Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Romans 2:4

There are 28 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 54, footnote 16 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Ignatius (HTML)

Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions (HTML)

Chapter XI.—An exhortation to fear God, etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 569 (In-Text, Margin)

The last times are come upon us. Let us therefore be of a reverent spirit, and fear the long-suffering of God, lest we despise the riches of His goodness and forbearance.[Romans 2:4] For let us either fear the wrath to come, or let us love the present joy in the life that now is; and let our present and true joy be only this, to be found in Christ Jesus, that we may truly live. Do not at any time desire so much as even to breathe apart from Him. For He is my hope; He is my boast; He is my never-failing riches, on whose account I bear about with me these bonds from Syria to Rome, these ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 519, footnote 1 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXXVII.—Men are possessed of free will, and endowed with the faculty of making a choice. It is not true, therefore, that some are by nature good, and others bad. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4395 (In-Text, Margin)

... deservedly incur the just judgment of God, which also the Apostle Paul testifies in his Epistle to the Romans, where he says, “But dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, being ignorant that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest to thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” “But glory and honour,” he says, “to every one that doeth good.”[Romans 2:4-5] God therefore has given that which is good, as the apostle tells us in this Epistle, and they who work it shall receive glory and honour, because they have done that which is good when they had it in their power not to do it; but those who do it not ...

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 Latin of Rufinus:  On the Freedom of the Will. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2300 (In-Text, Margin)

... judgment of God, who will render to every one according to his work: to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and immortality, eternal life; while to those who are contentious, and believe not the truth, but who believe iniquity, anger, indignation, tribulation, and distress, on every soul of man that worketh evil, on the Jew first, and (afterwards) on the Greek; but glory, and honour, and peace to every one that doeth good, to the Jew first, and (afterwards) to the Greek.”[Romans 2:4-10] You will find also innumerable other passages in holy Scripture, which manifestly show that we possess freedom of will. Otherwise there would be a contrariety in commandments being given us, by observing which we may be saved, or by transgressing ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 312, footnote 1 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen De Principiis. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
Chapter I. translated from the Latin of Rufinus:  On the Freedom of the Will. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2327 (In-Text, Margin)

... come to see the force of the expression, and not find fault with the word, whose inner meaning we do not ascertain. Finally, the Apostle Paul, evidently treating of such, says to him who remained in his sins: “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”[Romans 2:4-5] Such are the words of the apostle to him who is in his sins. Let us apply these very expressions to Pharaoh, and see if they also are not spoken of him with propriety, since, according to his hardness and impenitent heart, he treasured and stored up ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 306, footnote 7 (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)
CCEL Footnote 2412 (In-Text, Margin)

... revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every one according to his works: to those who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and immortality, eternal life; while to those who are contentious, and believe not the truth, but who believe iniquity, anger, wrath, tribulation, and distress, on every soul of man that worketh evil; on the Jew first, and on the Greek: but glory, and honour, and peace to every one that worketh good; to the Jew first, and to the Greek.”[Romans 2:4-10] There are, indeed, innumerable passages in the Scriptures which establish with exceeding clearness the existence of freedom of will.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 312, footnote 1 (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)
CCEL Footnote 2437 (In-Text, Margin)

... attend to the character and force of the phrase, and not argue sophistically, disregarding the meaning of the expression. Paul accordingly, having examined these points clearly, says to the sinner: “Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”[Romans 2:4-5] Now, let what the apostle says to the sinner be addressed to Pharaoh, and then the announcements made to him will be understood to have been made with peculiar fitness, as to one who, according to his hardness and unrepentant heart, was treasuring ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 485, footnote 6 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

On the Advantage of Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3595 (In-Text, Margin)

... evils inflicted.” Which, moreover, the blessed apostle referring to, and recalling the sinner to repentance, sets forward, and says: “Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the patience and goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath in the day of wrath and of revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who shall render to every one according to his works.”[Romans 2:4-6] He says that God’s judgment is just, because it is tardy, because it is long and greatly deferred, so that by the long patience of God man may be benefited for life eternal. Punishment is then executed on the impious and the sinner, when repentance ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 544, footnote 12 (Image)

Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix

Cyprian. (HTML)

The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)

Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
That God is patient for this end, that we may repent of our sin, and be reformed. (HTML)CCEL Footnote 4397 (In-Text, Margin)

... Solomon, in Ecclesiasticus: “Say not, I have sinned, and what sorrow hath happened to me? For the Highest is a patient repayer.” Also Paul to the Romans: “Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath in the day of wrath and of revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.”[Romans 2:4-6]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 179, footnote 2 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

The Apocalypse of Sedrach. (HTML)

The Apocalypse of Sedrach. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3989 (In-Text, Margin)

... in one moment? Thou knowest, Sedrach, that there are nations which have not the law and which do the works of the law: for if they are unbaptized and my divine spirit come unto them and they turn to my baptism, I also receive them with my righteous ones into Abraham’s bosom. And there are some who have been baptized with my baptism and who have shared in my divine part and become reprobate in complete reprobation and will not repent: and I suffer them with much compassion and much pity and wealth[Romans 2:4] in order that they may repent, but they do the things which my divinity hates, and did not hearken to the wise man asking (them), saying, we by no means justify a sinner. Dost thou not most certainly know that it is written: And those who repent ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 5, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Augustin censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the recent sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion, and its prohibition of the worship of the gods. (HTML)

Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 49 (In-Text, Margin)

... of Him who daily “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” For though some of these men, taking thought of this, repent of their wickedness and reform, some, as the apostle says, “despising the riches of His goodness and long-suffering, after their hardness and impenitent heart, treasure up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds:”[Romans 2:4] nevertheless does the patience of God still invite the wicked to repentance, even as the scourge of God educates the good to patience. And so, too, does the mercy of God embrace the good that it may cherish them, as the severity of God arrests the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 294, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)

Of the Remedy for the Second Source of Weariness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1402 (In-Text, Margin)

... it that those persons be also set right on the subject in a considerate method, who have fallen into some sort of error, not by the words of God, but plainly by those used by us. If, on the other hand, there are any who, blinded by insensate spite, rejoice that we have committed a mistake, whisperers as they are, and slanderers, and “hateful to God,” such characters should afford us matter for the exercise of patience with pity, inasmuch as also the “patience of God leadeth them to repentance.”[Romans 2:4] For what is more detestable, and what more likely to “treasure up wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” than to rejoice, after the evil likeness and pattern of the devil, in the evil of another? At times, too, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 311, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On the Catechising of the Uninstructed. (HTML)

Of Constancy in the Faith of the Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1495 (In-Text, Margin)

... His elect by means of the perverseness of these others while at the same time He also takes account of the fact that many of their number make an advance, and are converted to the doing of the good pleasure of God with a great impetus, when led to take pity upon their own souls. For not all treasure up for themselves, through the patience of God, wrath in the day of the wrath of His just judgment; but many are brought by the same patience of the Almighty to the most wholesome pain of repentance.[Romans 2:4] And until that is effected, they are made the means of exercising not only the forbearance, but also the compassion of those who are already holding by the right way. Accordingly, you will have to witness many drunkards, covetous men, deceivers ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 357, footnote 5 (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)

Sin Not From God, But From The Will of Those Sinning. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1109 (In-Text, Margin)

... suppose this, O man, that judgest those who do such things, and doest them, that thou shall escape the judgment of God? Or dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, not knowing that the patience of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to the hardness of thy heart and thy impenitent heart, thou treasurest up for thyself wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render unto every one according to his works."[Romans 2:3-6]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 365, footnote 2 (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)

Augustin Prays that the Manichæans May Be Restored to Their Senses. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1139 (In-Text, Margin)

... unjust; who willest not the death of the sinner, so much as that he return and live; who reproving in parts, dost give place to repentance, that wickedness having been abandoned, they may believe on Thee, O Lord; who by Thy patience dost lead to repentance, although many according to the hardness of their heart and their impenitent heart treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of Thy righteous judgment, who wilt render to every man according to his works;[Romans 2:4-6] who in the day when a man shall have turned from his iniquity to Thy mercy and truth, wilt forget all his iniquities: stand before us, grant unto us that through our ministry, by which Thou hast been pleased to refute this execrable and too horrible ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 444, footnote 5 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)

Augustin undertakes the refutation of the arguments which might be derived from the epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus, to give color to the view that the baptism of Christ could not be conferred by heretics. (HTML)
Chapter 18 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1315 (In-Text, Margin)

24. But we know that Dathan, Korah, and Abiram, who tried to usurp to themselves the right of sacrificing, contrary to the unity of the people of God, and also the sons of Aaron who offered strange fire upon the altar, did not escape punishment. Nor do we say that such offenses remain unpunished, unless those guilty of them correct themselves, if the patience of God leading them to repentance[Romans 2:4] give them time for correction.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 456, footnote 7 (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 14 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1423 (In-Text, Margin)

22. But we must not despair of the conversion of any man, whether situated within or without, so long as "the goodness of God leadeth him to repentance,"[Romans 2:4] and "visits their transgressions with the rod, and their inquiry with stripes." For in this way "He does not utterly take from them His loving-kindness," if they will themselves sometimes "love their own soul, pleasing God." But as the good man "that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved," so the bad man, whether within or without, who shall persevere in his wickedness to the end, shall not be saved. Nor ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 651, footnote 1 (Image)

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

Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)

The Correction of the Donatists. (HTML)

Chapter 11 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2564 (In-Text, Margin)

... a sin that in it is included every sin; but it cannot be proved to have been committed by any one, till he has passed away from life. But so long as he lives here, "the goodness of God," as the apostle says, "is leading him to repentance;" but if he deliberately, with the utmost perseverance in iniquity, as the apostle adds in the succeeding verse, "after his hardness and impenitent heart, treasures up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,"[Romans 2:4-5] he shall not receive forgiveness, neither in this world, neither in that which is to come.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 49, footnote 8 (Image)

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

Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)

On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)

Chapter XIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 380 (In-Text, Margin)

48. But “he will despise the other,” He has said; not, he will hate. For almost no one’s conscience can hate God; but he despises, i.e. he does not fear Him, as if feeling himself secure in consideration of His goodness. From this carelessness and ruinous security the Holy Spirit recalls us, when He says by the prophet, “My son, do not add sin upon sin, and say, The mercy of God is great ;” and, “Knowest thou not that the patience of God inviteth thee to repentance?”[Romans 2:4] For whose mercy can be mentioned as being so great as His, who pardons all the sins of those who return, and makes the wild olive a partaker of the fatness of the olive? and whose severity as being so great as His, who spared not the natural branches, but ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 325, footnote 6 (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. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.’ Or, ‘on the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2409 (In-Text, Margin)

... sins are all forgiven are baptized, and whom the Church hath received, that “whosesoever sins she remits, they may be remitted,” does he speak, whether in the thought only, or also in the tongue, a very heinous and exceedingly ungodly word, who “when the patience of God leadeth him to repentance, after his hardness and impenitent heart treasureth up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds.”[Romans 2:4-6] This impenitence then, for so by some one general name may we call both this blasphemy and the word against the Holy Ghost which hath no forgiveness for ever; this impenitence, I say, against which both the herald and the Judge cried out, saying, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 199, 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 VII. 40–53; VIII. 1–11. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 628 (In-Text, Margin)

... “Long-suffering;” add yet further, “And very pitiful:” but fear what comes last, “And true.” For those whom He now bears with as sinners, He will judge as despisers. “Or despisest thou the riches of His long-suffering and gentleness; not knowing that the forbearance of God leadeth thee to repentance? But thou, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for thyself wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds.”[Romans 2:4-6] The Lord is gentle, the Lord is long-suffering, the Lord is pitiful; but the Lord is also just, the Lord is also true. He bestows on thee space for correction; but thou lovest the delay of judgment more than the amendment of thy ways. Hast thou been ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 460, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4364 (In-Text, Margin)

... tongue: thou wouldest have him correct his heart towards man, correct thy heart towards God; lest perchance, when thou desirest the vengeance of God, if it come, it find thee first. For He will come: He will come, and will judge those who continue in their wickedness, ungrateful for the prolongation of His mercy, for His long-suffering, treasuring up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds:[Romans 2:4-6] because, “The Lord is the God of vengeance,” therefore hath He “dealt confidently.”…Our safety is our Saviour: in Him He would place the hope of all the needy and poor. And what saith He? “I will deal confidently in Him.” What meaneth this? He will ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 484, footnote 5 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm XCIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4517 (In-Text, Margin)

... Christ? Therefore let now the people confess unto Thy Name, which is great, who before were enraged with Thy little Name. Wherefore shall they confess? Because it is “wonderful and holy.” Thy very Name is wonderful and holy. He is so preached as crucified, so preached as humbled, so preached as judged, that He may come exalted, that He may come living, that He may come to judge in power. He spareth at present the people who blaspheme Him, because “the long-suffering of God leadeth to repentance.”[Romans 2:4] For He who now spareth, will not always spare: nor will He, who is now being preached that He may be feared, fail to come to judge. He will come, my brethren, He will come: let us fear Him, and let us live so that we may be found on His right hand. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 491, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CI (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4560 (In-Text, Margin)

... thou,” he saith, “O man, that judgest them that do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?” And as if we were to reply, Why do I commit such sins daily, and no evil occurreth unto me? he goeth on to show to him the season of mercy: “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering?” And he did indeed despise them; but the Apostle hath made him anxious. “Not knowing,” he saith, “that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”[Romans 2:4] Behold the season of mercy. But that he might not think this would last for ever, how did he in the next verse raise his fears? Now hear the season of judgment; thou hast heard the season of mercy, on which account, “mercy and judgment will I sing ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 424, footnote 5 (Image)

Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes

The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)

Homily XII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1541 (In-Text, Margin)

... judge thee. For surely thou art not just, and God unjust! But if thou overlookest not another suffering wrong, how shall God overlook? And if thou correctest the sins of others, how will not God correct thee? And though He may not bring the punishment upon thee instantly, be not confident on that account, but fear the more. So also Paul bade thee, saying, “Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”[Romans 2:4] For therefore, saith he, doth he bear with thee, not that thou mayest become worse, but that thou mayest repent. But if thou wilt not, this longsuffering becomes a cause of thy greater punishment; continuing, as thou dost, impenitent. This, however, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 289, footnote 12 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Sabinianus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3954 (In-Text, Margin)

... pleasure in the husks that the swine eat; and climbing the precipice of pride you fall headlong into the deep. You make your belly your God instead of Christ; you are a slave to lust; your glory is in your shame; you fatten yourself like a victim for the slaughter, and imitate the lives of the wicked, careless of their doom. “Thou knowest not that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath.”[Romans 2:4-5] Or is it that your heart is hardened, as Pharaoh’s was, because your punishment is deferred and you are not smitten at the moment? The ten plagues were sent upon Pharaoh not as by an angry God but as by a warning father, and his day of grace was ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 475, footnote 2 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

Treatises. (HTML)

Against the Pelagians. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5299 (In-Text, Margin)

... entrusted to him the bag when He knew that he was a thief? Shall I tell you the reason? God judges the present, not the future. He does not make use of His foreknowledge to condemn a man though He knows that he will hereafter displease Him; but such is His goodness and unspeakable mercy that He chooses a man who, He perceives, will meanwhile be good, and who, He knows, will turn out badly, thus giving him the opportunity of being converted and of repenting. This is the Apostle’s meaning when he says,[Romans 2:4-5] “Dost thou not know that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, Who will render to every man ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 11, footnote 17 (Image)

Basil: Letters and Select Works

De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)

In how many ways “Through whom” is used; and in what sense “with whom” is more suitable.  Explanation of how the Son receives a commandment, and how He is sent. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 841 (In-Text, Margin)

... is on this account that we have not found Scripture describing the Lord to us by one name, nor even by such terms alone as are indicative of His godhead and majesty. At one time it uses terms descriptive of His nature, for it recognises the “name which is above every name,” the name of Son, and speaks of true Son, and only begotten God, and Power of God, and Wisdom, and Word. Then again, on account of the divers manners wherein grace is given to us, which, because of the riches of His goodness,[Romans 2:4] according to his manifold wisdom, he bestows on them that need, Scripture designates Him by innumerable other titles, calling Him Shepherd, King, Physician, Bridegroom, Way, Door, Fountain, Bread, Axe, and Rock. And these titles do not set forth His ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 358, footnote 1 (Image)

Ambrose: Select Works and Letters

Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)

Concerning Repentance. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Chapter XI. The possibility of repentance is a reason why baptism should not be deferred to old age, a practice which is against the will of God in holy Scripture. But it is of no use to practise penance whilst still serving lusts. These must be first subdued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3148 (In-Text, Margin)

100. And what reason is there for putting off? Is it that you may sin yet more? Then because God is good you are evil, and “despise the riches of His goodness and long-suffering.”[Romans 2:4] But the goodness of the Lord ought rather to draw you to repentance. Wherefore holy David says to all: “Come, let us worship and fall down before Him, and mourn before our Lord Who made us.” But for a sinner who has died without repentance, because nothing remains but to mourn grievously and to weep, you find him groaning and saying: “O my son Absalom! my son Absalom!” For him who is wholly dead mourning ...

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs