Слово 27. Послание к православным правителям об управлении и о том, чтобы они судили богоугодно и вместе милостиво

The sky and everything below it are decorated and illuminated: during the day by the sun, and at night by the moon and stars. The sun, appearing in the east, disperses the darkness of the night and raises all rational creation to the praise of the Creator of everything and the Lord and to the fulfillment of the necessary deeds in life; when it comes to sunset, it frees the human race from labor, providing it with the peace characteristic of the night. The earthly praiseworthy and pious kingdom is adorned and always leads to better prosperity by the God-given wisdom of the blessed king, dissolved in all truth and meekness, care for his subordinates and goodwill towards us. Such a power is loved and revered by all the neighboring peoples surrounding it for its many righteousnesses and for the justice of the Orthodox princes and boyars, who help the tsar in government and judge without bribe. With such a power, all neighboring peoples always want to be at peace, because of the due diligence and vigor of those who hold the royal scepter in it about the organization of the military unit, especially because of the unanimity and friendship between the boyars and the governor, and this is nothing stronger and more terrible for enemies. Where such agreement abounds and is diligently preserved, there, as a rule, there is divine help from above, which gives victory to all adversaries. A reliable witness of this is the divinely inspired singer and most excellent king, who, because of his great righteousness and meekness and for the sake of diligent care to always remain in obedience to God, was honored to be called and to be the father of God, and through countless victories over foreigners in strong battles, expanded and strengthened the kingdom of Israel. He says in Psalm 98: Moses and Aaron among His priests and Samuel among those who call on His name, I called upon the Lord, and He listened to them, speaking to them in the cloudy table. Then this wonderful king, teaching us the reason why the good God listened to their prayers, says: For I keep His testimony and His commandments which He gave them (Ps. 98:6-7). The testimonies and commandments of the Lord consist in nothing else but right and pious faith in Him, in perfect love combined with the fear of God, in all truth and mercy towards all those in need and in judging without compensation. Further, he teaches even more clearly what benefits come to us from love and faith in God and the strong keeping of His commandments, saying: Lord our God, You listened to them, O God, You were merciful to them, and took vengeance on all their undertakings (Ps. 99:8). What could be clearer and more useful than this teaching? Therefore, he says, You listened to them when they called on You and sought Your help, because they lived their lives according to Your commandments, shepherded Your people with all righteousness, they sincerely revered You, and they preferred nothing else from the excellent and valuable things of this life to keeping Your commandments. Therefore, he says, you stood up for them and helped them in all their undertakings, took revenge on their adversaries who armed themselves against them, and glorified and exalted them before all neighboring nations, deposing and crushing everyone who wanted to offend them. So, I rightly said above that there is nothing stronger and more terrible for adversaries than the unanimity of the boys among themselves, their truth, whereby they, for diligently keeping the commandments and commands of the Owner of all, are honored to have Him as their champion and intercessor. Therefore, in another place, the same wise king says: A king cannot be saved by much strength, and a giant will not be saved by the abundance of his strength, a horse lies for salvation, but by the abundance of his strength he will not be saved (Ps. 33:16-17), that is, not through a multitude of people on foot or a multitude of chosen horsemen and strong armor-bearers, they receive salvation, i.e. victory, kings. Where do they get help from? Let us listen with attention and accept the teaching with humility. “Behold,” he says, “the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear Him, trusting in His mercy: deliver their souls from death and feed them into famine (Ps. 32:18-19); also in another place he says: It is not in the strength of the constitution that he delights, but in the baldness of men he favors. The Lord delights in those who fear Him and in those who trust in His mercy (Ps. 146:10-11). This same divine teaching is taught to us in brief words by the God-bearing Apostle Paul, saying: All the saints, having conquered kingdoms by faith, having done righteousness, having received promises, stopping the mouths of lions, quenching the power of fire, escaping the edge of the sword, being strong from weakness, being strong in battle, putting to flight the armies of strangers ( Hebrews 11:33–34). Such were Moses and Aaron, who, not through the countless number of people who came out of Egypt, but with strong faith and hope in the Most High, drowned in the Red Sea the terrible tormentor who was pursuing them, who did not receive any help from his countless chosen horsemen and strong chariots, for he did not have divine help from above, which he lost for his insane disobedience to the Most High. This is how that wonderful king and prophet seemed, who strengthened himself not with the weapons of the strong warriors helping him, but with faith in God, and with a stone thrown from a sling, he overthrew the giant, terrible for the entire Israeli army, and cut off his head with his own sword. How will I depict the great action of faith and hope in God of the pious king Hezekiah, who begged God with prayer and warm tears, and the proud Sennacherib, king of Assyria, was finally humbled and put to shame - not through a large strong army, but with the help of an angel of God, who beat one hundred and eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib’s soldiers in one night. A similar thing happened under the wise Jewish judge Gideon, who, with only three hundred not very brave people, defeated and finally destroyed countless numbers of the Midian army, having help from above, for the sake of his hope in God and obedience to His holy commandments: for, inflamed with zeal for God, he crushed the idols of Baal, destroyed his church and cut down the grove. With such wonderful rewards and ever-memorable events, the Greatly Gifted One always glorifies those who glorify Him on earth with piety, all righteousness, generosity to the poor and intercession of widows and orphans; in the same way, like those who transgress His divine commandments, shamelessly commit all kinds of evil and dishonor Him with their evil deeds, He leaves them to fall into all sorts of sorrows and troubles, so that, having been punished by this, they would learn piety according to God, each of them would give up their vices, and they would turn to Him with all their hearts, and then He would heal them. If, even after such troubles and sorrows visited upon them, they do not want to give up their disobedience and continue to anger the Most High, then without mercy and mercy He points His terrible weapon at them, directs His bow and shoots His deadly arrows at them (Ps. 7:13-14), as it is written: He will rain a net on sinners: a fire and a bogey and a stormy spirit, part of their cup (Ps. 10:6). The Ninevites provide irrefutable proof of this. For these, having lived in all wickedness before God and committed all evil and lawlessness, when they heard the divine threat that the prophet of God Jonah preached to them, saying: Three more days, and Nineveh will be transformed, then they each fell behind their evil deeds and with three days of fasting and prayers and many tears they begged the Most High, received mercy and bounty from Him and were not drowned. But when, several years later, having trusted in the innumerable bounties of the Most High, everyone again indulged more than before in their vices and their wickedness, then God’s judgment did not slow down and poured out the cup of God’s wrath on them, drowning them with a flood from a nearby lake, and on the other side a terrible fire kindled from the oak grove, which burned them, and in a short time this glorious and populous place was completely desolate city, - and the word of the divine Scripture was fulfilled on them: Moreover, because of their flattery, you laid down evil on them; What about Bysha in desolation? suddenly disappeared, perished for her iniquity (Ps. 72:18–19). The Lord preserves all who love Him, and consumes all who sin. Who those who love Him are, the Lord Himself teaches us this, saying in the Holy Gospel: If you have My commandments and keep them, that is you who love Me. He who does not love Me will not keep My words (John 14:21, 24). Therefore, whoever does not fulfill the Savior’s commandments by deed is far removed from divine love, and having lost it, he remains alien to the visitation and help of God and becomes an easy prey for everyone. The general conclusion from all that has been said is this: there is nothing stronger and firmer for earthly kings than faith in God, love and hope - when they not only believe in Him, but also believe in His words, fulfilling His holy commandments in deed. Then they truly love Him, and therefore they themselves will be loved by Him, and will be glorified and exalted now and in the next century. Those who believe in Him and love Him have true and unfeigned trust in Him; But hope, as we have heard, will not be put to shame. And the prophet of God says: In Thee, O Lord, have I trusted, let me never be ashamed (Ps. 30:2), and let my enemies laugh at me, for all those who endure Thee will not be ashamed (Ps. 25:1-2). So I wrote to you in short words, kind Vasily, of a noble root and a noble branch. I know that you have learned a lot and are very intelligent, and you require few words to remind you of what can lead to perfection in all righteousness of a zealot and warm zealot, such as you are. Hello O Lord! You might be interested in: