For wherever the carcass is, there will the vultures be gathered together.
All Commentaries on Matthew 24:28 Go To Matthew 24
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Lib. 83, Quaest., Q79: Here the Lord forewarns us that even wicked men shall do some miracles which the saints cannot do, yet are they not therefore to bethought to have a higher place in the sight of God. For the Egyptian magi werenot more acceptable to God than the people of Israel, because they could do what the Israelites could not; yet did Moses, by the power of God, work greater things. This gift is not bestowed on all the saints, lest the weak should beled astray by a most destructive error, supposing such powers to be higher gifts than those works of righteousness by which eternal life is secured. And though magi do the same miracles that the saints do, yet are they done with adifferent end, and through a different authority; for the one do them seeking the glory of God, the others seeking their own glory; these do them by some special compact or privilege And weought not to wonder at this when we believe not unreasonably that all that wesee happen is wrought by the agency of the inferior powers of this air.
de Trin., iii, 8: Yet are we not therefore to think that this visible material world attends the nod of the disobedient angels, but rather the power is given them of God. Nor are we to suppose that such evil angels have creative power, but by their spirituality they know the seeds of things which are bidden fromus, and these they secretly scatter by suitable adaptations of the elements, and so they give occasion both to the whole being, and the more rapid increase of substances. For so there are many men who know what sort of creatures use to be generated out of certain herbs, meats, juices and humours, bruised and mingled together in a certain fashion; save only that itis harder for men to do these things, inasmuch as they lack that subtlety of sense, and penetrativeness of body in their limbs dull and of earthly mould.
Quaest. Ev., i, 38: By the “east” and “west,” He signifies the whole world, throughout which the Church should be. In the same way as He said below, "Hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man coming in the clouds, of heaven,” so now He likens His coming to lightning, which uses to flash out of the clouds. When then the authority of the Church is set up clear and manifest throughout the whole world, He suitably warns His disciples that they should not believe schismatics and heretics. Each schism and heresy holds its own place, either occupying some important position in the earth, or ensnaring men's curiosity in obscure and remote conventicles.“Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there,” refers to some district or province of the earth; “the secret chambers,” or “the desert,” signify the obscure and lurking conventicles of heretics.
