Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 5:4
There are 25 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 376, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
Chapter XXII.—Plato’s Opinion, that the Chief Good Consists in Assimilation to God, and Its Agreement with Scripture. (HTML)
... writes in the Epistle to the Romans: “But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” And viewing the hope as twofold—that which is expected, and that which has been received—he now teaches the end to be the restitution of the hope. “For patience,” he says, “worketh experience, and experience hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit that is given to us.”[Romans 5:4-5] On account of which love and the restoration to hope, he says, in another place, “ which rest is laid up for us.” You will find in Ezekiel the like, as follows: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the man who shall be righteous, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 436, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XXI.—Description of the Perfect Man, or Gnostic. (HTML)
... philosophize. Whereas Socrates also, in the Phædo, says “that good souls depart hence with a good hope;” and again, denouncing the wicked, he sets against this the assertion, “For they live with an evil hope.” With him Heraclitus manifestly agrees in his dissertations concerning men: “There awaits man after death what they neither hope nor think.” Divinely, therefore, Paul writes expressly, “Tribulation worketh, patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.”[Romans 5:3-5] For the patience is on account of the hope in the future. Now hope is synonymous with the recompense and restitution of hope; which maketh not ashamed, not being any more vilified.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 501, footnote 11 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Exhortation to Martyrdom, Addressed to Fortunatus. (HTML)
That afflictions and persecutions arise for the sake of our being proved. (HTML)
... and with all your strength.” And again, Solomon: “The furnace proveth the potter’s vessel, and righteous men the trial of tribulation.” Paul also testifies similar things, and speaks, saying: “We glory in the hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us.”[Romans 5:2-5] And Peter, in his epistle, lays it down, and says: “Beloved, be not surprised at the fiery heat which falleth upon you, which happens for your trial; and fail not, as if some new thing were happening unto you. But as often as ye communicate with the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 534, footnote 19 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
... thing I thrice besought the Lord, that it should depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for strength is perfected in weakness.” Concerning this same thing to the Romans: “We glory in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we also glory in afflictions: knowing that affliction worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope does not confound; because the love of God is infused in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:2-5] On this same subject, according to Matthew: “How broad and spacious is the way which leadeth unto death, and many there are who go in thereby: how straight and narrow is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it!” Of this same ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 683, footnote 4 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. (HTML)
Acts of Sharbil, Who Was a Priest of Idols, and Was Converted to the Confession of Christianity in Christ. (HTML)
Acts of Sharbil. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3196 (In-Text, Margin)
Sharbil said: To thine unbelieving heart these things seem as if they were afflictions; but to the true heart “affliction imparts patience, and from it comes also experience, and from experience likewise the hope”[Romans 5:4] of the confessor.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 312, footnote 3 (Image)
Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen
Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Christ as Light; How He, and How His Disciples are the Light of the World. (HTML)
... hold this view forget that the first-born of every creature, honouring man above all else, became man, and that it was not any of the constellations existing in the sky, but one of another order, appointed for this purpose and in the service of the knowledge of Jesus, that was made to be the Star of the East, whether it was like the other stars or perchance better than they, to be the sign of Him who is the most excellent of all. And if the boasting of the saints is in their tribulations, since[Romans 5:3-5] “tribulation worketh patience, and patience probation, and probation hope, and hope maketh not ashamed,” then the afflicted creation cannot have the like patience with man, nor the like probation, nor the like hope, but another degree of these, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 577, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1940 (In-Text, Margin)
11. For who would not see what the apostle meant to say, and how wisely he has said it, in the following passage: “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us”?[Romans 5:3-5] Now were any man unlearnedly learned (if I may use the expression) to contend that the apostle had here followed the rules of rhetoric, would not every Christian, learned or unlearned, laugh at him? And yet here we find the figure which is called in Greek κλίμαζ (climax,) and by ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 174, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
He expounds this trinity that he has found in knowledge by commending Christian faith. (HTML)
There Was No Other More Suitable Way of Freeing Man from the Misery of Mortality Than The Incarnation of the Word. The Merits Which are Called Ours are the Gifts of God. (HTML)
14. Since those also which are called our deserts, are His gifts. For, that faith may work by love, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:4-5] And He was then given, when Jesus was glorified by the resurrection. For then He promised that He Himself would send Him, and He sent Him; because then, as it was written and foretold of Him, “He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.” These gifts constitute our deserts, by which we arrive at the chief good of an immortal blessedness. “But God,” says the apostle, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 53, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
On the Morals of the Catholic Church. (HTML)
Scripture Precepts and Examples of Fortitude. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 109 (In-Text, Margin)
42. Instead of quoting here authorities from the New Testament, where it is said, "Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience and experience, hope;"[Romans 5:3-4] and where, in addition to these words, there is proof and confirmation of them from the example of those who spoke them; I will rather summon an example of patience from the Old Testament, against which the Manichæans make fierce assaults. Nor will I refer to the man who, in the midst of great bodily suffering, and with a dreadful disease in his limbs, not only bore human evils, but discoursed of things divine. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 460, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
The Spirit of Fear a Great Gift of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3176 (In-Text, Margin)
... not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.” It is not of this fear that we have received the spirit, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. And of this spirit the same Apostle Paul discourses to the Romans: “We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:3-5] Not by ourselves, therefore, but by the Holy Ghost which is given to us, does it come to pass that, through that very love, which he shows us to be the gift of God, tribulation does not do away with patience, but rather produces it. Again, he says ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 7, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
Explanation of the First Part of the Sermon Delivered by Our Lord on the Mount, as Contained in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter V (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 40 (In-Text, Margin)
... “All the beauty of the king’s daughter is within;” for outwardly revilings, and persecutions, and disparagements are promised; and yet, from these things there is a great reward in heaven, which is felt in the heart of those who endure, those who can now say, “We glory in tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:3-5] For it is not simply the enduring of such things that is advantageous, but the bearing of such things for the name of Christ not only with tranquil mind, but even with exultation. For many heretics, deceiving souls under the Christian name, endure ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 53, footnote 12 (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 XVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 424 (In-Text, Margin)
... such things. For in this way, although they should sometimes be wanting (a thing which God often permits for the purpose of exercising us), they not only do not weaken our proposition, but even strengthen it, when it is examined and tested. For, says He, “we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope: And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:3-5] Now, in the mention of his tribulations and labours, the same apostle mentions that he has had to endure not only prisons and shipwrecks and many such like annoyances, but also hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness. But when we read this, let us not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 95, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVII (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 879 (In-Text, Margin)
5. But observe whether that was fulfilled in his case which the Psalm now speaks of. “The Lord strengtheneth the righteous.—Not only so” (saith that same Paul, whilst suffering many evils), “but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience; and experience hope; but hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:3-5] Justly is it said by him, now righteous, now “strengthened.” As therefore those who persecuted him did no harm to him, when now “strengthened,” so neither did he himself do any harm to those whom he persecuted. “But the Lord,” he saith, “strengtheneth the righteous.”…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 96, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVII (HTML)
Part 2 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 891 (In-Text, Margin)
... mentioned just above, the now “strengthened” righteous man, when fallen on an evil time, on the day of tribulation, what saith he to show that he was not “ashamed”? “We glory in tribulation; knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; but hope maketh not ashamed.” Whence is it that hope “maketh not ashamed”? Because it is placed on God. Therefore follows immediately, “Because the love of God is spread in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.”[Romans 5:3-5] The Holy Spirit hath been given to us already: how should He deceive us, of whom we possess such an “earnest” already? “They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.”…
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 236, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2215 (In-Text, Margin)
... promised, before that there is given life everlasting, before that ungodly men are cast forth into fire everlasting, here in this life there is fruit to the just man. What fruit? “In hope rejoicing, in tribulation enduring.” What fruit to the just man? “We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, but patience probation, but probation hope: but hope confoundeth not: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, that hath been given to us.”[Romans 5:3-5] Doth he rejoice that is a drunkard; and doth he not rejoice that is just? In love there is fruit to a just man. Miserable the one, even when he maketh himself drunken: blessed the other, even when he hungereth and thirsteth. The one wine-bibbing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 317, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3097 (In-Text, Margin)
7. Lastly, there followeth the reason why I say this: “for Thou art my patience” (ver. 5). Now if He is patience rightly, He is that also which followeth, “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” My patience, because my hope: or rather my hope, because my patience. “Tribulation,” saith the Apostle, “worketh patience, patience probation, but probation hope, but hope confoundeth not.”[Romans 5:3-5] With reason in Thee I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be confounded for everlasting. “O Lord, my hope from my youth.” From thy youth is God thy hope? Is He not also from thy boyhood, and from thine infancy? Certainly, saith he. For see what followeth, that thou mayest not think that I have said this, “my hope ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 303, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Letters of St. Chrysostom to Olympias. (HTML)
To Olympias. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 958 (In-Text, Margin)
... soul should become more braced, and your zeal and energy for the struggle increased, and that you should therefrom derive much joy. For such is the nature of affliction;—when it lays hold of a brave and noble soul, this is what it is wont to effect. And as the fire makes the piece of gold, when it is applied to it, of better proof: so also affliction when it visits golden characters renders them purer and more proven. Wherefore also Paul said “affliction worketh patience, and patience probation.”[Romans 5:3-4] For these reasons I also rejoice and leap for joy, and derive the greatest consolation of this my solitude from a consideration of thy fortitude. On this account, even though innumerable wolves encompass thee, and many crowds of wicked doers, I fear ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 340, footnote 10 (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 I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1058 (In-Text, Margin)
23. But if it were necessary to add a ninth reason, we might say, that this tribulation maketh those who are troubled more approved; “For tribulation worketh patience; and patience, probation; and probation, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.”[Romans 5:3-5] Do you see that the probation, which comes of tribulation, fixes in us the hope of the good things to come, and that the abiding in trials causes us to have a good hope of the future? So that I did not say rashly, that these tribulations themselves mark out to us hopes of a resurrection, and make those who are tried the better; for, he saith, “as gold is tried in a furnace, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 366, footnote 3 (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 IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1197 (In-Text, Margin)
... supplanted: the just man did not blaspheme; but even gave thanks thus, saying, “The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. As it pleased the Lord, so is it come to pass.” Seest thou that not the nature of the trials, but the negligence of the indolent, is wont to cause the overthrow? since tribulation makes the strong man stronger. Who saith this? It is the man who lived in tribulation, the blessed Paul; he speaks thus: “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience probation, and probation hope.”[Romans 5:3-4] And even as the violence of the wind, when it rushes upon strong trees, and sways them in all directions, does not root them up, but renders them still firmer and stronger by these attacks; so the soul that is holy, and lives in a religious state, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 541, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans (HTML)
Homily XXVIII on Rom. xv. 8. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1639 (In-Text, Margin)
... thou so disturb me? Trust in God, for I will confess unto Him.” (ib. xlii. 5.) Or dost thou see men in honor who deserve it not? “Fret not thyself at them that do wickedly. For as the grass shall they be dried up, and as the green herb shall they soon fall away.” (ib. xxxvii. 1, 2) Dost thou see both righteous and sinners punished? be told that the cause is not the same. For “many” he says, “are the plagues of sinners.” (ib. xxxii. 10.) But in the case of the righteous, he does not say plagues,[Romans 5:4] but, “Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all.” (ib. xxxiv. 19.) And again, “The death of the sinner is evil.” (ib. 21.) And, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (ib. cxvi. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 262, footnote 15 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) (HTML)
Defence of His Flight. (Apologia de Fuga.) (HTML)
The Saints fled for our sakes. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1490 (In-Text, Margin)
... conspired against them, and confirmed the faithful by their exhortations. Thus the blessed Paul, having found it so by experience, declared beforehand, ‘As many as will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution.’ And so he straightway prepared them that fled for the trial, saying, ‘Let us run with patience the race that is set before us;’ for although there be continual tribulations, ‘yet tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed[Romans 5:4].’ And the Prophet Isaiah when such-like affliction was expected, exhorted and cried aloud, ‘Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.’ And so ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 40, footnote 16 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 659 (In-Text, Margin)
... consumed me and the frost by night.” So we must love Christ and always seek His embraces. Then everything difficult will seem easy; all things long we shall account short; and smitten with His arrows, we shall say every moment: “Woe is me that I have prolonged my pilgrimage.” For “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” For “tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.”[Romans 5:3-5] When your lot seems hard to bear read Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians: “In labors more abundant; in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one; thrice was I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 204, footnote 18 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2907 (In-Text, Margin)
... of the malice of the lips and by reason of a spiteful tongue.” This passage of scripture she explained for her own consolation as meaning that the weaned, that is, those who have come to full age, must endure tribulation upon tribulation that they may be accounted worthy to receive hope upon hope. She recalled to mind also the words of the apostle, “we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope: and hope maketh not ashamed”[Romans 5:3-5] and “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day”: and “our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh in us an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 264, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Demetrius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3652 (In-Text, Margin)
... that we labour, it is for this end that we risk our lives in the warfare of this world, that we may be crowned in the world to come. That we should believe this to be true of men is nothing wonderful, for even the Lord Himself was tempted, and of Abraham the scripture bears witness that God tempted him. It is for this reason also that the apostle says: “we glory in tribulations.…knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed;”[Romans 5:3-5] and in another passage: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 31, footnote 5 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XXXVI. One of the duties of fortitude is to keep the weak from receiving injury; another, to check the wrong motions of our own souls; a third, both to disregard humiliations, and to do what is right with an even mind. All these clearly ought to be fulfilled by all Christians, and especially by the clergy. (HTML)
183. This is the true fortitude which Christ’s warrior has, who receives not the crown unless he strives lawfully. Or does that call to fortitude seem to thee but a poor one: “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience, hope”?[Romans 5:3-4] See how many a contest there is, yet but one crown! That call none gives, but he who was strengthened in Christ Jesus, and whose flesh had no rest. Affliction on all sides, fighting without and fears within. And though in dangers, in countless labours, in prisons, in deaths —he was not broken in spirit, but fought so as to become more powerful through his infirmities.