Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers First Series, Volume XIII

Top Highlights

“‘With every spiritual blessing.’ And what lackest thou yet? Thou art made immortal, thou art made free, thou art made a son, thou art made righteous, thou art made a brother, thou art made a fellow-heir, thou reignest with Christ, thou art glorified with Christ; all things are freely given thee. ‘How,’ saith he, ‘shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?’” (Page 50)

“In these words, ‘I am crucified with Christ,’ he alludes to Baptism,⁴ and in the words ‘nevertheless I live, yet not I,’ our subsequent manner of life whereby our members are mortified.” (Page 22)

“Seest thou, that he desires to banish every evil thought from our souls; for evil actions spring from thoughts.” (Page 247)

“Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing;’ (Gal. 5:2.) and again, ‘Ye who would be justified by the Law, ye are fallen away from Grace.’ (Gal. 5:4.) What then is this? For it must be explained more clearly. Some of the Jews who believed, being held down by the preposessions of Judaism, and at the same time intoxicated by vain-glory, and desirous of obtaining for themselves the dignity of teachers, came to the Galatians, and taught them that the observance of circumcision, sabbaths, and new-moons, was necessary, and that Paul in abolishing these things was not to be borne.” (Page 2)

“Now if men in their choices choose what is best, much more doth God. And indeed the fact of their being chosen is at once a token of the loving kindness of God, and of their moral goodness.³ For by all means would he have chosen those who were approved. He hath Himself rendered us holy, but then we must continue holy. A holy man is he who is a partaker of faith; a blameless man is he who leads an irreproachable life. It is not however simply holiness and irreproachableness that He requires, but that we should appear such ‘before Him.’” (Page 51)