1 Chronicles 11

Farewell likewise, grand and renowned temple, our new inheritance, whose greatness is now due to the Word, which once was a Jebus and has now been made by us a Jerusalem.

You have a great intellect and an inexhaustible store of language, your diction is fluent and pure, your fluency and purity are mingled with wisdom. Your head is clear and all your senses keen. Were you to add to this wisdom and eloquence a careful study and knowledge of Scripture, I should soon see you holding our citadel against all comers; you would go up with Joab on the roof of Zion and sing on the housetops what you had learned in the secret chambers.

There is no doubt that human wills cannot resist the will of God, "who has done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and on earth" and who has even "done the things that are to come." Nor can the human will prevent him from doing what he wills, seeing that even with human wills he does what he wills, when he wills to do it.… There is the case of David, whom God with happier outcome set up over the kingdom. We read of him: "And David went on growing and increasing, and the Lord of hosts was with him." Then, shortly thereafter, it is said, "But the spirit came on Amasai, the chief among thirty, and he said, We are yours, O David, and for you, O son of Isay; peace, peace be to you, and peace to your helpers; for your God helped you." Could Amasai have opposed the will of God, instead of doing his will, since God, through his spirit, with which Amasai was clothed, wrought in his heart that he should so will and speak and act? In like fashion, a little later on, Scripture says, "And all these men of war, well appointed to fight, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel." Obviously, it was of their own will that these men made David king; the fact is clear and undeniable. Nevertheless, it was God, who effects in human hearts whatsoever he wills, who wrought this will in them. This is why Scripture first says, "And David went on growing and increasing, and the Lord of hosts was with him." The Lord God, therefore, who was with David, brought these men to make him king. And how did he bring them to this? Surely it was not by binding them with any material chains. Rather, he worked within them; he seized their hearts; he drew them on by means of their own wills, which he had himself created within them. When, therefore, God wills to set up kings on earth, he holds the wills of people more in his own power than they are in the power of people themselves. And if this is so, it is surely he, and no other, who makes admonitions salutary and effects amendment in the heart of one who is admonished, with the result that he is established in the heavenly kingdom.

In vain also do they object that what we have established from Scripture in the books of Kings and Chronicles—that when God wills the accomplishment of something which ought not to be done except by people who will it, their hearts will be inclined to will this, with God producing this inclination, who in a marvelous and ineffable way works also in us that we will—is not pertinent to the subject with which we are dealing.

The observance of Lent becomes not the curbing of old passions but an opportunity for new pleasures. Take measures in advance with as much diligence as possible to prevent these attitudes from creeping on you. Let frugality be joined to fasting. As satisfying the stomach is to be censured, so stimulants of the appetite must be eliminated. It is not that certain kinds of food are to be detested but that bodily pleasure is to be checked.… And holy King David repented of having excessively desired water.

But David, who had taken to himself another man's wife, and had been sorely scourged for his fault, desired long afterwards to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem; which when his bravest soldiers had brought to him, he refused to drink it, and poured it out as a libation to the Lord. For it was lawful for him to drink it, had he been so minded; but, because he remembered having done what was unlawful, he laudably abstained even from what was lawful. And he, who to his guilt previously feared not that the blood of dying soldiers should be shed, afterwards considered that, were he to drink the water, he would have shed the blood of living soldiers, saying, Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy?

I must tell you that I have been led to praise God the more for your work by what I have learnt from the report of my most beloved son Probinus the presbyter; namely that, your Excellency having issued a certain ordinance against the perfidy of the Jews, those to whom it related attempted to bend the rectitude of your mind by offering a sum of money; which your Excellency scorned, and, seeking to satisfy the judgment of Almighty God, preferred innocence to gold. With regard to this what was done by King David recurs to my mind, who, when the longed for water from the cistern of Bethlehem, which was wedged in by the enemy, had been brought him by obedient soldiers, said, God forbid that I should drink the blood of righteous men. And, because he poured it out and would not drink it, it is written, He offered it a libation to the Lord. If, then, water was scorned by the armed king, and turned into a sacrifice to God, we may estimate what manner of sacrifice to Almighty God has been offered by the king who for His love has scorned to receive, not water, but gold. Wherefore, most excellent son, I will confidently say that thou hast offered as a libation to the Lord the gold which thou wouldest not have in opposition to Him.

But David, who had taken to himself another man's wife, and had been sorely scourged for his fault, desired long afterwards to drink water from the cistern of Bethlehem; which when his bravest soldiers had brought to him, he refused to drink it, and poured it out as a libation to the Lord. For it was lawful for him to drink it, had he been so minded; but, because he remembered having done what was unlawful, he laudably abstained even from what was lawful. And he, who to his guilt previously feared not that the blood of dying soldiers should be shed, afterwards considered that, were he to drink the water, he would have shed the blood of living soldiers, saying, Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy?

I must tell you that I have been led to praise God the more for your work by what I have learnt from the report of my most beloved son Probinus the presbyter; namely that, your Excellency having issued a certain ordinance against the perfidy of the Jews, those to whom it related attempted to bend the rectitude of your mind by offering a sum of money; which your Excellency scorned, and, seeking to satisfy the judgment of Almighty God, preferred innocence to gold. With regard to this what was done by King David recurs to my mind, who, when the longed for water from the cistern of Bethlehem, which was wedged in by the enemy, had been brought him by obedient soldiers, said, God forbid that I should drink the blood of righteous men. And, because he poured it out and would not drink it, it is written, He offered it a libation to the Lord. If, then, water was scorned by the armed king, and turned into a sacrifice to God, we may estimate what manner of sacrifice to Almighty God has been offered by the king who for His love has scorned to receive, not water, but gold. Wherefore, most excellent son, I will confidently say that thou hast offered as a libation to the Lord the gold which thou wouldest not have in opposition to Him.