Obviously this is the anger of heretics, these the words of those who in vain call themselves samaritans (that is, the guardians of God’s law)^[1] despite the fact that they are greatly opposed to God and his laws inasmuch as, having been long separated from the House of David (that is, from the unity of Christ and the church) by heresies or schisms or wicked works, they are afraid to see the walls of the faith being built lest their own irreverence might be attacked and excluded; this is the ridicule of all who claim that they know God, but in their deeds they deny him,^[2] for indeed the Samaritans used to serve the Lord but without repudiating their own ancient gods. Typologically, they are imitated today by Christians but in such a way that they also consider their stomach a god^[3] and pursue greed (which the apostle clearly calls slavery to idols)^[4] and, being slaves to the remaining allurements of the world, serve created things more than the Creator, who is praised forever.^[5] And so, just like heretics, such people do not want the walls of the church to be restored in case they are forced by the growing state of piety to retreat from their own impiety; such ones are apt to call the Jews (that is, confessors of the faith)^[6] feeble and say that they will be easily overthrown by the Gentiles, since in the daily battle of souls they love sins more than obtaining the victory palm of virtue.

This is the sole refuge against all enemies of the church—namely, prayer to God and the zeal of teachers, who, meditating day and night on his law, fortify the hearts of the faithful against the attacks of the devil and his soldiers by preaching, consoling and exhorting.

These things are also always done in the spiritual edifice. For the unwearied enemy lies in waiting with his unclean companions (namely, malicious spirits and people) who constantly endeavor to impede and, insofar as they can, to assault the works of the faith and virtues whenever we are incautious, and they attempt to kill the mind of the faithful with the sword of depraved suggestion. But against these we must, according to the apostle, take up the armor of God, so that we may be able to resist on the evil day and stand perfect in all things.^[1] Now it is well said that he stationed the people behind the wall in a circuit with weapons so that, surrounded by a troop of armed men, the builders might press on in building the wall with a freer and securer hand. For the grades of the faithful are divided up: some build up the church by adorning it with good works on the inside, while others, armed with the weapons of sacred reading, keep vigilant for heretics who attack the same church. The former in religious devotion strengthen their neighbors in the truth of the faith, while the latter wage a necessary battle against the weapons of the devil or of the vices with which they struggle to assault this same faith and with pastoral solicitude repel the wolves lying in ambush from the Lord’s sheepfold.

In the spiritual edifice too, if we are always clothed with the apostolic armor,^[1] the stratagem of the devil and his angels who desire to subdue us will be foiled.

For it should be noted not only that half of the young men did the work and half were prepared to fight, but also that these same young men who were doing the work were all equipped with a sword. For so great is the ancient enemy’s craftiness, so great the fury of his malice when he fights against the church, that not only preachers of the truth but even the very people of God themselves must always keep watch against his machinations, as though standing firm in battle. For the builders gird their loins with a sword when those who take pains to persevere in good works and who take pains to govern those in their charge by means of an ordered regimen (that is, to place the living stones in the edifice of the holy city in suitable arrangement) endeavor to restrain in themselves the laxness of wanton behavior with the sharpness of God’s Word. And we should not pass over the fact that when David and Solomon were building this same city, nothing is said about armed builders or attacking adversaries; rather, the city destroyed by their wrongdoings is restored with greater labor and effort, first because the spiritual edifice, which is concerned with the salvation of souls, is such that, as soon as we are reborn in baptism through the faith and confession of the Holy Trinity, we are made, through God’s grace, his city and house without any effort of our own; but if after our ablution in the sacred font we fall back into sins through the devil’s seduction and the victorious enemy demolishes the defenses of our virtue with the fire of the vices, it is necessary for us to repair those buildings of good works that we have lost through more serious efforts of prayer, mortification, vigils, alms and a stricter life. For it is harder for us to be free of known enticements of the vices than unknown, and it takes less effort to avoid an unknown pleasure of the flesh than to reject a familiar one.