⦑A⦒ VERS. 7. *Ne magnitudo revelationum extollat me, etc.* Others, however, not wishing to give an occasion, nor to yield in any way to the devil to devise infirmities, nor even tolerating that perfect men should set much store by the health of the body (for they know that they struggle against painful things), will say: If anyone receives many great visions, unless he is pricked by human infirmity, he might think highly of himself. And how would he not have room, if the power of God, which guards our ruling faculty, often prudently manages that the one being guarded should be outside of His protection, so that human thought may find an entry? And since perfect men avert their gaze even from a stain in the mind, they think they receive a great blow, even if a Satanic angel enters only into their thought. They pray, therefore, eloquently to be cleansed also from hidden things, and to have nothing evil in their conscience. And that this is so, Paul, being struck, knew to take refuge with God, as he shows by writing: *For this troublesome Satanic angel, I besought the Lord three times that he might depart from me.* And the Lord whom I besought said to me: *My grace is sufficient for thee;* for through this you will be made certain that perfection comes not from your own powers, but from My help. But as for the statement, *I besought three times*, someone will think that it is said for "often"; for plurality begins from the number three; for three are many.
VERS. 19. *Again, do you think that we are making our defense to you?* ⦑B⦒ Do not think that we are making our defense to you; for it is not our intention to please men primarily, but God. For we provide good things before God, and secondly before men, that we may be manifest to God, persuading men rightly by a way of life and a word that is appropriate. For in Christ, speaking before God, as those who see His thought, we do and say all things. I am confident, therefore, that having genuinely read also this Epistle, you will refrain from detraction, having renounced whispering as slavish; for this is the boldness of slavish and murmuring men; but also turn away from rivalries, and the strifes and contentions arising from them; for thus will follow [the result], *You find me such as you desire.* For a teacher is lifted up and greatly exults when he abounds in listeners to whom he can speak wisdom; just as, in turn, he is humbled and cast down when his hearers must be rebuked and corrected for the things they do wickedly. ⦑C⦒ For if, while practicing fornication and uncleanness and the following wantonness, they do not repent, they have died the death of the soul; so that he who has a providential care for them grieves for them more than those who build cenotaphs for those who have departed to the philosophers. ⦑D⦒