Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on 2 Corinthians

• 2 Corinthians 1:12

  Praise of a higher kind is bestowed upon Cato, for he says of him "The less he sought glory, the more it followed him." We say praise of a higher kind; for the glory with the desire of which the Romans burned is the judgment of men thinking well of men. And therefore virtue is better, which is content with no human judgment save that of one's own conscience. Whence the apostle says, "For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience." And in another place he says, "But let every one prove his own work, and then he shall have glory in himself, and not in another." That glory, honor, and power, therefore, which they desired for themselves, and to which the good sought to attain by good arts, should not be sought after by virtue, but virtue by them. For there is no true virtue except that which is directed towards that end in which is the highest and ultimate good of man. Wherefore even the honors which Cato sought he ought not to have sought, but the state ought to have conferred them on him unsolicited, on account of his virtues.

  City of God 5.12

• 2 Corinthians 1:19

  And when we confess that we have lied, we speak that which is true; for we say what we know, for we know that we lied. But that Word which is God, and can do more than we, cannot do this. For it "can do nothing except what it sees the Father do;" and it "speaks not of itself," but it has from the Father all that it speaks, since the Father speaks it in a special way; and the great might of that Word is that it cannot lie, because there cannot be there "yea and nay," but "yea yea, nay nay." Well, but that is not even to be called a word, which is not true.

  ON THE TRINITY 15.15

• 2 Corinthians 1:22

  I have learned from your letter, as well as from the statement of the bearer, that you ardently desire a letter from me, in the belief that it will bring you the greatest consolation. I must not refuse or delay this letter, but you will have to see what good you can draw from it. Let the faith and hope and charity, which are diffused through the hearts of the faithful by the Holy Spirit, be your consolation. We receive a little of it in this life as a pledge to make us learn how to long for its fullness. You must not think of yourself as left alone, since in the interior life you have Christ, present in your heart by faith.

  LETTER 92, To Italica

• 2 Corinthians 2:12

  And again, in his second letter to the Corinthians, the same apostle says, "When I had come to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door was opened to me in the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit, because I did not find Titus my brother, but bidding them farewell, I went into Macedonia." To whom did he declare farewell except to those who had believed, that is to say, to those in whose hearts a door was opened for him to preach the gospel? But note well what he adds: "Now thanks be to God, who always makes us triumph in Christ and manifests the aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved and in those who perish; to some indeed the odor of death to death but to others the fragrance of life to life." Behold why this most intrepid soldier, this most invincible defender of grace, gives thanks. Behold why he gives thanks—that the apostles are the good odor of Christ to God, both in those who are saved by his grace and in those who perish in virtue of his judgment.

  PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 20.41

• 2 Corinthians 2:15

  Why, then, if the law is good, is it called a "ministry of death"? Because "sin, that it might be shown to be sin, worked death for me through that which is good." Do not marvel when it is said of the preaching of the gospel, "We are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in them that are being saved and in them who perish, to the one an aroma of life to life, to the other an aroma of death to death." Now the law is called a "ministry of death" to the Jews, for whom it was written on stone, to symbolize their hardness of heart. But this does not apply to those who fulfill the law in charity. For charity is the fulfillment of the law.

  TO SIMPLICIAN—ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS 1.17

• 2 Corinthians 2:16

  Through an evil man divine providence can both punish and comfort. For the impiety of the Jews was the Jews' downfall and yet provided salvation for the Gentiles. Again, divine providence through a good man can both condemn and help, as the apostle says: "To some we are the scent of life to life, but to others we are the scent of death to death." But every tribulation is either a punishment of the impious or a testing of the just.… Further, peace and quiet from disruptive times can both profit the good and corrupt the evil.

  QUESTIONS 27

• 2 Corinthians 3:5

  Therefore it rests not in human power but on God's, that we have the "power to be made the sons of God." They receive it from him who inspires in the human heart devout thoughts, through which it possesses "faith which works through love." For acquiring and retaining this good, and for progressing perseveringly in it to the end, "We are not sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God," in whose power are our heart and our thoughts.

  GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE 8.20

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  How does the Spirit give life? By causing the letter to be fulfilled, so that it may not kill.

  EASTER SERMON 251.7

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  Let the Spirit be joined to the law, because, if you have received the law and if you lack the help of the Spirit, you do not fulfill what is of the law. You do not carry out what is commanded you.… Let the Spirit be added, let him help: that which is commanded is accomplished. If the Spirit is absent, the letter kills you.… You cannot excuse yourself on the plea of ignorance since you have received the law. Now, because you have learned what you should do, ignorance does not excuse you.… But why does the apostle say: "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life"? How does the Spirit give life? Because he causes the letter to be fulfilled so that it may not kill. The sanctified are those who fulfill the law of God according to the gift of God. The law can command; it cannot help. The Spirit is added as a helper, and the commandment of God is fulfilled with joy and delight. Certainly many observe the law from fear, but those who keep the law from fear of punishment would prefer that what they fear did not exist. On the contrary, those who observe the law through love of justice rejoice even in that respect because they do not consider it hostile to them.

  EASTER SERMON 251.7

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  For, if you take away the Spirit, how does the law avail? It makes a prevaricator. On that account the Scripture says: "The letter kills." The law orders and you do not obey.… Something is commanded, and you do not do it; something is forbidden, and you do it. Behold, "the letter kills."

  EASTER SERMON 250.3

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  Could it be possible that the law is not of God? None but an irreligious man would think that. But, because the law commands by the letter and does not help by the Spirit, whoever listens to the letter of the law in such wise as to think that it is enough for him to know what it commands or forbids, whoever trusts in the strength of his own free will to accomplish it and does not take refuge in faith in order to be assisted in his approach to the Spirit that quickens lest the letter find him guilty and kill him, that man has a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.

  LETTER 186, TO PAULINUS

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  Therefore, God commands continence, and he gives continence; he commands by the law, he gives by the Spirit; for the law without grace makes sin abound, and the letter without the spirit kills. He commands so as to make us learn how to ask the help of grace when we try to obey his commandments and in our weakness fall wearied under the law, and also to make us grateful to him who helps us if we have been able to perform any good work.

  LETTER 157, TO HILARIUS

• 2 Corinthians 3:6

  Therefore, you that fear the Lord, praise him, and that you may worship him, not as slaves but as free men, learn to love him whom you fear, and you will be able to praise what you love. The men of the Old Testament, fearing God, because of the letter which terrifies and kills and not yet possessing "the spirit which quickens," ran to the temple with sacrifices and offered up bloody victims. They were ignorant of what was foreshadowed by them, although they were a figure of the Blood to come, by which we have been redeemed.

  LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 19

• 2 Corinthians 3:13

  The truth is that the Old Testament of Mount Sinai, "producing children of slavery," now serves no purpose but to bear witness to the New. Otherwise, the words of St. Paul would not be true: "Yes, down to this very day when Moses is read, the veil covers their hearts"; but when any of them turn from the Old Testament to Christ, "the veil shall be taken away." What happens is that the deepest aspirations of those who make the change are shifted from the Old Testament to the New, whereupon they begin to look for spiritual—rather than earthly—happiness.

  City of God 17.7

• 2 Corinthians 3:13

  Doubtless, there is a veil in the Old Testament, which will be removed as soon as one comes to Christ. At his crucifixion, "the veil of the temple was torn," to signify what the apostle said about the veil of the Old Testament, "Because in Christ it is made void."10.

  LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 10

• 2 Corinthians 3:13

  It is not the Old Testament that is done away with in Christ but the concealing veil, so that it may be understood through Christ. That is, as it were, laid bare, which without Christ is hidden and obscure. The same apostle adds immediately: "When you shall turn to Christ, the veil shall be taken away." He does not say: "The law or the Old Testament will be taken away." It is not the case, therefore, that by the grace of the Lord that which was covered has been abolished as useless; rather the covering has been removed which concealed useful truth. This is what happens to those who earnestly and piously, not proudly and wickedly, seek the sense of the Scriptures. To them is carefully demonstrated the order of events, the reasons for words and deeds and the agreement of the Old Testament with the New, so that not a point remains where there is not complete harmony; and such secret truths are conveyed in figures. When they are brought to light by interpretation, they compel those who wished to condemn rather than to learn.

  THE USEFULNESS OF BELIEF 3.9

• 2 Corinthians 4:13

  Moreover, our Mediator, when revealed to us, wished the sacrament of our regeneration to be manifest. But for the just men of old it was something hidden, although they also were to be saved by the same faith which was to be revealed in its own time. For we do not dare to prefer the faithful of our own time to the friends of God by whom those prophecies were to be made, since God so announced himself as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, as to give himself that name forever. If the belief is correct that circumcision served instead of baptism in the saints of old, what shall be said of those who pleased God before this was commanded, except that they pleased him by faith, because, as it is written in Hebrews: "Without faith it is impossible to please God"? "But having the same spirit of faith," says the apostle, "as it is written: I believed, for which cause I have spoken, we also believe, for which reason we also speak." He would not have said "the same" unless this very spirit of faith was also theirs. For, just as they, when this same mystery was hidden, believed in the incarnation of Christ which was to come, so we also believe that it has come.

  LETTER 187, TO DARDANUS 34

• 2 Corinthians 4:13

  Those just men also were saved by their salutary faith in him as man and God. They, before he came in the flesh, believed that he was to come in the flesh. Our faith is the same as theirs, since they believed that this would be, while we believe that it has come to pass. Hence, the apostle Paul says: "But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written: I believed for which reason I have spoken: we also believe for which reason we also speak." If, then, those who foretold that Christ would come in the flesh had the same faith as those who have recorded his coming, these religious mysteries could vary according to the diversity of times yet all refer most harmoniously to the unity of the same faith.

  LETTER 190, TO OPTATUS

• 2 Corinthians 4:16

  The renewal of humankind, begun in the sacred bath of baptism, proceeds gradually and is accomplished more quickly in some individuals and more slowly in others. But many are in progress toward the new life if we consider the matter carefully and without prejudice. As the apostle says: "Even though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day." He says that the inner man is renewed day by day in order that he may become perfect, but you would have him begin with perfection. Would that you really did desire this! But you seek to lead the unwary astray rather than to uplift the weak.

  THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH 1.35.80

• 2 Corinthians 4:17

  The human patience which is good, praiseworthy and deserving the name of virtue is said to be that by which we endure evils with equanimity so as not to abandon, through a lack of equanimity, the good through which we arrive at the better. By their unwillingness to suffer evil, the impatient do not effect their deliverance from it; instead, they bring upon themselves the suffering of more grievous ills. But the patient, who prefer to bear wrongs without committing them rather than to commit them by not enduring them, both lessen what they suffer in patience and escape worse things by which, through impatience, they would be submerged. In yielding to evils that are brief and passing, they do not destroy the good which is great and eternal, for "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared," the apostle says, "with the glory to come that will be revealed in us." And he also says: "Our present light affliction, which is for the moment, prepares for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all measure."

  On Patience 2

• 2 Corinthians 5:1

  Should anyone say that the cause of vices and evil habits lies in the flesh because when the soul is influenced by the flesh it lives in such a manner, he cannot have sufficiently considered human nature as a whole.… But notice that the apostle who, in discussing the corruptible body, had used the words "even though our outer man is decaying," goes on, a little further, to declare: "For we know that if the earthly house in which we dwell be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made by human hands, eternal in the heavens." … On the one hand, our corruptible body may be a burden on our soul; on the other hand, the cause of this encumbrance is not in the nature and substance of the body. Therefore, aware as we are of its corruption, we do not desire to be divested of the body but rather to be clothed with its immortality. In immortal life we shall have a body, but it will no longer be a burden since it will no longer be corruptible.

  City of God 14.3

• 2 Corinthians 5:5

  However, now we see obscurely but then face to face; now we see partially but then completely. But the present ability to see in the Scriptures obscurely and partially something which, nonetheless, is in accord with Catholic faith is the work of the pledge which was received by the virgin church at her bridegroom's lowly coming. She will be wed at his final coming when he will come in glory and when she will then behold face to face, for he has given to us a pledge which is the Holy Spirit, as the apostle says.

  QUESTIONS 59.4

• 2 Corinthians 5:5

  For this period in God's plan, in which the Lord has deigned to appear in time and visibly as a man and has given to us as a pledge the Holy Spirit, by whose sevenfold working we are given life (apostolic authority having been added like the seasoning of a few fish), what else therefore does this period in God's plan effect but the possibility of attaining the prize of the heavenly calling without [our] powers failing us? "For we walk by faith and not by sight."

  QUESTIONS 61.7

• 2 Corinthians 5:6

  Man indeed brought death to himself and to the Son of Man, but the Son of Man, by dying and rising again, brought life to man.… He wished to suffer this in the sight of his enemies, that they might think him, as it were, forsaken, and that the grace of the New Testament might be entrusted to us, to make us learn to seek another happiness, which we now possess by faith, but then we shall behold it. "For while we are in the body," says the apostle, "we are absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith and not by sight." Therefore, we now live in hope, but then we shall enjoy reality.

  LETTER 140, TO HONORATUS 9

• 2 Corinthians 5:7

  Therefore, amid the shadows of this life in which "we are absent from the Lord" as long as "we walk by faith and not by sight," the Christian soul should consider itself desolate and should not cease from praying and from attending with the eye of faith to the word of the divine and sacred Scriptures.

  TO PROBA 130

• 2 Corinthians 5:10

  Christ judges all things because when he is with God he is above all.

  ON TRUE RELIGION 58

• 2 Corinthians 5:14

  Paul said: "Therefore all died; and Christ died for all, in order that they who are alive may live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again." All people, consequently, without a single exception, were dead through sin, original sin or original with personal sin superadded, either by ignorance of or conscious refusal to do what is right. And for all these dead souls one living man died—a man utterly free from sin—with the intention that those who come alive by forgiveness of their sins live no longer for themselves but for him who died for all on account of our sins and rose again for our justification.

  City of God 20.6

• 2 Corinthians 5:14

  As the apostle says, and as we have often repeated: "Since one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all in order that they who are alive may live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and rose again." The living are those for whom he who was living died in order that they might live; more plainly, they are freed from the chains of death, they for whom the one free among the dead died. Or, still more plainly: they have been freed from sin, for whom he who was never in sin died. Although he died once, he dies for each at that time when each, whatever his age, is baptized in his death; that is, the death of him who was without sin benefits each man at the time when, having been baptized in his death, he who was dead in sin shall also die to sin.

  AGAINST JULIAN 6.15.48

• 2 Corinthians 5:17

  We are then truly free when God orders our lives, that is, forms and creates us not as human beings—this he has already done—but as good people, which he is now doing by his grace, that we may indeed be new creatures in Christ Jesus. Accordingly the prayer: "Create in me a clean heart, O God.".

  Enchiridion 9.31

• 2 Corinthians 5:20

  He says, "He [Christ] who knew no sin, he [God] made to be sin for us." The God to whom we are to be reconciled has thus made him the sacrifice for sin by which we may be reconciled. He himself is therefore sin as we ourselves are righteousness—not our own but God's, not in ourselves but in him. Just as he was sin—not his own but ours, rooted not in himself but in us—so he showed forth through the likeness of sinful flesh, in which he was crucified, that since sin was not in him he could then, so to say, die to sin by dying in the flesh, which was "the likeness of sin." And since he had never lived in the old manner of sinning, he might, in his resurrection, signify the new life which is ours, which is springing to life anew from the old death in which we had been dead to sin.

  Enchiridion 13.41

• 2 Corinthians 6:10

  It could happen that some public official would say to a Christian: "Either you will stop being a Christian, or, if you persist in being one, you shall have no house or property." That will be the time when those rich men, who had decided to keep their riches in order to win merit with God by using them for good works, will choose to give them up for Christ's sake rather than Christ for their sake.… Thus they become as men "having nothing, yet possessing all things"— and everlasting life in the world to come, lest by giving up Christ for the sake of riches they be cast into everlasting death.

  LETTER 157, TO HILARIUS

• 2 Corinthians 6:14

  Now, I speak to the true Christians. If you believe, hope and love otherwise [than the pagans do], then live otherwise and gain approval for your distinctive faith, hope and charity by distinctive actions. Pay attention to the apostle when, in earnest admonition, he says: "Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers. For what has justice in common with iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?… Or what part has the believer with the unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols?"

  NEW YEAR'S DAY 198.3

• 2 Corinthians 7:8

  Moreover, even sorrow, the emotion for which, the Stoics claim, there can be found in the soul of a wise man no corresponding "attitude," is a word used in a good sense, especially in Christian writings. The apostle, for example, praises the Corinthians because they were sorrowful according to God. Of course, someone may object that the apostle congratulated the Corinthians because their sorrow led them to repentance and that such sorrow can be experienced only by those who have sinned. What he says is this: "Seeing that the same letter did for a while make you sorry, now I am glad; not because you were made sorry but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you were made sorry according to God, that you might suffer no loss at our hands. For the sorrow that is according to God produces repentance that surely tends to salvation, whereas the sorrow that is according to the world produces death. For behold this very fact that you were made sorry according to God, what earnestness it has wrought in you."

  City of God 14.8

• 2 Corinthians 7:10

  And, in another passage, he says: "The sorrow that is according to God produces repentance that tends to salvation of which one does not repent." He who is sad according to God is sad in repentance for his sins; sorrow because of one's own iniquity produces justice. First, let what you are displease you so that you may be able to be what you are not. "The sadness that is according to God produces repentance that tends to salvation of which one does not repent." He says: "repentance that tends to salvation." What sort of salvation? That of which one does not repent. What does that mean? One of which you do not repent at any time. For we have had a life of which we ought to have repented; we have had a life calculated to inspire repentance. But we cannot come to that life of which one does not repent except through repentance for an evil life. Will you, my brothers, as I had begun to say, ever find dung in a sifted mass of wheat? Nevertheless, the wheat arrives at that luster, at that fine and beautiful appearance, by means of dung; the foulness was the path to a beautiful result.

  EASTER SERMON 254.2

• 2 Corinthians 7:10

  Therefore, my brothers, as I have said before, a suitable place for dung helps to produce fruit, but an unsuitable place leads to uncleanness. Someone or other has said, I have come upon this sad person; I see the dung; I examine the place. Tell me, my friend, why are you sad? He says: I have lost my money. The place is unclean; there is no fruit. Let him hear the apostle: "The sorrow that is according to the world produces death." I have looked at still another person groaning, weeping and praying; I recognize the dung and I examine the place. Moreover, I have directed my ear to this man's prayer, and I have heard him say: "O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against you." He laments his sin; I recognize the field; I look for fruit. Thanks be to God! The dung is in a good place; it is not useless there; it produces fruit. This is truly the time of fruitful sorrow, so that we may lament the state of our mortality, the abundance of temptations, the stealthy attacks of sinners, the clash of desires, the conflicts of passions ever rebelling against good thoughts. On this account let us grieve; let us be sad because of this state of affairs.

  EASTER SERMON 254.4

• 2 Corinthians 8:9

  Listen, now, to something about riches in answer to the next inquiry in your letter. In it you wrote that some are saying a rich man who continues to live rich cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless he sells all he has and that it cannot do him any good to keep the commandments while he keeps his riches. Their arguments have overlooked our fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who departed long ago from this life. It is a fact that all these had extensive riches, as the Scripture faithfully bears witness, yet he who became poor for our sakes, although he was truly rich, foretold in a truthful promise that many would come from the east and the west and would sit down not above them nor without them but with them in the kingdom of heaven. Yes, the haughty rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day, died and was tormented in hell. Nevertheless, if he had shown mercy to the poor man covered with sores who lay at his door and was treated with scorn, he himself would have deserved mercy. And if the poor man's merit had been his poverty, not his goodness, he surely would not have been carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham who had been rich in this life. This is intended to show us that on the one hand it was not poverty in itself that was divinely honored nor that riches were condemned but that the godliness of the one and the ungodliness of the other had their own consequences.

  LETTER 157, TO HILARIUS

• 2 Corinthians 8:9

  What human being could know all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ and concealed under the poverty of his humanity? For, "being rich, he became poor for our sake that by his poverty we might become rich." When he assumed our mortality and overcame death, he manifested himself in poverty, but he promised riches though they might be deferred; he did not lose them as if they were taken from him. How great is the multitude of his sweetness which he hides from those who fear him but which he reveals to those that hope in him! For we understand only in part until that which is perfect comes to us. To make us worthy of this perfect gift, he, equal to the Father in the form of God, became like to us in the form of a servant and refashions us into the likeness of God.

  FEAST OF THE NATIVITY 194.3

• 2 Corinthians 9:6

  And since the apostle himself says: "Now this I say: he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly," you should understand that now is the time, while we are still in this life, to be swift and eager to purchase the gift of eternal life, for when the end of the world comes it will be given only to those who have bought it for themselves by faith before they were able to see it.

  LETTER 268

• 2 Corinthians 10:12

  The fundamental fallacy of these men, who prefer to walk in roundabout error than keep to the straight path of truth, is that they have nothing but their own tiny, changing, human minds to measure the divine mind, infinitely capacious and utterly immutable, a mind that can count uncountable things without passing from one to the next. Such men, to use the words of the apostle, "comparing themselves with themselves," end by understanding nothing. Of course, every time such philosophers decide to do something, they have to form a new mental resolution because their minds are mutable, and they imagine it is the same with God. Without having a notion of God, they mistake themselves for him, and instead of measuring God by God, they compare themselves to themselves.

  City of God 12.17

• 2 Corinthians 11:2

  Do you wish to know how the church is a virgin? Hear the apostle Paul; hear the friend of the Bridegroom who is zealous not for himself but for the Bridegroom: "I betrothed you to one spouse." He spoke to the church. To which church? To all that his letter could reach. "I betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear lest," he said, "as the serpent seduced Eve by his guile …" That serpent never physically defiled Eve, did he? Yet he did destroy her virginity of heart. On that account Paul said: "I fear lest … your minds may be corrupted from that chastity which is in Christ." Therefore, the church is a virgin; she is a virgin, may she be a virgin. Let her beware of the deceiver, lest he turn out to be a corrupter. The church is a virgin. Are you, perhaps, going to say to me: "If the church is a virgin, how does she bring forth children? Or, if she does not bring forth children, how did we give our names so that we might be born of her?" I answer: "She is a virgin and she also brings forth children." She imitates Mary, who gave birth to the Lord. Did not the holy Mary bring forth her Child and remain a virgin? So, too, the church both brings forth children and is a virgin. And if you would give some consideration to the matter, she brings forth Christ, because they who are baptized are his members.

  CONVERTS AND THE CREED 213.7

• 2 Corinthians 11:2

  Why does Paul address all these different people as a "chaste virgin," unless he is referring to their faith, hope and love?

  FEAST OF THE NATIVITY 188

• 2 Corinthians 11:2

  To the same church the apostle says: "For I have promised you to one spouse, that I might present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." … The church, then, like Mary, has inviolate integrity and incorrupt fecundity. What Mary merited physically, the church has guarded spiritually, with the exception that Mary brought forth one Child, while the church has many children destined to be gathered into one body by One.

  FEAST OF THE NATIVITY 195.2

• 2 Corinthians 11:14

  For so great is the influence of probity and chastity, that all men, or almost all men, are moved by the praise of these virtues; nor is any man so depraved by vice, but he hath some feeling of honor left in him. So that, unless the devil sometimes transformed himself, as Scripture says, into an angel of light, he could not compass his deceitful purpose. Accordingly, in public, a bold impurity fills the ear of the people with noisy clamor; in private, a feigned chastity speaks in scarce audible whispers to a few: an open stage is provided for shameful things, but on the praiseworthy the curtain falls: grace hides, disgrace flaunts: a wicked deed draws an overflowing house, a virtuous speech finds scarce a hearer, as though purity were to be blushed at, impurity boasted of. Where else can such confusion reign, but in devils' temples? Where, but in the haunts of deceit?

  City of God 2.26

• 2 Corinthians 11:14

  These illusions are apparitions of that spirit who seeks to ensnare unhappy souls in the deceptive rites of a multitude of false gods and to turn them aside from the true worship of the true God, by whom alone they can be purified and healed.

  City of God 10.10

• 2 Corinthians 11:14

  Satan sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light in order to test those who need testing or to deceive those who deserve deception. Nothing but the great mercy of God can save a man from mistaking bad demons for good angels and false friends for true ones and from suffering the full damages of this diabolical deception which is all the more deadly in that it is wily beyond words.

  City of God 19.9

• 2 Corinthians 11:14

  As for the power of darkness, what is it but the power of the devil and his angels, who, after being angels of light, did not use their free will to stand in the truth but by falling from it became darkness? I am not teaching you this; I am advising you to call to mind what you know. So, the human race became subject to this power of darkness by the fall of the first man who was induced by that power to commit sin, and in him we have all fallen.

  LETTER 217, TO VITALIS

• 2 Corinthians 11:26

  What great complaints the apostle Paul makes of false brothers. Yet he was not defiled by their physical companionship, because he was set apart from them by this distinction: purity of heart.

  LETTER 108, TO MACROBIUS

• 2 Corinthians 11:26

  There are, therefore, some who hold the honourable office of shepherds in order that they may provide for the flock of Christ; others occupy that position that they may enjoy the temporal honours and secular advantages connected with the office. It must needs happen that these two kinds of pastors, some dying, others succeeding them, should continue in the Catholic Church even to the end of time, and the judgment of the Lord. If, then, in the times of the apostles there were men such that Paul, grieved by their conduct, enumerates among his trials, "perils among false brethren," and yet he did not haughtily cast them out, but patiently bore with them, how much more must such arise in our times, since the Lord most plainly says concerning this age which is drawing to a close, "that because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold." The word which follows, however, ought to console and exhort us, for He adds, "He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved."

  Letter 208, To Felicia

• 2 Corinthians 11:29

  You do not require me to teach you in what sense the apostle says, "To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews," and other such things in the same passage, which are to be ascribed to the compassion of pitying love, not the artifices of intentional deceit. For he that ministers to the sick becomes as if he were sick himself; not, indeed, falsely pretending to be under the fever, but considering, with the mind of one truly sympathizing, what he would wish done for himself if he were in the sick man's place.

  Letter 40, To Jerome

• 2 Corinthians 11:33

  And the apostle Paul, when he was let down from the window in a basket so that his enemy might not capture him and so escaped from his hands, did he deprive the church, which was there, of a necessary ministry, and was that duty not discharged by other brothers appointed for that purpose? The apostle so acted in deference to their wishes that he might save himself for the church, since he was the only one whom the persecutor was seeking. Therefore, let the servants of Christ, the ministers of his word and of his sacrament, do what he has commanded or permitted. Let them by all means flee from city to city when any one of them is personally sought out by persecutors, so long as the church is not abandoned by others who are not thus pursued and who may furnish nourishment to their fellow servants, knowing that otherwise these could not live. But when the danger is common to all, that is, to bishops, clerics and laity, those who depend upon others are not to be forsaken by those on whom they depend. Therefore, either all should move to places of refuge, or those who have to stay should not be abandoned by those who minister to their spiritual needs; thus all may equally live and suffer whatever the Master of the household wishes them to endure.

  LETTER 228, To Honoratus

• 2 Corinthians 12:4

  But, even if the angels, whose nature is simple and spiritual, are said to have tongues with which they sing praises to their Lord and Creator and give him unceasing thanks, much more must the spiritualized bodies of men do so after the resurrection. For all the members of their glorified flesh will have tongues in their mouths, and they will give voice to their speaking tongues, and thus they will utter divine praises, the outpouring in words of their love and of the joys that fill even their senses. Doubtless the Lord will add this to the grace and glory of his saints in the time of his kingdom, that the more perfectly they attain to this blessed condition of body by a happy transformation, the more fully will they sing with tongue and voice. Being established in their spiritual bodies, they may speak, perchance, not with the tongues of men but with those of angels, such as the apostle heard in paradise.

• 2 Corinthians 12:7

  Not everyone who spares is a friend, nor is everyone who strikes an enemy.… Love mingled with severity is better than deceit with indulgence. It is more profitable for bread to be taken away from the hungry, if he neglects right living because he is sure of his food, than for bread to be broken to the hungry, to lead him astray into compliance with wrongdoing. The one who confines the madman, as well as the one who rouses the lethargic, is troublesome to both but loves both. Who could love us more than God does? Yet he continually teaches us sweetly as well as frightens us for our good. Often adding the most stinging medicine of trouble to the gentle remedies with which he comforts us, he tries the patriarchs, even good and devout ones, by famine; he chastises a stubborn people with heavier punishments; he does not take away from the apostle the sting of the flesh, though asked three times, so as to perfect strength in weakness.

  LETTER 93, To Vincent

• 2 Corinthians 12:7

  To this ignorance the apostle showed that even he himself was not a stranger, when, lest he should be exalted above measure by the greatness of the revelations, there was given unto him a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him; for which thing, not knowing surely what he ought to pray for, he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him. At length he received the answer of God, declaring why that which so great a man prayed for was denied, and why it was expedient that it should not be done: "My grace is sufficient for thee; my strength is made perfect in weakness." Accordingly, we know not what to pray for as we ought in regard to tribulations, which may do us good or harm; and yet, because they are hard and painful, and against the natural feelings of our weak nature, we pray, with a desire which is common to mankind, that they may be removed from us. But we ought to exercise such submission to the will of the Lord our God, that if He does not remove those vexations, we do not suppose ourselves to be neglected by Him, but rather, in patient endurance of evil, hope to be made partakers of greater good, for so His strength is perfected in our weakness. God has sometimes in anger granted the request of impatient petitioners, as in mercy He denied it to the apostle.

  Letter 130, To Proba

• 2 Corinthians 12:7

  "And so," they ask, "is the devil good because he is useful?" On the contrary, he is evil insofar as he is the devil, but God who is good and almighty draws many just and good things out of the devil's malice. For the devil has to his credit only his will by which he tries to do evil, not the providence of God that draws good out of him. .

• 2 Corinthians 12:9

  The more one easily conquers, the less one needs combat. But who would fight within himself if there were no opposition from self? And why is there opposition from self if nothing remains in us to be healed and cured? Therefore, the sole cause of our fighting is weakness in ourselves. Again, weakness cautions against pride. Truly, that strength and virtue by which one is not proud in this life where he could be proud is made perfect in weakness.

  AGAINST JULIAN 4.2.11