Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Ecclesiasticus 2
There are 28 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 471, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Mortality. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3485 (In-Text, Margin)
9. Moreover, if the Christian know and keep fast under what condition and what law he has believed, he will be aware that he must suffer more than others in the world, since he must struggle more with the attacks of the devil. Holy Scripture teaches and forewarns, saying, “My son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] And again: “In pain endure, and in thy humility have patience; for gold and silver is tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 471, footnote 3 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Mortality. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3485 (In-Text, Margin)
9. Moreover, if the Christian know and keep fast under what condition and what law he has believed, he will be aware that he must suffer more than others in the world, since he must struggle more with the attacks of the devil. Holy Scripture teaches and forewarns, saying, “My son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:4] And again: “In pain endure, and in thy humility have patience; for gold and silver is tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 471, footnote 4 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Mortality. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3486 (In-Text, Margin)
... under what condition and what law he has believed, he will be aware that he must suffer more than others in the world, since he must struggle more with the attacks of the devil. Holy Scripture teaches and forewarns, saying, “My son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.” And again: “In pain endure, and in thy humility have patience; for gold and silver is tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:5]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 489, footnote 1 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Treatises of Cyprian. (HTML)
On the Advantage of Patience. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3624 (In-Text, Margin)
... sufferings are introduced; and a manifold kind of temptations is inflicted by the losses of property, by the heats of fevers, by the torments of wounds, by the loss of those dear to us. Nor does anything distinguish between the unrighteous and the righteous more than that in affliction the unrighteous man impatiently complains and blasphemes, while the righteous is proved by his patience, as it is written: “In pain endure, and in thy low estate have patience; for gold and silver are tried in the fire.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:4-5]
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 582, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
On the Glory of Martyrdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4847 (In-Text, Margin)
... instruments of testing tortures, stand sublime and strong, considering how great is the penalty of denying, in a time 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.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] Moreover, also, the blessed Apostle Paul exclaimed, and said, “To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 583, footnote 2 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
Treatises Attributed to Cyprian on Questionable Authority. (HTML)
On the Glory of Martyrdom. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4851 (In-Text, Margin)
16. Moreover, beloved brethren, so great is the virtue of martyrdom, that by its means even he who has wished to slay you is constrained to believe. It is written, and we read: “Endure in suffering, and in thy humiliation have patience, because gold and silver are tried by the fire.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:4] Since, therefore, the Lord proves us by earthly temptations, and Christ the Judge weighs us by these worldly ills, we must congratulate ourselves, and rejoice that He does not reserve us for those eternal destructions, but rejoices over us as purged from all contagion. But from those whom He adopts as partners of His inheritance, and is willing to receive ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 663, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Appendix. (HTML)
Anonymous Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian. (HTML)
A Treatise Against the Heretic Novatian by an Anonymous Bishop. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5422 (In-Text, Margin)
... humble ourselves, that we may be exalted; let us acquiesce in the divine exhortation, whereby we may escape the day of the Lord and His anger. For thus He says: “Look, my son, upon the nations of men, and know who hath hoped in the Lord, and has been confounded; or has remained in His commandments, and has been forsaken; or has called upon Him, and He has despised him. For the Lord is loving and merciful, and forgiving in time of tribulation their sins to all those that seek after Him in truth.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:10-11] Therefore He says, “First tell thou thy sins, that thou mayest be justified.” Let there be first in your hand that prayer full of confession.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 378, footnote 10 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (HTML)
The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles (HTML)
Chapter III.—Other Sins Forbidden (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2408 (In-Text, Margin)
... all these blasphemies are engendered. 7. But be thou meek, since the meek shall inherit the earth. 8. Be long-suffering and pitiful and guileless and gentle and good and always trembling at the words which thou hast heard. 9. Thou shalt not exalt thyself, nor give over-confidence to thy soul. Thy soul shall not be joined with lofty ones, but with just and lowly ones shall it have its intercourse. 10. The workings that befall thee receive as good, knowing that apart from God nothing cometh to pass.[Ecclesiasticus 2:4]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 432, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine
City of God (HTML)
Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and New Testaments. (HTML)
What is to Be Replied to Those Who Think that Resurrection Pertains Only to Bodies and Not to Souls. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1374 (In-Text, Margin)
... saying, “That as Christ has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life.” So, too, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. ” As to what they say about nothing being able to rise again but what falls, whence they conclude that resurrection pertains to bodies only, and not to souls, because bodies fall, why do they make nothing of the words, “Ye that fear the Lord, wait for His mercy; and go not aside lest ye fall;”[Ecclesiasticus 2:7] and “To his own Master he stands or falls;” and “He that thinketh he standeth, let him take heed lest he fall?” For I fancy this fall that we are to take heed against is a fall of the soul, not of the body. If, then, rising again belongs to things ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 530, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Section 10 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2645 (In-Text, Margin)
... And if she had suggested it, she would with good reason here also have had that answer which she had when suggesting blasphemy; “Thou hast spoken as one of the foolish women. If we have received good at the hand of the Lord, shall we not bear evil?” Seeing even he also would have lost patience, if either by blasphemy as she had suggested, or by killing himself which not even she had dared to speak of, he should die, and be among them of whom it is written, “Woe unto them that have lost patience!”[Ecclesiasticus 2:14] and rather increase than escape pains, if after the death of his body he should be hurried off to punishment either of blasphemers, or of murderers, or of them which are worse even than parricides. For if a parricide be on that account more wicked ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 531, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
Section 11 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2648 (In-Text, Margin)
11. Let then the Saints hear from holy Scripture the precepts of patience: “My son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand thou in righteousness and fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation: bring thine heart low, and bear up; that in the last end thy life may increase. All that shall come upon thee receive thou, and in pain bear up, and in thy humility have patience. For in the fire gold and silver is proved, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1-5] And in another place we read: “My son, faint not thou in the discipline of the Lord, neither be wearied when thou art chidden of Him. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” What is here set down, “son whom He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 54, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: The Anti-Manichaean Writings, The Anti-Donatist Writings
Writings in Connection with the Manichæan Controversy. (HTML)
On the Morals of the Catholic Church. (HTML)
Scripture Precepts and Examples of Fortitude. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 115 (In-Text, Margin)
... could be greater than this? And yet why should we be astonished that the love of God, implanted in her inmost heart, bore up against tyrant, and executioner, and pain, and sex, and natural affection? Had she not heard, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints?" Had she not heard, "A patient man is better than the mightiest?" Had she not heard, "All that is appointed thee receive; and in pain bear it; and in abasement keep thy patience: for in fire are gold and silver tried?"[Ecclesiasticus 2:4-5] Had she not heard, "The fire tries the vessels of the potter, and for just men is the trial of tribulation?" These she knew, and many other precepts of fortitude written in these books, which alone existed at that time, by the same divine Spirit who ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 342, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
Again on Matt. xiv. 25: Of the Lord walking on the waves of the sea, and of Peter tottering. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2591 (In-Text, Margin)
... “If I said, my foot hath slipped” (they are the words of a Psalm, the notes of a holy song; and if we acknowledge them they are our words too; yea, if we will, they are ours also). “If I said my foot hath slipped.” How slipped, except because it was mine own. And what follows? “Thy mercy, Lord, helped me.” Not mine own strength, but Thy mercy. For will God forsake him as he totters, whom He heard when calling upon Him? Where then is that, “Who hath called upon God, and hath been forsaken by Him?”[Ecclesiasticus 2:10] where again is that, “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord, shall be delivered.” Immediately reaching forth the help of His right hand, He lifted him up as he was sinking, and rebuked his distrust; “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 507, 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)
On the words of the Gospel of John vii. 6, etc., where Jesus said that He was not going up unto the feast, and notwithstanding went up. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3978 (In-Text, Margin)
... that it is true? He all the while thinks it false, and says it as if it were true. What he says is true in itself, it is in itself true; with regard to him it is false, his conscience does not hold that which he is saying; he thinks in himself one thing to be true, he gives out another for truth. His is a double heart, not single; he does not bring out that which he has in it. The double heart has long since been condemned. “With deceitful lips in a heart and a heart have they spoken evil things.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:14] Had it been enough to say, “in the heart have they spoken evil things,” where is the “deceitful lips”? What is deceit? When one thing is done, another pretended. Deceitful lips are not a single heart; and because not a single heart, therefore “in a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 50, 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 I. 34–51. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 157 (In-Text, Margin)
... forth to God? He has lost the sign of Christ, and has received the sign of the devil. Perhaps he may say that he has not lost the sign of Christ. Thou canst have, then, the sign of Christ along with the sign of the devil. Christ does not desire community of ownership, but He desires to possess alone what He has purchased. He has bought at so great a price that He may possess alone: thou makest Him the partner of that devil to whom thou didst sell thyself by thy sin. “Woe to the double-hearted,”[Ecclesiasticus 2:12] to those who in their hearts give part to God and part to the devil. God, being angry that the devil has part there, departs, and the devil will possess the whole. Not in vain, therefore, says the apostle, “Neither give place to the devil.” Let us ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 263, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2492 (In-Text, Margin)
... enemy deliver my soul” (ver. 1). Enemies have raged against the Martyrs: for what was that voice of Christ’s Body praying? For this it was praying, to be delivered from enemies, and that enemies might not have power to slay them. Were they not therefore hearkened to, because they were slain; and hath God forsaken His servants of a contrite heart, and despised men hoping in Him? Far be it. For “who hath called upon God, and hath been forsaken; who hath hoped in Him, and hath been deserted by Him?”[Ecclesiasticus 2:10] They were hearkened to therefore, and they were slain; and yet from enemies they were delivered. Others being afraid gave consent, and lived, and yet the same by enemies were swallowed up. The slain were delivered, the living were swallowed up. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 387, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3753 (In-Text, Margin)
... servant. Thou wast angry at the prayer of Thy enemy, wilt Thou still be angry with the prayer of Thy servant? Thou hast converted us, we know Thee, and wilt Thou still be angry with the prayer of Thy servant? Thou wilt evidently be angry, in fact, as a father correcting, not as a judge condemning. In such manner evidently Thou wilt be angry, because it hath been written, “My son, drawing near unto the service of God, stand thou in righteousness and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] Think not that now the wrath of God hath passed away, because thou hast been converted. The wrath of God hath passed away from thee, but only so that it condemn not for everlasting. But He scourgeth, He spareth not: because He scourgeth every son ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 400, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXXIV (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3876 (In-Text, Margin)
... are pressed. Thus it is with men whom God predestined before the world to be conformed to the image of His only-begotten Son, who has been first and especially pressed in His Passion, as the great Cluster. Men of this kind, therefore, before they draw near to the service of God, enjoy in the world a kind of delicious liberty, like hanging grapes or olives: but as it is said, “My son, when thou drawest near to the service of God, stand in judgment and fear, and make thy soul ready for temptation:”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] so each, as he draweth near to the service of God, findeth that he is come to the winepress; he shall undergo tribulation, shall be crushed, shall be pressed, not that he may perish in this world, but that he may flow down into the storehouses of ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 568, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm CXIX (HTML)
Zain. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5202 (In-Text, Margin)
... resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” Whence also our Lord Himself saith with His own lips, “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” We well understand here that humiliation also, not whereby each man humbleth himself by confessing his sins, and by not arrogating righteousness to himself; but when each man is humbled by some tribulation or mortification which his pride deserved; or when he is exercised and proved by endurance;[Ecclesiasticus 2:4-5] whence a little after this Psalm saith, “Before I was troubled, I went wrong.”…And the Lord Jesus, when He foretold that this humiliation would be brought upon His disciples by their persecutors, did not leave them without a hope; but gave them one, ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 126, footnote 3 (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 361 (In-Text, Margin)
... But if you long for the security which you formerly enjoyed owing to your husband, and the protection of your property, and immunity from the designs of any of those persons who trample upon the misfortunes of others “Cast thy care upon the Lord and He will nourish thee.” “For look,” it is said, “to past generations and see, who ever placed his hope on the Lord and was put to shame, or who ever called upon Him, and was neglected, or who ever remained constant to His commandments and was forsaken?”[Ecclesiasticus 2:10] For He who has alleviated this intolerable calamity, and placed you even now in a state of tranquillity will also avert impending evils; for that you will never receive another blow more severe than this you would yourself admit. Having then so ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 340, footnote 11 (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 1059 (In-Text, Margin)
... patience, probation; and probation, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed.” Do you see that the probation, which comes of tribulation, fixes in us the hope of the good things to come, and that the abiding in trials causes us to have a good hope of the future? So that I did not say rashly, that these tribulations themselves mark out to us hopes of a resurrection, and make those who are tried the better; for, he saith, “as gold is tried in a furnace, so an acceptable man in the furnace of humiliation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:3]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 9, page 461, footnote 5 (Image)
Chrysostom: On the Priesthood, Ascetic Treatises, Select Homilies and Letters, Homilies on the Statutes
The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch. (HTML)
Homily XVIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1741 (In-Text, Margin)
... of Christ.” Did any person insult and revile such a one? Well, he was taught by Christ to rejoice in these revilings. “Rejoice,” saith He, “and be exceeding glad, when they shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake; for great is your reward in heaven.” But suppose a man hath fallen into disease? Well, he hath heard another admonishing, and saying, “In disease and poverty trust thou in Him; for as gold is tried in the fire, so are acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:4-5] Since, therefore, neither death, nor loss of money, nor bodily disease, nor dishonour, nor reproach, nor any other thing of that nature, will be able to grieve him, but makes him even the more joyful, what foundation for sadness will he have at any ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 13, page 543, 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 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. (HTML)
Homilies on Titus. (HTML)
Titus 3:8-11 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1528 (In-Text, Margin)
... worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” (Dan. iii. 17, 18.) But we, as if bargaining on the chastisements of the Lord, even fix a time, saying, “If He does not show mercy till this time.” Therefore it is that we are not delivered. Surely Abraham did not leave his home expecting again to receive his son, but as prepared to sacrifice him; and it was contrary to his expectation that he received him again safe. And thou, when thou fallest into tribulation, be not in haste to be delivered,[Ecclesiasticus 2:2] prepare thy mind for all endurance, and speedily thou shalt be delivered from thy affliction. For God brings it upon thee for this end, that He may chasten thee. When therefore from the first we learn to bear it patiently, and do not sink into ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 14, page 458, footnote 3 (Image)
Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John and the Epistle to the Hebrews
The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews. (HTML)
Hebrews 10.26,27 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3171 (In-Text, Margin)
... [belongeth] unto Me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people.” “Let us fall,” it is said, “into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.” (Ecclus. ii. 18.) But if ye repent not, ye shall “fall into the hands of” God: that is fearful: it is nothing, to “fall into the hands of men.” When, he means, we see any man punished here, let us not be terrified at the things present, but shudder at the things to come. “For according to His mercy, so is His wrath.”[Ecclesiasticus 2:18] And, “His indignation will rest upon sinners.” (Ecclus. v. 6.)
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 222, footnote 1 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Julian. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3086 (In-Text, Margin)
... dedication of a martyr’s bones; unconcerned for a bereavement which was the concern of the whole city, and anxious only to share in a martyr’s triumph. Nay, say they, when you bore your wife to burial, it was not as one dead but as one setting forth on a journey. But I shall not deceive you with flattering words or take the ground from under your feet with slippery praises. Rather will I say what it is good for you to hear: “My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation,”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] and “when thou shalt have done all those things which are commanded thee, say, I am an unprofitable servant; I have done that which was my duty to do.” Say to God: “the children that thou hast taken from me were Thine own gift. The hand-maiden that ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 390, footnote 2 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Jovinianus. (HTML)
Book II (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4693 (In-Text, Margin)
... within us give the impulse, and these are brought to maturity by the devil. When he sees that we are building upon the foundation of Christ, hay, wood, stubble, then he applies the match. Let us then build gold, silver, costly stones, and he will not venture to tempt us: although even thus there is not sure and safe possession. For the lion lurks in ambush to slay the innocent. “Potters’ vessels are proved by the furnace, and just men by the trial of tribulation.” And in another place it is written:[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] “My son, when thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thyself for temptation.” Again, the same James says: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only. For if any one is a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 231, footnote 8 (Image)
Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lerins, John Cassian
The Works of John Cassian. (HTML)
The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Book IV. Of the Institutes of the Renunciants. (HTML)
Chapter XXXVIII. Of the renunciant's preparation against temptation, and of the few who are worthy of imitation. (HTML)
Wherefore, as Scripture says, “when you go forth to serve the Lord stand in the fear of the Lord, and prepare your mind”[Ecclesiasticus 2:1] not for repose or carelessness or delights, but for temptations and troubles. For “through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God.” For “strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be which find it.” Consider therefore that you belong to the few and elect; and do not grow cold after the examples of the lukewarmness of many: but live as the few, that with the few you may be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 12, page 153, footnote 2 (Image)
Leo the Great, Gregory the Great
The Letters and Sermons of Leo the Great. (HTML)
Sermons. (HTML)
On Lent, I. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 908 (In-Text, Margin)
... we too might likewise conquer. For there are no works of power, dearly-beloved, without the trials of temptations, there is no faith without proof, no contest without a foe, no victory without conflict. This life of ours is in the midst of snares, in the midst of battles; if we do not wish to be deceived, we must watch: if we want to overcome, we must fight. And therefore the most wise Solomon says, “My son in approaching the service of God prepare thy soul for temptation[Ecclesiasticus 2:1].” For He being a man full of the wisdom of God, and knowing that the pursuit of religion involves laborious struggles, foreseeing too the danger of the fight, forewarned the intending combatant; lest haply, if the tempter ...