Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Romans 7:24
There are 71 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 450, footnote 13 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)
Chapter XX.—God showed himself, by the fall of man, as patient, benign, merciful, mighty to save. Man is therefore most ungrateful, if, unmindful of his own lot, and of the benefits held out to him, he do not acknowledge divine grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3697 (In-Text, Margin)
... this account, therefore, the Lord Himself, who is Emmanuel from the Virgin, is the sign of our salvation, since it was the Lord Himself who saved them, because they could not be saved by their own instrumentality; and, therefore, when Paul sets forth human infirmity, he says: “For I know that there dwelleth in my flesh no good thing,” showing that the “good thing” of our salvation is not from us, but from God. And again: “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] Then he introduces the Deliverer, [saying,] “The grace of Jesus Christ our Lord.” And Isaiah declares this also, [when he says:] “Be ye strengthened, ye hands that hang down, and ye feeble knees; be ye encouraged, ye feeble-minded; be comforted, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 384, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2455 (In-Text, Margin)
... annon significat generationem esse causam maximorum malorum? Jam vero in Phædone quoque testatur: “Evenit enim, ut qui recte philosophantur, non animadvertantur ab aliis in nullam rem aliam suum studium conferre, quam ut emoriantur, et sint mortui.” Et runus: “Ergo hic quoque philosophi anima corpus maxime vilipendit, et ab eo fugit, ipsa autem secum seorsim esse quærit.” Nunquid autem consentit cum divino Apostolo, qui dicit: “Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit a corpore mortis hujus?”[Romans 7:24] nisi forte eorum consensionem, qui trahuntur in vitium, “corpus morris” dicit tropice. Atque coitum quoque, qui est principium generationis, vel ante Marcionem vietur Plato aversari in primo De republica: ubi cum laudasset senectutem, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 395, footnote 6 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2567 (In-Text, Margin)
... est, in came mea, bonum;” legant æ, quæ prius dicta sunt; et ea, quæ consequuntur. Prius enim dixit: “Sed inhabitarts in me peccatum;” propter quod consentaneum erat dicere illud: “Non habitat in came mea bonum.” Consequenter subjunxit: “Si autem quod nolo, hoc ego facio, non utique ego id operor, sed quod inhabitat in me peccatum:” quod “repugnans,” inquit, “legi” Dei et “mentis meæ, captivat me in lege peccati, quæ est in membris meis. Miser ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore morris hujus?”[Romans 7:23-24] Et rursus (nunquam enim quovis modo juvando defatigatur) non veretur veluti concludere: “Lex enim spiritus liberavit me a lege peccati et morris:” quoniam “per Filium Dens condemnavit peccaturn in carne, ut justificatio legis impleatur in nobis, qui ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 417, footnote 11 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter VII.—The Blessedness of the Martyr. (HTML)
You see that martyrdom for love’s sake is taught. And should you wish to be a martyr for the recompense of advantages, you shall hear again. “For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.”[Romans 7:24-25] “But if we also suffer for righteousness’ sake,” says Peter, “blessed are we. Be not afraid of their fear, neither be troubled. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to him that asks a reason of the hope that is in you, but with meekness and fear, having a good conscience; so that in reference ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 632, footnote 14 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter L (HTML)
... here on earth, as he who says: “Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity?” He does not hesitate at all as to the difference between the present life of the soul and that which it is to lead hereafter. He does not say, “Who knows if to die is not to live, and if to live is not death” But he boldly proclaims the truth, and says, “Our soul is bowed down to the dust;” and, “Thou hast brought me into the dust of death;” and similarly, “Who will deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] also, “Who will change the body of our humiliation.” It is a prophet also who says, “Thou hast brought us down in a place of affliction;” meaning by the “place of affliction” this earthly region, to which Adam, that is to say, man, came after he was ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 661, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VIII (HTML)
Chapter LIV (HTML)
... characterized His words, “Now is the prince of this world judged.” We are, then, indulging in no baseless calumnies against demons, but are condemning their agency upon earth as destructive to mankind, and show that, under cover of oracles and bodily cures, and such other means, they are seeking to separate from God the soul which has descended to this “body of humiliation;” and those who feel this humiliation exclaim, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] It is not in vain, therefore, that we expose our bodies to be beaten and tortured; for surely it is not in vain for a man to submit to such sufferings, if by that means he may avoid bestowing the name of gods on those earthly spirits that unite with ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 372, footnote 10 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Methodius. (HTML)
From the Discourse on the Resurrection. (HTML)
Part III. (HTML)
A Synopsis of Some Apostolic Words from the Same Discourse. (HTML)
... imaginations. On account of which the apostle prays to be delivered from it, regarding it as death and destruction; as also does the prophet when he says, “Cleanse Thou me from my secret faults.” And the same is denoted by the words, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:22-24] By which he does not mean that the body is death, but the law of sin which is in his members, lying hidden in us through the transgression, and ever deluding the soul to the death of unrighteousness. And he immediately adds, clearly showing from ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 658, footnote 5 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Memoirs of Edessa And Other Ancient Syriac Documents. (HTML)
The Teaching of Addæus the Apostle. (HTML)
The Teaching of Addæus the Apostle. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2974 (In-Text, Margin)
... all the earth by the signs which His disciples my fellows do in all the earth: yea, those who were Hebrews, and knew only the language of the Hebrews, in which they were born, lo! at this day are speaking in all languages, in order that those who are afar off may hear and believe, even as those who are near. For He it is that confounded the tongues of the presumptuous in this region who were before us; and He it is that teaches at this day the faith of truth and verity by us, humble and despicable[Romans 7:24] men from Galilee of Palestine. For I also whom ye see am from Paneas, from the place where the river Jordan issues forth, and I was chosen, together with my fellows, to be a preacher.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 114, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He recalls the beginning of his youth, i.e. the thirty-first year of his age, in which very grave errors as to the nature of God and the origin of evil being distinguished, and the Sacred Books more accurately known, he at length arrives at a clear knowledge of God, not yet rightly apprehending Jesus Christ. (HTML)
What He Found in the Sacred Books Which are Not to Be Found in Plato. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 573 (In-Text, Margin)
... him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members? For Thou art righteous, O Lord, but we have sinned and committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and Thy hand is grown heavy upon us, and we are justly delivered over unto that ancient sinner, the governor of death; for he induced our will to be like his will, whereby he remained not in Thy truth. What shall “wretched man” do? “Who shall deliver him from the body of this death,” but Thy grace only, “through Jesus ‘Christ our Lord,’”[Romans 7:24-25] whom Thou hast begotten co-eternal, and createdst in the begin ning of Thy ways, in whom the Prince of this world found nothing worthy of death, yet killed he Him, and the handwriting which was contrary to us was blotted out? This those writings ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 121, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. (HTML)
Of the Causes Which Alienate Us from God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 651 (In-Text, Margin)
... long while. In vain did I “delight in Thy law after the inner man,” when “another law in my members warred against the law of my mind, and brought me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.” For the law of sin is the violence of custom, whereby the mind is drawn and held, even against its will; deserving to be so held in that it so willingly falls into it. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death” but Thy grace only, through Jesus Christ our Lord?[Romans 7:22-24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 161, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
After premising the difference between wisdom and knowledge, he points out a kind of trinity in that which is properly called knowledge; but one which, although we have reached in it the inner man, is not yet to be called the image of God. (HTML)
The Image of the Beast in Man. (HTML)
... were, by its own weight from blessedness; and learns by its own punishment, through that trial of its own intermediateness, what the difference is between the good it has abandoned and the bad to which it has committed itself; and having thrown away and destroyed its strength, it cannot return, unless by the grace of its Maker calling it to repentance, and forgiving its sins. For who will deliver the unhappy soul from the body of this death, unless the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord?[Romans 7:24-25] of which grace we will discourse in its place, so far as He Himself enables us.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 121, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Acts or Disputation Against Fortunatus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Disputation of the Second Day. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 248 (In-Text, Margin)
... voluntarily, but by the doing of that which is not subject to the law of God. For it likewise follows that "the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh; so that ye may not do the things that ye will." Again: "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and leading me captive in the law of sin and of death. Therefore I am a miserable man; who shall deliver me from the body of this death, unless it be the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ,"[Romans 7:23-25] "through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world?"
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 303, 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 states his objections to the morality of the law and the prophets, and Augustin seeks by the application of the type and the allegory to explain away the moral difficulties of the Old Testament. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 921 (In-Text, Margin)
... and that by him sin entered into the world, and death by sin. And our experience gives abundant evidence, that in punishment for this sin our body is corrupted, and weighs down the soul, and the clay tabernacle clogs the mind in its manifold activity; and we know that we can be freed from this punishment only by gracious interposition. So the apostle cries out in distress, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."[Romans 7:24-25] So much we know; but the reasons for the distribution of divine judgment and mercy, why one is in this condition, and another in that, though just, are unknown. Still, we are sure that all these things are due either to the mercy or the judgment of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 17, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
How It is that the Body Dead Because of Sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 227 (In-Text, Margin)
... arbitrary will? But besides this, additional light is afforded by the words which follow. For it is with limitation to the present time, when he says, that on the one hand “the body is dead because of sin,” since, whilst the body is unrenovated by the resurrection, there remains in it the desert of sin, that is, the necessity of dying; and on the other hand, that “the spirit is life because of righteousness,” since, notwithstanding the fact of our being still burdened with “the body of this death,”[Romans 7:24] we have already by the renewal which is begun in our inner man, new aspirations after the righteousness of faith. Yet, lest man in his ignorance should fail to entertain hope of the resurrection of the body, he says that the very body which he had ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 32, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
From the Epistle to the Romans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 355 (In-Text, Margin)
... not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:14-25] Let them, who can, say that men are not born in the body of this death, that so they may be able to affirm that they have no need of God’s grace through Jesus Christ in order to be delivered from the body of this death. Therefore he adds, a few ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 51, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
No One Righteous in All Things. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 532 (In-Text, Margin)
... not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.” Observe how he too after the inward man is separate from every evil work, because such work he does not himself effect, but the evil which dwells in his flesh; and yet, since he does not have even that ability to delight in the law of God except from the grace of God, he, as still in want of deliverance, exclaims, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? God’s grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 59, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Corruption of Nature is by Sin, Its Renovation is by Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 596 (In-Text, Margin)
From this law of sin is born the flesh of sin, which requires cleansing through the sacrament of Him who came in the likeness of sinful flesh, that the body of sin might be destroyed, which is also called “the body of this death,” from which only God’s grace delivers wretched man through Jesus Christ our Lord.[Romans 7:24-25] For this law, the origin of death, passed on from the first pair to their posterity, as is seen in the labour with which all men toil in the earth, and the travail of women in the pains of childbirth. For these sufferings they merited by the sentence of God, when they were convicted of sin; and we see them fulfilled not only in them, but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 94, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. (HTML)
The Passage in Romans. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 819 (In-Text, Margin)
... dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ out Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:7-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 142, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
Paul Asserts that the Flesh is Contrary Even in the Baptized. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1277 (In-Text, Margin)
... the flesh which are expressly named in the passage before us. Yet observe, even in the baptized, how contrary is the flesh. And in what way contrary? So that, “They do not the things which they would.” Take notice that the will is present in a man; but where is that “capacity of nature?” Let us confess that grace is necessary to us; let us cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” And let our answer be, “The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
Pelagius’ Admission as Regards the Unbaptized, Fatal. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1282 (In-Text, Margin)
... beg your pardon, I ought not to have said that the flesh cannot be contrary to the spirit in any baptized person, as if I meant to imply that it is contrary in the unbaptized; but I ought to have made my statement general, to the effect that the flesh in no man’s case is contrary. Now see into what a corner he drives himself. See what a man will say, who is unwilling to cry out with the apostle, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] “But why,” he asks, “should I so exclaim, who am already baptized in Christ? It is for them to cry out thus who have not yet received so great a benefit, whose words the apostle in a figure transferred to himself,—if indeed even they say so much.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
'This Body of Death,' So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1283 (In-Text, Margin)
Now, I ask, when did our nature lose that liberty, which he craves to be given to him when he says: “Who shall liberate me?”[Romans 7:24] For even he finds no fault with the substance of the flesh when he expresses his desire to be liberated from the body of this death, since the nature of the body, as well as of the soul, must be attributed to the good God as the author thereof. But what he speaks of undoubtedly concerns the offences of the body. Now from the body the death of the body separates us; whereas the offences contracted from the body remain, and their just ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
'This Body of Death,' So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1285 (In-Text, Margin)
... body of this death, since the nature of the body, as well as of the soul, must be attributed to the good God as the author thereof. But what he speaks of undoubtedly concerns the offences of the body. Now from the body the death of the body separates us; whereas the offences contracted from the body remain, and their just punishment awaits them, as the rich man found in hell. From these it was that he was unable to liberate himself, who said: “Who shall liberate me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] But whensoever it was that he lost this liberty, at least there remains that “inseparable capacity” of nature,—he has the ability from natural resources,—he has the volition from free will. Why does he seek the sacrament of baptism? Is it because of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 144, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Nature and Grace. (HTML)
'This Body of Death,' So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1288 (In-Text, Margin)
... God, after the inward man; but then he sees another law in his members, warring against the law of his mind.” Observe, he sees that there is, not recollects that there was. It is a present pressure, not a past memory. And he sees the other law not only “warring,” but even “bringing him into captivity to the law of sin, which is ”(not which was) “in his members.” Hence comes that cry of his: “O wretched man that I am! who shall liberate me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] Let him pray, let him entreat for the help of the mighty Physician. Why gainsay that prayer? Why cry down that entreaty? Why shall the unhappy suitor be hindered from begging for the mercy of Christ,—and that too by Christians? For, it was even they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Same Continued. Pelagius Acknowledges the Doctrine of Grace in Deceptive Terms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1655 (In-Text, Margin)
... by his own exertion and God’s grace be without sin; and yet not even thus would he be incapable of change afterwards.” Now it is quite uncertain what he means in these words by the grace of God; and the judges, catholic as they were, could not possibly understand by the phrase anything else than the grace which is so very strongly recommended to us in the apostle’s teaching. Now this is the grace whereby we hope that we can be delivered from the body of this death through our Lord Jesus Christ,[Romans 7:24-25] [VII.] and for the obtaining of which we pray that we may not be led into temptation. This grace is not nature, but that which renders assistance to frail and corrupted nature. This grace is not the knowledge of the law, but is that of which the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 192, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The Same Continued. Pelagius Acknowledges the Doctrine of Grace in Deceptive Terms. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1664 (In-Text, Margin)
... holy law of God, but still his evil concupiscence is not cured. He has a good will within him, but still what he does is evil. Hence it comes to pass that, amidst the mutual struggles of the two laws within him,—“the law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and making him captive to the law of sin,” —he confesses his misery; and exclaims in such words as these: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 210, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
The History Continued. Cœlestius Condemned at Carthage by Episcopal Judgment. Pelagius Acquitted by Bishops in Palestine, in Consequence of His Deceptive Answers; But Yet His Heresy Was Condemned by Them. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1767 (In-Text, Margin)
... free from the perversity of this heresy; while yet without hesitation condemning the heresy itself. They approved indeed of his answer to the objections, that “a man is assisted by a knowledge of the law, towards not sinning; even as it is written, ‘He hath given them a law for a help;’” but yet they disapproved of this knowledge of the law being that grace of God concerning which the Scripture says: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Nor did Pelagius say absolutely: “All men are ruled by their own will,” as if God did not rule them; for he said, when questioned on this point: “This I stated in the interest of the freedom of our will; God is its helper, whenever it makes choice ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 246, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Under the Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1968 (In-Text, Margin)
... propagation and domination of sin, but also convicted by the additional guilt of breaking the law itself: not in order that any one might perish who in the mercy of God understood this even in that early age; but that, destined though he was to punishment, owing to the dominion of death, and manifested, too, as guilty through his own violation of the law, he might seek God’s help, and so where sin abounded, grace might much more abound, even the grace which alone delivers from the body of this death.[Romans 7:24-25] [XXV.] Yet, notwithstanding this, although not even the law which Moses gave was able to liberate any man from the dominion of death, there were even then, too, at the time of the law, men of God who were not living under the terror and conviction ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 253, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On Original Sin. (HTML)
Sentences from Ambrose in Favour of Original Sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2043 (In-Text, Margin)
... in Adam was I expelled from Paradise, in Adam I died; and He does not recall me unless He has found me in Adam,—so as that, as I am obnoxious to the guilt of sin in him, and subject to death, I may be also justified in Christ.” Then, again, writing against the Novatians, he says: “We men are all of us born in sin; our very origin is in sin; as you may read when David says, ‘Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.’ Hence it is that Paul’s flesh is ‘a body of death;’[Romans 7:24] even as he says himself, ‘Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ Christ’s flesh, however, has con demned sin, which He experienced not by being born, and which by dying He crucified, that in our flesh there might be justification through ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 264, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
On Marriage and Concupiscence (HTML)
Concerning the Argument of This Treatise. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2063 (In-Text, Margin)
... between the evil of carnal concupiscence from which man who is born therefrom contracts original sin, and the good of marriage. For there would have been none of this shame-producing concupiscence, which is impudently praised by impudent men, if man had not previously sinned; while as to marriage, it would still have existed even if no man had sinned, since the procreation of children in the body that belonged to that life would have been effected without that malady which in “the body of this death”[Romans 7:24] cannot be separated from the process of procreation.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 277, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
On Marriage and Concupiscence (HTML)
The Flesh, Carnal Affection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2178 (In-Text, Margin)
... were not to some degree held captive, how could that be true which the apostle states, when he speaks of our “waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body”? In so far, then, as there is now this waiting for the redemption of our body, there is also in some degree still existing something in us which is a captive to the law of sin. Accordingly he exclaims, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24] What are we to understand by such language, but that our body, which is undergoing corruption, weighs heavily on our soul? When, therefore, this very body of ours shall be restored to us in an incorrupt state, there shall be a full liberation from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 284, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Same Continued. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2201 (In-Text, Margin)
... would have been effected without this disease.” Up to this point he cited my words; but he shrank from adding what comes next—“in the body of that chaste life, although without it this cannot be done in ‘the body of this death.’” He would not complete my sentence, but mutilated it somewhat, because he dreaded the apostle’s exclamation, of which my words gave him a reminder: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24] For the body of this death existed not in paradise before sin; therefore did we say, “In the body of that chaste life,” which was the life of paradise, “the procreation of children could have been effected without the disease, without which now in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 384, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
No Condemnation in Christ Jesus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2580 (In-Text, Margin)
Then he adds the reason why he said all these things: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!” And thence he concludes: “Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:24-25] To wit, with the flesh, the law of sin, by lusting; but with the mind, the law of God, by not consenting to that lust. “For there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” For he is not condemned who does not consent to the evil of the lust of the flesh. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made thee free from the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 384, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
What It is to Be Delivered from the Body of This Death. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2583 (In-Text, Margin)
For when he says also, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] who can deny that when the apostle said this he was still in the body of this death? And certainly the wicked are not delivered from this, to whom the same bodies are returned for eternal torment. Therefore, to be delivered from the body of this death is to be healed of all the weakness of fleshly lust, and to receive the body, not for penalty, but for glory. With this passage also those words are sufficiently in harmony: “Ourselves also, which have the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 433, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
The Testimonies of Ambrose on the Imperfection of Present Righteousness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2911 (In-Text, Margin)
... be spotless, because no person is without sin.” Also in the same he says: “We see that, while we live in this life, we ought to purify ourselves and to seek God; and to begin from the purification of our soul, and as it were to establish the foundations of virtue, so that we may deserve to attain the perfection of our purgation after this life.” And again, in the same he says: “But laden and groaning, who does not say, ‘O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’[Romans 7:24] So with the same teacher we give all varieties of interpretation. For if he is unhappy who recognises himself as involved in the evils of the body, certainly everybody is unhappy; for I should not call that man happy who, being confused with any ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 502, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
What Augustin Wrote to Simplicianus, the Successor of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3442 (In-Text, Margin)
... bishop, I have laboured, the first two are addressed to Simplicianus, president of the Church of Milan, who succeeded the most blessed Ambrose, concerning divers questions, two of which I gathered into the first book from the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. The former of them is about what is written: ‘What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? By no means;’ as far as the passage where he says, ‘Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.’[Romans 7:24] And therein I have expounded those words of the apostle: ‘The law is spiritual; but I am carnal,’ and others in which the flesh is declared to be in conflict against the Spirit in such a way as if a man were there described as still under law, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 16, footnote 7 (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 XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 119 (In-Text, Margin)
... itself for the base pleasure of the lower nature as its reward (so to speak), is thereby corrupted? And therefore let every one who feels carnal pleasure rebelling against right inclination in his own case through the habit of sinning, by whose unsubdued violence he is dragged into captivity, recall to mind as much as he can what kind of peace he has lost by sinning, and let him cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:24-25] For in this way, when he cries out that he is wretched, in the act of bewailing he implores the help of a comforter. Nor is it a small approach to blessedness, when he has come to know his wretchedness; and therefore “blessed” also “are they that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 46, footnote 10 (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 XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 345 (In-Text, Margin)
... heaven so in earth, because when the body, which is as it were the earth, shall agree in a final and complete peace with the soul, which is as it were heaven, we shall not mourn: for there is no other mourning belonging to this present time, except when these contend against each other, and compel us to say, “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind;” and to testify our grief with tearful voice, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:23-24] If it is fortitude through which those are blessed who hunger and thirst after righteousness, inasmuch as they shall be filled; let us pray that our daily bread may be given to us to-day, by which, supported and sustained, we may be able to reach ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 476, 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)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3691 (In-Text, Margin)
... in the law of sin.” This derived from the punishment of sin, from the propagation of death, from the condemnation of Adam, “resists the law of the mind, and brings it into captivity in the law of sin which is in the members.” He was convinced; he received the Law, that he might be convinced: see now what profit it was to him that he was convinced. Hear the following words, “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 478, 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)
Again in John v. 2, etc., on the five porches, where lay a great multitude of impotent folk, and of the pool of Siloa. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3713 (In-Text, Margin)
... even hitherto:” they are troubled. “And I work:” He hath made Himself equal with God: they are troubled. But be not alarmed. The water is troubled, now the sick man is to be cured. What meaneth this? Therefore are they troubled, that the Lord may suffer. The Lord doth suffer, the precious Blood is shed, the sinner is redeemed, grace is given to the sinner, to him that saith, “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] But how is he cured? If he step down. For that pool was so made, that men should go down, and not come up to it. For there might be pools of such a kind, so constructed, that men must go up to them. But why was this made in such a way that men must ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 542, 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, John xvi. 24, ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name;’ and on the words of Luke x. 17, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4300 (In-Text, Margin)
... aught, but “leading thee captive in the law of sin.” Behold, whence to thee who fearest that “plentifulness of sweetness is hidden!” to him that feareth it “is hidden,” how is it” wrought” out for him that “trusteth”? Cry out under thine enemy, for that thou hast an assailant, thou hast an Helper too, who looketh upon thee as thou fightest, who helpeth thee in difficulty; but only if He find thee “trusting;” for the proud He hateth. What then wilt thou cry under this enemy? “Wretched man that I am!”[Romans 7:24] Ye see it already, for ye have cried out. Be this your cry, when haply thou art distressed under the enemy, say ye, in your inmost heart say, in sound faith say, “Wretched man that I am!” Wretched that I am! “Therefore wretched,” because “I.” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 542, footnote 10 (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, John xvi. 24, ‘Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name;’ and on the words of Luke x. 17, ‘Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name.’ (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4304 (In-Text, Margin)
... this death?” What did I say above? The Law alarmeth him that relieth upon himself. Behold, man relied upon himself, he attempted to fight, he could not get the better, he was conquered, prostrated, subjugated, led captive. He learnt to rely upon God, and it remaineth that him whom the Law alarmed while he relied upon himself, grace should assist now that he trusteth in God. In this confidence he saith, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Now see the sweetness, taste it, relish it; hear the Psalm, “Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.” He hath become sweet to thee, for that He hath delivered thee. Thou wast bitter to thine own self, when thou didst rely upon thyself. Drink ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 204, footnote 1 (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 VIII. 12. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 645 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Spirit against the flesh.” Behold thou art thyself, thou art alone, thou art with thyself; behold, thou art bearing with no other person, but yet thou seest another law in thy members warring against the law of thy mind, and taking thee captive in the law of sin, which is in thy members. Cry aloud, then, and cry to God, that He may give thee peace from the inner strife: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:23-25] Because, “He that followeth me,” saith He, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” All strife ended, immortality shall follow; for “the last enemy, death, shall be destroyed.” And what peace will this be? “This corruptible ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 234, footnote 1 (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 VIII. 31–36. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 766 (In-Text, Margin)
... that which so remains? What, but to look to Him who has said, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed”? Indeed he also who thus spake so looked to Him: “O wretched man that I am,” he says, “who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Therefore “if the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” And then he concluded thus: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”[Romans 7:23-25] I myself, he says; for there are not two of us contrary to each other, coming from different origins; but “with the mind I myself serve the law of God, and with the flesh the law of sin,” so long as languor struggles against salvation.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 7, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 63 (In-Text, Margin)
... men. Nor does it follow, “And upon Thy people” be “Thy blessing,” in such wise as that the whole is spoken to men, but there is a change into prayer addressed to God Himself, for the very people to whom it was said, “Salvation is of the Lord.” What else then doth he say but this? Let no man presume on himself, seeing that it is of the Lord to save from the death of sin; for, “Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] But do Thou, O Lord, bless Thy people, who look for salvation from Thee.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 92, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XXXVII (HTML)
Part 1 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 860 (In-Text, Margin)
... (you say), “I do long after it, I do ask for it, I do desire it. Shall I then accomplish it?” No. Who shall then? “Reveal thy way unto the Lord: trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass” (ver. 5). Mention to Him what thou sufferest, mention to Him what thou dost desire. For what is it that thou sufferest? “The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.” What is it then that thou dost desire? “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] And because it is He “Himself” that “will bring it to pass,” when thou shalt have “revealed thy ways unto Him;” hear what follows: “The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What is it then that He is to bring to pass, since it is said, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 231, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2171 (In-Text, Margin)
... answereth perchance with some hard and evil responses, he runneth to a soothsayer, that expiation may be made; the soothsayer maketh answer that he is not able to expiate: a magician is sought. And who could enumerate those sins which are knit together with sins? “Iniquities your hands do knit together.” So long as thou knittest together, thou bindest sin upon sin. Loose thyself from sins. But I am not able, thou sayest. Cry to Him. “Unhappy man I, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] For there shall come the Grace of God, so that righteousness shall be thy delight, as much as thou didst delight in iniquity; and thou, a man that out of bonds hast been loosed, shall cry out to God, “Thou hast broken asunder my bonds.” “Thou hast ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 316, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3080 (In-Text, Margin)
... die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” But in Adam they die through the flesh’s nativity, in Christ they are delivered through the heart’s faith. It was not in thy power not to be born of Adam: it is in thy power to believe in Christ. Howsoever much then thou shalt have willed to belong to the first man, unto captivity thou wilt belong. And what is, shalt have willed to belong? or what is, shalt belong? Already thou belongest: cry out, “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] Let us hear then this man crying out this.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 317, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3093 (In-Text, Margin)
6. “O God, deliver me from the hand of the sinner” (ver. 4). Generally, sinners, among whom is toiling he that is now to be delivered from captivity: he that now crieth, “Unhappy man I, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Within is a foe, that law in the members; there are without also enemies: unto what cryest thou? Unto Him, to whom hath been cried, “From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord, and from strange sins spare Thy servant.” …But these sinners are of two kinds: there are some that have received Law, there are others that have not received: all the heathen have not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 403, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3892 (In-Text, Margin)
... understanding which has many thoughts.” The Spirit calls upward, the weight of the flesh calls back again downward: between the double effort to raise and to weigh down, a kind of struggle ensues: this struggle goes toward the pressure of the winepress. Hear how the Apostle describes this same struggle of the winepress, for he was himself afflicted there, there he was pressed.…“Miserable man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] …“For I delight in the Law of God according to the inner man.” But what shall I do? how shall I fly? how shall I arrive thither? “I see another law in my members,” etc.…And as in the words of the Apostle, that difficulty and that almost inextricable ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 405, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3918 (In-Text, Margin)
... mean by the words, “Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob”?…This Psalm hath prophesied in song. “Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.” To whom did it speak? To Christ; for it said, “for the end, for the sons of Core:” for He hath turned away the captivity of Jacob. Hear Paul himself confessing: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” He asked who it should be, and straightway it occurred to him, “The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Of this grace of God the Prophet speaketh to our Lord Jesus Christ, “Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob.” Attend to the captivity of Jacob, attend, and see that it is this: Thou hast turned away our captivity, not by setting us free from ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 533, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4882 (In-Text, Margin)
... knowing the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own, “and they were bitter against the counsel of the Most High.” “And their heart was brought low in labour” (ver. 12). And now fight against lust; if God cease to aid thou mayest strive, thou canst not conquer. And when thou shalt be pressed by thine evil, thy heart will be brought low in labour, so that now with humbled heart thou mayest learn to cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] …Freed, thou wilt confess the mercies of the Lord. “And they cried unto the Lord when they were troubled, and He delivered them out of their distresses” (ver. 13). They were freed from the second temptation. There remains that of weariness and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 672, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXLVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5953 (In-Text, Margin)
... cannot. Wherefore can he not? “In the face of His cold who shall stand?” Behold him then growing harder, and saying, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Behold, I am growing cold, behold, I am growing hard, what heat shall thaw me that I may run? “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?.…In the face of His cold who shall stand?” And who shall free himself, if God abandon him? Who is it that freeth? “The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] Are we then to despair? God forbid. For it goeth on, “He shall send out His Word, and melt them” (ver. 18). Let not then the snow despair, nor the mist, nor the crystal. For of the snow, as of wool, a garment is being made. That mist findeth safety ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 194, footnote 7 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
Dialogues. The “Eranistes” or “Polymorphus” of the Blessed Theodoretus, Bishop of Cyrus. (HTML)
The Unconfounded. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1255 (In-Text, Margin)
Eran. —What then do you say to be proper to the soul?[Romans 7:24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 449, footnote 2 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Jerome, under the name of “another,” gives his own views. (HTML)
... these souls, for reasons known to God alone, were cast down into this vale of tears, this place of our mournful pilgrimage, and that this is shewn by the prayer uttered by a holy man of old who, having his habitation fixed here, yet longed to return to his original abode: “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged, that I have my habitation among the inhabitants of Kedar,” “my soul has long been a pilgrim,” and again “O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] and in another place “It is better to return and be with Christ,” and elsewhere, “Before I was brought low, I sinned;” and other words of a like character.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 455, footnote 9 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
The Apology of Rufinus. Addressed to Apronianus, in Reply to Jerome's Letter to Pammachius. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Origin of men, angels, and heavenly bodies. (HTML)
“We must hold that men are by nature children of wrath because of this ‘body of humiliation’ and[Romans 7:24] ‘body of death,’ and because ‘the heart of man is disposed to evil from his youth.’”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 494, footnote 3 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
Life and Works of Rufinus with Jerome's Apology Against Rufinus. (HTML)
Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
As to the passage “He hath chosen us before the foundation of the world.” (HTML)
... existed the invisible creation, part of which consisted of souls, which, for certain causes known to God alone, were cast down into this valley of tears, this scene of our affliction and our pilgrimage; and that it is to this that we may apply the Psalmist’s prayer, he being in this low condition and longing to return to his former dwelling place: “Woe is me that my sojourn is prolonged; I have inhabited the habitations of Kedar, my soul hath had a long pilgrimage.” And also the words of the Apostle:[Romans 7:24] “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and “It is better to return and to be with Christ;” and “Before I was brought low, I sinned.” He adds much more of the same kind.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 24, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 376 (In-Text, Margin)
... pricks of the flesh and the allurements of vice keeps under his body and brings it into subjection, lest when he has preached to others he may himself be a castaway; and yet, for all that, sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin; if after nakedness, fasting, hunger, imprisonment, scourging and other torments, he turns back to himself and cries “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] do you fancy that you ought to lay aside apprehension? See to it that God say not some day of you: “The virgin of Israel is fallen and there is none to raise her up.” I will say it boldly, though God can do all things He cannot raise up a virgin ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 207, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2957 (In-Text, Margin)
... endeavoured thus to alleviate a mother’s grief; her feelings overpowered her and her maternal instincts were too much for her confiding mind. Thus while her intellect retained its mastery she was overcome by sheer physical weakness. On one occasion a sickness seized her and clung to her so long that it brought anxiety to us and danger to herself. Yet even then she was full of joy and repeated every moment the apostle’s words: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 228, footnote 23 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3199 (In-Text, Margin)
... clean from sin; even though he has lived but for one day.” And the years of man’s life are many in number. “The stars are not pure in his sight, and his angels he charged with folly.” If there is sin in heaven, how much more must there be sin on earth? If they are stained with guilt who have no bodily temptations, how much more must we be, enveloped as we are in frail flesh and forced to cry each one of us with the apostle: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?[Romans 7:24] For in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing.” For we do not what we would but what we would not; the soul desires to do one thing, the flesh is compelled to do another. If any persons are called righteous in scripture, and not only righteous but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 246, footnote 15 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rusticus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3429 (In-Text, Margin)
... temptation. Woe be to us who commit fornication every time that we cherish lust. “My sword,” God says, “hath drunk its fill in heaven;” much more then upon the earth with its crop of thorns and thistles. The chosen vessel who had Christ’s name ever on his lips kept under his body and brought it into subjection. Yet even he was hindered by carnal desire and had to do what he would not. As one suffering violence he cries: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] Is it likely then that you can pass without fall or wound, unless you keep your heart with all diligence, and say with the Saviour: “my mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it.” This may seem cruelty, but it is really ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 266, footnote 14 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Demetrius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3699 (In-Text, Margin)
... brought it into subjection, lest having preached to others he might himself become a castaway. Heated with the violence of sensual passion he made himself the spokesman of the human race: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and again, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do;”[Romans 7:24] and once more: “they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 272, footnote 4 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3774 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Peripatetics who trace themselves to Aristotle, and by the new Academics of whom Cicero is a disciple; and these overthrow not the facts of their opponents—for they have no facts—but the shadows and wishes which do duty for them. To maintain such a doctrine is to take man’s nature from him, to forget that he is constituted of body as well as soul, to substitute mere wishes for sound teaching. For the apostle says:—“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] But as I cannot say all that I wish in a short letter I will briefly touch on the points that you must avoid. Virgil writes:—
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 277, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Ctesiphon. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3851 (In-Text, Margin)
... shall no flesh be justified.” And to shew that it is not only the law of Moses that is meant or all those precepts which collectively are termed the law, the same apostle writes: “I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:22-25] Other words of his further explain his meaning: “we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not: for what I would that do I not, but what I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 374, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4519 (In-Text, Margin)
... the law, having died to that wherein we were holden; so that we serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.” “When,” he says, “we were in the flesh, and not in the newness of the Spirit but in the oldness of the letter,” we did those things which pertained to the flesh, and bore fruit unto death. But now because we are dead to the law, through the body of Christ, let us bear fruit to God, that we may belong to Him who rose from the dead. And elsewhere, having previously said,[Romans 7:24-25] “I know that the law is spiritual,” and having discussed at some length the violence of the flesh which frequently drives us to do what we would not, he at last continues: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of the body of this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 433, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
To Pammachius against John of Jerusalem. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5028 (In-Text, Margin)
... the sun also, himself, and the moon, and the company of all the stars, are the souls of what were once reasonable and incorporeal creatures; and that though now subject to vanity, that is to say, to fiery bodies which we, in our ignorance and inexperience, call luminaries of the world, they shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption and brought to the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. Wherefore every creature groaneth and travaileth in pain together. And the Apostle laments, saying,[Romans 7:24] “Wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” This is not the time to controvert this doctrine, which is partly heathen, and partly Platonic. About ten years ago in my “Commentary” on Ecclesiastes, and in my explanation ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 180, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus. (HTML)
Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1525 (In-Text, Margin)
41. But what remedy? “Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”[Romans 7:24-25] We have a physician, let us use the remedy. Our remedy is the grace of Christ, and the body of death is our body. Let us therefore be as strangers to our body, lest we be strangers to Christ. Though we are in the body, let us not follow the things which are of the body, let us not reject the rightful claims of nature, but desire before all the gifts of grace: “For to be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better; yet to abide in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 331, footnote 8 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter III. To the argument of the Novatians, that they only deny forgiveness in the case of greater sins, St. Ambrose replies, that this is also an offence against God, Who gave the power to forgive all sins, but that of course a more severe penance must follow in case of graver sins. He points out likewise that this distinction as to the gravity of sins assigns, as it were, severity to God, Whose mercy in the Incarnation is overlooked by the Novatians. (HTML)
... the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin; He received a stainless body, which not only no sins polluted, but which neither the generation nor the conception had been stained by any admixture of defilement. For we men are all born under sin, and our very origin is in evil, as we read in the words of David: “For lo, I was conceived in wickedness, and in sin did my mother bring me forth.” Therefore the flesh of Paul was a body of death, as he himself says: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] But the flesh of Christ condemned sin, which He felt not at His birth, and crucified by His death, so that in our flesh there might be justification through grace, in which before there had been pollution by guilt.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 384, footnote 9 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Virgins. (HTML)
Book III. (HTML)
Chapter V. St. Ambrose, speaking of tears, explains David's saying, “Every night wash l my couch with my tears,” and goes on to speak of Christ bearing our griefs and infirmities. Everything should be referred to His honour, and we ought to rejoice with spiritual joy, but not after a worldly fashion. (HTML)
... body consists, in which our soul rests, if it do not exist deprived of rest by the roughness of hills or the damp ground, but raised on high, above vices, supported by the wood. For which reason David also says: “The Lord will send him help upon his bed of pain.” For how can that be a bed of pain which cannot feel pain, and which has no feeling? But the body of pain is like the body of that death, of which it is said: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 502, 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 XX. Conference of Abbot Pinufius. On the End of Penitence and the Marks of Satisfaction. (HTML)
Chapter XII. Wherein we must do penance for a time only; and wherein it can have no end. (HTML)
... defilement in a dream, we often fall every day either against our will or voluntarily; offences for which David also prays the Lord, and asks for purification and pardon, and says: “Who can understand sins? from my secret ones cleanse me; and from those of others spare Thy servant;” and the Apostle: “For the good which I would I do not, and the evil which I would not, that I do.” For which also the same man exclaims with a sigh “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”[Romans 7:24] For we slip into these so easily as it were by a law of nature, that however carefully and guardedly we are on the lookout against them, we cannot altogether avoid them. Since it was of these that one of the disciples, whom Jesus loved, declared and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 525, footnote 5 (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 XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter X. How those who are on the way to perfection are truly humble, and feel that they always stand in need of God's grace. (HTML)
... experience that through the hindrance of the burden of the flesh they cannot by human strength reach the desired end, nor be united according to their heart’s desire with that chief and highest good, but that they are led away from the vision of it captive to worldly things, they betake themselves to the grace of God, “Who justifieth the ungodly,” and cry out with the Apostle: O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”[Romans 7:24-25] For they feel that they cannot perform the good that they would, but are ever falling into the evil which they would not, and which they hate, i.e., wandering thoughts and care for carnal things.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 527, footnote 4 (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 XXIII. The Third Conference of Abbot Theonas. On Sinlessness. (HTML)
Chapter XV. The answer to the objection raised. (HTML)
... carnal sins. And since you have already separated these from the number of sinners, it follows that you must shortly admit them into the ranks of the faithful and holy. For what kinds of sin do you say that those can commit, from which, if they are involved in them after the grace of baptism, they can be freed by the daily grace of Christ? or of what body of death are we to think that the Apostle said: “Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord”?[Romans 7:24-25] Is it not clear, as truth compels you yourselves also to admit, that it is spoken not of those members of capital crimes, by which the wages of eternal death are gained; viz., murder, fornication, adultery, drunkenness, thefts and robberies, but of ...