Many daughters have done virtuously, but you excel them all.
Read Chapter 31
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
“Many daughters have done mightily, but you have surpassed and outdone them all.” You, he says, have surpassed them all, you have outdone them all. So who are these other daughters who have done mightily, whom this one has surpassed, and whom this one has outdone? And again, how have they done mightily, and in what way has this one surpassed them? There are, you see, bad daughters, namely, heresies. Why are they daughters? Because they too were born of this woman. But bad daughters, daughters not in the family likeness of their behavior but in the likeness of their sacraments. They too have our sacraments, they have our Scriptures, they have our Amen and Alleluia, most of them have our creed, many of them have our baptism. That’s why they are daughters. But would you like to know what is said to this lady somewhere else, in the Song of Songs? “Like a lily in the midst of thorns, so is my darling in the midst of the daughters.”
“Many women have gathered together riches; you have excelled them all.” … Heresies are generated from Christian seed; they are thorns because they have been nourished outside of God’s paradise, that is, outside of the catholic church. This is proved not by any conjecture of my own making but by the authority of divine Scripture, when Solomon said, “As a lily among thorns, so is my beloved among women.” .
