Ambrose of Milan : We are wayfarers in this life; many walk, but it is needful that we walk aright, for then is the Lord Jesus with us, as we read, When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned. But if a man take fire in his bosom, the fire of lust, the fire of immoderate desire he walketh not through, but burns this clothing of his soul. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour than silver and gold! Faith is sufficient for itself, and in its own possession is rich enough. And to the wise man nothing is foreign, but what is contrary to virtue; wherever he goes, he finds all things to be his own. All the world is his possession, for he uses it all as if it were his own. — Letter 2, To Constantius Caesarius of Arles : If you watch and seek, the Lord says, "Here I am," and "If you pass through fire," I am with you "and the flames shall not consume you." If you ask through prayer, you will find, and if you knock through giving to the poor, Christ opens the doors to you in order that you may enter and possess paradise. Now if you still think that anything will remain at the end of the world, consider your own end. — SERMON 158A.I Clement of Alexandria : "Even if we cross over, they shall not slip, says the Lord." We shall not slip into corruption, we who are crossing over into incorruption, because he himself will support us. For so he himself has said and so he has willed. — The Instructor Book 1 Gregory the Dialogist : And through the prophet the Lord promises saying, "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not overflow thee." For the rivers overflow those whom the active business of this world confounds with perturbation of mind. But he who is sustained in mind by the grace of the Holy Spirit passes through the waters, and yet is not overflowed by the rivers, because in the midst of crowds of peoples he so proceeds along his way as not to sink the head of his mind beneath the active business of the world. — Register of Epistles, Book 7, Epistle 4 Isaac of Nineveh : "If thou go through fire, thou shalt not be burned, and the rivers shall not flow over thee." Faith has many times worked such things before the eyes of all creation. If knowledge were given the opportunity to attempt such things, it would in no wise be persuaded. For it is by faith that men have entered into flames and bridled the burning power of the fire, walking unharmed through the midst thereof, and they have trodden upon the back of the sea as upon dry land. All these are above nature and opposed to the modes of knowledge. — ASCETICAL HOMILIES 52 Jerome : (Verse 2) When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. LXX: If you pass through water, I am with you, and rivers will not cover you. And if you pass through fire, you will not be burned: the flame will not burn you. And what he implies: he describes the attack and fury of persecutors as waters and rivers, and fire and flames, who envy the salvation of the Gentiles and do not want the gospel message to be preached. Although the Jews want the Egyptians to be understood as waters, the Babylonians as rivers, the Macedonians as fire, and the Romans as flames. — Commentary on Isaiah Origen of Alexandria : There is a way to the tree of life, so that it may come to pass: "If you pass through fire, the flame shall not burn you." What fire? "He stationed the Cherubim and the flaming sword that turns, to guard the way of the tree of life." So for this reason the blessed ones waited there, carrying out a dispensation and not being able to come where the tree of life is, where the paradise of God is, where God is husbandman, where the blessed and chosen and holy ones of God are. — HOMILIES ON 1 SAMUEL 2.9 Pachomius the Great : Become guileless, and be like the guileless sheep whose wool is sheared off without their saying a word. Do not go from one place to another saying, "I will find God here or there." God has said, I fill the earth, "I fill the heavens," and again, "If you cross the water, I am with you." — INSTRUCTIONS 1:25 Theodoret of Cyrus : Even when the compassionate God disciplines, he does not abandon mercy.… For, he says, "judge, consider, take heart." Now God strengthens those who were reduced to slavery in Babylon. And since they bore the title "the people of God," it was appropriate that God addressed the people in this way: "I have called you by your name. You are mine." He says, "You possess the name by which I have called you." — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 13:43.1