and do not call anyone father upon the earth. For one is your Master and your Father who is in heaven. For all you are brothers, to whom he commanded to pray when he said, "Our Father, etc." In vain, therefore, does he contend for a homeland on earth who professes to have a Father and a homeland in heaven, whose possessor he does not become unless he is secure from the contention of the earthly homeland.

The Eighth Degree of Abuse is

A Proud Poor Man

The eighth degree of abuse is a proud poor man, who, having nothing, exalts himself into pride, when, on the contrary, the Apostle Saul commands not to think proudly against the rich of the world. What, therefore, can be done more foolishly than for him who, through the lowest misery, as if cast down and extreme and humble on earth, ought to have walked, to raise his mind, inflated with the supercilious tumor of pride, against God? Through which vice they fell who were established on the highest summit of heaven. Why, therefore, does he wish to be proud as if he were powerful on earth, he who ought to have appeared humble before all men? But lest they have sadness concerning their poverty, let the poor attend to what they are about to receive from God. For He says: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." For by a right dispensation, the merciful Judge commits the kingdom of heaven to those from whom He took away the participation of the earthly kingdom among mortals, so that he may appear rich in the seat of heaven who cares for absolutely nothing on earth. Therefore, the poor must be careful lest, while they pass over the earthly kingdom through need and necessity, they also lose the kingdom of heaven through the imprudence of their mind. For when, by the dispensation of God, they have accepted necessary poverty, it hangs upon their own judgment whether they are poor in spirit. For the kingdoms of heaven are not promised to all poor people whatsoever, but only to those in whom the lack of riches is accompanied by the humility of their souls. For the poor man who is humble is called "poor in spirit," who, when he is seen to be needy on the outside, is never elevated in pride. Because for seeking the kingdoms of heaven, the humility of the mind is worth more than the temporal poverty of present riches. For indeed, the humble who are well able to have riches can be called poor in spirit; the proud, however, who have nothing, are without doubt deprived of the beatitude of poverty, concerning both of whom the sacred scripture speaks thus: "There is as if a rich man when he has nothing, and there is as if a poor man when in many riches he acts as if he were poor."