Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Colossians 3:5
There are 43 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 538, footnote 5 (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 4536 (In-Text, Margin)
... therefore, was what the Lord came to quicken, that as in Adam we do all die, as being of an animal nature, in Christ we may all live, as being spiritual, not laying aside God’s handiwork, but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit; as the apostle says in the Epistle to the Colossians: “Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.” And what these are he himself explains: “Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence; and covetousness, which is idolatry.”[Colossians 3:5] The laying aside of these is what the apostle preaches; and he declares that those who do such things, as being merely flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. For their soul, tending towards what is worse, and descending to earthly ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 288, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Instructor (HTML)
Book III (HTML)
Chapter XI.—A Compendious View of the Christian Life. (HTML)
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, and concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience,”[Colossians 3:5-6] cries the apostle.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 2, page 514, footnote 7 (Image)
Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (HTML)
The Stromata, or Miscellanies (HTML)
Book VI (HTML)
Chapter XVI.—Gnostic Exposition of the Decalogue. (HTML)
... the command respecting adultery. Now it is adultery, if one, abandoning the ecclesiastical and true knowledge, and the persuasion respecting God, accedes to false and incongruous opinion, either by deifying any created object, or by making an idol of anything that exists not, so as to overstep, or rather step from, knowledge. And to the Gnostic false opinion is foreign, as the true belongs to him, and is allied with him. Wherefore the noble apostle calls one of the kinds of fornication, idolatry,[Colossians 3:5] in following the prophet, who says: “[My people] hath committed fornication with stock and stone. They have said to the stock, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 67, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
On Idolatry. (HTML)
Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 232 (In-Text, Margin)
If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, “a root of all evils,” wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, “have suffered shipwreck about faith.” Albeit covetousness is by the same apostle called idolatry.[Colossians 3:5] In the next place proceeding to mendacity, the minister of covetousness (of false swearing I am silent, since even swearing is not lawful)—is trade adapted for a servant of God? But, covetousness apart, what is the motive for acquiring? When the motive for acquiring ceases, there will be no necessity for trading. Grant now that there be some ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 67, footnote 7 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Apologetic. (HTML)
On Idolatry. (HTML)
Connection Between Covetousness and Idolatry. Certain Trades, However Gainful, to Be Avoided. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 232 (In-Text, Margin)
If we think over the rest of faults, tracing them from their generations, let us begin with covetousness, “a root of all evils,” wherewith, indeed, some having been ensnared, “have suffered shipwreck about faith.” Albeit covetousness is by the same apostle called idolatry.[Colossians 3:5] In the next place proceeding to mendacity, the minister of covetousness (of false swearing I am silent, since even swearing is not lawful)—is trade adapted for a servant of God? But, covetousness apart, what is the motive for acquiring? When the motive for acquiring ceases, there will be no necessity for trading. Grant now that there be some ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 93, footnote 21 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)
On Modesty. (HTML)
Consistency of the Apostle in His Other Epistles. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 910 (In-Text, Margin)
... the sons of unbelief.” Who “seduces with empty words” but he who states in a public harangue that adultery is remissible? not seeing into the fact that its very foundations have been dug out by the apostle, when he puts restraints upon drunkennesses and revellings, as withal here: “And be not inebriated with wine, in which is voluptuousness.” He demonstrates, too, to the Colossians what “members” they are to “mortify” upon earth: “fornication, impurity, lust, evil concupiscence,” and “base talk.”[Colossians 3:5] Yield up, by this time, to so many and such sentences, the one (passage) to which you cling. Paucity is cast into the shade by multitude, doubt by certainty, obscurity by plainness. Even if, for certain, the apostle had granted pardon of fornication ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 565, footnote 6 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Chapter XLIX (HTML)
We, however, when we do abstain, do so because “we keep under our body, and bring it into subjection,” and desire “to mortify our members that are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence;”[Colossians 3:5] and we use every effort to “mortify the deeds of the flesh.”
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 627, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen
Origen. (HTML)
Origen Against Celsus. (HTML)
Book VII (HTML)
Chapter XXXVIII (HTML)
... the other parts of the body are employed. And it is certain that a man—I mean a soul using a body, otherwise called “the inner man,” or simply “the soul”—would answer, not as Celsus makes us answer, but as the man of God himself teaches. It is certain also that a Christian will not make use of “the language of the flesh,” having learnt as he has “to mortify the deeds of the body” by the spirit, and “to bear about in his body the dying of Jesus;” and “mortify your members which are on the earth,”[Colossians 3:5] and with a true knowledge of these words, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,” and again, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God,” he strives in every way to live no longer according to the flesh, but only ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 5, page 334, footnote 8 (Image)
Hippolytus, Cyprian, Caius, Novatian, Appendix
Cyprian. (HTML)
The Epistles of Cyprian. (HTML)
To Antonianus About Cornelius and Novatian. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2505 (In-Text, Margin)
... who are held guilty of the crime of idolatry, according to the saying of the apostle: “For know this with understanding, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, whose guilt is that of idolatry, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” And again: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; putting off fornication, uncleanness, and evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which are the service of idols: for which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God.”[Colossians 3:5-6] For as our bodies are members of Christ, and we are each a temple of God, whosoever violates the temple of God by adultery, violates God; and he who, in committing sins, does the will of the devil, serves demons and idols. For evil deeds do not come ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 7, page 185, footnote 7 (Image)
Lactantius, Venantius, Asterius, Victorinus, Dionysius, Apostolic Teaching and Constitutions, 2 Clement, Early Liturgies
Lactantius (HTML)
The Divine Institutes (HTML)
Book VI. Of True Worship (HTML)
Chap. XIX.—Of the affections and their use; and of the three furies (HTML)
... affections which drive men headlong to all crimes: (1) anger, (2) desire, and (3) lust. On which account the poets have said that there are three furies which harass the minds of men: anger longs for revenge, desire for riches, lust for pleasures. But God has appointed fixed limits to all of these; and if they pass these limits and begin to be too great, they must necessarily pervert their nature, and be changed into diseases and vices. And it is a matter of no great labour to show what these limits are.[Colossians 3:5] Cupidity is given us for providing those things which are necessary for life; concupiscence, for the procreation of offspring; the affection of indignation, for restraining the faults of those who are in our power, that is, in order that tender age ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 16, footnote 1 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. (HTML)
The Testament of Levi Concerning the Priesthood and Arrogance. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 84 (In-Text, Margin)
... the moon. What shall all the Gentiles do if ye be darkened in ungodliness? So shall ye bring a curse upon our race for whom came the light of the world, which was given among you for the lighting up of every man. Him will ye desire to slay, teaching commandments contrary to the ordinances of God. The offerings of the Lord will ye rob, and from His portion will ye steal; and before ye sacrifice to the Lord, ye will take the choicest parts, in despitefulness eating them with harlots. Amid excesses[Colossians 3:5] will ye teach the commandments of the Lord, the women that have husbands will ye pollute, and the virgins of Jerusalem will ye defile; and with harlots and adulteresses will ye be joined. The daughters of the Gentiles will ye take for wives, ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 8, page 57, footnote 25 (Image)
Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementina, Apocryphal Gospels and Acts, Syriac Documents
Two Epistles Concerning Virginity. (HTML)
The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle. (HTML)
Virgins, by the Laying Aside of All Carnal Affection, are Imitators of God. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 363 (In-Text, Margin)
... of speech; malice, inventing of evil, falsehood; talkativeness, babbling; threatenings, gnashing of teeth, readiness to accuse, jarring, disdainings, blows; perversions of the right, laxness in judgment; haughtiness, arrogance, ostentation, pompousness, boasting of family, of beauty, of position, of wealth, of an arm of flesh; quarrelsomeness, injustice, eagerness for victory; hatred, anger, envy, perfidy, retaliation; debauchery, gluttony, “overreaching (which is idolatry),”[Colossians 3:5] “the love of money (which is the root of all evils);” love of display, vainglory, love of rule, assumption, pride (which is called death, and which “God fights against”). Every man with whom are these and such like things—every such man is of the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 1, page 127, footnote 1 (Image)
Augustine: Prolegomena: St. Augustine's Life and Work, Confessions, Letters
The Confessions (HTML)
He finally describes the thirty-second year of his age, the most memorable of his whole life, in which, being instructed by Simplicianus concerning the conversion of others, and the manner of acting, he is, after a severe struggle, renewed in his whole mind, and is converted unto God. (HTML)
In What Manner the Spirit Struggled with the Flesh, that It Might Be Freed from the Bondage of Vanity. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 674 (In-Text, Margin)
... Lord their God? The Lord their God gave me unto them. Why standest thou in thine own strength, and so standest not? Cast thyself upon Him; fear not, He will not withdraw that thou shouldest fall; cast thyself upon Him without fear, He will receive thee, and heal thee.” And I blushed beyond measure, for I still heard the muttering of those toys, and hung in suspense. And she again seemed to say, “Shut up thine ears against those unclean members of thine upon the earth, that they may be mortified.[Colossians 3:5] They tell thee of delights, but not as doth the law of the Lord thy God.” This controversy in my heart was naught but self against self. But Alypius, sitting close by my side, awaited in silence the result of my unwonted emotion.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 392, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises
Moral Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)
On Continence. (HTML)
Section 29 (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1920 (In-Text, Margin)
... not I, but there liveth in me Christ.” They therefore, whose life was hidden in God, are admonished and exhorted to mortify their members, which are upon the earth. For this follows, “Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth.” And, lest any through excess of dullness should think that such are to mortify the members of the body that are seen, straightway opening what it is he saith, “Fornication,” saith he, “uncleanness, passion, evil lust, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”[Colossians 3:5] But is it so to be believed, that they, who were already dead, and their life hidden with Christ in God, were still committing fornication, were still living in unclean habits and works, were still slaves to passions of evil lust and covetousness? ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 310, footnote 3 (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 965 (In-Text, Margin)
... themselves should be slain without regard to relationship. It is easy to see that the slaughter of these men represents the warfare against the evil principles which led the people into the same idolatry. Against such evil we are commanded to wage war in the words of the psalm, "Be ye angry and sin not." And a similar command is given by the apostle, when he says, "Mortify your members which are on earth fornication, uncleanness, luxury, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."[Colossians 3:5]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 4, page 449, 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 5 (HTML)
... say they do not communicate with idolaters, whereas there are amongst them both adulterers and covetous persons, who are held guilty of the sin of idolatry; ‘for know this, and understand, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God;’ and again, ‘Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.’"[Colossians 3:5] I ask, therefore, which sins more deeply,—he who ignorantly has fallen into heresy, or he who wittingly has refused to abandon covetousness, that is idolatry? According to that rule by which the sins of those who sin wittingly are placed before ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 5, page 17, footnote 5 (Image)
Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants. (HTML)
Book I (HTML)
How It is that the Body Dead Because of Sin. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 225 (In-Text, Margin)
One wonders that anything is required clearer than the proof we have given. But we must perhaps be content to hear this clear illustration gainsaid by the contention, that we must understand “the dead body” here in the sense of the passage where it is said, “Mortify your members which are upon the earth.”[Colossians 3:5] But it is because of righteousness and not because of sin that the body is in this sense mortified; for it is to do the works of righteousness that we mortify our bodies which are upon the earth. Or if they suppose that the phrase, “because of sin,” is added, not that we should understand “because sin has been committed,” but “in order ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 16, footnote 6 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
Explanation of the First Part of the Sermon Delivered by Our Lord on the Mount, as Contained in the Fifth Chapter of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 118 (In-Text, Margin)
36. And therefore, under the category of the adultery mentioned in this section, we must understand all fleshly and sensual lust. For when Scripture so constantly speaks of idolatry as fornication, and the Apostle Paul calls avarice by the name of idolatry,[Colossians 3:5] who doubts but that every evil lust is rightly called fornication, since the soul, neglecting the higher law by which it is ruled, and prostituting itself for the base pleasure of the lower nature as its reward (so to speak), is thereby corrupted? And therefore let every one who feels carnal pleasure rebelling against right inclination in his own case through the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 48, footnote 15 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. (HTML)
On the Latter Part of Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Contained in the Sixth and Seventh Chapters of Matthew. (HTML)
Chapter XIII (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 370 (In-Text, Margin)
... the intent itself, wherewith we do whatever we are doing; and if this be pure and right, and looking at that which ought to be looked at, all our works which we perform in accordance therewith are necessarily good. And all those works He has called the whole body; for the apostle also speaks of certain works of which he disapproves as our members, and teaches that they are to be mortified, saying, “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, covetousness,”[Colossians 3:5] and all other such things.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 514, footnote 4 (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 2444 (In-Text, Margin)
... thou seest the beginning, why despairest thou of the end? What beginning do I see? (sayest thou.) That very fear. Hear the Scripture: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Well then, he has begun to fear the day of judgment: by fearing let him correct himself, let him watch against his enemies, i.e. his sins; let him begin to come to life again inwardly, and to mortify his members which are upon the earth, as the apostle saith, “Mortify your members which are upon the earth.”[Colossians 3:5] By the members upon earth he means spiritual wickedness: for he goes on to expound it, “Covetousness, uncleanness,” and the rest which he there follows out. Now in proportion as this man who has begun to fear the day of judgment, mortifies his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 122, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm XL (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1113 (In-Text, Margin)
... Divinity; and he frequently pronounces an opinion, and is frequently mistaken. Why is this? Even because they are “lying madnesses.” But why is it that what they say sometimes comes true? That they may lead astray the foolish ones; that by loving the semblance of truth there, they may fall into the snare of falsehood: let them be left behind, let them be “given over,” let them be “cut off.” If they were members of us, they must be mortified. “Mortify,” he says, “your members which are upon the earth.”[Colossians 3:5] Let our God be our hope. He who made all things, is better than all! He who made what is beautiful, is more beautiful than all that is such. He who made whatever is mighty, is Himself mightier. He who made whatever is great, is Himself greater. He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 245, footnote 2 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2294 (In-Text, Margin)
... how can a Christian turned to the Lord be an enemy turned? Because he hath become a believer that had been an enemy. “Smote Edom.” Edom is interpreted “earthly.” That earthly one ought to be smitten. For why should one live earthly, that ought to live heavenly? There hath been slain therefore life earthly, let there live life heavenly. “For as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us bear also the image of Him that is from Heaven.” See it slain: “Mortify your members which are upon earth.”[Colossians 3:5] But when he had smitten Edom, he smote “twelve thousand in the valley of salt-pits.” Twelve thousand is a perfect number, to which perfect number also the number of the twelve Apostles is ascribed: for not to no purpose is it, but because through ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 389, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3775 (In-Text, Margin)
11. “Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, and upon the Son of Man whom Thou hast strengthened Thyself” (ver. 17). “And we depart not from Thee.…Thou wilt quicken us, and Thy Name we will invoke” (ver. 18). Thou shalt be sweet to us, “Thou wilt quicken us.” For aforetime we did love earth, not Thee: but Thou hast mortified our members which are upon the earth.[Colossians 3:5] For the Old Testament, having earthly promises, seemeth to exhort that God should not be loved for nought, but that He should be loved because He giveth something on earth. What dost thou love, so as not to love God? Tell me. Love, if thou canst, anything which He hath not made. Look round upon the whole ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 523, 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 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
... in this let us be followers of him, my brethren. And let this be the customary boast of all of us at all times. In this David participated, saying in the Psalms, ‘For thy sake we die all the day; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Now this is becoming in us, especially in the days of the feast, when a commemoration of the death of our Saviour is held. For he who is made like Him in His death, is also diligent in virtuous practices, having mortified his members which are upon the earth[Colossians 3:5], and crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts, he lives in the Spirit, and is conformed to the Spirit. He is always mindful of God, and forgets Him not, and never does the deeds of death. Now, in order that we may bear in our body the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 524, footnote 10 (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 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
3. But the saints, and they who truly practise virtue, ‘mortify their members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness passions, evil concupiscence[Colossians 3:5];’ and, as the result of this, are pure and without spot, confiding in the promise of our Saviour, who said, ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.’ These, having become dead to the world, and renounced the merchandise of the world, gain an honourable death; for, ‘precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.’ They are also able, preserving the Apostolic likeness, to say, ‘I am ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 525, footnote 3 (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 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
Thus it is that sinners, and all those who are aliens from the Catholic Church, heretics, and schismatics, since they are excluded from glorifying (God) with the saints, cannot properly even continue observers of the feast. But the righteous man, although he appears dying to the world, uses boldness of speech, saying, ‘I shall not die, but live, and narrate all Thy marvelous deeds.’ For even God is not ashamed to be called the God of those who truly mortify their members which are upon the earth[Colossians 3:5], but live in Christ; for He is the God of the living, not of the dead. And He by His living Word quickeneth all men, and gives Him to be food and life to the saints; as the Lord declares, ‘I am the bread of life.’ The Jews, because they were weak in ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 4, page 525, footnote 18 (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 335. Easter-day iv Pharmuthi, iii Kal. April; xx Moon; Ær. Dioclet. 51; Coss. Julius Constantius, the brother of Augustus, Rufinus Albinus; Præfect, the same Philagrius; viii Indict. (HTML)
7. Since these things are so, my brethren, let us mortify our members which are on the earth[Colossians 3:5], and be nourished with living bread, by faith and love to God, knowing that without faith it is impossible to be partakers of such bread as this. For our Saviour, when He called all men to him, and said, ‘If any man thirst, let him [come] to Me and drink,’ immediately spoke of the faith without which a man cannot receive such food; ‘He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.’ To this end He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 15, footnote 11 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Heliodorus, Monk. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 199 (In-Text, Margin)
... covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” In a general way all that is of the devil savors of enmity to God, and what is of the devil is idolatry, since all idols are subject to him. Yet Paul elsewhere lays down the law in express and unmistakable terms, saying: “Mortify your members, which are upon the earth, laying aside fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which are idolatry, for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh.”[Colossians 3:5-6]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 28, footnote 10 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 446 (In-Text, Margin)
... uttermost, and thy servant loveth it.” It is hard for the human soul to avoid loving something, and our mind must of necessity give way to affection of one kind or another. The love of the flesh is overcome by the love of the spirit. Desire is quenched by desire. What is taken from the one increases the other. Therefore, as you lie on your couch, say again and again: “By night have I sought Him whom my soul loveth.” “Mortify, therefore,” says the apostle, “your members which are upon the earth.”[Colossians 3:5] Because he himself did so, he could afterwards say with confidence: “I live, yet not I, but Christ, liveth in me.” He who mortifies his members, and feels that he is walking in a vain show, is not afraid to say: “I am become like a bottle in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 36, footnote 16 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)
To Eustochium. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 594 (In-Text, Margin)
“The love of money is the root of all evil,” and the apostle speaks of covetousness as being idolatry.[Colossians 3:5] “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.” The Lord will never allow a righteous soul to perish of hunger. “I have been young,” the psalmist says, “and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.” Elijah is fed by ministering ravens. The widow of Zarephath, who with her sons expected to die the same night, went without food herself that she might feed the prophet. He ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 237, footnote 12 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Panegyric on His Brother S. Cæsarius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2985 (In-Text, Margin)
23. Would that I might mortify my members that are upon the earth,[Colossians 3:5] would that I might spend my all upon the spirit, walking in the way that is narrow and trodden by few, not that which is broad and easy. For glorious and great are its consequences, and our hope is greater than our desert. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? What is this new mystery which concerns me? I am small and great, lowly and exalted, mortal and immortal, earthly and heavenly. I share one condition with the lower world, the other with God; one with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 355, footnote 2 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Oration on the Holy Lights. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3946 (In-Text, Margin)
... fear, receive the Healer into his house. Let each one of us also speak so, as long as he is still uncleansed, and is a Centurion still, commanding many in wickedness, and serving in the army of Cæsar, the World-ruler of those who are being dragged down; “I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.” But when he shall have looked upon Jesus, though he be little of stature like Zaccheus of old, and climb up on the top of the sycamore tree by mortifying his members which are upon the earth,[Colossians 3:5] and having risen above the body of humiliation, then he shall receive the Word, and it shall be said to him, This day is salvation come to this house. Then let him lay hold on the salvation, and bring forth fruit more perfectly, scattering and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 375, footnote 7 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Oration on Holy Baptism. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4183 (In-Text, Margin)
... the day of man have I not desired; for you must be a man of desires, but they must be those of the spirit. For thus you would destroy the dragon that carries the greater part of his strength upon his navel and his loins, by slaying the power that comes to him from these. Do not be surprised at my giving a more abundant honour to our uncomely parts, mortifying them and making them chaste by my speech, and standing up against the flesh. Let us give to God all our members which are upon the earth;[Colossians 3:5] let us consecrate them all; not the lobe of the liver or the kidneys with the fat, nor some part of our bodies now this now that (why should we despise the rest?); but let us bring ourselves entire, let us be reasonable holocausts, perfect ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 429, footnote 11 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
The Second Oration on Easter. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4624 (In-Text, Margin)
... pleasures.[Colossians 3:5] and copying the girdle of John, the Hermit and Forerunner and great Herald of the Truth. Another girdle I know, the soldierly and manly one, I mean, from which the Euzoni of Syria and certain Monozoni take their name. And it is in respect of this ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 20, footnote 8 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
De Spiritu Sancto. (HTML)
Objection that some were baptized unto Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon types. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 983 (In-Text, Margin)
... typically a baptism bringing about the departure of Pharaoh, in like manner as this washing causes the departure of the tyranny of the devil. The sea slew the enemy in itself: and in baptism too dies our enmity towards God. From the sea the people came out unharmed: we too, as it were, alive from the dead, step up from the water “saved” by the “grace” of Him who called us. And the cloud is a shadow of the gift of the Spirit, who cools the flame of our passions by the “mortification” of our “members.”[Colossians 3:5]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 129, footnote 17 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
Without address. On the Perfection of the Life of Solitaries. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1974 (In-Text, Margin)
... not to wait for an opportunity for his own amendment, because there is no certainty about the morrow; for many after many devices have not reached the morrow. He ought not to be beguiled by over eating, whence come dreams in the night. He ought not to be distracted by immoderate toil, nor overstep the bounds of sufficiency, as the apostle says, “Having food and raiment let us be therewith content;” unnecessary abundance gives appearance of covetousness, and covetousness is condemned as idolatry.[Colossians 3:5] A Christian ought not to be a lover of money, nor lay up treasure for unprofitable ends. He who comes to God ought to embrace poverty in all things, and to be riveted in the fear of God, according to the words, “Rivet my flesh in thy fear, for I am ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 8, page 157, footnote 3 (Image)
Basil: Letters and Select Works
The Letters. (HTML)
To the Chorepiscopi. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2197 (In-Text, Margin)
... bribes, render yourselves unfit to celebrate holy mysteries. But forgive me. I began by discrediting; and now I am threatening as though I were convinced. If, after this letter of mine, any one do anything of the kind, he will depart from the altars here and will seek a place where he is able to buy and to sell God’s gift. We and the Churches of God have no such custom. One word more, and I have done. These things come of covetousness. Now covetousness is the root of all evil and is called idolatry.[Colossians 3:5] Do not then price idols above Christ for the sake of a little money. Do not imitate Judas and once more betray for a bribe Him who was crucified for us. For alike the lands and the hands of all that make such gain shall be called Aceldama.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 10, page 31, footnote 10 (Image)
Ambrose: Select Works and Letters
Dogmatic Treatises, Ethical Works, and Sermons. (HTML)
On the Duties of the Clergy. (HTML)
Book I. (HTML)
Chapter XXXVI. One of the duties of fortitude is to keep the weak from receiving injury; another, to check the wrong motions of our own souls; a third, both to disregard humiliations, and to do what is right with an even mind. All these clearly ought to be fulfilled by all Christians, and especially by the clergy. (HTML)
... how he teaches those who enter upon their duties in the Church, that they ought to have contempt for all earthly things: “If, then, ye be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do ye act as though living in the world? Touch not, taste not, handle not, which all are to perish with the using.” And further: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, not those things which are on the earth.” And again: “Mortify, therefore, your members which are on the earth.”[Colossians 3:5] This, indeed, is meant for all the faithful. But thee, especially, my son, he urges to despise riches and to avoid profane and old wives fables—allowing nothing but this: “Exercise thyself unto godliness, for bodily exercise profiteth a little, but ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 203, footnote 3 (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 I. Of the Dress of the Monks. (HTML)
Chapter IV. Of the Tunics of the Egyptians. (HTML)
... the sleeves may suggest that they have cut off all the deeds and works of this world, and the garment of linen teach that they are dead to all earthly conversation, and that hereby they may hear the Apostle saying day by day to them: “Mortify your members which are upon the earth;” their very dress also declaring this: “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;” and again: “And I live, yet now not I but Christ liveth in me. To me indeed the world is crucified, and I to the world.”[Colossians 3:5]
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 204, 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 I. Of the Dress of the Monks. (HTML)
Chapter XI. Of the Spiritual Girdle and its Mystical Meaning. (HTML)
... is no small mystery declaring what is demanded of him. For the girding of the loins and binding them round with a dead skin signifies that he bears about the mortification of those members in which are contained the seeds of lust and lasciviousness, always knowing that the command of the gospel, which says, “Let your loins be girt about,” is applied to him by the Apostle’s interpretation; to wit, “Mortify your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence.”[Colossians 3:5] And so we find in Holy Scripture that only those were girt with the girdle in whom the seeds of carnal lust are found to be destroyed, and who sing with might and main this utterance of the blessed David: “For I am become like a bottle in the ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 250, footnote 3 (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 VII. Of the Spirit of Covetousness. (HTML)
Chapter VII. Of the source from which covetousness springs, and of the evils of which it is itself the mother. (HTML)
... dropped away at all from the hope of gain, he has no scruples about transgressing the bounds of humility, and through it all gold and the love of gain become to him his god, as the belly does to others. Wherefore the blessed Apostle, looking out on the deadly poison of this pest, not only says that it is a root of all kinds of evil, but also calls it the worship of idols, saying “And covetousness (which in Greek is called φιλαργυρία) which is the worship of idols.”[Colossians 3:5] You see then to what a downfall this madness step by step leads, so that by the voice of the Apostle it is actually declared to be the worship of idols and false gods, because passing over the image and likeness of God (which one who serves God with ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 288, footnote 2 (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 XII. Of the Spirit of Pride. (HTML)
Chapter XXVII. A description of the faults which spring from the evil of pride. (HTML)
The mind then that is hardened by such feelings, and which begins with this miserable coldness is sure to go daily from bad to worse and to conclude its life with a more hideous end: and while it takes delight in its former desires, and is overcome, as the apostle says, by impious avarice (as he says of it “and covetousness, which is idolatry, or the worship of idols,” and again “the love of money,” says he, “is the root of all evils”[Colossians 3:5]) can never admit into the heart the true and unfeigned humility of Christ, while the man boasts himself of his high birth, or is puffed up by his position in the world (which he has forsaken in body but not in mind) or is proud of his wealth which he retains to his ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 11, page 344, footnote 4 (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 V. Conference of Abbot Serapion. On the Eight Principal Faults. (HTML)
Chapter XI. Of the origin and character of each of these faults. (HTML)
... for them if they abide even as I. But if they do not contain let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn;” (3) that which is conceived in heart and mind, of which the Lord says in the gospel: “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And these three kinds the blessed Apostle tells us must be stamped out in one and the same way. “Mortify,” says he, “your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, lust, etc.”[Colossians 3:5] And again of two of them he says to the Ephesians: “Let fornication and uncleanness be not so much as named among you:” and once more: “But know this that no fornicator or unclean person, or covetous person who is an idolater hath inheritance in the ...