7 Arrogance is hateful to the Lord and to mortals, and injustice is outrageous to both. 8 Sovereignty passes from nation to nation on account of injustice and insolence and wealth. Nothing is more wicked than one who loves money, for such a person puts his own soul up for sale. 9 How can dust and ashes be proud? Even in life the human body decays. 10 A long illness baffles the physician; the king of today will die tomorrow. 11 For when one is dead he inherits maggots and vermin and worms.

I beseech and entreat you not to think it enough to have invaded the Church, but that you also withdraw hence, having taken somewhat, some medicine, for the curing of your own maladies: and, if not from us, at any rate from the Scriptures, you have the remedies suitable for each. For instance, is any passionate? Let him attend to the Scripture-readings, and he will of a surety find such either in history or exhortation. In exhortation, when it is said, The sway of his fury is his destruction; and, A passionate man is not seemly; and such like: and again, A man full of words shall not prosper; and Christ again, He that is angry with his brother without a cause; and again the Prophet, Be angry, and sin not; and, Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce. And in histories, as when you hear of Pharaoh filled with much wrath, and the Assyrian. Again, is any one taken captive by love of money? Let him hear, that There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man: for this man sets even his own soul for sale; and how Christ says, You cannot serve God and mammon; and the Apostle, that the love of money is a root of all evils; and the Prophet, If riches flow in, set not your heart upon them; and many other like sayings. And from the histories you hear of Gehazi, Judas, the chief scribes, and that gifts blind the eyes of the wise. Is another proud? Let him hear that God resists the proud; and, Pride is the beginning of sin and, Every one that has a high heart, is impure before the Lord. And in the histories, the devil, and all the rest. In a word, since it is impossible to recount all, let each choose out from the Divine Scriptures the remedies for his own hurts.