When Jesus was entrusting Peter with his sheep, he was entrusting him with us. When he was entrusting Peter with us, he was entrusting the church with his members. So, Lord, entrust your church to your church, let your church entrust itself to you. After all, we say, Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory. I mean, what are we without you? Only Peter when he denied you three times. To show up Peter to himself, that is to show up Peter to Peter, the Lord turned his face away from him for a while—and Peter denied him. He turned his face toward him when he looked around—and he wept. Peter washed away his fault with his tears; he poured water from his eyes and baptized his conscience.

Therefore, there is no falseness in God’s promises because for the all-powerful there is no problem about doing things. And so the effects of the will are never lacking because the will itself is nothing other than power. Whatever God wills, he can do; he can do as much as he wishes.

So it is rightly said of him alone, He does whatever he pleases. And again, For you have power to act whenever you choose.^[1] So we have said that there is as much power of will there as there is will itself for the power. Since for the one to whom it is subject, when he shall will, he can, willing being nothing other than power.

But this^[1] all inspired Scripture also teaches more plainly and with more authority, so that we in our turn write boldly to you as we do, and you, if you refer to Scripture, will be able to verify what we say. For an argument when confirmed by higher authority is irresistibly proved. From the first then the divine Word firmly taught the Jewish people about the abolition of idols when it said, You shall not make for yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or in the earth beneath.^[2] But the cause of their abolition another writer declares, saying, The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the works of human hands; they have a mouth and will not speak, they have eyes and will not see, they have ears and will not hear, they have noses and will not smell, they have hands and will not handle, they have feet and will not walk. Nor has it passed over in silence the doctrine of creation; but, knowing well its beauty, lest any attending solely to this beauty should worship things as if they were gods, instead of God’s works, it teaches people firmly beforehand when it says, And do not, when you look up with your eyes and see the sun and moon and all the host of heaven, go astray and worship them, which the Lord your God has given to all nations under heaven.^[3] But he gave them, not to be their gods but that by their agency the Gentiles should know, as we have said, God the Maker of them all.

So then, let us celebrate their feasts,^[1] as indeed we are doing, with the utmost devotion, soberly cheerful, gathered in a holy assembly, thinking faithful thoughts, confidently proclaiming their sanctity. It is no small part of imitation to rejoice together in the virtues of those who are better than we are. They are great, we are little; but the Lord has blessed the little with the great. They have gone ahead of us, they tower over us like giants. If we are not capable of following them in action, let us follow in affection; if not in glory, then certainly in joy and gladness; if not in merit, then in desire; if not in suffering, then in fellow feeling; if not in excellence, then in our close relationship with them.

Because the Lord insists that our heart be cleansed, he therefore goes further and gives a command, saying, Do not collect treasure on earth, where the moth and corrosion destroy, and where thieves dig up and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor corrosion destroys, nor thieves dig up and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart also will be.^[1] Now, if a person does something with the intention of gaining earthly profit, his heart is on the earth. And how can a heart be clean while it is wallowing on the earth? On the other hand, if it is in heaven it will be clean, for whatsoever things are heavenly are clean. A thing becomes defiled if it is mixed with a baser substance, even though that other substance is not vile in its own nature; for instance, gold is debased by pure silver if it is mixed with it. So also is our mind defiled by a desire for the things of earth, although the earth itself is pure in its own class and in its own order. Let us not think that in this text the word heaven signifies the universe of heavenly bodies, for the word earth includes every kind of body, and a person ought to disregard the whole world when he is laying up treasure for himself in heaven. Therefore, the reference is to that heaven of which it is said, The heaven of heaven is the Lord’s. Moreover, since we ought to fix our treasure and our heart on that which will abide forever and not on something that will pass away, the heaven here mentioned means the spiritual firmament, for heaven and earth will pass away.

The festival of Easter does not consist in pleasant conversation at meals, or splendor of clothing or days of leisure but in the acknowledgment of God and the offering of thanksgiving and of praise to him. Now this belongs to the saints alone, who live in Christ; for it is written, The dead shall not praise you, O Lord, neither all those who go down into silence; but we who live will bless the Lord, from henceforth even forever. So it was with Hezekiah, who was delivered from death and therefore praised God, saying, Those who are in hades cannot praise you; the dead cannot bless you; but the living shall bless you, as I also do.^[1] For to praise and bless God belongs to those only who live in Christ, and by means of this they go up to the feast; for the Passover is not of the Gentiles or of those who are yet Jews in the flesh but of those who acknowledge the truth in Christ, as he declares who was sent to proclaim such a feast: Our Passover, Christ, is sacrificed.^[2]