (HTML)
Chapter XXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4191 (In-Text, Margin)

... of those who asserted that “the various quarters of the earth were from the beginning distributed among different superintending spirits, and being allotted among certain governing powers, were administered in this way;” from which statement Celsus took occasion to make the remarks referred to. But since those who wandered away from the east were delivered over, on account of their sins, to “a reprobate mind,” and to “vile affections,” and to “uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts,”[Romans 1:28] in order that, being sated with sin, they might hate it, we shall refuse our assent to the assertion of Celsus, that “because of the superintending spirits distributed among the different parts of the earth, what is done among each nation is rightly ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 632, footnote 2 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XLVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4795 (In-Text, Margin)

... they may present their prayers to the Divine Being. And attached to the other so-called gods are a select number of virgins, who are guarded by men, or it may be not guarded (for that is not the point in question at present), and who are supposed to live in purity for the honour of the god they serve. But among Christians, those who maintain a perpetual virginity do so for no human honours, for no fee or reward, from no motive of vainglory; but “as they choose to retain God in their knowledge,”[Romans 1:28] they are preserved by God in a spirit well-pleasing to Him, and in the discharge of every duty, being filled with all righteousness and goodness.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 443, footnote 15 (Image)

Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (HTML)

Book V (HTML)

Sec. II.—All Association with Idols is to Be Avoided (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3058 (In-Text, Margin)

... own head, for this custom is a piece of Judaic corruption, and on that account was forbidden; and if He exhorts the faithful that their yea be yea, and their nay, nay, and says that “what is more than these is of the evil one,” how much more blameable are those who appeal to deities falsely so called as the objects of an oath, and who glorify imaginary beings instead of those that are real, whom God for their perverseness “delivered over to foolishness, to do those things that are not convenient!”[Romans 1:28]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 65, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters

The Confessions (HTML)

Of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth years of his age, passed at Carthage, when, having completed his course of studies, he is caught in the snares of a licentious passion, and falls into the errors of the Manichæans. (HTML)

He Argues Against the Same as to the Reason of Offences. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 253 (In-Text, Margin)

... there be against Thee who canst not be defiled? Or what deeds of violence against thee who canst not be harmed? But Thou avengest that which men perpetrate against themselves, seeing also that when they sin against Thee, they do wickedly against their own souls; and iniquity gives itself the lie, either by corrupting or perverting their nature, which Thou hast made and ordained, or by an immoderate use of things permitted, or in “burning” in things forbidden to that use which is against nature;[Romans 1:24-29] or when convicted, raging with heart and voice against Thee, kicking against the pricks; or when, breaking through the pale of human society, they audaciously rejoice in private combinations or divisions, according as they have been pleased or ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 204, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)

Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)

Faustus asserts that even if the Old Testament could be shown to contain predictions, it would be of interest only to the Jews, pagan literature subserving the same purpose for Gentiles.  Augustin shows the value of prophesy for Gentiles and Jews alike. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 510 (In-Text, Margin)

... understand," and many similar passages. If the inquirer objected that it was not the fault of the Jews if God blinded them so that they did not know Christ, we should try in the simplest manner possible to make him understand that this blindness is the just punishment of other secret sins known to God. We should prove that the apostle recognizes this principle when he says of some persons, "God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts, and to a reprobate mind, to do things not convenient;"[Romans 1:28] and that the prophets themselves speak of this. For, to revert to the words of Jeremiah, "He is man, and who shall know Him?" lest it should be an excuse for the Jews that they did not know,—for if they had known, as the apostle says, "they would ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 265, 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 denies that Manichæans believe in two gods.  Hyle no god.  Augustin discusses at large the doctrine of God and Hyle, and fixes the charge of dualism upon the Manichæans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 759 (In-Text, Margin)

... destruction, and another God who shows his riches in the vessels of mercy. According to the apostle’s doctrine, it is one and the same God who does both. Hence he says again, "For this cause God gave them up to the lusts of their own heart, to uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies between themselves;" and immediately after, "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections;" and again, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind."[Romans 1:28] Here we see how the true and just God blinds the minds of unbelievers. For in all these words quoted from the apostle no other God is understood than He whose Son, sent by Him, came saying, "For judgment am I come into this world, that they which ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 268, footnote 4 (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 denies that Manichæans believe in two gods.  Hyle no god.  Augustin discusses at large the doctrine of God and Hyle, and fixes the charge of dualism upon the Manichæans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 772 (In-Text, Margin)

... lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ." To the same purpose are the words, "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" and when he speaks of a man deceiving himself, "Whoever thinketh himself to be anything, when he is nothing, deceiveth himself;" or again, in the passage already quoted of the judgment of God, "God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient."[Romans 1:28] Similarly, in the Old Testament, after the words, "God did not create death, nor hath He pleasure in the destruction of the living," we read, "By the envy of the devil death entered into the world." And again of death, that men may not put the blame ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 107, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

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

Whether Faith Be in a Man’s Own Power. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1013 (In-Text, Margin)

... this proceeds from the judgment of God, with whom there is no unrighteousness. He indeed punishes after this manner; nor is His chastisement unjust because it is secret. The ungodly man, however, is not aware that he is being punished, except when he unwillingly discovers by an open penalty how much evil he has willingly committed. This is just what the apostle says of certain men: “God hath given them up to the evil desires of their own hearts, . . .to do those things that are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] Accordingly, the Lord also said to Pilate: “Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” But still, when the ability is given, surely no necessity is imposed. Therefore, although David had received ability to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 129, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)

Sin and the Penalty of Sin the Same. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1191 (In-Text, Margin)

... they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” says he, “God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, odious to God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.”[Romans 1:28-31] Here, now, let our opponent say: “Sin ought not so to have been punished, that the sinner, through his punishment, should commit even more sins.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 463, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)

Abstract. (HTML)

God Does Whatsoever He Wills in the Hearts of Even Wicked Men. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3210 (In-Text, Margin)

... with His servants.” Observe, likewise, what is written in the letters of the apostles. In the Epistle of Paul, the Apostle, to the Romans occur these words: “Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts;” and a little afterwards: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections;” again, in the next passage: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] So also in his second Epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle says of sundry persons, “Inasmuch as they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved; therefore also God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 507, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)

Book I (HTML)

In What Respects Predestination and Grace Differ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3486 (In-Text, Margin)

... although foreknowledge may exist without predestination; because God foreknew by predestination those things which He was about to do, whence it was said, “He made those things that shall be.” Moreover, He is able to foreknow even those things which He does not Himself do,—as all sins whatever. Because, although there are some which are in such wise sins as that they are also the penalties of sins, whence it is said, “God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient,”[Romans 1:28] it is not in such a case the sin that is God’s, but the judgment. Therefore God’s predestination of good is, as I have said, the preparation of grace; which grace is the effect of that predestination. Therefore when God promised to Abraham in his ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 201, footnote 8 (Image)

Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels

The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)

Of the Hour of the Lord’s Passion, and of the Question Concerning the Absence of Any Discrepancy Between Mark and John in the Article of the ‘Third’ Hour and the ‘Sixth.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1415 (In-Text, Margin)

... the mind of the Lord in the matter now under consideration? or who hath been His counsellor, where He has in such wise ruled the hearts of these evangelists in their recollections, and has raised them to so commanding a position of authority in the sublime edifice of His Church, that those very things which are capable of presenting the appearance of contradictions in them become the means by which many are made blind, deservedly given over to the lusts of their own heart, and to a reprobate mind;[Romans 1:24-28] and by which also many are exercised in the thorough cultivation of a pious understanding, in accordance with the hidden righteousness of the Almighty? For the language of a prophet in speaking to the Lord is this: “Thy thoughts are exceeding deep. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 18, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 182 (In-Text, Margin)

... committed in contempt of God’s law, death: so as that we should give the name of death to the sting of death, because it procures death. “For the sting of death is sin.” In which death this is to be unmindful of God, to despise His law and commandments: so that by hell the Psalmist would mean that blindness of soul which overtakes and enwraps the sinner, that is, the dying. “As they did not think good,” the Apostle says, “to retain God in” their “knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”[Romans 1:28] From this death, and this hell, the soul earnestly prays that she may be kept safe, whilst she strives to turn to God, and feels her difficulties.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 18, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm VI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 186 (In-Text, Margin)

8. “Mine eye is disordered by anger” (ver. 7): is it by his own, or God’s anger, in which he maketh petition that he might not be reproved, or chastened? But if anger in that place intimate the day of judgment, how can it be understood now? Is it a beginning of it, that men here suffer pains and torments, and above all the loss of the understanding of the truth; as I have already quoted that which is said, “God gave them over to a reprobate mind”?[Romans 1:28] For such is the blindness of the mind. Whosoever is given over thereunto, is shut out from the interior light of God: but not wholly as yet, whilst he is in this life. For there is “outer darkness,” which is understood to belong rather to the day of judgment; that he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 37, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm IX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 379 (In-Text, Margin)

... the separation which is now made, not in place, but in the affections of the heart, between sinners and the righteous, as of the corn from the chaff, as yet on the floor. And then follows, “Let the sinners be turned into hell” (ver. 17): that is, let them be given into their own hands, when they are spared, and let them be ensnared in deadly delight. “All the nations that forget God.” Because “when they did not think good to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”[Romans 1:28]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 46, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 485 (In-Text, Margin)

... notions of God, dared to say, “There is no God.” Therefore it is, hath said “in his heart;” for that no one dares to say it, even if he has dared to think it. “They are corrupt, and become abominable in their affections:” that is, whilst they love this world and love not God; these are the affections which corrupt the soul, and so blind it, that the fool can even say, “in his heart, There is no God. For as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.”[Romans 1:28] “There is none that doeth goodness, no not up to one.” “Up to one,” can be understood either with that one, so that no man be understood: or besides one, that the Lord Christ may be excepted. As we say, This field is up to the sea; we do not of ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 88, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XXXVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 824 (In-Text, Margin)

9. “Thy Judgments are like the great abyss.” The abyss he calleth the depth of sin, whither every one cometh by despising God; as in a certain place it is said, “God gave them over to their own hearts’ lusts, to do the things which are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] …Because then they were proud and ungrateful, they were held worthy to be delivered up to the lusts of their own hearts, and became a great abyss, so that they not only sinned, but also worked craftily, lest they should understand their iniquity, and hate it. That is the depth of wickedness, to be unwilling to find it out and to hate it. But how one cometh to that depth, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 377, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3626 (In-Text, Margin)

... doth duly and justly permit. …Moreover, those evil manners which we said were signified by these corporal plagues, on account of that which was said before, “I will open in parables my mouth,” are most appropriately believed by means of evil angels to have been wrought in those that are made subject to them by Divine justice. For neither when that cometh to pass of which the apostle speaketh, “God gave them over into the lusts of their heart, that they should do things which are not convenient,”[Romans 1:28] can it be but that those evil angels dwell and rejoice therein, as in the matter of their own work: unto whom most justly is human haughtiness made subject, in all save those whom grace doth deliver. “And for these things who is sufficient?” Whence ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 530, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CVI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4847 (In-Text, Margin)

... ate the offerings of the dead” (ver. 28). “Thus they provoked Him to anger with their own inventions; and destruction was multiplied among them” (ver. 29). As if He had deferred the lifting up of His hand which was to cast them down in the desert, and to cast out their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands; as the Apostle saith: “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowl edge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] “‘Destruction,’ therefore, ‘was multiplied among them,’ when they were heavily punished for their heavy sins.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 195, footnote 6 (Image)

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

A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)

Homily XXXI on Acts xiv. 14, 15. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 716 (In-Text, Margin)

... that they themselves should refer all to God. “Nevertheless, He left not Himself without witness, in that He did good, giving you rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness.” (v. 17.) (c) See how covertly he puts the accusation “in that He did good,” etc. And yet if God did this, He could not have “let them alone;” on the contrary, they ought to be punished, for that, enjoying so great benefits, they had not acknowledged Him, not even as their feeder.[Romans 1:18-32] “From heaven,” he says, “giving you rain.” Thus also David said, “From the fruit of their corn and wine and oil were they made to abound” (Ps. iv. 7), and in many places speaking of Creation, he brings forward these benefits: and Jeremiah mentions ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 1 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
For 330. Easter-day xxiv Pharmuthi; xiii Kal. Mai; Æra Dioclet. 46; Coss. Gallicianus, Valerius Symmachus; Præfect, Magninianus; Indict. iii. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3943 (In-Text, Margin)

... the likeness of fools, they fell so low in their understanding, that by their excessive reasoning, they even likened the Divine Wisdom to themselves, thinking it to be like their own arts. Therefore, ‘professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the corruptible image of man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient[Romans 1:28].’ For they did not listen to the prophetic voice that reproved them (saying), ‘To what have ye likened the Lord, and with what have ye compared Him?’ neither to David, who prayed concerning such as these, and sang, ‘All those that make them are like ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 540, footnote 6 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 341.) Coss. Marcellinus, Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii, xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4380 (In-Text, Margin)

... in such a school of discipline as this; ‘Thou hast tried my heart, Thou hast visited me in the night-season; Thou hast proved me, and hast not found iniquity in me, so that my mouth shall not speak of the works of men.’ But those whose actions are not restrained by law, who know of nothing beyond eating and drinking and dying, account trials as danger. They soon stumble at them, so that, being untried in the faith, they are given over to a reprobate mind, and do those things which are not seemly[Romans 1:28]. Therefore the blessed Paul, when urging us to such exercises as these, and having before measured himself by them, says, ‘Therefore I take pleasure in afflictions, in infirmities.’ And again, ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness.’ For since he knew the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 576, footnote 4 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)

The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)

Personal Letters. (HTML)
To Adelphius, Bishop and Confessor: against the Arians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4753 (In-Text, Margin)

... one is to believe the incarnate Word; but even from beholding the man, they recognised that He was their maker, and when they heard a human voice, they did not, because it was human, say that the Word was a creature. On the contrary, they trembled, and recognised nothing less than that it was being uttered from a holy Temple. How then can the impious fail to fear lest ‘as they refused to have God in their knowledge, they may be given up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting[Romans 1:28]?’ For Creation does not worship a creature. Nor again did she on account of His Flesh refuse to worship her Lord. But she beheld her maker in the Body, and ‘in the Name of Jesus every knee’ bowed, yea and ‘shall bow, of things in heaven and things ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 23, footnote 18 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)

On the Ten Points of Doctrine. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 712 (In-Text, Margin)

... but remember Him who saith, If ye be willing, and hearken unto Me, ye shall eat the good things of the land:  but if ye be not willing, neither hearken unto Me, the sword shall devour you, &c.: and again, As ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. Remember also the Scripture, which saith, Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge[Romans 1:28]: and, That which may be known of God is mani festin them; and again, their eyes they have closed. Also remember how God again accuseth them, and saith, Yet I planted thee a fruitful vine, wholly true:  how art thou turned to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 348, footnote 6 (Image)

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen

Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)

On the Theophany, or Birthday of Christ. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3870 (In-Text, Margin)

... as the more tender, and which she brought to bear upon the man, as she was the more apt to persuade, alas for my weakness! (for that of my first father was mine), he forgot the Commandment which had been given to him; he yielded to the baleful fruit; and for his sin he was banished, at once from the Tree of Life, and from Paradise, and from God; and put on the coats of skins…that is, perhaps, the coarser flesh, both mortal and contradictory. This was the first thing that he learnt—his own shame;[Romans 1:22-31] and he hid himself from God. Yet here too he makes a gain, namely death, and the cutting off of sin, in order that evil may not be immortal. Thus his punishment is changed into a mercy; for it is in mercy, I am persuaded, that God inflicts ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 286, footnote 3 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)

Book XII. Of the Spirit of Pride. (HTML)
Chapter XXI. The instance of Joash, King of Judah, showing what was the consequence of his pride. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1074 (In-Text, Margin)

... into their hands an infinite multitude, because they had forsaken the Lord the God of their fathers: and on Joash they executed shameful judgments. And departing they left him in great diseases.” You see how the consequence of pride was that he was given over to shocking and filthy passions. For he who is puffed up with pride and has permitted himself to be worshipped as God, is (as the Apostle says) “given over to shameful passions and a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] And because, as Scripture says, “every one who exalts his heart is unclean before God,” he who is puffed up with swelling pride of heart is given over to most shameful confusion to be deluded by it, that when thus humbled he may know that he is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 329, footnote 3 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)

Conference III. Conference of Abbot Paphnutius. On the Three Sorts of Renunciations. (HTML)
Chapter XX. That nothing can be done in this world without God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1281 (In-Text, Margin)

... reverse is done by His permission, when the Divine Protection is withdrawn from us for our sins and the hardness of our hearts, and suffers the devil and the shameful passions of the body to lord it over us. And the words of the Apostle most assuredly teach us this, when he says: “For this cause God delivered them up to shameful passions:” and again: “Because they did not like to have God in their knowledge, God delivered them up to a reprobate sense, to do those things which are not convenient.”[Romans 1:28] And the Lord Himself says by the prophet: “But My people did not hear My voice and Israel did not obey me: Wherefore I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lusts. They shall walk after their own inventions.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 358, footnote 13 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)

Conference VI. Conference of Abbot Theodore. On the Death of the Saints. (HTML)
Chapter XI. Of the two kinds of trials, which come upon us in a three-fold way. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1414 (In-Text, Margin)

... this man sin nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifested in him:” and again: “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” There are also other sorts of vengeance, with which some who have overpassed the bounds of wickedness are smitten in this life, as we read that Dathan and Abiram or Korah were punished, or above all, those of whom the Apostle speaks: “Wherefore God gave them up to vile passions and a reprobate mind:”[Romans 1:28] and this must be counted worse than all other punishments. For of these the Psalmist says: “They are not in the labours of men; neither shall they be scourged like other men.” For they are not worthy of being healed by the visitation of the Lord ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 489, footnote 3 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV. (HTML)

Conference XVIII. Conference of Abbot Piamun. On the Three Sorts of Monks. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. On the perfection of patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2103 (In-Text, Margin)

... itself to heaven and tends to reproaching the very Author Who bestows good things on man. Nor shall anyone be disturbed because God threatens to send “serpents, basilisks,” to bite those by whose crimes He is offended. For although it is certain that God cannot be the author of envy, yet it is fair and worthy of the divine judgment that, while good gifts are bestowed on the humble and refused to the proud and reprobate, those who, as the Apostle says, deserve to be given over “to a reprobate mind,”[Romans 1:28] should be smitten and consumed by envy sent as it were by Him, according to this passage: “They have provoked me to jealousy by them that are no gods: and I will provoke them to jealousy by them that are no nation.”

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs