The Weight of Government, and Why Prosperity Is to Be Feared

We have said this much briefly to show how great the weight of government is, so that no one unequal to the sacred offices of government should dare to profane them, or out of a craving for preeminence take up a leadership that leads to ruin. That is why James lovingly holds us back, saying, “Do not become many masters, my brothers.” That is why the Mediator between God and man himself, he who surpasses the knowledge and understanding even of the spirits above and reigns in heaven from eternity, fled on earth from receiving a kingdom. For it is written, “When Jesus perceived that they would come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.” For who could have ruled over men so blamelessly as he, who would in fact have reigned over those he himself had created? But he had come in the flesh for this purpose: not only to redeem us by his suffering, but also to teach us by his way of life, offering himself as an example to those who follow him. So he would not be made king, but went of his own accord to the gallows of the cross. He fled from the glory of preeminence when it was offered, but desired the pain of a shameful death, so that his members might learn to flee from the favors of the world, to fear no terrors, to love adversity for the truth’s sake, and to shrink in fear from prosperity. [a]

For prosperity often defiles the heart through empty glory, while adversity cleanses it through sorrow. In prosperity the mind exalts itself; but in adversity, even if it had once exalted itself, it brings itself low. In prosperity a man forgets himself; but in adversity, even by force and against his will, he is called back to remember what he is. In prosperity even good things done before often come to nothing; but in adversity even faults of long standing are wiped away. For commonly in the school of adversity the heart is brought under discipline, while on suddenly reaching the highest rule it is at once changed and grows proud through being used to glory.

So Saul, who had at first fled because he thought himself unworthy, no sooner took up the government of the kingdom than he was puffed up. Wishing to be honored before the people while unwilling to be blamed in public, he cut off from himself even the man who had anointed him king. So David, who in the judgment of the one who chose him was pleasing to him in almost all his deeds, broke out in a swollen sore as soon as the weight of pressure was taken off him. In his craving for the woman the sore ran soft and loose; in the killing of the man it hardened into cruelty. And he who had once known how to spare the wicked out of pity learned afterward, without any check of hesitation, to pant even for the death of the good. For before, he had been unwilling to strike down the persecutor who had fallen into his hands; and afterward, at a cost to his weary army, he destroyed even his devoted soldier. And in truth his crime would have carried him farther away from the number of the elect, had not scourges called him back to pardon.