On the Twelve Abuses of the World

Therefore, it is necessary for those who rule to have terror, order, and love. For unless a lord is loved and feared, his order will be able to stand not at all. Therefore, through benefits and affability, let him take care that he is loved, and let him strive so that just punishments are feared, not as his own injury, but as the law of God. Therefore also, while many depend on him, he himself ought to depend on God, who established him to judge, who strengthened him as one stronger to bear the burdens of many. For a stake, if not firmly attached to someone stronger, quickly slips, and whatever hangs upon it falls; and he himself, loosened from the rigor of his own weakness, will fall to the ground with all things. So also, a prince, unless he tenaciously adheres to his Creator, will perish, and both he and all who consent to his vice. For some, by the office of ruling, approach closer; others, by the honor of the dignity imposed upon them, become worse. For Moses, having accepted the leadership of the people, used his speech more familiarly. Saul, however, his son, after he took up the scepters of the kingdom, offended God through the pride of disobedience. King Solomon, after he obtained the seat of his father David, God enriched him beyond all mortals with the gift of wisdom, as if for the government of a numerous people. Conversely, Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon, after he occupied a part of the kingdom of the house of David, turned the ten tribes of Israel, which were in the part of Samaria, to the worship of idols. By whose example it is evidently shown that some grow to greater perfection in a more sublime state, while others flow toward worse things through the arrogance of dominion. By which both is understood: that those who ascend to better things through the virtue of the soul and the help of God can do so, and those who turn to worse things err through the weakness of the mind and through negligence. Whence it does not befit a lord to be without virtue, which virtue he in no way possesses without the help of God. For he who rules many, if he does not have the fortitude of the soul, is not able to do it, because great things are accustomed to labor under great infestations or adversities. Therefore, everyone who is in charge should first seek this with all intent of the soul: that he in no way doubt the help of God in all things. For if he has begun to have the Lord as a helper in his acts, no man can hold his lordship in contempt. For there is no power except from God. For He elevates the needy from the dung heap and makes him sit with the princes of His people, and He deposes the powerful from their seat and exalts the humble, so that the whole world may become subject to God and raise up the glory of God.

The Seventh Degree of Abuse: An Inattentive Christian.

The seventh degree of abuse is an inattentive Christian who, when he received the participation of the name of Christ through faith and...