ACC ~ Romans 8 v18

THE SPIRIT AS PLEDGE OF GLORY TO BE REVEALED. MONTANIST ORACLE: He who has given the cause of the gifts will also give their consequences, and for this reason the Spirit has been said to be the pledge of the glory which will be revealed. TESTIMONIA.

INCOMPARABILITY. ORIGEN: There is nothing which is worthy of comparison with the future glory. For how can what is mortal be compared to what is immortal, what is visible to what is invisible, what is temporal to what is eternal or what is perishable to what is everlasting? COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CYPRIAN: Who then does not labor in every way to arrive at such a glory as to become a friend of God, as to rejoice at once with Christ, as to receive the divine rewards after earthly torments and punishments? EXHORTATION TO MARTYRDOM, TO FORTUNATUS 13.

MEDITATE ON GLORY. CYPRIAN: It is fitting for us, meditating upon the glory of this splendor, to endure all afflictions and persecutions because, although the afflictions of the just are many, yet those who trust in God are delivered from them all. LETTER 6.2.

CONSOLED BY HOPE. AMBROSIASTER: This exhortation relates to what we have just read, in which Paul shows that the things which we might suffer at the hands of the wicked here below are small in comparison with the reward which awaits us in the next life. Therefore we ought to be prepared for every eventuality, because the rewards which are promised to us are so great so that our mind may be consoled in tribulation and grow in hope. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

CHRYSOSTOM: Whatever these sufferings may be, they belong to this present life, but the blessings to come stretch out forever. Since Paul had no way of giving a detailed description of these or of putting them before us in human language, he gives them a name which is used of things we especially desire: glory. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 14.

CHRYSOSTOM: Even if each day we suffer death, something which nature could not endure even if mind overcomes matter … what we endure is nothing compared to the good things we are destined to receive or the glory due to be revealed on our behalf. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 25.23.

NOT WORTH COMPARING. JEROME: Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed. Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine.Do you dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed hair? Christ is your head. Does the boundless solitude of the desert terrify you? In the Spirit you may walk always in paradise. Do but turn your thoughts there and you will be no more in the desert. Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He that is once washed in Christ has no need to wash again. To all your objections the apostle gives this one brief answer: “The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us.” LETTER 14.10.

THEIR OWN CONSOLATIONS. AUGUSTINE: The humble and holy servants of God who suffer doubly when temporal evils befall them, because they suffer with the wicked as well as at their hands, have their own consolations and the hope of the world to come. LETTER 111.

HIDDEN GLORY. PELAGIUS: Paul wants to commend future glory so that we may bear present afflictions more easily. Indeed, no human being could ever suffer anything equal to heavenly glory, even if that glory were comparable to this present life. For whatever a man might suffer in dying is no more that what he already deserved to suffer for his sins. But now his sins are forgiven, and in the future he will be granted eternal life, fellowship with the angels, the splendor of the sun and the other things which we have read have been promised for the saints.At the moment, though, this future glory is “hidden with Christ in God,” and “it does not yet appear what we shall be.” PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THE SAINTS HUMBLE US. BEDE: When we see such extraordinary heirs of the heavenly kingdom suffering so greatly during the time of their mortal exile, what remains for us to do under these circumstances … except to humble ourselves all the more in the sight of our benevolent Maker and Redeemer, as we become more clearly aware that we cannot follow them by imitating either their lives or their deaths? HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 2.23.

Rom