{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1652","native_reference":{"book_number":610,"chapter_from":3,"chapter_to":3,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":15,"verse_to":15},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrose of Milan</b>: Accordingly, as Scripture says, Jacob became rich by such means and reared a very good flock for Christ. He improved it with the title of faith and a diversity of virtues, the marks of a glorious name. And so he did not consider himself poor, for he was rich with the wealth of faith.… And it is no wonder that Jacob possessed peace, for he had set up a pillar and anointed it to God, and that pillar is the church. Paul calls that pillar \"the bulwark of the truth.\" That man anoints it who pours the ointment of faith upon Christ and of compassion upon the poor.<br/><i>— On Jacob and the Blessed Life 2.7.33</i></p><p><b>Apostolic Constitutions</b>: For there is no necessity that the women should be seen by the men; but only in the laying on of hands the bishop shall anoint her head, as the priests and kings were formerly anointed, not because those which are now baptized are ordained priests, but as being Christians, or anointed, from Christ the Anointed, \"a royal priesthood, and an holy nation, the Church of God, the pillar and ground of the marriage-chamber,\" who formerly were not a people, but now are beloved and chosen, upon whom is called His new name as Isaiah the prophet witnesses, saying: \"And they shall call the people by His new name, which the Lord shall name for them.\"<br/><i>— Constitutions of the Holy Apostles Book 3</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Therefore, beloved, with assured mind and steadfast heart, let us continue to live under so lofty a Head in so glorious a body, in which we are mutually members. Thus, even if my absence were as far as the most distant lands, we should be together in him, and we should never withdraw from the unity of his body. If we lived in one house, we should certainly be said to be together; how much more are we together when we are together in one body!<br/><i>— LETTERS 142.1.1</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Honor the holy church as your mother. Love her, proclaim her the Jerusalem which is above, the holy city of God. She it is who, in this faith which you have heard, bears fruit and grows in the whole world, the church of the living God, the pillar and buttress of the truth. She tolerates the wicked in the communion of the sacraments, knowing that they are due to be separated from her at the end and withdrawing from them meanwhile in the dissimilarity of their morals.<br/><i>— SERMONS 214.11</i></p><p><b>Basil of Caesarea</b>: Every one of us, indeed, who is instructed in the Holy Scripture is the administrator of some one of those gifts which, according to the gospel, have been apportioned to us. In this great household of the church not only are there vessels of every kind—gold, silver, wooden and earthen—but also a great variety of vocational pursuits. The house of God, which is the church of the living God, has hunters, travelers, architects, builders, farmers, shepherds, athletes, soldiers.<br/><i>— HOMILY ON THE WORDS: 'GIVE HEED TO THYSELF.'6</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Jerusalem</b>: \"For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, my name is great among the nations.\" It is of this holy Catholic church that Paul writes to Timothy.… He calls the church \"the pillar and mainstay of the truth.\"<br/><i>— Catechetical Lecture 18:25</i></p><p><b>Fulgentius of Ruspe</b>: We know through the grace of God that the holy church is called a virgin, as the apostle says, \"I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ,\" but in that one virgin herself, virgins in the plural are also named. For we read, \"Virgins will be brought to the king after her.\" Nor is there any doubt that there is one church which is spread throughout the whole world which is called by the apostle \"the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth.\" Still this is one church in such a way that in it many are called churches.<br/><i>— LETTERS 14.7</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: WE have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in the Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith. For it is unlawful to assert that they preached before they possessed \"perfect knowledge,\" as some do even venture to say, boasting themselves as improvers of the apostles. For, after our Lord rose from the dead, [the apostles] were invested with power from on high when the Holy Spirit came down [upon them], were filled from all [His gifts], and had perfect knowledge: they departed to the ends of the earth, preaching the glad tidings of the good things [sent] from God to us, and proclaiming the peace of heaven to men, who indeed do all equally and individually possess the Gospel of God.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>Irenaeus</b>: Such, then, are the first principles of the Gospel: that there is one God, the Maker of this universe; He who was also announced by the prophets, and who by Moses set forth the dispensation of the law,-[principles] which proclaim the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ignore any other God or Father except Him. So firm is the ground upon which these Gospels rest, that the very heretics themselves bear witness to them, and, starting from these [documents], each one of them endeavours to establish his own peculiar doctrine. ... It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are. For, since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the \"pillar and ground\" of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh.<br/><i>— Against Heresies Book III</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"That thou mayest know,\" he says, \"how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.\" Not like that Jewish house. For it is this that maintains the faith and the preaching of the Word. For the truth is the pillar and the ground of the Church.<br/><i>— Homily on 1 Timothy 11</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: For the soul, the bride of the Word, which abides in the royal house — that is, in the Church — is taught by the Word of God, who is her Bridegroom, whatever things have been laid up and stored away within the royal hall and the king's chamber. In this house, which is the Church of the living God, she learns also the cellars of that wine which has been gathered from the holy winepresses — cellars of wine not only new but also old and sweet, which is the teaching of the law and the prophets.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON THE SONG OF SONGS, BOOK 3</i></p><p><b>Victorinus of Pettau</b>: \"And He had in His right hand seven stars.\" He said that in His right hand He had seven stars, because the Holy Spirit of sevenfold agency was given into His power by the Father. As Peter exclaimed to the Jews: \"Being at the right hand of God exalted, He hath shed forth this Spirit received from the Father, which ye both see and hear.\" Moreover, John the Baptist had also anticipated this, by saying to his disciples: \"For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father,\" says he, \"loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hands.\" Those seven stars are the seven churches, which he names in his addresses by name, old calls them to whom he wrote epistles. Not that they are themselves the only, or even the principal churches; but what he says to one, he says to all. For they are in no respect different, that on that ground any one should prefer them to the larger number of similar small ones. In the whole world Paul taught that all the churches are arranged by sevens, that they are called seven, and that the Catholic Church is one. And first of all, indeed, that he himself also might maintain the type of seven churches, he did not exceed that number. But he wrote to the Romans, to the Corinthians, to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Thessalonians, to the Philippians, to the Colossians; afterwards he wrote to individual persons, so as not to exceed the number of seven churches. And abridging in a short space his announcement, he thus says to Timothy: \"That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the Church of the living God.\" We read also that this typical number is announced by the Holy Spirit by the month of Isaiah: \"Of seven women which took hold of one man.\" The one man is Christ, not born of seed; but the seven women are seven churches, receiving His bread, and clothed with his apparel, who ask that their reproach should be taken away, only that His name should be called upon them. The bread is the Holy Spirit, which nourishes to eternal life, promised to them, that is, by faith. And His garments wherewith they desire to be clothed are the glory of immortality, of which Paul the apostle says: \"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on mortality.\" Moreover, they ask that their reproach may be taken away-that is, that they may be cleansed from their sins: for the reproach is the original sin which is taken away in baptism, and they begin to be called Christian men, which is, \"Let thy name be called upon us.\" Therefore in these seven churches, of one Catholic Church are believers, because it is one in seven by the quality of faith and election. Whether writing to them who labour in the world, and live of the frugality of their labours, and are patient, and when they see certain men in the Church wasters, and pernicious, they hear them, lest there should become dissension, he yet admonishes them by love, that in what respects their faith is deficient they should repent; or to those who dwell in cruel places among persecutors, that they should continue faithful; or to those who, under the pretext of mercy, do unlawful sins in the Church, and make them manifest to be done by others; or to those that are at ease in the Church; or to those who are negligent, and Christians only in name; or to those who are meekly instructed, that they may bravely persevere in faith; or to those who study the Scriptures, and labour to know the mysteries of their announcement, and are unwilling to do God's work that is mercy and love: to all he urges penitence, to all he declares judgment.<br/><i>— Victorinus Commentary on the Apocalypse of the Blessed John</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"23da6fd6f710d038aef4123bf43be4d141812d5da53663b5346832ae194935b4","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1652,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"32c83677e4a2a0fc8a571597ef12601b514fe6ad3b754dcaa01dcf565c407d09","translator":null,"work":null}