Letter 143: On the text: "Do not practice your almsgiving before others" [Matthew 6:1].

To Peter. For those whose rule is established within the law, it follows that they will surely also prosper; and they will succeed in faring well whenever piety is made strong - that loftiest of good things and the chief of the divine commandments - which the right opinion concerning the Divine establishes, together with sincere confession, and which the fear of God and of love makes manifest, and love and fellow-feeling toward those of one's own kind; on which the whole law and the prophets hang [cf. Matthew 22:40]. And among first principles there is something supramundane, that which is preeminent and most powerful. This is lawful authority, and the care of the whole subject populace for what is to their benefit; just as, on the contrary, tyranny is a self-determining domination, pursuing only its own advantage for the one who tyrannizes. Those, therefore, who have been allotted to administer this rule, binding upon themselves piety like a crown of gold fitted together out of precious stones, and clothing themselves in justice like a purple robe, will make it their ambition to rule in God and to hold a most just sovereignty; for the most truthful sacred oracle shows this concerning them, the one which declares: "Through me kings reign, and rulers decree justice" [Proverbs 8:15]. For they know that the beginning of a good road is to do what is just.

Οἷς τὸ ἄρχειν καθέστηκεν ἔννομον, τούτοις δήπου καὶ εὖ ὑπάρξει ἀκόλουθον· εὖ δὲ πράσσειν κατορθώσεται, ἡνίκα κρατύνῆται ἡ εὐσέβεια, τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὸ ἀκρότατον, καὶ τῶν θείων προσταγμάτων κεφάλαιον, ἥν συνίστησιν ἡ ὀρθὴ περὶ τὸ θεῖον δόξα, καὶ εἰλικρινὴς ὁμολογία, φόβος τε ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐμφανίζει καὶ ἀγάπης, καὶ ἡ πρὸς τὸ ὁμόφυλον ἀγάπη τε καὶ συμπάθεια· ἐν οἷς ἅπας ὁ νόμος καὶ οἱ προφῆται κρέμανται. Τὸ καὶ ἐν ἀρχαῖς τι ὑπερκόσμιον, τὸ προῦχον καὶ κράτιστον. Ἥδε ἐστὶν ἡ ἐπιστασία ἔννομος, καὶ τοῦ παντὸς ὑπηκόου πρὸς τὸ λυσιτελὲς ἐπιμέλεια· ὥσπερ δὴ ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου, τυραννὶς ἐστι δυ-ναστεία αὐτόνομος, ἐπὶ τὸ οἰκεῖον μόνον συμφέ-ρον τῷ τυραννοῦντι μετερχομένη. Ὅσοι τοίνυν ταύτην διέπειν τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀποκεκληρῶνται, ἀναδούμενοι ὥσπερ στέφανον χρυσοῦ ἐκ λίθων τιμίων συνηρμοσμένον, τὴν εὐσέβειαν, δικαιοσύνην τε ὥσπερ ἁλουργίδα ἐνδιδυσκόμενοι, ἐν Θεῷ τε ἄρχειν, καὶ κρατεῖν δίκαιαν μάλα ἀρχὴν φιλοτιμήσονται· δείκνυσι γὰρ ἐφ’ ἑαυτοῖς τὸ ἱερὸν ἀληθέστατον λόγιον, τὸ φάσκον· «Δι’ ἐμοῦ βασιλεῖς βασιλεύουσι, καὶ δυνάσται γρά- φουσι δικαιοσύνην. » Ἴσασι γὰρ, ὅτι Ἀρχὴ ὁδοῦ ἀγαθῆς ποιεῖν δίκαια.