Pope Clement I of Rome

“Let us therefore join with those to whom grace is given by God. Let us clothe ourselves in concord, being humble and self- controlled, keeping ourselves far from all backbiting and slander, being justified by works and not by words….Why was our Father Abraham blessed? Was it not because of his deeds of justice and truth, wrought in faith?” –Letter to the Corinthians 30:3, 31:2, 32:3-4 (Written 96 A.D.)

Polycarp of Smyrna (69-155 A.D.)

“I exhort you all, therefore, to yield obedience to the word of righteousness, and to exercise all patience, such as you have seen [set] before your eyes, not only in the case of the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles. [This do] in the assurance that all these have not run (Philippians 2:16; Galatians 2:2) in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are [now] in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered.” –Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians, Ch. 9

Theophilus of Antioch
“He who gave the mouth for speech and formed the ears for hearing and made eyes for seeing will examine everything and will judge justly, granting recompense to each according to merit. To those who seek immortality by the patient exercise of good works, he will give everlasting life, joy, peace, rest, and all good things, which neither has eye seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man.” –To Autolycus 1:14 (Written 181 A.D.)

Clement of Alexandria:
“When we hear, ‘Your faith has saved you,’ we do not understand the Lord to say simply that they will be saved who have believed in whatever manner, even if works have not followed. To begin with, it was to the Jews alone that he spoke this phrase, who had lived in accord with the law and blamelessly and who had lacked only faith in the Lord” –Stromateis or Miscellanies 6:14:108:4 (Written 202 A.D.)

“The only way to grow in faith and holiness is by continually turning our mind to divine things.” (Exhortation to the Heathen, 10)

“Indeed, God conspires with willing souls.
But if they abandon their eagerness, the Spirit which is bestowed by God is also restrained. To save the unwilling is to exercise compulsion; but to save the willing belongs to Him that bestows grace.” –Who is the Rich Man Saved 21:1

Irenaeus of Lyons
“[Paul], an able wrestler, urges us on in the struggle for immortality, so that we may receive a crown and so that we may regard as a precious crown that which we acquire by our own struggle and which does not grow upon us spontaneously. . . . Those things which come to us spontaneously are not loved as much as those which are obtained by anxious care” (Against Heresies 4:37:7 [A.D. 189]).

Cyprian of Carthage
“The Lord denounces [Christian evildoers], and says, ‘Many shall say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name have cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you who work iniquity’ [Matt. 7:21–23]. There is need of righteousness, that one may deserve well of God the Judge; we must obey his precepts and warnings, that our merits may receive their reward” (The Unity of the Catholic Church 15, 1st ed. [A.D. 251]).

“You, then, who are rich and wealthy, buy for yourself from Christ gold purified in fire, for with your filth, as if burned away in the fire, you can be like pure gold, if you are cleansed by almsgiving and by works of justice. Buy yourself a white garment so that, . . . you may at last come to see God, when you have merited before God both by your works and by your manner of living” –Works and Almsgiving 14 (Written 252 A.D.)

Origen of Alexandria:
“Whoever dies in his sins, even if he profess to believe in Christ, does not truly believe in him; and even if that which exists without works be called faith, such faith is dead in itself, as we read in the epistle bearing the name of James”. –Commentaries on John 19:6 (Written 225 A.D.)

Cyril of Jerusalem:
“Being baptized, we are enlightened; enlightened, we become sons; being made sons, we are made perfect; being made perfect, we are made immortal.” (Catechetical Lectures, 19.22)

Aphrahat the Persian Sage:
“Great is the gift which he that is good has given to us. While not forcing us, and in spite of our sins he wants us to be justified. While he is in no way aided by our good works, he heals us that we may be pleasing in his sight.” –Treatises 23:48 (Written 336 A.D.)

Athanasius of Alexandria:
“For as, when heated iron turns itself into fire, it does not cease to be iron, but is changed entirely into fire, and by a kind of stretching out of itself as iron is made one with the fire, and the fire and iron so appear together that the iron is not seen for the fire, but is wholly transformed into fire; so also the God-Word, the Son of God, coming into the body, was said to be made flesh and to dwell in us.” (On the Incarnation of the Word, 54.3)

Basil the Great (330-379 A.D.)

“I would say that the exercise of piety is rather like a ladder, that ladder which once was seen by the Blessed Jacob, which extended from the earth to Heaven itself. What is necessary is that those being introduced to the virtuous life should put their feet on the first steps and from there mount ever to the next, until at last, they have ascended to such heights as are attainable by human nature.” –Homilies on the Psalms, Ps.1, no.1. (Written 370 A.D.)

Gregory of Nazianzus:
“The divine and heavenly grace is given to us, but it requires the cooperation of our will; not that it does not accomplish its own work, but because we are not willing.” (Oration 31, 28)

Gregory of Nyssa:
“Let us hasten then through the sensible to the intelligible. The way to ascend to God is to be uncreated, the path to the creator is through continual growth in the virtues.” (On the Soul and the Resurrection)

John Chrysostom:
“Let us then continually pray that we may lead a life suitable to Him who has called us to His own kingdom.” (Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, 33.1)

“For it is not to possess only, but also to keep, that is required. For many of those that possess perish in the keeping, by not knowing how to keep what they possess.” (Homilies on the First Epistle to Timothy, 6.3)

” ‘He that believes in the Son has everlasting life.’ ‘Is it enough, then, to believe in the Son,’ someone will say, ‘in order to have everlasting life?’ By no means! Listen to Christ declare this himself when he says, ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord! Lord!” shall enter into the kingdom of heaven’; and the b.asphemy against the Spirit is alone sufficient to cast him into hell. But why should I speak of a part of our teaching? For if a man believe rightly in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit, but does not live rightly, his faith will avail him nothing toward salvation” –Homilies on the Gospel of John 31:1 (Written 391 A.D.)

Caesar of Arles
“I beg you, beloved brethren, let us consider more attentively why we are Christians and bear the cross of Christ on our forehead. For we ought to know that it is not enough for us that we have received the name Christian, if we do not do Christian works. If you say a thousand times that you are a Christian and continually sign yourself with the cross of Christ, but do not give alms according to your means, and you do not want to have love and justice and chastity, the name of Christian will profit you nothing.” –Sermons 13:1-2 (Written 540 A.D.)

Lactantius
“Let every one train himself to righteousness, mold himself to self-restraint, prepare himself for the contest, equip himself for virtue . . . [and] in his uprightness acknowledge the true and only God, may cast away pleasures, by the attractions of which the lofty soul is depressed to the earth, may hold fast innocence, may be of service to as many as possible, may gain for himself incorruptible treasures by good works, that he may be able, with God for his judge, to gain for the merits of his virtue either the crown of faith, or the reward of immortality” (Epitome of the Divine Institutes 73 [A.D. 317]).

Jerome of Stridon:
“Now, when the apostle says, ‘I die daily,’ he does not mean the death by which we leave this world but that by which we overcome vices and sin.” (Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians, 3.1.10)

“He who labors for the Lord ought not to receive pay, for he ought to pray without ceasing and never to desist from the work of the fast.” (Letter 22, To Eustochium)

“It is our task, according to our different virtues, to prepare for ourselves different rewards. . . . If we were all going to be equal in heaven it would be useless for us to humble ourselves here in order to have a greater place there. . . . Why should virgins persevere? Why should widows toil? Why should married women be content? Let us all sin, and after we repent we shall be the same as the apostles are!” (Against Jovinian 2:32 [A.D. 393]).

Augustine of Hippo

“We are commanded to live righteously, and the reward is set before us of our meriting to live happily in eternity. But who is able to live righteously and do good works unless he has been justified by faith?” (Various Questions to Simplician 1:2:21 [A.D. 396]).

“What merit, then, does a man have before grace, by which he might receive grace, when our every good merit is produced in us only by grace and when God, crowning our merits, crowns nothing else but his own gifts to us?” (Letters, 194:5:19).

“The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire. What you desire, if you do not yet see, you will one day see and possess. For even the desire itself is your beginning, while the possession will be your perfection.” (Sermon 171, 11)

“Let us, therefore, not be ashamed of the testimonies of our Lord, nor of His cross. By them, the good fight has been fought down through all the ages, and still, it has not yet been conquered. Rather, it remains a constant ordeal for the martyrs and an occasion of victory for the faithful.” (Exposition on Psalm 33, 2)

“[N]othing could have been devised more likely to instruct and benefit the pious reader of sacred Scripture than that, besides describing praiseworthy characters as examples, and blameworthy characters as warnings, it should also narrate cases where good men have gone back and fallen into evil, whether they are restored to the right path or continue irreclaimable; and also where bad men have changed, and have attained to goodness, whether they persevere in it or relapse into evil; in order that the righteous may be not lifted up in the pride of security, nor the wicked hardened in despair of cure.” –Against Faustus 22:96 [A.D. 400]

“[A]lthough they were living well, [they] have not persevered therein; because they have of their own will been changed from a good to an evil life, and on that account are worthy of rebuke; and if rebuke should be of no avail to them, and they should persevere in their ruined life until death, they are also worthy of divine condemnation forever. Neither shall they excuse themselves, saying—as now they say, ‘Why are we rebuked?’—so then, ‘Why are we condemned, since indeed, that we might return from good to evil, we did not receive that perseverance by which we should abide in good?’ They shall by no means deliver themselves by this excuse from righteous condemnation.” –Admonition and Grace 11 [A.D. 426]

“But those who do not belong to the number of the predestined . . . are judged most justly according to their deserts. For either they lie under sin which they contracted originally by their generation and go forth [from this life] with that hereditary debt which was not forgiven by regeneration [baptism], or [if it was forgiven by regeneration] they have added others besides through free choice: choice, I say, free; but not freed. . . . Or they receive God’s grace, but they are temporal and do not persevere; they abandon it and are abandoned. For by free will, since they have not received the gift of perseverance, they are sent away in God’s just and hidden judgment.” –Admonition and Grace 13 [A.D. 426]

“‘He was handed over for our offenses, and he rose again for our justification.’ What does this mean, ‘for our justification’? So that he might justify us, so that he might make us just. You will be a work of God, not only because you are a man, but also because you are just. For it is better that you be just than that you are a man. If God made you a man, and you made yourself just, something you were doing would be better than what God did. But God made you without any cooperation on your part. You did not lend your consent so that God could make you. How could you have consented, when you did not exist? But he who made you without your consent does not justify you without your consent. He made you without your knowledge, but he does not justify you without your willing it.” –Sermons 169:13 [inter A.D. 391-430]

“‘But we know that God does not hear sinners; but if any man is a worshiper of God and does his will, that man God will hear.’ He still speaks as one only anointed. For God does listen to sinners too. If God did not listen to sinners, it would have been all in vain for the publican to cast down his eyes to the ground and strike his breast saying: ‘Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ And that confession merited justification, just as the blind man merited enlightenment.” –Homilies on the Gospel of John 44:13 [A.D. 416]

Prosper of Aquitaine (390-455 A.D.)

“Indeed, a man who has been justified, that is, who from impious has been made pious, since he had no antecedent good merit, receives a gift, by which gift he may also acquire merit. Thus, what was begun in him by Christ’s grace can also be augmented by the industry of his free choice, but never in the absence of God’s help, without which no one is able either to progress or to continue in doing good.” –Responses on Behalf of Augustine to the Articles of Objections Raised by his Calumniators in Gaul, 6 (Written in 431 A.D.)

“Indeed, some of these [Massilians] are so far from abandoning Pelagian paths that, when they are obliged to confess the grace of Christ, which is antecedent to any human merits, -for, were it given in view of merit, it would not be right to call it grace- they hold that the situation of every man is this: when man has no prior merits because he has no previous existence, the grace of the Creator makes him rational and gives him free choice, so that through his discernment of good and evil, he may be able to direct his own will to the knowledge of God and to obedience to His commands; and through the use of a natural faculty, by asking, by seeking, and by knocking, he is able to attain even to that grace by which we are reborn in Christ: and thus he can receive, he can find, and he can enter in, because, having made good use of a good gift of nature, he has merited, with the help of initial grace, to attain to the grace of salvation.” –Letter of Prosper of Aquitaine to Augustine of Hippo 225: 4 (Written 428 A.D.)

“Since there can be no doubt that perseverance to the end is a gift of God, -which, it is clear, that some from the very fact that they have not persevered, never had, – it is in no way a calumniation of God to say that these were not given what was given to others; rather, it is to be confessed both that He gave mercifully what He did give, and He withheld justly what He did not give, so that, although the cause of a man’s falling away originates in free choice, the cause of his standing firm is a gift from God. If falling away is done by human effort, standing firm is accomplished by means of a divine gift.” –Responses on Behalf of Augustine to the Articles of Objections Raised by his Calumniators in Gaul, 7 (Written in 431 A.D.)

Theodoret of Cyr (393-458 A.D.)

“Those whom He predestined, those also did He call; and those whom He called, those also did He justify; and those whom He justified, those also did He glorify (1). Those whose resolve He foreknew, He predestined from the beginning. Predestining them, He did also call them. Calling them, He justified them by Baptism; and justifying them, He glorified them, calling them sons and bestowing on them the grace of the Holy Spirit. But no one would say that His foreknowledge is the cause of this: for His foreknowledge does not accomplish such things as these. Rather, God, since He is God, does see from afar those things that are going to be. . .” –Interpretation of the Fourteen Epistles of Paul [On Rom. 8:30]

Cyril of Alexandria:
“Let us not grow weary in the exercise of virtue, for the contest lies before us, and it is a great one, that for incorruptibility and unending blessings.” (Commentary on the Minor Prophets, Book 3)

Fulgentius of Ruspe (467-527 A.D.)

”Study your heart in the light of the Holy Scriptures, and you will know therein who you were, who you are, and who you ought to be. If you approach the Scriptures in meekness and humility, you will really discover there both the prevenient grace by which it is possible to be inspired to a beginning (1), and the concomitant grace, by which it is possible to continue a journey on the right path (2), as well as the subsequent grace, by which one is enabled to achieve the blessedness of the heavenly kingdom.” –Letter to Senator Theodore 2235 [6, 12]

“The grace of God unto faith and the beginning of a will to do good is given us, and help is accorded the will itself, so that what good it wills, that good may be done; for God, who created man, did Himself will, by His predestination, to give to those whom He prepared, both the gift of illumination for believing and the gift of perseverance for perfecting and remaining constant, and the gift of glorification for reigning,-God, who does not bring to perfection of deed anyone whom he has not prepared beforehand in His eternal and unchangeable will. The Apostle bears witness to the reality of this predestination.” –Letter Of Fulgence And Fourteen Other African Bishops Exiled In Sardinia, to Various Of Their Brethren 2240 [17, 67]

Council of Orange II (529 A.D.)
“[G]race is preceded by no merits. A reward is due to good works, if they are performed, but grace, which is not due, precedes [good works], that they may be done” (Canons on grace 19 [A.D. 529]).

John of Damascus:
“And after baptism, the struggle against sin remains. But it becomes more difficult and the devils more vehement when we have been reborn through baptism.” (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book 4, Chapter 9)

“So that by working the divine and transfiguring love in ourselves through our works, we might make ourselves a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, and might have God indwelling and operating in us.” (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book 4, Chapter 13)

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