_Having, therefore, these promises, mentioned just before, that God would be a father to us, &c. let us cleanse ourselves from all filth or defilement of the flesh, and of the spirit, that is, from all kind of sins. It is not without good grounds, that St. Thomas Aquinas, and the divines in the scho... [ Continue Reading ]
_Receive us. [1] This, according to St. John Chrysostom and others, is the same as what he said before, be enlarged or dilated in heart, that is, have a love, and true charity, and a zeal for us, and for the ministers of the gospel. --- We have injured no one, &c. He perhaps hints at the ways and pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_I speak not this to your condemnation; he means not to condemn them in general, though some had been blameable. --- Great is my glorying. I have great joy in the greatest part of you. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Our flesh, that is, I myself, had no rest, because of the concern I was in about you, after I had written my last letter. (Witham) --- Combats without, fears within. Openly persecuted by the pagans, by the Jews, and by false brethren, I was tormented in my interior, by the apprehensions and fears I... [ Continue Reading ]
_God....comforted us by the coming of Titus, and with the joyful news he brought me, of the submission and repentance of the incestuous man, and of the good state you are in, of your earnest desire to see me. Now I have no reason to repent, that I wrote to you pretty sharply; though my letter troubl... [ Continue Reading ]
[BIBLIOGRAPHY] Desiderium, _Greek: epipothesin. St. John Chrysostom says, Greek: oude epithumian all epipothesin._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now I rejoice, &c. I should have been inconsolable, had my letter made you sad, without producing the salutary effect intended by it; but I now rejoice that it caused a sorrow and sadness productive of the great advantages you have reaped from it. Thus in every sentence St. Paul shews the solicitud... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the sorrow, &c. Sorrow for the loss of temporal goods, such as friends, riches, honours, &c. is productive of no good effects; but on the contrary, it ruins the constitution, exciting in the soul emotions of anger, murmuring, revenge, and brooding melancholy. It moreover betrays an inordinate a... [ Continue Reading ]
_I wrote to you not on the account, &c. That is, not only on his account, or the account of his father, who suffered the injury, (by which his father seems to have been then alive) but also to demonstrate the care and solicitude I have for you. I was also overjoyed to find that Titus was so well rec... [ Continue Reading ]
After these proofs of your charity, and the uprightness of your heart, I can reprehend and correct you, exhort and praise you, without fear of my reprehensions separating you from me, without apprehension that my recommendations will prove false, or my confidence vain; I now reckon you as persons en... [ Continue Reading ]