Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Romans 8:15

There are 36 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 419, footnote 7 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book III (HTML)

Chapter VI—The Holy Ghost, throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, made mention of no other God or Lord, save him who is the true God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3337 (In-Text, Margin)

... speaks: “The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and hath called the earth.” Who is meant by God? He of whom He has said, “God shall come openly, our God, and shall not keep silence;” that is, the Son, who came manifested to men who said, “I have openly appeared to those who seek Me not.” But of what gods [does he speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, “I have said, Ye are gods, and all sons of the Most High.” To those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the “adoption, by which we cry, Abba Father.”[Romans 8:15]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 472, footnote 12 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter IX.—There is but one author, and one end to both covenants. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3910 (In-Text, Margin)

... [was born] of the Virgin Mary, who also suffered, in whom too we trust, and whom we love; as Esaias says: “And they shall say in that day, Behold our Lord God, in whom we have trusted, and we have rejoiced in our salvation;” and Peter says in his Epistle: “Whom, not seeing, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, ye have believed, ye shall rejoice with joy unspeakable;” neither do we receive another Holy Spirit, besides Him who is with us, and who cries, “Abba, Father;”[Romans 8:15] and we shall make increase in the very same things [as now], and shall make progress, so that no longer through a glass, or by means of enigmas, but face to face, we shall enjoy the gifts of God;—so also now, receiving more than the temple, and more ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 533, footnote 13 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)

Chapter VIII.—The gifts of the Holy Spirit which we receive prepare us for incorruption, render us spiritual, and separate us from carnal men. These two classes are signified by the clean and unclean animals in the legal dispensation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4498 (In-Text, Margin)

... inheritance.” This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now, and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality. “For ye,” he declares, “are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” This, however, does not take place by a casting away of the flesh, but by the impartation of the Spirit. For those to whom he was writing were not without flesh, but they were those who had received the Spirit of God, “by which we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] If therefore, at the present time, having the earnest, we do cry, “Abba, Father,” what shall it be when, on rising again, we behold Him face to face; when all the members shall burst out into a continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying Him who raised ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 395, footnote 9 (Image)

Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (HTML)

The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)

Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2570 (In-Text, Margin)

... fratres, non carni, ut secundum carnem vivamus. Si enim secundum camera vivitis, estis morituri: si vero spiritu facta carnis mortificaveritis, vivetis. Quicunque enim spiritu Dei aguntur, ii sunt filii Dei.” Et adversus nobilitatem et adversus libertatem, qum exsecrabiliter ab iis, qui sunt diversæ sententiæ, introducitur, qui de libidine gloriantur, subjungit dicens: “Non enim accepistis spiritum servitutis rursus in timorein, sed accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo clamamus, Abba Pater;”[Romans 8:12-15] hoc est, ad hoc accepimus, ut cognoscamus eum, quem oramus, qui est vere Pater, qui rerum omnium solus est Pater, qui ad salutem erudit et castigat at pater, et timorem minatur.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 418, footnote 5 (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)
CCEL Footnote 2753 (In-Text, Margin)

“For God hath not given us the spirit of bondage again to fear; but of power, and love, and of a sound mind. Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner,” he writes to Timothy.[Romans 8:15] Such shall he be “who cleaves to that which is good,” according to the apostle, “who hates evil, having love unfeigned; for he that loveth another fulfilleth the law.” If, then, this God, to whom we bear witness, be as He is, the God of hope, we acknowledge our hope, speeding on to hope, “saturated with goodness, filled with all knowledge.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 421, footnote 4 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Origen. (HTML)

Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)

I (HTML)
Chapter LVII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3180 (In-Text, Margin)

... that every man who, as Paul expresses it, is no longer under fear, as a schoolmaster, but who chooses good for its own sake, is “a son of God;” but this man is distinguished far and wide above every man who is called, on account of his virtues, a son of God, seeing He is, as it were, a kind of source and beginning of all such. The words of Paul are as follow: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] But, according to the Jew of Celsus, “countless individuals will convict Jesus of falsehood, alleging that those predictions which were spoken of him were intended of them.” We are not aware, indeed, whether Celsus knew of any who, after coming into ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 43, footnote 10 (Image)

Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius

Gregory Thaumaturgus. (HTML)

Dubious or Spurious Writings. (HTML)

A Sectional Confession of Faith. (HTML)
Section X. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 318 (In-Text, Margin)

... the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” And again he says: “But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” And again: “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:14-15] And again: “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost.” And again: “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 45, footnote 6 (Image)

Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

Excerpts of Theodotus. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 230 (In-Text, Margin)

XIX. Advancing from faith and fear to knowledge, man knows how to say Lord, Lord; but not as His slave, he has learned to say, Our Father. Having set free the spirit of bondage, which produces fear, and advanced by love to adoption, he now reverences from love Him whom he feared before. For he no longer abstains from what he ought to abstain from out of fear, but out of love clings to the commandments. “The Spirit itself,” it is said, “beareth witness when we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 314, footnote 1 (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 Teacher and Master. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4602 (In-Text, Margin)

It is plain to all how our Lord is a teacher and an interpreter for those who are striving towards godliness, and on the other hand a master of those servants who have the spirit of bondage to fear,[Romans 8:15] who make progress and hasten towards wisdom, and are found worthy to possess it. For “the servant knoweth not what the master wills,” since he is no longer his master, but has become his friend. The Lord Himself teaches this, for He says to hearers who were still servants: “You call Me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am,” but in another passage, “I call you no longer servants, for the ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 490, footnote 12 (Image)

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

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on Matthew. (HTML)

Book XIII. (HTML)
The Little Ones and Their Angels. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5985 (In-Text, Margin)

... stewardship as of nursing-fathers and nursing-mothers, on this account I think that Moses, who believed that he had been already assigned a place among the ranks of the great, said, with regard to the promise, “My angel shall go before you,” “If thou thyself do not go along with me, carry me not up hence.” For though the little one even be an heir, yet as being a child he differs nothing from a servant when he is a child, and to the extent to which he is little “has the spirit of bondage to fear;”[Romans 8:15] but he who is not at all any longer such has no longer the spirit of bondage, but already the spirit of adoption, when “perfect love casteth out fear;” it will be plain to thee, how that according to these things “the angel of the Lord” is said “to ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 270, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

Of the punishment and results of man’s first sin, and of the propagation of man without lust. (HTML)

Of the Perturbations of the Soul Which Appear as Right Affections in the Life of the Righteous. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 718 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Apostle John says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love,” —that fear is not of the same kind as the Apostle Paul felt lest the Corinthians should be seduced by the subtlety of the serpent; for love is susceptible of this fear, yea, love alone is capable of it. But the fear which is not in love is of that kind of which Paul himself says, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.”[Romans 8:15] But as for that “clean fear which endureth for ever,” if it is to exist in the world to come (and how else can it be said to endure for ever?), it is not a fear deterring us from evil which may happen, but preserving us in the good which cannot be ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 324, footnote 11 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)

Of the Son of God as Neither Made by the Father Nor Less Than the Father, and of His Incarnation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1555 (In-Text, Margin)

... the form of a servant;” in order that He might be created Man in the beginning of His ways, the Word by whom all things were made. Wherefore, in so far as He is the Only-begotten, He has no brethren; but in so far as He is the First-begotten, He has deemed it worthy of Him to give the name of brethren to all those who, subsequently to and by means of His pre-eminence, are born again into the grace of God through the adoption of sons, according to the truth commended to us by apostolic teaching.[Romans 8:15-17] Thus, then, the Son according to nature (naturalis filius) was born of the very substance of the Father, the only one so born, subsisting as that which the Father is, God of God, Light of Light. We, on the other hand, are not the light by ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 330, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)

Of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1615 (In-Text, Margin)

... given unto us,” or many other proofs texts of a similar tenor: while they ground their position also upon the express fact that it is through the Holy Spirit that we are reconciled unto God; whence also, when He is called the Gift of God, they will have it that sufficient indication is of fered of the love of God and the Holy Spirit being identical. For we are not reconciled unto Him except through that love in virtue of which we are also called sons: as we are no more “under fear, like servants,”[Romans 8:15] because “love, when it is made perfect, casteth out fear;” and [as] “we have received the spirit of liberty, wherein we cry, Abba, Father.” And inasmuch as, being reconciled and called back into friendship through love, we shall be able to become ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 330, footnote 4 (Image)

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

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

A Treatise on Faith and the Creed. (HTML)

Of the Holy Spirit and the Mystery of the Trinity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1617 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Holy Spirit that we are reconciled unto God; whence also, when He is called the Gift of God, they will have it that sufficient indication is of fered of the love of God and the Holy Spirit being identical. For we are not reconciled unto Him except through that love in virtue of which we are also called sons: as we are no more “under fear, like servants,” because “love, when it is made perfect, casteth out fear;” and [as] “we have received the spirit of liberty, wherein we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] And inasmuch as, being reconciled and called back into friendship through love, we shall be able to become acquainted with all the secret things of God, for this reason it is said of the Holy Spirit that “He shall lead you into all truth.” For the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 431, footnote 13 (Image)

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

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)

Section 39 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2147 (In-Text, Margin)

... the things of this world, how to please a wedded partner; but of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord? That other fear is not in charity, but this chaste fear quitteth not charity. If you love not, fear lest you perish; if you love, fear lest you displease. That fear charity casteth out, with this it runneth within. The Apostle Paul also says, “For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the spirit of adoption of sons, wherein we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] I believe that he speaks of that fear, which had been given in the Old Testament, lest the temporal goods should be lost, which God had promised unto those not yet sons under grace, but as yet slaves under the law. There is also the fear of eternal ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 432, footnote 2 (Image)

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

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

Of Holy Virginity. (HTML)

Section 39 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2153 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit. With those sayings there companies fear which hath torment, which perfect charity casteth forth; but with these sayings there companies chaste fear of the Lord, that abideth for ever and ever. And to both kinds it must be said, “Be not thou high-minded, but fear;” that man neither of defense of his sins, nor of presumption of righteousness set himself up. For Paul also himself, who saith, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;”[Romans 8:15] yet, fear being a companion of charity, saith, “With fear and much trembling was I towards you:” and that saying, which I have mentioned, that the engrafted wild olive tree be not proud against the broken branches of the olive tree, himself made use ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 535, footnote 11 (Image)

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

Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

On Patience. (HTML)

Section 25 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2705 (In-Text, Margin)

... we read: “And Abraham gave all his estate unto Isaac; and to the sons of his concubines gave Abraham gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac.” If then we be sons of Jerusalem the free, let us understand that other be the gifts of them which are put out of the inheritance, other the gifts of them which be heirs. For these be the heirs, to whom is said, “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 108, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

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

The Faith of Those Who are Under the Law Different from the Faith of Others. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1019 (In-Text, Margin)

... thing which is lawful, although it has something else in its will which would prefer, if it were only possible, that to be lawful which is not lawful. These persons also believe in God; for if they had no faith in Him at all, neither would they of course have any dread of the penalty of His law. This, however, is not the faith which the apostle commends. He says: “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] The fear, then, of which we speak is slavish; and therefore, even though there be in it a belief in the Lord, yet righteousness is not loved by it, but condemnation is feared. God’s children, however, exclaim, “Abba, Father,”—one of which words they ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 359, footnote 9 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin. (HTML)

Book IV. (HTML)

In What Sense the Holy Ghost is Said to Make Intercession for Us. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2473 (In-Text, Margin)

... said, “We know not what we should pray for as we ought,” he immediately added, “But the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” —that is to say, He makes the saints offer intercessions. He, of course, is that Spirit “whom God hath sent into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father;” and “by whom we cry, Abba, Father;”[Romans 8:15] for both expressions are used by the apostle—both that we have received the Spirit who cries, Abba, Father; and also that it is through Him that we cry, Abba, Father. His object is to explain by these varied statements in what sense he ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 491, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace. (HTML)

Another Interpretation of the Apostolic Passage, Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3405 (In-Text, Margin)

... will that all to whom we preach this peace may be saved, and Himself works this in us by diffusing that love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us,—may also thus be understood, that God wills all men to be saved, because He makes us to will this; just as “He sent the Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father;” that is, making us to cry, Abba, Father. Because, concerning that same Spirit, He says in another place, “We have received the Spirit of adoption, in whom we cry, Abba, Father!”[Romans 8:15] We therefore cry, but He is said to cry who makes us to cry. If, then, Scripture rightly said that the Spirit was crying by whom we are made to cry, it rightly also says that God wills, when by Him we are made to will. And thus, because by rebuke we ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 551, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings

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

A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance. (HTML)

In What Sense the Holy Spirit Solicits for Us, Crying, Abba, Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3710 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Spirit is truth? For He it is of whom the apostle says in another place, “God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, “crying, Abba, Father!” And here what is the meaning of “crying,” but “making to cry,” by that figure of speech whereby we call a day that makes people glad, a glad day? And this he makes plain elsewhere when he says, “For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] He there said, “crying,” but here, “in whom we cry;” opening up, that is to say, the meaning with which he said “crying,”—that is, as I have already explained, “causing to cry,” when we understand that this is also itself the gift of God, that with ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 39, footnote 5 (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 IV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 275 (In-Text, Margin)

... where the Jews are accused of showing by their sin that they did not wish to become sons: those things being left out of account which are said in prophecy of a future Christian people, that they would have God as a Father, according to that gospel statement, “To them gave He power to become the sons of God.” The Apostle Paul, again, says, “The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant;” and mentions that we have received the Spirit of adoption, “whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15-23]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 46, 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 XI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 347 (In-Text, Margin)

... those things which seem to men burdensome and calamitous, have no power over us, if those other temptations have no power which befall us through the enticements of such things as men count good and cause for rejoicing. If it is wisdom through which the peacemakers are blessed, inasmuch as they shall be called the children of God; let us pray that we may be freed from evil, for that very freedom will make us free, i.e. sons of God, so that we may cry in the spirit of adoption, “Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15]

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 183, footnote 2 (Image)

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

The Harmony of the Gospels. (HTML)

Book III (HTML)

Of What Took Place in the Piece of Ground or Garden to Which They Came on Leaving the House After the Supper; And of the Method in Which, in John’s Silence on the Subject, a Real Harmony Can Be Demonstrated Between the Other Three Evangelists—Namely, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1274 (In-Text, Margin)

... symbolical significance, intending to indicate thereby, that in sustaining this sorrow He bore the part of His body, which is the Church, of which He has been made the corner-stone, and which comes to Him [in the person of disciples gathered] partly out of the Hebrews, to whom He refers when He says “Abba,” and partly out of the Gentiles, to whom He refers when He says “Pater” [Father]. The Apostle Paul also makes use of the same significant expression. For he says, “In whom we cry, Abba, Father;”[Romans 8:15] and, in another passage, “God sent His Spirit into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” For it was meet that the good Master and true Saviour, by sharing in the sufferings of the more infirm, should in His own person illustrate the truth that His ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 328, footnote 3 (Image)

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

Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)

On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.’ Or, ‘on the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.’ (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2445 (In-Text, Margin)

... is an alien from the Church of God, has an heart impenitent, what doth that other repentance profit him? seeing by this alone he speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, whereby he is alienated from the Church, which hath received this gift, that in her remission of sins should be given in the Holy Ghost? Which remission though it be the work of the Whole Trinity, is yet understood specially to belong to the Holy Spirit. For He is the Spirit of the adoption of sons, “in whom we cry Abba, Father;”[Romans 8:15] that we may be able to say to Him, “Forgive us our debts.” And, “Hereby we know” as the Apostle John says, “that Christ dwelleth in us, by His Spirit which He hath given us.” “The Spirit Itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 352, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter XV. 14, 15. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 1428 (In-Text, Margin)

... for it is only the Lord that so enables us, and by such means only do we attain to His friendship. For just as there are two kinds of fear, which produce two classes of fearers; so there are two kinds of service, which produce two classes of servants. There is a fear, which perfect love casteth out; and there is another fear, which is clean, and endureth for ever. The fear that lies not in love, the apostle pointed to when he said, “For ye have not received the spirit of service again to fear.”[Romans 8:15] But he referred to the clean fear when he said, “Be not high-minded, but fear.” In that fear which love casteth out, there has also to be cast out the service along with it: for both were joined together by the apostle, that is, the service and the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 381, footnote 22 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LXXIX (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3691 (In-Text, Margin)

... uncircumcision hath been congregated, that is, out of the people of Israel, and out of the rest of the nations, by means of the Stone which the builders rejected, and which hath become for the Head of the corner, in which corner as it were two walls coming from different quarters were united. “For Himself is our peace, who hath made both one, that He might build two into Himself, making peace, and might unite together both in one Body unto God: in which Body we are sons of God, “crying, Abba Father.”[Romans 8:15] Abba, on account of their language; Father, on account of ours. For Abba is the same as Father.…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 532, footnote 13 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 4875 (In-Text, Margin)

... praise shall ever be in my mouth.” But that the title hath Halleluia not once only but twice, is not peculiar to this Psalm, but the former also hath it so. And as far as appears from its text, that was sung of the people of Israel, but this is sung of the universal Church of God, spread through the whole world. Perchance, it not unfitly hath Halleluia twice, because we cry, Abba, Father. Since Abba is nothing else but Father, yet not without meaning the Apostle said, “in whom we cry, Abba, Father;”[Romans 8:15] but because one wall indeed coming to the Corner Stone crieth Abba, but the other, from the other side crieth Father; viz., in that Corner Stone, “who is our Peace, who hath made both one.”…

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 566, footnote 3 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

He. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5174 (In-Text, Margin)

... servant, that I may fear Thee” (ver. 38). And what else is this than, Grant unto me that I may do according to what Thou sayest? For the word of God is not stablished in those who remove it in themselves by acting contrary to it; but it is stablished in those in whom it is immoveable. God therefore stablisheth His word, that they may fear Him, in those unto whom He giveth the spirit of the fear of Him; not that fear of which the Apostle saith, “Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;”[Romans 8:15] for “perfect love casteth out” this “fear,” but that fear which the Prophet calleth “the spirit of the fear of the Lord;” that fear which “is pure, and endureth for ever;” that fear which feareth to offend Him whom it loveth.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 12, page 265, footnote 3 (Image)

Chrysostom: Homilies on First and Second Corinthians

Homilies on First Corinthians. (HTML)

Homily XLIV (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 348 (In-Text, Margin)

Maran atha.”[Romans 8:15] For what reason is this word used? And wherefore too in the Hebrew-tongue? Seeing that arrogance was the cause of all the evils, and this arrogance the wisdom from without produced, and this was the sum and substance of all the evils, a thing which especially distracted Corinth; in repressing their arrogance he did not even use the Greek tongue, but the Hebrew: signifying that so far from being ashamed of that sort of simplicity, he even embraces it with much warmth.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 319, footnote 11 (Image)

Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome

The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)

Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus. (HTML)

To John the Œconomus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2085 (In-Text, Margin)

... High,” and to the Romans the wise Paul wrote in this manner, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. For the Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together;”[Romans 8:14-17] and to the Galatians he writes “And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son; and if a son then an heir of God through Jesus Christ.” The ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 234, footnote 1 (Image)

Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters

Circular to Bishops of Egypt and Libya. (Ad Episcopos Ægypti Et Libyæ Epistola Encyclica.) (HTML)

To the Bishops of Egypt. (HTML)

Chapter II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1263 (In-Text, Margin)

... Christ shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.’ But none of these things shall prevail over us, nor ‘separate us from the love of Christ,’ though the heretics threaten us with death. For we are Christians, not Arians; would that they too, who have written these things, had not embraced the doctrines of Arius! Yea, brethren, there is need now of such boldness of speech; for we have not received ‘the spirit of bondage again to fear[Romans 8:15],’ but God hath called us ‘to liberty.’ And it were indeed disgraceful to us, most disgraceful, were we, on account of Arius or of those who embrace and advocate his sentiments, to destroy the faith which we have received from our Saviour through His ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 61, footnote 6 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 631 (In-Text, Margin)

34. The next step naturally is to listen to the Apostle’s account of the powers and functions of this Gift. He says, As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God. For ye received not the Spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father[Romans 8:14-15]; and again, For no man by the Spirit of God saith anathema to Jesus, and no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit; and he adds, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and diversities of ministrations, but the same Lord, and diversities of workings, but the same God, Who worketh all things in all. ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 9, page 114, footnote 5 (Image)

Hilary of Poitiers, John of Damascus

Title Page (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)

De Trinitate or On the Trinity. (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 828 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Father. The Teacher of the Gentiles, the Apostle of Christ, has left us no uncertainty, no opening for error in his presentation of the doctrine. He is quite clear upon the subject of children by adoption; of those who by faith attain so to be and so to be named. in his own words, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again unto fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father[Romans 8:14-15]. This is the name granted to us, who believe, through the sacrament of regeneration; our confession of the faith wins us this adoption. For our work done in obedience to the Spirit of God gives us the title of sons of God. Abba, Father, is ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 421, footnote 10 (Image)

Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian

The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)

The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII. (HTML)

Conference XI. The First Conference of Abbot Chæremon. On Perfection. (HTML)
Chapter XIII. Of the fear which is the outcome of the greatest love. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1738 (In-Text, Margin)

... fear, scorns lower things and declares that he has been enriched with good things by the Lord, “for God hath not given us” he says “a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Those also who are inflamed with a perfect love of their heavenly Father, and whom the Divine adoption has already made sons instead of servants, he addresses in these words: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”[Romans 8:15] It is of this fear too, that the prophet spoke when he would describe that sevenfold spirit, which according to the mystery of the Incarnation, full surely descended on the God man: “And there shall rest upon Him the Spirit of the Lord: the Spirit ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 203, footnote 6 (Image)

Leo the Great, Gregory the Great

The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)

Sermons. (HTML)

A Homily on the Beatitudes, St. Matt. v. 1-9. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1226 (In-Text, Margin)

... also to the apostles, and the swift hand of the Word wrote and deposited the secrets of the new covenant in the disciples’ hearts: there were no thick clouds surrounding Him as of old, nor were the people frightened off from approaching the mountain by frightful sounds and lightning, but quietly and freely His discourse reached the ears of those who stood by: that the harshness of the law might give way before the gentleness of grace, and “the spirit of adoption” might dispel the terrors of bondage[Romans 8:15].

Online Dictionary & Commentary of Early Church Beliefs