Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Philippians 1
There are 164 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 33, footnote 2 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Polycarp (HTML)
Epistle to the Philippians (HTML)
Chapter I.—Praise of the Philippians. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 340 (In-Text, Margin)
I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because ye have followed the example of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days[Philippians 1:5] long gone by, endureth even until now, and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] “whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave.” “In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 34, footnote 10 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Polycarp (HTML)
Epistle to the Philippians (HTML)
Chapter V.—The duties of deacons, youths, and virgins. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 369 (In-Text, Margin)
... manner should the deacons be blameless before the face of His righteousness, as being the servants of God and Christ, and not of men. They must not be slanderers, double-tongued, or lovers of money, but temperate in all things, compassionate, industrious, walking according to the truth of the Lord, who was the servant of all. If we please Him in this present world, we shall receive also the future world, according as He has promised to us that He will raise us again from the dead, and that if we live[Philippians 1:27] worthily of Him, “we shall also reign together with Him,” provided only we believe. In like manner, let the young men also be blameless in all things, being especially careful to preserve purity, and keeping themselves in, as with a bridle, from ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 35, footnote 18 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Polycarp (HTML)
Epistle to the Philippians (HTML)
Chapter XI.—Expression of grief on account of Valens. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 401 (In-Text, Margin)
... from every form of evil.” For if a man cannot govern himself in such matters, how shall he enjoin them on others? If a man does not keep himself from covetousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be judged as one of the heathen. But who of us are ignorant of the judgment of the Lord? “Do we not know that the saints shall judge the world?” as Paul teaches. But I have neither seen nor heard of any such thing among you, in the midst of whom the blessed Paul laboured, and who are commended[Philippians 1:5] in the beginning of his Epistle. For he boasts of you in all those Churches which alone then knew the Lord; but we [of Smyrna] had not yet known Him. I am deeply grieved, therefore, brethren, for him (Valens) and his wife; to whom may the Lord grant ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 101, footnote 5 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Ignatius (HTML)
Epistle to the Ephesians: Syriac Version (HTML)
Chapter VIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1154 (In-Text, Margin)
For, so long as there is not implanted in you any one lust which is able to torment you, behold, ye live in God. I rejoice in you, and offer supplication[Philippians 1:4] on account of you, Ephesians, a Church which is renowned in all ages. For those who are carnal are not able to do spiritual things, nor those that are spiritual carnal things; in like manner as neither can faith [do] those things which are foreign to faith, nor want of faith [do] what belongs to faith. For those things which ye have done in the flesh, even these are spiritual, because ye have done everything in Jesus ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 538, footnote 7 (Image)
Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus
Irenæus (HTML)
Against Heresies: Book V (HTML)
Chapter XII.—Of the difference between life and death; of the breath of life and the vivifying Spirit: also how it is that the substance of flesh revives which once was dead. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4538 (In-Text, Margin)
4. But the apostle himself also, being one who had been formed in a womb, and had issued thence, wrote to us, and confessed in his Epistle to the Philippians that “to live in the flesh was the fruit of [his] work;”[Philippians 1:22] thus expressing himself. Now the final result of the work of the Spirit is the salvation of the flesh. For what other visible fruit is there of the invisible Spirit, than the rendering of the flesh mature and capable of incorruption? If then [he says], “To live in the flesh, this is the result of labour to me,” he did not surely contemn the substance of flesh in that passage where he said, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 312, footnote 8 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Chapter XI.—What is the Philosophy Which the Apostle Bids Us Shun? (HTML)
The elements are worshipped,—the air by Diogenes, the water by Thales, the fire by Hippasus; and by those who suppose atoms to be the first principles of things, arrogating the name of philosophers, being wretched creatures devoted to pleasure. “Wherefore I pray,” says the apostle, “that your love may abound yet more and more, in knowledge and in all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent.”[Philippians 1:9-10] “Since, when we were children,” says the same apostle, “we were kept in bondage under the rudiments of the world. And the child, though heir, differeth nothing from a servant, till the time appointed of the father.” Philosophers, then, are children, unless they have been made men by Christ. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 393, footnote 3 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2547 (In-Text, Margin)
... vel contra inobedientem constituente. Unde non ego quidem arbitror Apostolum abhorrere vitam, quæ est in came, cum dicit: “Sed in omni fiducia, ut semper, nunc quoque Christus magnificabitur in corpore meo, sire per vitam, sire per mortera. Mihi enim vivere Christus et mori lucrum. Si autem vivere in carne, et hoc quoque mihi fructus operis, quid eligam nescio, et coarctor ex duobus, cupiens resolvi, et esse cum Christo: multo enim melius: manere autem in carne, est magis necessarium propter vos.”[Philippians 1:20-24] Per hæc enim, ut puto, aperte ostendit, exitus quidem e corpore perfectionem, esse in Dei dilectionem: ejus autem præ sentiæ in carne, ex grato animo profectam tolerantiam, propter eos, qui salute indigent. Quid vero? non etiam ea, quæ deinceps ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 412, footnote 4 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter V.—On Contempt for Pain, Poverty, and Other External Things. (HTML)
... shame, blessing his Creator; bearing what came second, as the first, and most clearly teaching that it is possible for the gnostic to make an excellent use of all circumstances. And that ancient achievements are proposed as images for our correction, the apostle shows, when he says, “So that my bonds in Christ are become manifest in all the palace, and to all the rest; and several of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word of God without fear,”[Philippians 1:13-14] —since martyrs’ testimonies are examples of conversion gloriously sanctified. “For what things the Scripture speaks were written for our instruction, that we, through patience and the consolation of the Scriptures, might have the hope of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 426, footnote 1 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Valentinian’s Vagaries About the Abolition of Death Refuted. (HTML)
... is of God, that it is given to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake; having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. If there is therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any communion of spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye may be of the same mind, having the same love, unanimous, thinking one thing. And if he is offered on the sacrifice and service of faith, joying and rejoicing”[Philippians 1:29-30] with the Philippians, to whom the apostle speaks, calling them “fellow-partakers of joy,” how does he say that they are of one soul, and having a soul? Likewise, also, writing respecting Timothy and himself, he says, “For I have no one like-souled, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 426, footnote 2 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book IV. (HTML)
Chapter XIII.—Valentinian’s Vagaries About the Abolition of Death Refuted. (HTML)
... also to suffer for His sake; having the same conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me. If there is therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any communion of spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye my joy, that ye may be of the same mind, having the same love, unanimous, thinking one thing. And if he is offered on the sacrifice and service of faith, joying and rejoicing” with the Philippians, to whom the apostle speaks, calling them “fellow-partakers of joy,”[Philippians 1:7] how does he say that they are of one soul, and having a soul? Likewise, also, writing respecting Timothy and himself, he says, “For I have no one like-souled, who will nobly care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 90, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
The Shows, or De Spectaculis. (HTML)
Chapter XXVIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 375 (In-Text, Margin)
... pleasures to be really pleasures. The philosophers, for instance, give the name of pleasure to quietness and repose; in that they have their bliss; in that they find entertainment: they even glory in it. You long for the goal, and the stage, and the dust, and the place of combat! I would have you answer me this question: Can we not live without pleasure, who cannot but with pleasure die? For what is our wish but the apostle’s, to leave the world, and be taken up into the fellowship of our Lord?[Philippians 1:23] You have your joys where you have your longings.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 171, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)
Argument from the Destruction of Jerusalem and Desolation of Judea. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1431 (In-Text, Margin)
... “Before daybreak shall they arise unto Me, saying, Let us go and return unto the Lord our God, because Himself will draw us out and free us. After a space of two days, on the third day” —which is His glorious resurrection—He received back into the heavens (whence withal the Spirit Himself had come to the Virgin) Him whose nativity and passion alike the Jews have failed to acknowledge. Therefore, since the Jews still contend that the Christ is not yet come, whom we have in so many ways approved[Philippians 1:10] to be come, let the Jews recognise their own fate,—a fate which they were constantly foretold as destined to incur after the advent of the Christ, on account of the impiety with which they despised and slew Him. For first, from the day when, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 472, footnote 9 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ No Argument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Paul's Phrases--Form of a Servant, Likeness, and Fashion of a Man--No Sanction of Docetism. No Antithesis (Such as Marcion Alleged) in the God of Judaism and the God of the Gospel Deducible from Certain Contrasts Mentioned in This Epistle. A Parallel with a Passage in Genesis. The Resurrection of the Body, and the Change Thereof. (HTML)
When (the apostle) mentions the several motives of those who were preaching the gospel, how that some, “waxing confident by his bonds, were more fearless in speaking the word,” while others “preached Christ even out of envy and strife, and again others out of good-will,” many also “out of love,” and certain “out of contention,” and some “in rivalry to himself,”[Philippians 1:14-17] he had a favourable opportunity, no doubt, of taxing what they preached with a diversity of doctrine, as if it were no less than this which caused so great a variance in their tempers. But while he exposes these tempers as the sole cause of the diversity, he avoids inculpating the regular mysteries of the faith, and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 472, footnote 12 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
The Five Books Against Marcion. (HTML)
Book V. Wherein Tertullian proves, with respect to St. Paul's epistles, what he had proved in the preceding book with respect to St. Luke's gospel. Far from being at variance, they were in perfect unison with the writings of the Old Testament, and therefore testified that the Creator was the only God, and that the Lord Jesus was his Christ. As in the preceding books, Tertullian supports his argument with profound reasoning, and many happy illustrations of Holy Scripture. (HTML)
The Epistle to the Philippians. The Variances Amongst the Preachers of Christ No Argument that There Was More Than One Only Christ. St. Paul's Phrases--Form of a Servant, Likeness, and Fashion of a Man--No Sanction of Docetism. No Antithesis (Such as Marcion Alleged) in the God of Judaism and the God of the Gospel Deducible from Certain Contrasts Mentioned in This Epistle. A Parallel with a Passage in Genesis. The Resurrection of the Body, and the Change Thereof. (HTML)
... doubt, of taxing what they preached with a diversity of doctrine, as if it were no less than this which caused so great a variance in their tempers. But while he exposes these tempers as the sole cause of the diversity, he avoids inculpating the regular mysteries of the faith, and affirms that there is, notwithstanding, but one Christ and His one God, whatever motives men had in preaching Him. Therefore, says he, it matters not to me “whether it be in pretence or in truth that Christ is preached,”[Philippians 1:18] because one Christ alone was announced, whether in their “pretentious” or their “truthful” faith. For it was to the faithfulness of their preaching that he applied the word truth, not to the rightness of the rule itself, because there was ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 647, footnote 5 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Scorpiace. (HTML)
Chapter XIII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8314 (In-Text, Margin)
... violence of persecutions—“yet the inward man is renewed day by day”—the soul, doubtless, by hope in the promises. “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal”—he is speaking of troubles; “but the things which are not seen are eternal”—he is promising rewards. But writing in bonds to the Thessalonians,[Philippians 1:29-30] he certainly affirmed that they were blessed, since to them it had been given not only to believe on Christ, but also to suffer for His sake. “Having,” says he, “the same conflict which ye both saw in me, and now hear to be in me.” “For though I am ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 713, footnote 3 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Of Patience Under Bereavement. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9110 (In-Text, Margin)
... to be longed for. That longing also must be tempered with patience. For why should you bear without moderation the fact that one is gone away whom you will presently follow? Besides, impatience in matters of this kind bodes ill for our hope, and is a dealing insincerely with the faith. And we wound Christ when we accept not with equanimity the summoning out of this world of any by Him, as if they were to be pitied. “I desire,” says the apostle, “to be now received, and to be with Christ.”[Philippians 1:23] How far better a desire does he exhibit! If, then, we grieve impatiently over such as have attained the desire of Christians, we show unwillingness ourselves to attain it.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 24, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On the Apparel of Women. (HTML)
II (HTML)
Christian Women, Further, Have Not the Same Causes for Appearing in Public, and Hence for Dressing in Fine Array as Gentiles. On the Contrary, Their Appearance Should Always Distinguish Them from Such. (HTML)
... no extraordinary attire, with (studious) arrangement and (wanton) negligence. And if the requirements of Gentile friendships and of kindly offices call you, why not go forth clad in your own armour; (and) all the more, in that (you have to go) to such as are strangers to the faith? so that between the handmaids of God and of the devil there may be a difference; so that you may be an example to them, and they may be edified in you; so that (as the apostle says) “God may be magnified in your body.”[Philippians 1:20] But magnified He is in the body through modesty: of course, too, through attire suitable to modesty. Well, but it is urged by some, “Let not the Name be blasphemed in us, if we make any derogatory change from our old style and dress.” Let us, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 41, footnote 21 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
To His Wife. (HTML)
I (HTML)
Of the Love of Offspring as a Plea for Marriage. (HTML)
Further reasons for marriage which men allege for themselves arise from anxiety for posterity, and the bitter, bitter pleasure of children. To us this is idle. For why should we be eager to bear children, whom, when we have them, we desire to send before us (to glory) (in respect, I mean, of the distresses that are now imminent); desirous as we are ourselves, too, to be taken out of this most wicked world, and received into the Lord’s presence, which was the desire even of an apostle?[Philippians 1:23] To the servant of God, forsooth, offspring is necessary! For of our own salvation we are secure enough, so that we have leisure for children! Burdens must be sought by us for ourselves which are avoided even by the majority of the Gentiles, who are ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 57, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Exhortation to Chastity. (HTML)
Excuses Commonly Urged in Defence of Second Marriage. Their Futility, Especially in the Case of Christians, Pointed Out. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 571 (In-Text, Margin)
... marriage. A plurality of such wives is pleasing to God. “But Christians concern themselves about posterity”—to whom there is no to-morrow! Shall the servant of God yearn after heirs, who has disinherited himself from the world? And is it to be a reason for a man to repeat marriage, if from his first (marriage) he have no children? And shall he thus have, as the first benefit (resulting therefrom), this, that he should desire longer life, when the apostle himself is in haste to be “with the Lord?”[Philippians 1:23] Assuredly, most free will he be from encumbrance in persecutions, most constant in martyrdoms, most prompt in distributions of his goods, most temperate in acquisitions; lastly, undistracted by cares will he die, when he has left children behind ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 264, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
On Incorporeal and Corporeal Beings. (HTML)
... this promise now, in the meantime, as having an affection for those whom it serves, groans along with them, and patiently suffers with them, hoping for the fulfilment of the promises. See also whether the following words of Paul can apply to those who, although not willingly, yet in accordance with the will of Him who subjected them, and in hope of the promises, were made subject to vanity, when he says, “For I could wish to be dissolved,” or “to return and be with Christ, which is far better.”[Philippians 1:23] For I think that the sun might say in like manner, “I would desire to be dissolved,” or “to return and be with Christ, which is far better.” Paul indeed adds, “Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you;” while the sun may say, “To ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 298, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen De Principiis. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
On Counter Promises. (HTML)
5. Some such desire, I apprehend, was indicated by him who said, “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better;”[Philippians 1:23] knowing that when he should have returned to Christ he would then know more clearly the reasons of all things which are done on earth, either respecting man, or the soul of man, or the mind; or regarding any other subject, such as, for instance, what is the Spirit that operates, what also is the vital spirit, or what is the grace of the Holy Spirit that is given to believers. Then also will he understand what ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 304, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
Moyses, Maximus, Nicostratus, and the Other Confessors Answer the Foregoing Letter. A.D. 250. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2302 (In-Text, Margin)
6. Behold another joy of ours, that, in the duty of your episcopate, although in the meantime you have been, owing to the condition of the times, divided from your brethren, you have frequently confirmed the confessors by your letters; that you have ever afforded necessary supplies from your own just acquisitions; that in all things you have always shown yourself in some sense present; that in no part of your duty have you hung behind as a deserter.[Philippians 1:24] But what more strongly stimulated us to a greater joy we cannot be silent upon, but must describe with all the testimony of our voice. For we observe that you have both rebuked with fitting censure, and worthily, those who, unmindful of their sins, had, with hasty and ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 312, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To the Clergy and People, About the Ordination of Aurelius as a Reader. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2359 (In-Text, Margin)
... then present. I know that you will both gladly welcome these tidings, and that you desire that as many such as possible may be ordained in our church. And since joy is always hasty, and gladness can bear no delay, he reads on the Lord’s day, in the meantime, for me; that is, he has made a beginning of peace, by solemnly entering on his office of a reader. Do you frequently be urgent in supplications, and assist my prayers by yours, that the Lord’s mercy favouring us may soon restore both the priest[Philippians 1:26] safe to his people, and the martyr for a reader with the priest. I bid you, beloved brethren in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, ever heartily farewell.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 382, footnote 5 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Jubaianus, Concerning the Baptism of Heretics. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2863 (In-Text, Margin)
14. For as to what some say, as if it tended to favour heretics, that the Apostle Paul declared, “Only every way, whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached,”[Philippians 1:18] we find that this also can avail nothing to their benefit who support and applaud heretics. For Paul, in his epistle, was not speaking of heretics, nor of their baptism, so that anything can be shown to have been alleged which pertained to this matter. He was speaking of brethren, whether as walking disorderly and against the discipline of the Church, or as keeping the truth of the Gospel with the fear of God. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 395, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
Firmilian, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, to Cyprian, Against the Letter of Stephen. A.D. 256. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2951 (In-Text, Margin)
20. But to what they allege and say on behalf of the heretics, that the apostle said, “Whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached,”[Philippians 1:18] it is idle for us to reply; when it is manifest that the apostle, in his epistle wherein he said this, made mention neither of heretics nor of baptism of heretics, but spoke of brethren only, whether as perfidiously speaking in agreement with himself, or as persevering in sincere faith; nor is it needful to discuss this in a long argument, but it is sufficient to read the epistle itself, and to gather from the apostle himself ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 404, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
Cyprian to Nemesianus and Other Martyrs in the Mines. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3019 (In-Text, Margin)
... that the divine condescension would consummate the confession of all of us; that from this darkness and these snares of the world God would set us also free with you, sound and glorious; that we who here are united in the bond of charity and peace, and have stood together against the wrongs of heretics and the oppressions of the heathens, may rejoice together in the heavenly kingdom. I bid you, most blessed and most beloved brethren, ever farewell in the Lord, and always and everywhere remember me.[Philippians 1:21]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 470, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Mortality. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3482 (In-Text, Margin)
... Teacher of our salvation and of our good works, shows to us, who, when His disciples were saddened that He said that He was soon to depart, spoke to them, and said, “If ye loved me, ye would surely rejoice because I go to the Father;” teaching thereby, and manifesting that when the dear ones whom we love depart from the world, we should rather rejoice than grieve. Remembering which truth, the blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down, saying, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain;”[Philippians 1:21] counting it the greatest gain no longer to be held by the snares of this world, no longer to be liable to the sins and vices of the flesh, but taken away from smarting troubles, and freed from the envenomed fangs of the devil, to go at the call of ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 582, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
On the Glory of Martyrdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4848 (In-Text, Margin)
... when you are unable to enjoy, the world for the sake of which you would deny, because indeed the Lord knew that cruel torments and mischievous acts of punishment would be armed against us for our destruction, in order that He might make us strong to endure them all. “My son,” says He, “if thou come to serve God, stand fast in righteousness, and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.” Moreover, also, the blessed Apostle Paul exclaimed, and said, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”[Philippians 1:21]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 274, footnote 1 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Peter of Alexandria. (HTML)
The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras. (HTML)
Canon X. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2315 (In-Text, Margin)
... taken up the contest afresh, should remain any longer in their sacred office, inasmuch as they have left destitute the flock of the Lord, and brought blame upon themselves, which thing did not one of the apostles. For when the blessed apostle Paul had undergone many persecutions, and had shown forth the prizes of many contests, though he knew that it was far better to “depart, and to be with Christ,” yet he brings this forward, and says, “Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”[Philippians 1:23-24] For considering not his own advantage but the advantage of many, that they might be saved, he judged it more necessary than his own rest to remain with the brethren, and to have a care for them; who also would have him that teacheth to be “in ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 306, footnote 6 (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)
(2) in Time. The Beginning of Creation. (HTML)
... account of Him who subjected it for hope;” so that bodies might be in vanity, and doing the things of the body, as he who is in the body must. …One who is in the body does the things of the body, though unwillingly. Wherefore the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but he who does unwillingly the things of the body does what he does for the sake of hope, as if we should say that Paul desired to remain in the flesh, not willingly, but on account of hope. For though he thought it better[Philippians 1:23] to be dissolved and to be with Christ, it was not unreasonable that he should wish to remain in the flesh for the sake of the benefit to others and of advancement in the things hoped for, not only by him, but also by those benefited by him. This ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 311, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
Letters of St. Augustin (HTML)
To Januarius (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1807 (In-Text, Margin)
... the things which keep us occupied in this present life, while we are held fast in the fear of God by the commandments, as by nails driven through the flesh (as it is written, “Make my flesh fast with nails by fear of Thee”), are to be reckoned among things necessary, not among those which are for their own sakes to be desired and coveted. Hence Paul says that he desired, as something far better, to depart and to be with Christ: “nevertheless,” he adds, “to remain in the flesh is expedient for you”[Philippians 1:23-24] —necessary for your welfare. This departing and being with Christ is the beginning of the rest which is not interrupted, but glorified by the resurrection; and this rest is now enjoyed by faith, “for the just shall live by faith.” “Know ye not,” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 267, footnote 1 (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)
That the Words Love and Regard (Amor and Dilectio) are in Scripture Used Indifferently of Good and Evil Affection. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 667 (In-Text, Margin)
The right will is, therefore, well-directed love, and the wrong will is ill-directed love. Love, then, yearning to have what is loved, is desire; and having and enjoying it, is joy; fleeing what is opposed to it, it is fear; and feeling what is opposed to it, when it has befallen it, it is sadness. Now these motions are evil if the love is evil; good if the love is good. What we assert let us prove from Scripture. The apostle “desires to depart, and to be with Christ.”[Philippians 1:23] And, “My soul desired to long for Thy judgments;” or if it is more appropriate to say, “My soul longed to desire Thy judgments.” And, “The desire of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom.” Yet there has always obtained the usage of understanding desire and concupiscence ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 269, footnote 14 (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 702 (In-Text, Margin)
... hero, I say, and athlete of Christ, instructed by Him, anointed of His Spirit, crucified with Him, glorious in Him, lawfully maintaining a great conflict on the theatre of this world, and being made a spectacle to angels and men, and pressing onwards for the prize of his high calling, —very joyfully do we with the eyes of faith behold him rejoicing with them that rejoice, and weeping with them that weep; though hampered by fightings without and fears within; desiring to depart and to be with Christ;[Philippians 1:23] longing to see the Romans, that he might have some fruit among them as among other Gentiles; being jealous over the Corinthians, and fearing in that jealousy lest their minds should be corrupted from the chastity that is in Christ; having great ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 310, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)
What Was Prophetically Prefigured in the Sons of Noah. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 865 (In-Text, Margin)
But the wicked brother is, in the person of his son (i.e., his work), the boy, or slave, of his good brothers, when good men make a skillful use of bad men, either for the exercise of their patience or for their advancement in wisdom. For the apostle testifies that there are some who preach Christ from no pure motives; “but,” says he, “whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”[Philippians 1:18] For it is Christ Himself who planted the vine of which the prophet says, “The vine of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel;” and He drinks of its wine, whether we thus understand that cup of which He says, “Can ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of?” and, “Father, if ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 557, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1839 (In-Text, Margin)
4. But the following ambiguity of punctuation does not go against the faith in either way you take it, and therefore must be decided from the context. It is where the apostle says: “What I shall choose I wot not: for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”[Philippians 1:22-24] Now it is uncertain whether we should read, “ ex duobus concupiscentiam habens ” [having a desire for two things], or “ compellor autem ex duobus ” [I am in a strait betwixt two]; and so to add: “ concupiscentiam habens dissolvi, et esse cum Christo ” [having a desire to depart, and to be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 569, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
On Christian Doctrine (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
The Third Rule of Tichonius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1908 (In-Text, Margin)
... among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you”) has made us much more watchful and diligent to discover in Scripture what escaped Tichonius, who, having no enemy to guard against, was less attentive and anxious on this point, namely, that even faith itself is the gift of Him who “hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.” Whence it is said to certain believers: “Unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”[Philippians 1:29] Who, then, can doubt that each of these is the gift of God, when he learns from this passage, and believes, that each of them is given? There are many other testimonies besides which prove this. But I am not now treating of this doctrine. I have, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 595, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2010 (In-Text, Margin)
59. But whatever may be the majesty of the style, the life of the speaker will count for more in securing the hearer’s compliance. The man who speaks wisely and eloquently, but lives wickedly, may, it is true, instruct many who are anxious to learn; though, as it is written, he “is unprofitable to himself.” Wherefore, also, the apostle says: “Whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached.”[Philippians 1:18] Now Christ is the truth; yet we see that the truth can be preached, though not in truth,—that is, what is right and true in itself may be preached by a man of perverse and deceitful mind. And thus it is that Jesus Christ is preached by those that seek their own, and not the things that are Jesus ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 59, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed. (HTML)
God Uses All Creatures as He Will, and Makes Visible Things for the Manifestation of Himself. (HTML)
10. If, therefore, the Apostle Paul, although he still bare the burden of the body, which is subject to corruption and presseth down the soul, and although he still saw only in part and in an enigma, wishing to depart and be with Christ,[Philippians 1:23] and groaning within himself, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of his body, yet was able to preach the Lord Jesus Christ significantly, in one way by his tongue, in another by epistle, in another by the sacrament of His body and blood (since, certainly, we do not call either the tongue of the apostle, or the parchments, or the ink, or the significant sounds which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 61, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Holy Trinity. (HTML)
The appearances of God to the Old Testament saints are discussed. (HTML)
God Alone Creates Those Things Which are Changed by Magic Art. (HTML)
14. Accordingly, the Apostle Paul, distinguishing God’s creating and forming within, from the operations of the creature which are applied from without, and drawing a similitude from agriculture, says, “I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” As, therefore, in the case of spiritual life itself, no one except God can work righteousness in our minds, yet men also are able to preach the gospel as an outward means, not only the good in sincerity, but also the evil in pretence;[Philippians 1:18] so in the creation of visible things it is God that works from within; but the exterior operations, whether of good or bad, of angels or men, or even of any kind of animal, according to His own absolute power, and to the distribution of faculties, and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 407, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On the Good of Marriage. (HTML)
Section 17 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1982 (In-Text, Margin)
... posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful. For the difference that separates times causes the due season to have so great force unto the justice and doing or not doing any thing, that now a man does better, if he marry not even one wife, unless he be unable to contain. But then they married even several without any blame, even those who could much more easily contain, were it not that piety at that time had another demand upon them. For, as the wise and just man,[Philippians 1:23] who now desires to be dissolved and to be with Christ, and takes more pleasure in this, the best, now not from desire of living here, but from duty of being useful, takes food that he may remain in the flesh, which is necessary for the sake of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 470, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Lying. (HTML)
Section 28 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2342 (In-Text, Margin)
28. It is also written, “But I say unto you, Swear not at all.” But the Apostle himself has used oaths in his Epistles.[Philippians 1:8] And so he shows how that is to be taken which is said, “I say unto you, Swear not at all:” that is, lest by swearing one come to a facility in swearing, from facility to a custom, and so from a custom there be a downfall into perjury. And therefore he is not found to have sworn except in writing, where there is more wary forethought, and no precipitate tongue withal. And this indeed came of evil, as it is said, “Whatever is more than ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 487, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
Against Lying. (HTML)
Section 16 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2404 (In-Text, Margin)
16. For there were even in the Apostles’ times some who preached the truth not in truth, that is, not with truthful mind: of whom the Apostle saith that they preached Christ not chastely, but of envy and strife. And on this account even at that time some were tolerated while preaching truth not with a chaste mind: yet not any have been praised as preaching falsehood with a chaste mind. Lastly, he saith of those, “Whether in pretence or in truth Christ be preached:”[Philippians 1:15-18] but in no wise would he say, In order that Christ may after be preached, let Him be first denied.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 535, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Section 22 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2697 (In-Text, Margin)
... love, so the patience of them which piously endure, is the gift of God. For it cannot be that the divine Scripture deceiveth or is deceived, which not only in the Old Books hath testimonies of this thing, when it is said unto God, “My Patience art Thou,” and, “From Him is my patience;” and where another prophet saith, that we receive the spirit of fortitude; but also in the Apostolic writings we read, “Because unto you is given on behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for Him.”[Philippians 1:29] Therefore let not that make the mind to be as of its own merit uplifted, wherewith he is told that he is of Another’s mercy gifted.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 248, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
Reply to Faustus the Manichæan. (HTML)
Faustus is willing to admit that Christ may have said that He came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them; but if He did, it was to pacify the Jews and in a modified sense. Augustin replies, and still further elaborates the Catholic view of prophecy and its fulfillment. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 703 (In-Text, Margin)
... rather than that we should be in danger of perjury by being in the habit of swearing truly. For one who never swears is less in danger of swearing falsely than one who is in the habit of swearing truly. So, in the discourses of the apostle which are recorded, he never used an oath, lest he should ever fall unawares into perjury from being in the habit of swearing. In his writings, on the other hand, where he had more leisure and opportunity for caution, we find him using oaths in several places,[Philippians 1:8] to teach us that there is no sin in swearing truly, but that, on account of the infirmity of human nature, we are best preserved from perjury by not swearing at all. These considerations will also make it evident that the things which Faustus ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 293, footnote 10 (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 878 (In-Text, Margin)
... preachest that a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?" But that even by this arrangement the free wife of Jacob, the type of labor or endurance, might obtain children to be heirs of the kingdom, the Lord says: "What they say, do; but do not after their works." And again, the apostolic life, when enduring imprisonment, says: "Whether Christ is preached in pretence or in truth, I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."[Philippians 1:18] It is the joy of the mother over her numerous family, though born of her handmaid.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 422, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
He proves that baptism can be conferred outside the Catholic communion by heretics or schismatics, but that it ought not to be received from them; and that it is of no avail to any while in a state of heresy or schism. (HTML)
Chapter 16 (HTML)
... this time have persisted obstinately in their carnal affections, whether they have been mingled in the unity of the Church, or separated from it in open schism. But when men of this kind have the gospel preached to them, and receive the sacraments at the hand of those who are spiritual, it is as though Rebecca gave birth to them of her own womb, as she did to Esau; but when they are produced in the midst of the people of God through the instrumentality of those who preach the gospel not sincerely,[Philippians 1:16] Sarah is indeed the mother, but through Hagar. So when good spiritual disciples are produced by the preaching or baptism of those who are carnal, Leah, indeed, or Rachel, gives birth to them in her right as wife, but from the womb of a handmaid. But ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 451, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 7 (HTML)
11. For in fact, as to what some opposed to the reasoning of Cyprian, that the apostle says, "Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached;"[Philippians 1:18] Cyprian rightly exposed their error, showing that it has nothing to do with the case of heretics, since the apostle was speaking of those who were acting within the Church, with malicious envy seeking their own profit. They announced Christ, indeed, according to the truth whereby we believe in Christ, but not in the spirit in which He was announced by the good evangelists to the sons of the dove. "For ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 452, footnote 11 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 9 (HTML)
... fraudulently appropriated the goods of others, or of idolatry existing in such enormity as he understands and proves it to exist; nor assuredly would he bear false witness against his fellow-bishops. And yet with the bowels of fatherly and motherly love he endured them, lest that, by rooting out the tares before their time, the wheat should also have been rooted up, imitating assuredly the Apostle Paul, who, with the same love towards the Church, endured those who were ill-disposed and envious towards him.[Philippians 1:15-18]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 454, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 11 (HTML)
... otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you;" and that some again, though devoid of charity, may teach something wholesome? of whom the Lord says, "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say and do not." Whence the apostle also says of those envious and malicious ones who yet preach salvation through Christ, "Whether in pretense, or in truth, let Christ be preached."[Philippians 1:18] Wherefore, both within and without, the waywardness of man is to be corrected, but the divine sacraments and utterances are not to be attributed to men. He is not, therefore, a "patron of heretics" who refuses to attribute to them what he knows not ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 455, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which he treats of what follows in the same epistle of Cyprian to Jubaianus. (HTML)
Chapter 13 (HTML)
... fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness," not only without, but also within the Church; for "the Lord knoweth them that are His," and "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity." There is also "no communion between light and darkness," not only without, but also within the Church; for "he that hateth his brother is still in darkness." And they at any rate hated Paul, who, preaching Christ of envy and malicious strife, supposed that they added affliction to his bonds;[Philippians 1:15-16] and yet the same Cyprian understands these still to have been within the Church. Since, therefore, "neither darkness can enlighten, nor unrighteousness justify," as Cyprian again says, I ask, how could those men baptize within the very Church ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined. (HTML)
Chapter 49 (HTML)
... one mind." Let those, therefore, who would lay injunctions on us on the authority of Cyprian, pay attention for a time to what we here say. For if only those who are of one heart and of one mind dwell in the Church of Christ, beyond all question those were not dwelling in the Church of Christ, however much they might appear to be within, who of envy and contention were announcing Christ without charity; by whom he understands, not the heretics and schismatics who are mentioned by the Apostle Paul,[Philippians 1:15] but false brethren holding conversation with him within, who certainly ought not to have baptized, because they were not dwelling in the Church, in which he himself says that none dwell save those who are of one heart and of one mind: unless, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined. (HTML)
Chapter 49 (HTML)
... one mind." Let those, therefore, who would lay injunctions on us on the authority of Cyprian, pay attention for a time to what we here say. For if only those who are of one heart and of one mind dwell in the Church of Christ, beyond all question those were not dwelling in the Church of Christ, however much they might appear to be within, who of envy and contention were announcing Christ without charity; by whom he understands, not the heretics and schismatics who are mentioned by the Apostle Paul,[Philippians 1:17] but false brethren holding conversation with him within, who certainly ought not to have baptized, because they were not dwelling in the Church, in which he himself says that none dwell save those who are of one heart and of one mind: unless, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 511, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
On Baptism, Against the Donatists. (HTML)
In which the remaining judgments of the Council of Carthage are examined. (HTML)
Chapter 50 (HTML)
... himself bears witness that there are none dwelling save those who are of one heart and of one mind. Nor can it indeed be said that they are allowed to baptize so long as they are undetected, seeing that the Apostle Paul did not fail to detect those of whose ministry he bears unquestionable testimony in his epistle, saying that he rejoices that they also were proclaiming Christ. For he says of them, "Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."[Philippians 1:18]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 531, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 5 (HTML)
... be found to be sprung from an abandoned source, growing from an abandoned root, united to an abandoned head. For what man can feel secure about a man, when it is written, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man?" But the seed of which we are born again is the word of God, that is, the gospel. Whence the apostle says, "For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel." And yet he allows even those to preach the gospel who were preaching it not in purity, and rejoices in their preaching;[Philippians 1:17-18] because, although they were preaching it not in purity, but seeking their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s, yet the gospel which they preached was pure. And the Lord had said of certain of like character, "Whatsoever they bid you ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 571, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist. (HTML)
In which Augustin replies to all the several statements in the letter of Petilianus, as though disputing with an adversary face to face. (HTML)
Chapter 82 (HTML)
... whom it was that the Apostle Paul said this? Let us, if you please, trace this a little further back. "Some," he says, "preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good will, some of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel. But some indeed preach Christ even of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds. What then? notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."[Philippians 1:15-18] We see that they preached what was in itself holy, and pure, and true, but yet not in a pure manner, but of envy and contention, without charity, without purity. Certainty a short time ago you appeared to be urging the praises of charity as against ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 641, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Donatist Controversy. (HTML)
The Correction of the Donatists. (HTML)
Chapter 6 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2513 (In-Text, Margin)
... thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" and for such an one there is no need of the terror of hell, to say nothing of temporal punishments or imperial laws, seeing that with him it is so indispensable a blessing to cleave unto the Lord, that he not only dreads being parted from that happiness as a heavy punishment, but can scarcely even bear delay in its attainment. But yet, before the good sons can say they have "a desire to depart, and to be with Christ,"[Philippians 1:23] many must first be recalled to their Lord by the stripes of temporal scourging, like evil slaves, and in some degree like good-for-nothing fugitives.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 197, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Work on the Proceedings of Pelagius. (HTML)
Remarks on the Tenth Item. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1692 (In-Text, Margin)
... posited in the knowledge of the law, help towards the avoidance of sin,” he at all meant the said knowledge to be considered as tantamount to the grace of God; for, observe, he anathematizes such as hold this opinion. See, too, how he refuses to hold our natural free will, or the law and doctrine, as equivalent to that grace of God which helps us through our single actions. What else then is left to him but to understand that grace which the apostle tells us is given by “the supply of the Spirit?”[Philippians 1:19] and concerning which the Lord said: “Take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Nor, again, need I ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 229, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin. (HTML)
On the Grace of Christ. (HTML)
Pelagius Says that Grace is Given According to Men’s Merits. The Beginning, However, of Merit is Faith; And This is a Gratuitous Gift, Not a Recompense for Our Merits. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1877 (In-Text, Margin)
... because of our merit, has its beginning—that is, faith itself. If, however, they insist on denying that this is freely given to us, what is the meaning of the apostle’s words: “According as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith”? But if it is contended that faith is so bestowed as to be a recompense for merit, not a free gift, what then becomes of another saying of the apostle: “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake”?[Philippians 1:29] Each is by the apostle’s testimony made a gift,—both that he believes in Christ, and that each suffers for His sake. These men however, attribute faith to free will in such a way as to make it appear that grace is rendered to faith not as a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 260, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
On Marriage and Concupiscence. (HTML)
A Letter Addressed to the Count Valerius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2056 (In-Text, Margin)
... letters which I had written to you, I all at once received three letters from your Grace,—one by the hand of my fellow bishop Vindemialis, which was not meant for me only, and two, soon afterwards, through my brother presbyter Firmus. This holy man, who is bound to me, as you may have ascertained from his own lips, by the ties of a most intimate love, had much conversation with me about your excellence, and gave me undoubted proofs of his complete knowledge of your character “in the bowels of Christ;”[Philippians 1:8] by these means he had sight, not only of the letters of which the fore-mentioned bishop and he himself had been the bearers, but also of those which we expressed our disappointment at not having received. Now his information respecting you was all ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 379, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Grace is Not Given According to Merits. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2534 (In-Text, Margin)
... repaid to this merit; if it is asked of them what is the meaning of “received Him,” will they say anything else than “believed on Him”? And in order, therefore, that they may know that this also pertains to grace, let them read what the apostle says: “And that ye be in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which indeed is to them a cause of perdition, but of your salvation, and that of God; for unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”[Philippians 1:28-29] Certainly he said that both were given. Let them read what he said also: “Peace be to the brethren, and love, with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Let them also read what the Lord Himself says: “No man can come to me, except ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 400, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
The Desire of Good is God’s Gift. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2656 (In-Text, Margin)
... said “perfect,” they might say that God’s aid is necessary not for beginning good, which is of ourselves, but for perfecting it. But let them hear also the apostle. For when the Lord says, “Without me ye can do nothing,” in this one word He comprehends both the beginning and the ending. The apostle, indeed, as if he were an expounder of the Lord’s saying, distinguished both very clearly when he says, “Because He who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it even to the day of Christ Jesus.”[Philippians 1:6] But in the Holy Scriptures, in the writings of the same apostle, we find more about that of which we are speaking. For we are now speaking of the desire of good, and if they will have this to begin of ourselves and to be perfected by God, let them ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 429, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. (HTML)
Book IV (HTML)
Cyprian’s Testimonies Concerning the Imperfection of Our Own Righteousness. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2869 (In-Text, Margin)
... constrained to curse, which the divine law forbids; you are compelled to swear, which is not lawful. So many persecutions the soul suffers daily, with so many risks is the heart wearied; and yet it delights to abide here long among the devil’s weapons, although it should rather be our craving and wish to hasten to Christ by the aid of a quicker death.” Again, in the same treatise he says: “The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down, saying, ‘To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain;’[Philippians 1:21] counting it the greatest gain no longer to be held by the snares of this world, no longer to be liable to the sins and vices of the flesh.” Moreover, on the Lord’s Prayer, explaining what it is we ask when we say, “Hallowed be thy name,” he says, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 455, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
Faith is the Gift of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3100 (In-Text, Margin)
... hath dealt out to every man the proportion of faith;” and that which I have already quoted: “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God;” and again another in the same Epistle to the Ephesians: “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ;” and to the same effect that passage in which he says, “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”[Philippians 1:29] Both alike are therefore due to the grace of God,—the faith of those who believe, and the patience of those who suffer, because the apostle spoke of both as given. Then, again, there is the passage, especially noticeable, in which he says, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 458, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Grace and Free Will. (HTML)
Abstract. (HTML)
A Good Will May Be Small and Weak; An Ample Will, Great Love. Operating and Co-operating Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3138 (In-Text, Margin)
... able to effect what he felt himself willing to do. And who was it that had begun to give him his love, however small, but He who prepares the will, and perfects by His co-operation what He initiates by His operation? Forasmuch as in beginning He works in us that we may have the will, and in perfecting works with us when we have the will. On which account the apostle says, “I am confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”[Philippians 1:6] He operates, therefore, without us, in order that we may will; but when we will, and so will that we may act, He co-operates with us. We can, however, ourselves do nothing to effect good works of piety without Him either working that we may will, or ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 475, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace. (HTML)
All Perseverance is God’s Gift. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3278 (In-Text, Margin)
... behalf for perseverance. For certainly he does not “do no evil” who forsakes good, and, not persevering in good, turns to the evil, from which he ought to turn aside. In that place, moreover, where he says, “I thank my God in every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making quest with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,”[Philippians 1:3] —what else does he promise to them from the mercy of God than perseverance in good to the end? And again where he says, “Epaphras saluteth you, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, always striving for you in prayer, that you may stand ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 499, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Continuation of the Preceding. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3424 (In-Text, Margin)
... who already deserves, other things are said to be added by a divine retribution, and thus that God’s grace is given according to our merits. And this assertion when put before him, Pelagius himself condemned, that he might not be condemned. Whoever, then, wishes on every side to avoid this condemnable opinion, let him understand that what the apostle says is said with entire truthfulness, “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”[Philippians 1:29] He shows that both are the gifts of God, because he said that both were given. And he does not say, “to believe on Him more fully and perfectly,” but, “to believe on Him.” Neither does he say that he himself had obtained mercy to be more faithful, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 539, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance. (HTML)
The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3639 (In-Text, Margin)
... preaching,” —as if, indeed, it were opposed to the preaching of the apostle! Did not that teacher of the heathen so often, in faith and truth, both commend predestination, and not cease to preach the word of God? Because he said, “It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure,” did he not also exhort that we should both will and do what is pleasing to God? or because he said, “He who hath begun a good work in you shall carry it on even unto the day of Christ Jesus,”[Philippians 1:6] did he on that account cease to persuade men to begin and to persevere unto the end? Doubtless, our Lord Himself commanded men to believe, and said, “Believe in God, believe also in me:” and yet His opinion is not therefore false, nor is His ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 549, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints. (HTML)
A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance. (HTML)
Offence to Be Avoided. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3700 (In-Text, Margin)
... others of you who abide in the delight of sins have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying grace has not yet lifted you up;” when it may be and ought to be well and conveniently said, “But if any of you are still delaying in the delightfulness of damnable sins, lay hold of the most wholesome discipline; and yet when you have done this be not lifted up, as if by your own works, nor boast as if you had not received this. For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do for His good will,[Philippians 1:13] and your steps are directed by the Lord, so that you choose His way. But of your own good and righteous course, learn carefully that it is attributable to the predestination of divine grace.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 425, 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, Luke x. 2, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous,’ etc. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3297 (In-Text, Margin)
... not given ear to the precept of Christ, “Salute no man by the way;” it will not injure thee, who, whether thou dost hear of salvation from a passer by, or from one who comes direct to thee, dost hold fast that salvation. Hear the Apostle, who as I have said already gives us to understand this. “What then?” “So that in every way, whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is preached; and herein I do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice. For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer.”[Philippians 1:18-19]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 519, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4086 (In-Text, Margin)
... because he careth not for the sheep; for he is an hireling. If we shall find these three characters, ye have found, holy brethren, both those whom ye should love, and those whom ye should tolerate, and those of whom ye must beware. The Shepherd is to be loved, the hireling is to be tolerated, of the robber must we beware. There are men in the Church of whom the Apostle speaks, who preach the Gospel by occasion, seeking of men their own advantage, whether of money, or of honour, or human praise.[Philippians 1:18] They preach the Gospel, wishing to receive rewards in whatsoever way they can, and seek not so much his salvation to whom they preach, as their own advantage. But he who heareth the word of salvation from him who hath not salvation, if he believe ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 520, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4104 (In-Text, Margin)
... and in Thy Name done many mighty works, and in Thy Name have eaten and drunken?” What! do the Jews do these things in Christ’s name? Assuredly it is manifest, that He speaks of them who have the Name of Christ. But what follows? “Then will I say to them, I never knew you; depart from Me, all ye that work iniquity.” Hear the Apostle sighing concerning such as these. He says that some preach the Gospel “through charity,” others “by occasion;” of whom he says, “They do not preach the Gospel rightly.”[Philippians 1:16-18] A right thing, but themselves not right. What they preach is right; but they who preach it are not right. Why is he not right? Because he seeketh something else in the Church, seeketh not God. If he sought God, he would be chaste; for the soul hath ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 521, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
The tenth chapter of the Gospel of John. Of the shepherd, and the hireling, and the thief. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4107 (In-Text, Margin)
11. But they did not preach chastely, concerning whom the Apostle sighs. But what doth he say? “What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is preached.”[Philippians 1:18] He suffers then that hirelings there should be. The shepherd preacheth Christ in truth, the hireling by occasion preacheth Christ, seeking something else. Notwithstanding, both the one and the other preacheth Christ. Hear the voice of the shepherd Paul; “Whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is preached.” Himself a shepherd, he was pleased to have the hireling. For they act where they are able, they ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 38, 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 I. 33. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 114 (In-Text, Margin)
... better than he of whom it was said, that “Among those that are born of women, there hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist.” No servant then is preferred to him; but the baptism of the Lord, even when given through an evil servant, is preferred to the baptism even of a servant who was a friend. Listen to the sort of persons whom the Apostle Paul mentions, false brethren, preaching the word of God through envy, and what he says of them: “And I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”[Philippians 1:15-18] They proclaimed Christ, through envy indeed, but still they proclaimed Christ. Consider not the why, but the whom: through envy is Christ preached to thee. Behold Christ, avoid envy. Do not imitate the evil preacher, but imitate the Good One who is ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 78, 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 II. 23–25; III. 1–5. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 275 (In-Text, Margin)
... daily examples; but let us consider these things in the case of our fathers before us, how they also had these four kinds. Of the good, good; Ananias baptized Paul. How of the evil, evil? The apostle declares that there were certain preachers of the gospel, who, he says, did not use to preach the gospel with a pure motive, whom, however, he tolerates in the Christian society, saying, “What then, notwithstanding every way, whether by occasion or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice.”[Philippians 1:18] Was he therefore malevolent, and did he rejoice in another’s evil? No, but rejoiced because through evil men the truth was preached, and by the mouths of evil men Christ was preached. If these men baptized any persons like themselves, evil men ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 258, 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 X. 11–13. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 897 (In-Text, Margin)
... strife, and some also of good will: some of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel; but some also preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds.” These were hirelings who disliked the Apostle Paul. And why such dislike, but just because they were seeking after temporal things? But mark what he adds: “What then, notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence or in truth, Christ is preached: and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.”[Philippians 1:15-18] Christ is the truth: let the truth be preached in pretense by hirelings, let it be preached in truth by the children: the children are waiting patiently for the eternal inheritance of the Father, the hirelings are longing for, and in a hurry to get, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 259, footnote 2 (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 X. 11–13. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 899 (In-Text, Margin)
... fled they when suffering persecution? Explain it to us, O Lord. In an epistle, I have seen Paul fleeing: he was let down by the wall in a basket, to escape the hands of his persecutor. Had he, then, no care of the sheep, whom he thus abandoned at the approach of the wolf? Clearly he had, but he commended them by his prayers to the Shepherd who was sitting in heaven; and for their advantage he preserved himself by flight, as he says in a certain place, “To abide in the flesh is needful for you.”[Philippians 1:24] For all had heard from the Shepherd Himself, “If they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another.” May the Lord be pleased to explain to us this point! Lord, Thou saidst to those whom Thou didst certainly wish to be faithful shepherds, and whom ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 281, 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 XI. 55–57; XII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1018 (In-Text, Margin)
... The integrity of the Apostle Paul’s life and conduct, his preaching of righteousness in word and exhibition of it in works, his wondrous power as a teacher and his fidelity as a steward, were everywhere noised abroad: he was loved by some, and envied by others. For he himself tells us in a certain place of some, that they preached Christ not sincerely, but of envy; “thinking,” he says, “to add affliction to my bonds.” But what does he add? “Whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached.”[Philippians 1:16] They preach who love me, they preach who hate me; in that good savor the former live, in it the others die: and yet by the preaching of both let the name of Christ be proclaimed, with this excellent savor let the world be filled. Hast thou been ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 281, 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 XI. 55–57; XII. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1018 (In-Text, Margin)
... The integrity of the Apostle Paul’s life and conduct, his preaching of righteousness in word and exhibition of it in works, his wondrous power as a teacher and his fidelity as a steward, were everywhere noised abroad: he was loved by some, and envied by others. For he himself tells us in a certain place of some, that they preached Christ not sincerely, but of envy; “thinking,” he says, “to add affliction to my bonds.” But what does he add? “Whether in pretence or in truth, let Christ be preached.”[Philippians 1:18] They preach who love me, they preach who hate me; in that good savor the former live, in it the others die: and yet by the preaching of both let the name of Christ be proclaimed, with this excellent savor let the world be filled. Hast thou been ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 304, footnote 2 (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 XIII. 6–10 (continued), and Song of Sol. V. 2, 3. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1156 (In-Text, Margin)
... the world”? Is it not He that saith, “Ye shall see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man”? If they ascend to Him because He is above, how do they descend to Him, but because He is also here? Therefore saith the Church: “I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?” She says so even in the case of those who, purified from all dross, can say: “I desire to depart, and to be with Christ; nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”[Philippians 1:23-24] She says it in those who preach Christ, and open to Him the door, that He may dwell by faith in the hearts of men. In such she says it, when they deliberate whether to undertake such a ministry, for which they do not consider themselves qualified, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 310, 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 XIII. 21. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1198 (In-Text, Margin)
4. But says some one: Ought the mind of the Christian to be troubled even at the prospect of death? For what comes of those words of the apostle, that he had a desire to depart, and to be with Christ,[Philippians 1:23] if the object of his desire can thus trouble him when it comes? Our answer to this would be easy, indeed, in the case of those who also term gladness itself a perturbation [of the mind]. For what if the trouble he thus feels arises entirely from his rejoicing at the prospect of death? But such a feeling, they say, ought to be termed gladness, and not rejoicing. And what is that, but just to alter ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 405, 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 XVII. 14–19. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1733 (In-Text, Margin)
... the world, if they were not yet sanctified in the truth; or, if they already were, why He requests that they should be so. Is it not because even those who are sanctified still continue to make progress in the same sanctification, and grow in holiness; and do not so without the aid of God’s grace, but by His sanctifying of their progress, even as He sanctified their outset? And hence the apostle likewise says: “He who hath begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”[Philippians 1:6] The heirs therefore of the New Testament are sanctified in that truth which was adumbrated in the purifications of the Old Testament; and when they are sanctified in the truth, they are in other words sanctified in Christ, who said in truth, “I am ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 446, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XXI. 12–19. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1957 (In-Text, Margin)
... against by those who feed Christ’s sheep, lest they be seeking their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s, and be turning those to the use of their own lusts for whom the blood of Christ was shed. Whose love ought, in one who feedeth His sheep, to grow up unto so great a spiritual fervor as to overcome even the natural fear of death, that makes us unwilling to die even when we wish to live with Christ. For the Apostle Paul also says that he had a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,[Philippians 1:23] and yet he groans, being burdened, and wishes not to be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life. And so to His present lover the Lord said, “When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 448, footnote 5 (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 XXI. 19–25. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1967 (In-Text, Margin)
... world? Nay, rather, does there not arise a wider and more difficult one, why Jesus bestowed on the disciple, whom He loved beyond the others to such an extent that he was counted worthy to recline on His breast, the gift of a protracted sleep in the body, when He delivered the blessed Peter, by the eminent glory of martyrdom, from the burden of the body itself, and vouchsafed to him what the Apostle Paul said that he desired, and committed to writing, namely, “to be let loose, and to be with Christ”?[Philippians 1:23] But if, what is rather to be believed, Saint John declared that the Lord said not, “He dieth not,” for the very purpose that no such meaning might be attached to the words which He used; and his body lieth in its sepulchre lifeless like those of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 489, footnote 10 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John III. 9–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2253 (In-Text, Margin)
... charity that he is prepared even to die for his brethren, in that man is perfect charity. But as soon as it is born, is it already quite perfect? That it may be made perfect, it is born; when born, it is nourished; when nourished, it is strengthened; when strengthened, it is perfected; when it has come to perfection, what saith it? “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. I wished to be dissolved, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is needful for you.”[Philippians 1:21-24] For their sakes he was willing to live, for whose sakes he was prepared to die.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 514, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John IV. 17–21. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2449 (In-Text, Margin)
... still desires this life, that person, when the day of death comes, patiently endures death: he struggles against himself that he may follow the will of God, and in his mind desires that which God chooseth, not what man’s will chooseth: from desire of the present life there comes a reluctance against death, but yet he takes to him patience and fortitude, that he may with an even mind meet death; he dies patiently. But when a man desires, as the apostle saith, “to be dissolved and to be with Christ,”[Philippians 1:23-24] that person, not patiently dies, but patiently lives, delightedly dies. See the apostle patiently living, i.e. how with patience he here, not loves life, but endures it. “To be dissolved,” saith he, “and to be with Christ, is far better: but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 45, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 468 (In-Text, Margin)
7. “The words of the Lord” are “pure words” (ver. 6). This is in the person of the Prophet himself, “The words of the Lord” are “pure words.” He says “pure,” without the alloy of pretence. For many preach the truth impurely;[Philippians 1:16] for they sell it for the bribe of the advantages of this life. Of such the Apostle says, that they declared Christ not purely. “Silver tried by the fire for the earth.” These words of the Lord by means of tribulations approved to sinners. “Purified seven times:” by the fear of God, by godliness, by knowledge, by might, by counsel, by understanding, by wisdom. For seven steps also of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 187, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm L (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1773 (In-Text, Margin)
... takest My Covenant in thy mouth?” (ver. 16). Ye see, brethren, with what trembling we say these words. We take the Covenant of God in our mouth, and we say these words. We take the Covenant of God in our mouth, and we preach to you the instruction and judgment of God. And what saith God to the sinner? “Why dost thou?” Doth He then forbid preachers that be sinners? And where is that, “What they say do, but what they do, do not”? Where is that, “Whether in truth or on occasion Christ be preached”?[Philippians 1:18] But these words were said, lest they should fear that hear, from whomsoever it be that they hear: not that they should be without care that speak good words, and do evil deeds. Now therefore, brethren, ye are without care: if ye hear good words ye ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 211, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2004 (In-Text, Margin)
... wings? If they are wanting, be they given; if bound, be they loosed; because even he that looseth a bird’s wings, either giveth, or giveth back to it its wings. For it had not as though its own them, wherewith it could not fly. Bound wings make a burden. “Who,” he saith, “shall give me wings as to a dove, and I shall fly and shall rest?” Shall rest, where? I have said there are two senses here: either, as saith the Apostle, “To be dissolved and to be with Christ, for it is by far the best thing.”[Philippians 1:23] …Even he that amended cannot be, is thine, either by the fellowship of the human race, or ofttimes by Church Communion; he is within, what wilt thou do? whither wilt go? whither separate thyself, in order that these things thou mayest not suffer? ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 212, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2006 (In-Text, Margin)
... troubled love itself: with my words and my speech no good can I do them, by praying for them perchance I shall do good. These words men say, but ofttimes they are so bound, that to fly they are not able. For perchance they are not bound with any birdlime, but are bound by duty. But if they are bound with care and duty, and to leave it are unable, let them say, “I was wishing to be dissolved and to be with Christ, for it is by far the best thing: to abide in the flesh is necessary because of you.”[Philippians 1:23-24] A dove bound back by affection, not by cupidity, was not able to fly away because of duty to be fulfilled, not because of little merit. Nevertheless a longing in heart must needs be; nor doth any man suffer this longing, but he that hath begun to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 385, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3729 (In-Text, Margin)
... and manifold a variety of punishments, so rarely it doth happen, that it must not be believed that the prophet had chosen to allude to this especially in this verse. But, in fact, the fetters are the infirmity and the corruptibleness of the body, which do weigh down the soul. For by means of the frailty thereof, as a kind of material for certain pains and troubles, the persecutor might constrain her unto ungodliness. From these fetters the Apostle was longing to be unbound, and to be with Christ;[Philippians 1:23] but to abide in the flesh was necessary for their sakes unto whom he was ministering the Gospel. Until then this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality, like as it were with fetters, the weak flesh doth let the willing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 417, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4012 (In-Text, Margin)
21. “And save the Son of Thine handmaid.” The Lord is the Son of the handmaid. Of what handmaid? Her who when He was announced as about to be born of her, answered and said, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to Thy word.” He saved the Son of His handmaid, and His own Son: His own Son, in the Form of God;[Philippians 1:6] the Son of His handmaid in the form of a servant. Of the handmaid of God, therefore, the Lord was born in the form of a servant; and He said, “Save the Son of Thine handmaid.” And He was saved from death, as ye know, His flesh, which was dead, being raised again.…And each several Christian placed in the Body of Christ may say, “Save ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 596, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5447 (In-Text, Margin)
... peace, they would not tear asunder unity. “I,” he saith, “spoke peace of thee.” But wherefore? “For my brethren and companions’ sake:” not for my own honour, not for my own money, not for my life; for, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But, “I spoke peace of thee, for my brethren and companions’ sakes.” For he wished to depart, and to be with Christ: but, since he must preach these things to his companions and his brethren, to abide in the flesh, he addeth, is more needful for you.[Philippians 1:21]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 596, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXXII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5447 (In-Text, Margin)
... peace, they would not tear asunder unity. “I,” he saith, “spoke peace of thee.” But wherefore? “For my brethren and companions’ sake:” not for my own honour, not for my own money, not for my life; for, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” But, “I spoke peace of thee, for my brethren and companions’ sakes.” For he wished to depart, and to be with Christ: but, since he must preach these things to his companions and his brethren, to abide in the flesh, he addeth, is more needful for you.[Philippians 1:23-24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 123, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Letter to a Young Widow. (HTML)
Letter to a Young Widow. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 345 (In-Text, Margin)
... of thine had been one of those who lived a shameful life contrary to what God approved it would have been right to bewail and lament for him not only when he had departed, but whilst he was still living; but inasmuch as he was one of those who are the friends of God we should take pleasure in him not only whilst living, but also when he has been laid to rest. And that we ought to act thus thou hast surely heard the words of the blessed Paul “to depart and to be with Christ which is far better.”[Philippians 1:33] But perhaps you long to hear your husband’s words, and enjoy the affection which you bestowed upon him, and you yearn for his society, and the glory which you had on his account, and the splendour, and honour, and security, and all these things ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 148, footnote 9 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 402 (In-Text, Margin)
... know that even from the few things that have been said you will embrace it with much zeal. But since it is also necessary to make clear and manifest the apostolic saying which has been to-day read; seeming as it does to many to afford a pretext for indolence; so that some may not, providing for themselves hence a certain frigid defence, neglect their own salvation—to this let us direct our discourse. What then is this saying? “Whether in pretence,” it says, “or in sincerity, Christ is preached.”[Philippians 1:18] This many wrest absolutely and just as happens, without reading what precedes and what comes after it; but having cut it off from the sequence of the remaining members, to the destruction of their own soul they put it forward to the more indolent. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 149, footnote 7 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 411 (In-Text, Margin)
... letter. In what circumstances therefore was he? In prison and chains and intolerable perils. Whence is this manifest? From the epistle itself. For earlier than this he says, “Now I wish you to know, brethren, that the circumstances in which I am have come rather to the furtherance of the Gospel; so that my bonds have become manifest in Christ in the whole Court, and to all the others; and a good many of the brethren, trusting to my bonds, the more exceedingly dare fearlessly to speak the word.”[Philippians 1:12-14] Now Nero had then cast him into prison. For just as some robber having set foot in the house, while all are sleeping, when stealing every thing, if he see any one having lit a lamp, both extinguishes the light and slays him who holds the lamp, in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 149, footnote 11 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 415 (In-Text, Margin)
... nor the peril and the dangers coming one upon another, nor anything else, drive out his love for and remembrance of the disciples; but he retained them all in his mind; and not so strongly were his hands bound with the chains as his soul was bound together and rivetted by his longing for the disciples: which very thing itself indeed also declaring, in the preface of the Epistle he said, “On account of my having you in my heart, both in my bonds, and in the defence and confirmation of the Gospel.”[Philippians 1:7] And just as a King, having ascended upon his throne at morning-tide and taken his seat in the royal courts, immediately receives from all quarters innumerable letters; so truly he also, just as in royal courts, seated in the dungeon, both received ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 150, footnote 5 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 422 (In-Text, Margin)
Sitting then in the prison he wrote the letter to the Philippians from that so great distance. For such as this is the love that is according to God: it is interrupted by no one of human things, since it has its roots from above in the heavens and its recompense. And what says he? “Now I desire that ye should know, brethren.”[Philippians 1:12] Seest thou solicitude for his scholars? seest thou a teacher’s carefulness? Hear too of loving affection of scholars towards their teacher, that thou mayest know that this was what made them strong and unconquerable—the being bound together with one another. For if “Brother helped by brother is as a strong city;” far more so many ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 151, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 435 (In-Text, Margin)
7. And then therefore being in bonds he writes to the Philippians, saying, “Now I desire that ye should know, brethren,”[Philippians 1:12] calling the disciples brethren. For such a thing as this is love; it casts out all inequality, and knows not superiority and dignity; but even if one be higher than all, he descends to the lowlier position of all; just what Paul also used to do. But let us hear what it is that he desires they should know. “That the things which happened unto me,” he says, “have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.” Tell me, how and in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 151, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 436 (In-Text, Margin)
... he writes to the Philippians, saying, “Now I desire that ye should know, brethren,” calling the disciples brethren. For such a thing as this is love; it casts out all inequality, and knows not superiority and dignity; but even if one be higher than all, he descends to the lowlier position of all; just what Paul also used to do. But let us hear what it is that he desires they should know. “That the things which happened unto me,” he says, “have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.”[Philippians 1:12] Tell me, how and in what way? Hast thou then been released from thy bonds? hast thou then put off thy chain? and dost thou with free permission preach in the city? hast thou then, having gone into an assembly, drawn out many long discourses about ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 151, footnote 5 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 437 (In-Text, Margin)
... hast thou then, having gone into an assembly, drawn out many long discourses about the faith, and departed after gaining many disciples? hast thou then raised the dead and been made an object of wonder? hast thou then cleansed lepers, and all were astounded? hast thou driven away demons, and been exalted? No one of these things, he says. How then did the furtherance of the gospel take place? tell me. “So that my bonds,” he says, “have become openly known in the whole Court, and to all the rest.”[Philippians 1:13] What sayest thou? this then, this was the furtherance, this the advance, this the increase of the proclamation—that all knew that thou wast bound. Yes, he says: Hear at least what comes next, that thou mayest learn that the bonds not only proved no ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 151, footnote 7 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 439 (In-Text, Margin)
... says, “have become openly known in the whole Court, and to all the rest.” What sayest thou? this then, this was the furtherance, this the advance, this the increase of the proclamation—that all knew that thou wast bound. Yes, he says: Hear at least what comes next, that thou mayest learn that the bonds not only proved no hindrance, but also a ground of greater freedom of speech. “So that several of the brethren in the Lord, in reliance on my bonds, more abundantly dare fearlessly to speak the word.”[Philippians 1:14] What sayest thou, O Paul? have thy bonds inspired not anxiety but confidence? not fear but earnest longing? The things mentioned have no consistency. I too know it. For neither did these things take place according to the consistency of human ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 152, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 450 (In-Text, Margin)
... was increasing and the doctrine advancing, might the sooner have Paul led away to execution. There were therefore two schools; that of Paul’s scholars and that of Paul’s enemies; the one preaching out of sincerity, and the others out of love of contention and the hatred they felt towards Paul. And by way of declaring this he said, “Some indeed through envy and strife are preaching Christ,” (pointing out those his enemies) “but some also through good pleasure;” saying this about his own scholars.[Philippians 1:15] Then next about those; “Some indeed out of contentiousness,” (his enemies,) not purely, not soundly, but, “thinking that they are thereby bringing pressure upon my bonds; but the others out of love;” (this again about his own brethren;) “knowing ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 152, footnote 9 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 453 (In-Text, Margin)
... (pointing out those his enemies) “but some also through good pleasure;” saying this about his own scholars. Then next about those; “Some indeed out of contentiousness,” (his enemies,) not purely, not soundly, but, “thinking that they are thereby bringing pressure upon my bonds; but the others out of love;” (this again about his own brethren;) “knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel.” For what? Nevertheless, in any way; whether in pretence or in sincerity, Christ is being announced.”[Philippians 1:16-18] So that vainly and to no purpose is this saying taken in reference to heresies. For those who then were preaching were not preaching corrupt doctrine; but sound and right belief. For if they were preaching corrupt doctrine, and were teaching other ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 152, footnote 14 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 458 (In-Text, Margin)
10. He therefore does not say this—that they were bringing in heresies; but that it was not from a right motive, nor through piety that they were preaching what they did preach. For it was not they might increase the gospel that they were doing this; but that they might wage war against him, and throw him into greater danger—on this account he accuses them. And see how with exactitude he laid it. “Thinking,” he says, “that they were putting pressure upon my bonds.”[Philippians 1:17] He did not say, putting, but “thinking they were putting upon,” that is supposing, by way of pointing out that even if they so supposed, still he himself was not in such a position; but that he even rejoiced on account of the advance of the preaching. He added ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 153, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Homily Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
Concerning Lowliness of Mind. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 464 (In-Text, Margin)
... great indeed is both the devil’s craftiness, and the wickedness of those who minister to him; for under pretence of being of the same mind, they desired to extinguish the proclamation. But “he who seizes the cunning in their craftiness” did not permit that this should take place then. By way of declaring this very thing at least Paul said, “But the continuing in the flesh is the more necessary for your sake; and this I confidently know, that I shall continue and remain in company with you all.”[Philippians 1:24-25] For those men indeed set their mind on casting me out of the present life, and are ready to endure anything for this object: but God does not permit it on your account.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 295, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
Letters of St. Chrysostom to Olympias. (HTML)
To Olympias. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 937 (In-Text, Margin)
... that more is demanded from us than from those who lived then, and that harder tasks are assigned to us, listen to Christ, when He says “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven.” Do not think therefore that to pray for death now is exempt from blame, but hearken to the voice of St. Paul when he says “To depart and to be with Christ is far better, but to abide in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.”[Philippians 1:23-24] For in proportion as the strain of the affliction is increased are the garlands of victory multiplied; in proportion as the gold is heated does it become purified, the longer the merchant makes his voyage on the sea, the larger is the freight which ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 333, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1007 (In-Text, Margin)
... continually, but that he was at the same time entrusted with the public affairs of the world. For if he had been one of those who have retreated to the tops of mountains; who have fixed their cells in solitude, and who have chosen that life which is free from all business, the matter now enquired into were no such difficulty; but that one thrust forward in the throng, and in whose hands the care of so many Churches was placed, and who superintended whole cities and nations; nay, the world at large,[Philippians 1:1] with so much alacrity and diligence, should be subjected to the straitening of infirmities! This it is which may most of all bewilder one who does not duly consider it. Because, even if not for himself, yet for others at least, it was necessary he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 387, footnote 6 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily VI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1318 (In-Text, Margin)
... bellies, though they are in a state of dropsy; and so much the more, as the soul is better than the body. If then thou seest any who are in the same sins, and some of them struggling continually with hunger, and a thousand ills; while others are drinking their fill, and living sumptuously, and gormandizing; think those the better off, who endure sufferings. For not only is the flame of voluptuousness cut off by these misfortunes, but they also depart to the future Judgment, and that dread tribunal,[Philippians 1:24] with no small relief; and go hence, having discharged here the penalty of the greater part of their sins by the ills they have suffered.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 399, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily IX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1394 (In-Text, Margin)
1. was but lately that I spoke to you as I do now to you again! And O that I could be always with you,—yea, rather am I always with you, though not by bodily presence, yet by the power of love! For I have no other life but[Philippians 1:24] you, and the care of your salvation. As the husbandman hath no other anxiety, but about his seeds and his harvests; and the pilot about the waves and the harbours; so the preacher is anxious with respect to his auditors and their progress, even as I am at the present time! Wherefore I bear you all upon my mind, not only here, but also at home. For if the multitude be great, and the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 448, footnote 7 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily XVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1669 (In-Text, Margin)
... thus, “I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds.” What sayest thou, O Paul? When thou writest to the Ephesians, thou sayest, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” And when thou speakest to Timothy, “Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil-doer, even unto bonds.” And again, when to Philemon, thus; “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.”[Philippians 1:1] And again, when debating with the Jews, thou sayest, “For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” And writing to the Philippians, thou sayest, “Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 448, footnote 9 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily XVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1671 (In-Text, Margin)
... you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” And when thou speakest to Timothy, “Wherein I suffer trouble as an evil-doer, even unto bonds.” And again, when to Philemon, thus; “Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ.” And again, when debating with the Jews, thou sayest, “For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” And writing to the Philippians, thou sayest, “Many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.”[Philippians 1:14] Every where thou bearest about the chain, everywhere thou puttest forward thy bonds, and boastest in the thing. But when thou comest to the tribunal, thou betrayest thy philosophy, where it were right to have spoken the most boldly, and sayest to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 449, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily XVI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1676 (In-Text, Margin)
... Therefore, saith he, “Except these bonds.” Not as deprecating the bonds themselves, God forbid! But condescending to the other’s infirmity; for he himself loved and welcomed his bonds, even as a woman fond of ornament doth her jewels of gold. Whence is this apparent? “I rejoice,” saith he, “in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh.” And again; “Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for His sake.”[Philippians 1:29] And again; “And not only so, but we also glory in tribulations.” Wherefore, if he rejoices and glories in this, and calls it a gift of grace, it is manifest that when he was addressing the judge, he spoke to him as he did, for the reason assigned. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 91, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)
Homily XIV on Acts v. 34. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 334 (In-Text, Margin)
... Apostles were not rejected by them. But what sort of rank these bore, and what sort of office they received, this is what we need to learn. Was it that of Deacons? And yet this is not the case in the Churches. But is it to the Presbyters that the management belongs? And yet at present there was no Bishop, but the Apostles only. Whence I think it clearly and manifestily follows, that neither Deacons nor Presbyters is their designation: but it was for this particular purpose that they were ordained.[Philippians 1:1] And this business was not simply handed over to them without further ceremony, but the Apostles prayed over them, that power might be given to them. But observe, I pray you, if there were need of seven men for this, great in proportion must have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 11, page 196, footnote 4 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans
A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (HTML)
Homily XXXI on Acts xiv. 14, 15. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 720 (In-Text, Margin)
... suffer shame.” (ch. v. 41.) And this they were taught of Christ, saying, “Rejoice not that the devils obey you.” (Luke x. 20.) For the joy indeed and without alloy is this, to suffer aught for Christ’s sake. (i) “And that through much tribulation:” what sort of cheering (προτροπή) is this? how did they persuade them, by telling them at the outset of tribulations? Then also another consolation. “And when they had appointed for them elders in every Church,[Philippians 1:1] and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.” (v. 23.) Do you mark Paul’s ardor?—Then other consolation: “Commended them,” it says, “to the Lord. And after they had passed throughout Pisidia, they came to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 59, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians. (HTML)
Homilies on Ephesians. (HTML)
Ephesians 1:15-20 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 197 (In-Text, Margin)
was anything equal to the yearnings of the Apostle, never anything like the sympathy and the affectionateness of the blessed Paul, who made his every prayer in behalf of whole cities and peoples, and writes the same to all,[Philippians 1:3-4] “I thank my God for you, making mention of you in my prayers.” Think how many he had in his mind, whom it were a labor so much as to remember; how many he made mention of in his prayers, giving thanks to God for them all as though he himself had received the greatest blessing.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 167, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians. (HTML)
Homilies on Ephesians. (HTML)
Ephesians 6:14-17 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 490 (In-Text, Margin)
“And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” It is more uncertain in what sense this was said. What then is its meaning? They are noble greaves, doubtless, with which he invests us. Either then he means this, that we should be prepared for the gospel, and should make use of our feet for this, and should prepare and make ready its way before it;[Philippians 1:20] or if not this, at least that we ourselves should be prepared for our departure. “The preparation,” then, “of the gospel of peace,” is nothing else than a most virtuous life; according to what the Prophet saith. “Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.” (Ps. x. 17.) “Of the gospel,” he ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 225, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (HTML)
Homilies on Philippians. (HTML)
Philippians 2:19-21 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 644 (In-Text, Margin)
... What sayest thou, O heretic? Here it is written, that God’s mercy retained and brought back again him who was on the point of departure. And yet if the world is evil, it is no mercy to leave a man in the evil. Our answer to the heretic is easy, but what shall we say to the Christian? for he perchance will question, and say, “if to depart and to be with Christ is far better,” how saith he that he hath obtained mercy? I would ask why the same Apostle says, that “it is more needful to abide with you”?[Philippians 1:24] For as it was needful for him, so too for this man, who would hereafter depart to God with more exceeding riches, and greater boldness. Hereafter that would take place, even if it did not now, but the winning souls is at an end for those who have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 323, footnote 2 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. (HTML)
Homilies on First Thessalonians. (HTML)
1 Thessalonians 1:1-3 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 929 (In-Text, Margin)
then, when writing to the Ephesians,[Philippians 1:1] and having Timothy with him, did he not include him with himself (in his salutation), known as he was to them and admired, for he says, “Ye know the proof of him, that as a child serveth the father, so he served with me in the Gospel” (Philip. ii. 22.); and again, “I have no man like-minded who will care truly for your state” (ver. 20.); but here he does associate him with himself? It seems to me, that he was about to send him immediately, and it was superfluous for him to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 429, footnote 1 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on 1 Timothy. (HTML)
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1166 (In-Text, Margin)
... will. It is a word, it is a purpose of the mind. Let us only set a guard on our tongues, a door and a bar upon our lips, that we may utter nothing offensive to God. It is for our own advantage, not for theirs for whom we pray, to act thus. For let us ever consider, that he who blesses his enemy, blesses himself, he who curses his enemy, curses himself, and he who prays for his enemy, prays not for him, but for himself. If we thus act, we shall be able to reduce to practice this excellent virtue,[Philippians 1:30] and so to obtain the promised blessings, through the grace and lovingkindness of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 443, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on 1 Timothy. (HTML)
1 Timothy 3:8-10 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1212 (In-Text, Margin)
Why dost thou admire these trifles? Why long for things of no real worth? How long is one poor?[Philippians 1:19] how long a beggar? Raise thine eyes to heaven, think of the riches there, and smile at gold; think of how little use it is; that the enjoyment of it lasts but for the present life, and that compared with eternity, the present life is as a grain of sand, or as a drop of water to the boundless ocean. This wealth is not a possession, it is not property, it is a loan for use. For when thou diest, willingly or unwillingly, all that thou hast goes to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 498, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on 2 Timothy. (HTML)
2 Timothy 2:20,21 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1388 (In-Text, Margin)
... perishing for their pravity of doctrine. For these things hold together. You see that when we do not the will of God, we are under the snare of the devil. And often not only from a bad life, but from one defect, we enter into Hell, where there are not good qualities to counterbalance it, since the virgins were not accused of fornication or adultery, nor of envy or ill-will, nor of drunkenness, nor of unsound faith, but of a failure of oil, that is, they failed in almsgiving, for that is the oil meant.[Philippians 1:30] And those who were pronounced accursed in the words, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire,” were not accused of any such crimes, but because they had not fed Christ.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 369, footnote 7 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Church History of Eusebius. (HTML)
Book X (HTML)
The Peace granted us by God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2805 (In-Text, Margin)
5. But they, hastening on, obtained far better things,[Philippians 1:23] being carried to heaven and the paradise of divine pleasure. But, acknowledging that even these things are greater than we deserve, we have been astonished at the grace manifested by the author of the great gifts, and rightly do we admire him, worshiping him with the whole power of our souls, and testifying to the truth of those recorded utterances, in which it is said, “Come and see the works of the Lord, the wonders which he hath done upon the earth; he removeth ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 1, page 536, footnote 1 (Image)
Eusebius: Church History from A.D. 1-324, Life of Constantine the Great, Oration in Praise of Constantine
The Life of Constantine with Orations of Constantine and Eusebius. (HTML)
The Life of Constantine. (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
How he destroyed the Temple of Venus at Heliopolis, and built the First Church in that City. (HTML)
... of God, with presbyters and deacons, and its people were placed under the presiding care of a bishop consecrated to the service of the supreme God. And further, the emperor, being anxious that here also as many as possible might be won to the truth, bestowed abundant provision for the necessities of the poor, desiring even thus to invite them to seek the doctrines of salvation, as though he were almost adopting the words of him who said, “Whether in pretense, or in truth, let Christ be preached.”[Philippians 1:18]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 49, footnote 1 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
Letter of Eusebius on the effrontery of the Arians (HTML)
“‘We believe in one God, Father Almighty, the Maker of all things, visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, Only-begotten Son, First-born of every creature, begotten of the Father before all worlds; by Whom all things were made; Who for our salvation was incarnate, and lived among men[Philippians 1:27]. He suffered and rose again the third day, and ascended to the Father; and He will come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead. We also believe in one Holy Ghost.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 307, footnote 4 (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 Anatolius the Patrician. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1983 (In-Text, Margin)
... Orders were given by the president, flinging the truth to the winds, and courting the power of the hour. He was obeyed by men who think as I do, whose doctrines are my doctrines, and who had expressed admiration of me and mine. None the less did that day convict some men of treachery; some of cowardice; while to me a ground of confidence was given by my sufferings for the truth’s sake. And to me our master Christ hath granted the boon “not only of believing on Him but also of suffering for His sake.”[Philippians 1:29] For the greatest of all gifts of grace are sufferings for the Master’s sake, and the divine Apostle puts them even before great marvels.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 309, footnote 4 (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 Marcellus, Archimandrite of the Acoemetæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1991 (In-Text, Margin)
... the teaching of our Master Christ is gifted with stability and strength, in accordance with the promise of the same Saviour, “that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” It is the loving and bountiful Lord who has thought right that I too should be dishonoured and slain on behalf of this doctrine. For truly we have reckoned dishonour honour, and death life. We have heard the words of the apostle “For unto us it is given by God not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.”[Philippians 1:29] But the Lord arose like the sleeper, and stopped the mouths of them that uttered blasphemy against God and injustice against me. But He has made the tongues of the pious pour forth their fountains in their wonted message. I, however, am gathering ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 318, footnote 15 (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 2071 (In-Text, Margin)
... let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” How then can they think of any other foundation, when they are bidden not to fix a foundation, but to build on that which is laid? The divine writer recognises Christ as the foundation, and glories in this title, as when he says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me.” And again “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain,”[Philippians 1:21] and again “For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And a little before he says, “But we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 449, footnote 3 (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)
... 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?” and in another place “It is better to return and be with Christ,”[Philippians 1:23] 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 453, footnote 1 (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)
Further identification of Jerome's views with Origen's. (HTML)
... his majesty have hoped in him will be to the praise of his glory; that these therefore are called Fore-hopers; but that those who are only found to believe through necessity, when even the devil and his angels will be unable to reject Christ as King are to be called simply Hopers, and that they are not for the praise of his glory. And this we see partly fulfilled even now, since we can distinguish between the reward of those who follow God willingly and those who follow Him through necessity. But,[Philippians 1:18] whether by pretence or in truth, let Christ be proclaimed: only let each of them understand, both the Hopers and the Fore-hopers, that for the difference of their hope they will receive different rewards.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 494, footnote 4 (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)
... 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: “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” and[Philippians 1:23] “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 4, page 281, footnote 12 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)
Arian History. (Historia Arianorum ad Monachos.) (HTML)
Second Arian Persecution under Constantius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1620 (In-Text, Margin)
... speak further, but threatened them so much the more, and drew his sword against them, and gave orders for some of them to be led to execution; although afterwards, like Pharaoh, he repented. The holy men therefore shaking off the dust, and looking up to God, neither feared the threats of the Emperor, nor betrayed their cause before his drawn sword; but received their banishment, as a service pertaining to their ministry. And as they passed along, they preached the Gospel in every place and city[Philippians 1:13], although they were in bonds, proclaiming the orthodox faith, anathematizing the Arian heresy, and stigmatizing the recantation of Ursacius and Valens. But this was contrary to the intention of their enemies; for the greater was the distance of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 539, footnote 12 (Image)
Athanasius: Select Writings and Letters
Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life. (HTML)
The Festal Letters, and their Index. (HTML)
Festal Letters. (HTML)
(For 341.) Coss. Marcellinus, Probinus; Præf. Longinus; Indict. xiv; Easter-day, xiii Kal. Maii, xxiv Pharmuthi; Æra Dioclet. 57. (HTML)
... ready to notify to you the saving feast, which will take place according to annual custom. For although the opponents of Christ have oppressed you together with us with afflictions and sorrows; yet, God having comforted us by our mutual faith, behold, I write to you even from Rome. Keeping the feast here with the brethren, still I keep it with you also in will and in spirit, for we send up prayers in common to God, ‘Who hath granted us not only to believe in Him, but also now to suffer for His sake[Philippians 1:29].’ For troubled as we are, because we are so far from you, He moves us to write, that by a letter we might comfort ourselves, and provoke one another to good. For, indeed, numerous afflictions and bitter persecutions directed against the Church have ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 6, footnote 8 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Rufinus the Monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 56 (In-Text, Margin)
... will lay before him wealth and fame. But it shall be said to him: “They that desire to be rich fall into a trap and temptations,” and “For me all glorying is in Christ.” He will come, it may be, when the limbs are weary with fasting, and rack them with the pangs of disease; but the cry of the apostle will repel him: “When I am weak, then am I strong,” and “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” He will hold out threats of death; but the reply will be: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ.”[Philippians 1:23] He will brandish his fiery darts, but they will be received on the shield of faith. In a word, Satan will assail him, but Christ will defend. Thanks be to Thee, Lord Jesus, that in Thy day I have one able to pray to Thee for me. To Thee all hearts ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 28, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 439 (In-Text, Margin)
17. Let your companions be women pale and thin with fasting, and approved by their years and conduct; such as daily sing in their hearts: “Tell me where thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest it to rest at noon,” and say, with true earnestness, “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.”[Philippians 1:23] Be subject to your parents, imitating the example of your spouse. Rarely go abroad, and if you wish to seek the aid of the martyrs seek it in your own chamber. For you will never need a pretext for going out if you always go out when there is need. Take food in moderation, and never overload your stomach. For many women, while temperate as regards ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 125, footnote 16 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Heliodorus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1839 (In-Text, Margin)
... Still we cannot bear the feeling of his absence, and grieve, if not for him, for ourselves. The greater the happiness which he enjoys, the deeper the sorrow in which the loss of a blessing so great plunges us. The sisters of Lazarus could not help weeping for him, although they knew that he would rise again. And the Saviour himself—to shew that he possessed true human feeling—mourned for him whom He was about to raise. His apostle also, though he says: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ,”[Philippians 1:23] and elsewhere “to me to live is Christ and to die is gain,” thanks God that Epaphras (who had been “sick nigh unto death”) has been given back to him that he might not have sorrow upon sorrow. Words prompted not by the fear that springs of unbelief ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 126, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Heliodorus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1840 (In-Text, Margin)
... if not for him, for ourselves. The greater the happiness which he enjoys, the deeper the sorrow in which the loss of a blessing so great plunges us. The sisters of Lazarus could not help weeping for him, although they knew that he would rise again. And the Saviour himself—to shew that he possessed true human feeling—mourned for him whom He was about to raise. His apostle also, though he says: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ,” and elsewhere “to me to live is Christ and to die is gain,”[Philippians 1:21] thanks God that Epaphras (who had been “sick nigh unto death”) has been given back to him that he might not have sorrow upon sorrow. Words prompted not by the fear that springs of unbelief but by the passionate regret that comes of true affection. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 196, footnote 5 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2738 (In-Text, Margin)
... hath been this long time a pilgrim.” It was no wonder that she sobbed out that even she was in darkness (for this is the meaning of the word Kedar) seeing that, according to the apostle, “the world lieth in the evil one;” and that, “as its darkness is, so is its light;” and that “the light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.” She would frequently exclaim: “I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were,” and again, I desire “to depart and to be with Christ.”[Philippians 1:23] As often too as she was troubled with bodily weakness (brought on by incredible abstinence and by redoubled fastings), she would be heard to say: “I keep under my body and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 288, footnote 9 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Evangelus. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3930 (In-Text, Margin)
... enough to put deacons before presbyters, that is, before bishops. For when the apostle clearly teaches that presbyters are the same as bishops, must not a mere server of tables and of widows be insane to set himself up arrogantly over men through whose prayers the body and blood of Christ are produced? Do you ask for proof of what I say? Listen to this passage: “Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons.”[Philippians 1:1] Do you wish for another instance? In the Acts of the Apostles Paul thus speaks to the priests of a single church: “Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God which He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 384, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4612 (In-Text, Margin)
48. When Theophrastus thus discourses, are there any of us, Christians, whose conversation is in heaven and who daily say[Philippians 1:23] “I long to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,” whom he does not put to the blush? Shall a joint-heir of Christ really long for human heirs? And shall he desire children and delight himself in a long line of descendants, who will perhaps fall into the clutches of Antichrist, when we read that Moses and Samuel preferred other men to their own sons, and did not count as their children those whom they saw to be displeasing to God? When ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 393, footnote 3 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4731 (In-Text, Margin)
... who ply the oar, who need good lungs to shout and speak, who level mountains and sleep out rain or fair. But our religion does not train boxers, athletes, sailors, soldiers, or ditchers, but followers of wisdom, who devote themselves to the worship of God, and know why they were created and are in the world from which they are impatient to depart. Hence also the Apostle says: “When I am weak, then am I strong.” And “Though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.” And[Philippians 1:23] “I have the desire to depart and be with Christ.” And, “Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.” Are all commanded not to have two coats, nor food in their scrip, money in their purse, a staff in the hand, shoes on the feet? or ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 125, footnote 12 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril. (HTML)
Continuation of the Discourse on the Holy Ghost. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2119 (In-Text, Margin)
... Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. But if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. He is called also the Spirit of the Son of God, as it is said, And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son. He is called also the Spirit of Christ, as it is written, Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify; and again, Through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ[Philippians 1:19].
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 216, footnote 26 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2690 (In-Text, Margin)
... confirms his love; at one time he grieves, at another rejoices; at one time he feeds with milk, at another he handles mysteries; at one time he condescends, at another he raises to his own level; at one time he threatens a rod, at another he offers the spirit of meekness; at one time he is haughty toward the lofty, at another lowly toward the lowly. Now he is least of the apostles, now he offers a proof of Christ speaking in him; now he longs for departure and is being poured forth as a libation,[Philippians 1:23] now he thinks it more necessary for their sakes to abide in the flesh. For he seeks not his own interests, but those of his children, whom he has begotten in Christ by the gospel. This is the aim of all his spiritual authority, in everything to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 237, footnote 2 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Panegyric on His Brother S. Cæsarius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2975 (In-Text, Margin)
... also it bestows upon it a portion of its joys, gathering it up entirely into itself, and becoming with it one in spirit and in mind and in God, the mortal and mutable being swallowed up of life. Hear at least how the inspired Ezekiel discourses of the knitting together of bones and sinews, how after him Saint Paul speaks of the earthly tabernacle, and the house not made with hands, the one to be dissolved, the other laid up in heaven, alleging absence from the body to be presence with the Lord,[Philippians 1:23] and bewailing his life in it as an exile, and therefore longing for and hastening to his release. Why am I faint-hearted in my hopes? Why behave like a mere creature of a day? I await the voice of the Archangel, the last trumpet, the transformation ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 243, footnote 6 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On his Sister Gorgonia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3021 (In-Text, Margin)
... its details I have left untold, lest my speech should grow to undue proportions, and lest I should seem to be too greedy for her fair fame: but perhaps we should be wronging her holy and illustrious death, did we not mention some of its excellences; especially as she so longed for and desired it. I will do so therefore, as concisely as I can. She longed for her dissolution, for indeed she had great boldness towards Him who called her, and preferred to be with Christ, beyond all things on earth.[Philippians 1:23] And there is none of the most amorous and unrestrained, who has such love for his body, as she had to fling away these fetters, and escape from the mire in which we spend our lives, and to associate in purity with Him Who is Fair, and entirely to ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 354, footnote 4 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Oration on the Holy Lights. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3935 (In-Text, Margin)
... attain to that which is above, having themselves fallen from above upon the earth; nor that such a change in their glory and their first natures should have taken place. This is the meaning of their persecution of the creature. For this God’s Image was outraged; and as we did not like to keep the Commandments, we were given over to the independence of our error. And as we erred we were disgraced by the objects of our worship. For there was not only this calamity, that we who were made for good works[Philippians 1:11] to the glory and praise of our Maker, and to imitate God as far as might be, were turned into a den of all sorts of passions, which cruelly devour and consume the inner man; but there was this further evil, that man actually made gods the advocates ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 421, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Funeral Oration on the Great S. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4581 (In-Text, Margin)
78. But when, after he had finished his course, and kept the faith, he longed to depart, and the time for his crown was approaching,[Philippians 1:23] he did not hear the summons: “Get thee up into the mountain and die,” but “Die and come up to us.” And here again he wrought a wonder in no wise inferior to those mentioned before. For when he was almost dead, and breathless, and had lost the greater part of his powers; he grew stronger in his last words, so as to depart with the utterances of religion, and, by ordaining the most excellent of his attendants, bestowed upon them ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 44, footnote 2 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
That our opponents refuse to concede in the case of the Spirit the terms which Scripture uses in the case of men, as reigning together with Christ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1288 (In-Text, Margin)
... the Church the boon of the life with Christ, and yet the life with Christ does not belong to the Holy Spirit? But if this is impious even to think of, is it not rightly reverent so to make our confession, as They are by nature in close conjunction? Furthermore what boundless lack of sensibility does it not shew in these men to confess that the Saints are with Christ, (if, as we know is the case, Paul, on becoming absent from the body, is present with the Lord, and, after departing, is with Christ[Philippians 1:23]) and, so far as lies in their power, to refuse to allow to the Spirit to be with Christ even to the same extent as men? And Paul calls himself a “labourer together with God” in the dispensation of the Gospel; will they bring an indictment for ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 126, footnote 4 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Macarius and John. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1907 (In-Text, Margin)
... be in any wise distressed at the calumny of a lie; let no imperial threats scare you; do not be grieved at the laughter and mockery of your intimates, nor at the condemnation of those who pretend to care for you, and who put forward, as their most attractive bait to deceive, a pretence of giving good advice. Against them all let sound reason do battle, invoking the championship and succour of our Lord Jesus Christ, the teacher of true religion, for Whom to suffer is sweet, and “to die is gain.”[Philippians 1:21]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 128, footnote 2 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
Without address. On the Perfection of the Life of Solitaries. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1919 (In-Text, Margin)
... only deemed it necessary to speak by way of brief reminder concerning the questions which have recently been stirred among you, so far as I have learnt from the study of inspired Scripture itself. I shall thus leave behind me detailed evidence, easy of apprehension, for the information of industrious students, who in their turn will be able to inform others. The Christian ought to be so minded as becomes his heavenly calling, and his life and conversation ought to be worthy of the Gospel of Christ.[Philippians 1:27] The Christian ought not to be of doubtful mind, nor by anything drawn away from the recollection of God and of His purposes and judgments. The Christian ought in all things to become superior to the righteousness existing under the law, and neither ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 134, footnote 1 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the Church of Ancyra. Consolatory. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2002 (In-Text, Margin)
... is no small danger lest many at the removal of this prop from under them fall too, and lest some men’s unsoundness be brought to light. A mouth is sealed gushing with righteous eloquence and words of grace to the edification of the brotherhood. Gone are the counsels of a mind which truly moved in God. Ah! how often, for I must accuse myself, was it my lot to feel indignation against him, because, wholly desiring to depart and be with Christ, he did not prefer for our sakes to remain in the flesh![Philippians 1:23-24] To whom for the future shall I commit the cares of the Churches? Whom shall I take to share my troubles? Whom to participate in my gladness? O loneliness terrible and sad! How am I not like to a pelican of the wilderness? Yet of a truth the members ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 212, footnote 2 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To Eupaterius and his daughter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2520 (In-Text, Margin)
1. may well imagine what pleasure the letter of your excellencies gave me, if only from its very contents. What, indeed, could give greater gratification to one who prays ever to be in communication with them who fear the Lord, and to share their blessings, than a letter of this kind, wherein questions are asked about the knowledge of God? For if, to me, “to live is Christ,”[Philippians 1:21] truly my words ought to be about Christ, my every thought and deed ought to depend upon His commandments, and my soul to be fashioned after His. I rejoice, therefore, at being asked about such things, and congratulate the askers. By me, to speak shortly, the faith of the Fathers assembled at Nicæa is honoured ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 125, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Holy Spirit. (HTML)
Book II. (HTML)
Chapter VIII. St. Ambrose examines and refutes the heretical argument that because God is said to be glorified in the Spirit, and not with the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is therefore inferior to the Father. He shows that the particle in can be also used of the Son and even of the Father, and that on the other hand with may be said of creatures without any infringement on the prerogatives of the Godhead; and that in reality these prepositions simply imply the connection of the Three Divine Persons. (HTML)
79. Hear that what you are afraid to acknowledge of the Spirit, the Apostle did not fear to claim for himself; for he says: “To be dissolved and to be with Christ is much better.”[Philippians 1:23] Do you deny that the Spirit, through Whom the Apostle was made worthy of being with Christ, is with Christ?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 180, footnote 2 (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 1523 (In-Text, Margin)
40. We see, then, that this death is a gain and life a penalty, so that Paul says: “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”[Philippians 1:21] What is Christ but the death of the body, the breath of life? And so let us die with Him, that we may live with Him. Let there then be in us as it were a daily practice and inclination to dying, that by this separation from bodily desires, of which we have spoken, our soul may learn to withdraw itself, and, as it were placed on high, when earthly lusts cannot approach and attach it to themselves, may take upon herself the likeness ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 180, footnote 5 (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 1526 (In-Text, Margin)
... Jesus Christ our Lord.” 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 the flesh is more needful for your sakes.”[Philippians 1:23-24]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 303, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Exposition of the Christian Faith. (HTML)
Book V. (HTML)
Chapter XII. He confirms what has been already said, by the parable of the rich man who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom; and shows that when the Son delivers up the kingdom to the Father, we must not regard the fact that the Father is said to put all things in subjection under Him, in a disparaging way. Here we are the kingdom of Christ, and in Christ's kingdom. Hereafter we shall be in the kingdom of God, where the Trinity will reign together. (HTML)
150. It is a good thing to be in the kingdom of Christ, so that Christ may be with us; as He Himself says: “Lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” But it is better to be with Christ: “For to depart and be with Christ is far better.”[Philippians 1:23] Though we are under sin in this world, Christ is with us, that “by the obedience of one man many may be made just.” And if I escape the sin of this world, I shall begin to be with Christ. And so He says: “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself;” and further on: “I will that where I am, there ye may be also with Me.”
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 337, footnote 8 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
Concerning Repentance. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XI. The passage quoted from St. John's Epistle is confirmed by another in which salvation is promised to those who believe in Christ, which refutes the Novatians who try to induce the lapsed to believe, although denying them pardon. Furthermore, many who had lapsed have received the grace of martyrdom, whilst the example of the good Samaritan shows that we must not abandon those in whom even the faintest amount of faith is still alive. (HTML)
... themselves after a fall, and have suffered for the Name of God. Can we deny fellowship with the martyrs to these to whom the Lord Jesus has not denied it? Do we dare to say that life is not restored to those to whom Christ has given a crown? As, then, a crown is given to many after they have lapsed, so, too, if they believe, their faith is restored, which faith is the gift of God, as you read: “Because unto you it hath been granted by God not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer in His behalf.”[Philippians 1:29] Is it possible that he who has the gift of God should not have His forgiveness?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 431, footnote 4 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Sermon Against Auxentius on the Giving Up of the Basilicas. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3470 (In-Text, Margin)
... having put off their body, wear the semblance of the angels unseen by our eyes? If withstood by any, will they not say: The Lord hath need of him? If, for instance, love of this life, or flesh and blood, or earthly intercourse (for perhaps we seem pleasing to some), were to withstand them? But he who loves me here, would show his love much more if he would suffer me to become Christ’s victim, for “to depart and be with Christ is much better, though to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.”[Philippians 1:23] There is nothing therefore for you to fear, beloved brethren. For I know that whatever I may suffer, I shall suffer for Christ’s sake. And I have read that I ought not to fear those that can kill the flesh. And I have heard One Who says: “He that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 471, footnote 1 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose. (HTML)
Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3787 (In-Text, Margin)
96. How many masters has he who has forsaken the One! But let us not forsake Him. Who would forsake Him Whom they follow bound with chains indeed, but chains of love, which set free and do not bind, those chains in which they who are bound boast, saying: “Paul the bondservant of Jesus Christ, and Timothy.”[Philippians 1:1] It is more glorious for us to be bound by Him, than to be set free and loosed from others. Who then would flee from peace? Who would flee from salvation? Who would flee from mercy? Who would flee from redemption?
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 302, footnote 5 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)
Conference I. First Conference of Abbot Moses. (HTML)
Chapter XIV. Of the continuance of the soul. (HTML)
... Apostle recognize that what we say is true, that he actually wished to depart from this flesh; that by separation from it, he might be able to be joined more earnestly to the Lord; saying: “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is far better, for while we are in the body we are absent from the Lord:” and therefore “we are bold and have our desire always to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord. Wherefore also we strive, whether absent or present, to be pleasing to Him;”[Philippians 1:23] and he declares indeed that the continuance of the soul which is in the flesh is distance from the Lord, and absence from Christ, and trusts with entire faith that its separation and departure from this flesh involves presence with Christ. And again ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 327, footnote 3 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X. (HTML)
Conference III. Conference of Abbot Paphnutius. On the Three Sorts of Renunciations. (HTML)
Chapter XV. That the understanding, by means of which we can recognize God's commands, and the performance of a good will are both gifts from the Lord. (HTML)
... from Him, to understand the law spiritually and to recognize His commands more clearly, as the “chosen vessel” also declares very plainly this which we are insisting on. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do according to good will.” What could well be clearer than the assertion that both our good will and the completion of our work are fully wrought in us by the Lord? And again “For it is granted to you for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him but also to suffer for Him.”[Philippians 1:29] Here also he declares that the beginning of our conversion and faith, and the endurance of suffering is a gift to us from the Lord. And David too, as he knows this, similarly prays that the same thing may be granted to him by God’s mercy. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 522, footnote 6 (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 V. How no one can be continually intent upon that highest good. (HTML)
... when for a long time he had corrected the balance in his breast, while the vast rewards for his labours delighted him on one side, and on the other the desire for unity with and the inseparable companionship of Christ inclined him to depart this life, at last in his perplexity he cries out and says: “What I shall choose I know not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart and to be with Christ, for it were much better: but to abide in the flesh is more necessary for your sakes.”[Philippians 1:22-24] Though then in many ways he preferred this excellent good to all the fruits of his preaching, yet he submits himself in consideration of love, without which none can gain the Lord; and for their sakes, whom hitherto he had soothed with milk as ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 50, footnote 2 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Letters. (HTML)
To Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 358 (In-Text, Margin)
... little on the subject of our common anxiety, both because the accounts which had already arrived had given us full information on every thing, and because for purposes of private inquiry it was easy to converse with the aforesaid Basil, by whom now through the grace of God, in whom we trust, we exhort you, beloved, in reply, using the Apostle’s words, and saying: “Be ye in nothing affrighted by the adversaries; which is for them a cause of perdition, but to you of salvation[Philippians 1:28].” For what is so calamitous as to wish to destroy all hope of man’s salvation by denying the reality of Christ’s Incarnation, and to contradict the Apostle who says distinctly: “great is the mystery of Godliness which was manifest in the flesh?” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 76, footnote 2 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Letters. (HTML)
To Pulcheria Augusta about the self-seeking of Anatolius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 450 (In-Text, Margin)
... gospel-truth: so that by the removal of the mists of error the purest light might arise in the hearts of all, and that darkness-loving foe might not triumph over certain weak souls, whom not only those who stood unhurt but also those whom he had made to totter have overcome, and that by the abolition of error the true Faith might reign throughout the world, and “every tongue might confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father[Philippians 1:11].” But when the whole world had been confirmed in the unity of the Gospel, and the hearts of all priests had been guided into the same belief, it had been better that besides those matters for which the holy Synod was assembled, and which were ...