This is the will of God: Look at the situation of the kingdoms and empires as arranged by God, in whose hand the heart of the king lies. Every day they plan for future income, from the registration of property, taxes in kind, gifts and taxes payable in money. But never up to this time has there been procured any such income by bringing the Christians under some sales tax for the person and the sect, when that could be a tremendous source of income because of our vast numbers, known to all. We are bought with blood, we are paid for in blood, we owe no money for our head, because Christ is our head.^[1] It is not fitting that Christ should cost us money. How could martyrdoms bring glory to God if by tribute we should pay for the liberty of our sect? And so, the one who bargains to have his freedom at a price goes counter to the divine dispensation.

The phrase Thy kingdom come also refers to the same end as Thy will be done, namely, [that God’s kingdom may come] in ourselves. For, when does God not reign, in whose hand is the heart of every king? But, whatever we wish for ourselves, we direct our hope toward him, and we attribute to him what we expect from him. . . . This is the prayer of Christians; this shall bring shame to the heathens; this shall bring joy to the angels. It is for the coming of this kingdom that we are harassed now, or rather, it is for this coming that we pray.

A desire to learn and a yearning for heavenly things is suitable to a religious emperor; for thus you will truly have your heart also in the hand of God. Since then your piety desired to learn from us the faith of the catholic church, giving thanks for these things to the Lord, we counseled above all things to remind your piety of the faith confessed by the fathers at Nicea.

Entrust your soul to the hands of the Lord. Not only when it departs from the body but also when it is in the body, it is in the hands of the Lord, because you do not see it, its source or its destination. It is both in you and also with God. Therefore the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, who guides it and rules it. The heart is also filled with the spirit, because the spirit is the ruling part of the soul and the strength of the soul. I say that strength lies not in the arms but in counsel, temperance, piety and justice. If the heart of a man is in the hand of the Lord, much more is his soul.

If the heart of the king is in the hand of God, he will not be saved through power of arms but through the divine guidance. Now, not any random person is in the hand of God but one who is worthy of the name of king.

The kings of the earth are those who reign over sin; consequently, they who govern sin shall give thanks. The prophet is certainly not referring to the kings of this world, for it is written, The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord. Do you for one moment suppose that the heart of Julian the Apostate was in the hand of God? God forbid! Or of Nero or of Maximianus and Decius, the persecutors? God forbid! No, he is speaking of those who have control over sin, who, because their heart is in the hand of God, have conquered the vices and passions of their soul and thereby prevail over sin.

The heart of Julian, the persecutor, of Nero, of Decius, are their hearts in the hand of God? No, the hearts in the hand of God are those who govern their body, who bring it into subjection and compel it to servitude, lest preaching to others they themselves should be rejected.^[1] These are the kings of whom Wisdom says in Proverbs, He gives kingship to kings.^[2]

Was the heart of Julian, the persecutor, in the hand of God? The heart of Saul, was it in the hand of God? Was the heart of Manasseh in the hand of God? The heart of Ahab? Were the hearts of all the impious kings of Judah in the hand of God? Do you see that this verse does not admit of a literal interpretation? The kings, therefore, are the saints, and their hearts are in the hand of the Lord. . . . The following words of the apostle are appropriate here: But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps after preaching to others, I myself should be rejected.^[1] May our soul be in command, our body in subjection. Then Christ will come at once to make his abode with us.

Do not be double-minded or double-tongued, for a double tongue is a deadly snare. Your words shall not be dishonest or hollow but substantiated by action. Do not be greedy or threatening or hypocritical or malicious or arrogant. Do not plot against your neighbor. Do not hate anybody. Reprove some, pray for others, and still others love more than your own life.

For God sends crooked ways to the perverse.. . . Indeed, nothing makes people so stupid as does habitual evildoing. When a person is deceitful, when he is unjust, when he is churlish (and these, to be sure, are different forms of evildoing), when, without having been wronged in any way himself, he inflicts pain, when he connives at trickery—how will he not be exhibiting signs of utter stupidity?

He will not be able to merit the mercy of God who himself has not been merciful, nor will [he] gain any request from the di-vine love by his prayers who has not been humane toward the prayer of the poor.

Benefactions to the needy, financed by unjust gains, are not acceptable with God. Even one who refrains from committing injustices, and yet does not share the goods he possesses with anyone, is not deserving of praise. . . . If you will make an offering to God from the fruits of injustice and rapine, it would be better not to possess such wealth and not to make an offering.

Do you not agree that poverty, as I said, is more cruel than any beast of prey? Therefore you must aid those who are fallen under it. Incline your ear to the poor and listen to them, as it is written: For he who stops his ears that he may not hear the feeble shall also cry, and there shall be none to listen. Give so that you may receive; hear so that you may be heard; sow the little you have so that you may reap much. Besides, the pleasure of the body is short and temporary and ends in rottenness. But almsgiving and charity to the poor crown those who practice them with glory from God and lead to that incorruptible happiness which Christ bestows on those who love him.

It is better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and an angry woman. You wives, therefore, demonstrate your piety by your modesty and meekness to all outside the church, whether they are women or men, in order to their conversion and improvement in the faith. And since we have warned you and instructed you briefly, whom we do esteem our sisters, daughters and members, as being wise yourselves, persevere all your lives in a blameless course of life. Seek to know such kinds of learning whereby you may arrive at the kingdom of our Lord, and please him, and so rest for ever and ever.

Another passage of Scripture speaks of the precious treasure of wisdom and describes ruminating on wisdom as clean and not ruminating as unclean: A precious treasure rests in the mouth of a wise man; but a foolish man swallows it up. Symbols of this kind, either in words or in things, give useful and pleasant exercise to intelligent minds in the way of inquiry and comparison. But formerly people were required not only to hear [of food laws] but to practice many such things. For at that time it was necessary that, by deeds as well as by words, those things should be foreshadowed which were in after times to be revealed. After the revelation by Christ and in Christ, the community of believers is not burdened with the practice of the observances but is admonished to give heed to the prophecy. This is our reason for accounting no animals unclean, in accordance with the saying of the Lord and of the apostle, while we are not opposed to the Old Testament, where some animals are pronounced unclean.

So those who hear and out of carelessness forget, so to say swallow what they have heard, so that they no longer have a taste of it in their mouth but just bury what they hear under forgetfulness. But those who meditate on the law of the Lord day and night^[1] are chewing the cud, as it were, and enjoying the flavor of the word with a kind of palate of the heart.

The wise person assaults strong cities and demolishes the fortifications in which the ungodly trusted. Do you think when Solomon said this he wanted to teach us that the wise person seized cities and demolished fortifications built from stones? Or, rather, is he indicating that the city and the walls are the doctrines of the ungodly and the syllogisms of philosophers, with which they augment every impiety that is contrary to the divine law and that is observed among pagans or barbarians? And those things that the heretics, with attestations from the Scriptures, place as if in high mountains must also be considered to be among these cities that are both fortified and placed in the mountains. Cities such as these, therefore, are demolished by every wise person who proclaims the word of truth.

It belongs to angels never to have evil desires; it is human sometimes to have evil desires and other times not to have them; it belongs to demons always to have evil desires. The expression all the day signifies the entire life. So also, continue in the fear of the Lord all the day^[1] applies to the whole life.

When the soul does not direct itself toward higher things, it lets itself run loose uncared for in lower desires. While not directed with the vigor of lofty aims, it suffers the hunger pangs of lust, and, while neglecting to bind itself up with discipline, it scatters itself abroad in its craving after pleasures. Therefore, it is written again by the same Solomon, The idle man is given wholly to desires.

The sacrifices of the ungodly are abominable, because they are offered in wickedness. Such persons also often take from the indigent what they give to God. But the Lord shows with what strong censure he disowns them.