On the Morals of the Catholic Church.
Chapter 1.—How the Pretensions of the Manichæans are to Be Refuted. Two Manichæan Falsehoods.
Chapter 2.—He Begins with Arguments, in Compliance with the Mistaken Method of the Manichæans.
Chapter 5.—Man’s Chief Good is Not the Chief Good of the Body Only, But the Chief Good of the Soul.
Chapter 8.—God is the Chief Good, Whom We are to Seek After with Supreme Affection.
Chapter 10.—What the Church Teaches About God. The Two Gods of the Manichæans.
Chapter 12.—We are United to God by Love, in Subjection to Him.
Chapter 13.—We are Joined Inseparably to God by Christ and His Spirit.
Chapter 14.—We Cleave to the Trinity, Our Chief Good, by Love.
Chapter 15.—The Christian Definition of the Four Virtues.
Chapter 16.—Harmony of the Old and New Testaments.
Chapter 17.—Appeal to the Manichæans, Calling on Them to Repent.
Chapter 19.—Description of the Duties of Temperance, According to the Sacred Scriptures.
Chapter 20.—We are Required to Despise All Sensible Things, and to Love God Alone.
Chapter 21.—Popular Renown and Inquisitiveness are Condemned in the Sacred Scriptures.
Chapter 22.—Fortitude Comes from the Love of God.
Chapter 23.—Scripture Precepts and Examples of Fortitude.
Chapter 24.—Of Justice and Prudence.
Chapter 26.—Love of Ourselves and of Our Neighbor.
Chapter 27.—On Doing Good to the Body of Our Neighbor.
Chapter 29.—Of the Authority of the Scriptures.
Chapter 30.—The Church Apostrophised as Teacher of All Wisdom. Doctrine of the Catholic Church.
Chapter 31.—The Life of the Anachoretes and Cœnobites Set Against the Continence of the Manichæans.
Chapter 32.—Praise of the Clergy.
Chapter 33.—Another Kind of Men Living Together in Cities. Fasts of Three Days.
Chapter 35.—Marriage and Property Allowed to the Baptized by the Apostles.
Chapter 14.—We Cleave to the Trinity, Our Chief Good, by Love.
24. We ought then to love God, the Trinity in unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; for this must be said to be God Himself, for it is said of God, truly and in the most exalted sense, "Of whom are all things, by whom are all things, in whom are all things." Those are Paul’s words. And what does he add? "To Him be glory."18 Rom. xi. 36. All this is exactly true. He does not say, To them; for God is one. And what is meant by, To Him be glory, but to Him be chief and perfect and widespread praise? For as the praise improves and extends, so the love and affection increases in fervor. And when this is the case, mankind cannot but advance with sure and firm step to a life of perfection and bliss. This, I suppose, is all we wish to find when we speak of the chief good of man, to which all must be referred in life and conduct. For the good plainly exists; and we have shown by reasoning, as far as we were able, and by the divine authority which goes beyond our reasoning, that it is nothing else but God Himself. For how can any thing be man’s chief good but that in cleaving to which he is blessed? Now this is nothing but God, to whom we can cleave only by affection, desire, and love.