Letter 1082: A ruler's authority comes from God and must be exercised in justice.

To Zosimos. On the verse, "Nail my flesh from the fear of you." [Psalm 118:120 LXX, Ps 119:120] You make yourself a laughingstock (oh, what shall I call you as I take hold of your insensibility?) when you pray, "Nail my flesh from the fear of you." For this prayer belongs to those who contribute their own efforts, who fast and practice self-sufficiency and chastise the leapings of the body, and who beg that aid be sent from heaven for their ascetic discipline. But it does not belong to those who, like you, drench the body in immoderate carousing, who rouse its leapings with luxury of every kind and sort, and who hide the athletes [of self-control] beneath their fat. For you do the same thing as if, while entangling yourself with a courtesan and lusting after her, you were to pray to receive self-control. For this prayer belongs to those who fly above her nets, not to those who bow themselves beneath her snares, or who, as if from a ship into a boundless sea, hurl yourself [...] and would beg in return to be saved, you thunderstruck fool, contriving the danger for yourself, [yet praying] to be saved by a prayer. And how is that possible? For this petition belongs to those who fulfill everything that lies within their own power, and who beg that their own craft not be swamped by the storm; but you are among those who cast themselves into the open sea even before the surge. Cease, then, from your self-indulgence. For if you get the better of the belly, you will also master the things that come after the belly, and you will not make yourself a laughingstock by praying to receive the very opposite of the things you are doing.

Εἰς τὸ, «Καθήλωσον ἐκ τοῦ φόβου σου τὰς σάρκας μου.» Γέλωτα ὀφλισκάνεις (ὦ τί σε καλέσας τῆς σῆς ἀναλγησίας καθάψομαι)· εὐχόμενος· «Καθήλωσον ἐκ τοῦ φόβου σου τὰς σάρκας μου.» Τῶν μὲν γὰρ τὰ παρ’ ἑαυτῶν εἰσφερόντων, καὶ νηστευόντων καὶ τῇ αὐταρκείᾳ χρωμένων, καὶ τοῦ σώματος κολαζόντων τὰ σκιρτήματα, ἔστιν αὕτη ἡ εὐχή, ἐπικουρίαν τῇ αὐτῶν ἀσκήσει πεμφθῆναι οὐρανόθεν παρακαλούντων. Τῶν δὲ, ὥσπερ σὺ, κραιπάλῃ ἀμέτρῳ πινόντων τὸ σῶμα, καὶ τρυφῇ ποικίλῃ καὶ παντοδαπῇ τὰ σκιρτήματα αὐτῆς διεγειρόντων, καὶ τῇ εὐεξίᾳ τοὺς ἀθλητὰς ἀποκρυπτόντων, οὐκ ἔστι. Ταὐτὸν γὰρ ποιεῖς, ὡς ἂν εἰ καὶ ἑταίρᾳ συμπλεκόμενος καὶ ἐρῶν αὐτῆς, εὔξαιο σωφροσύνην λαβεῖν. Τῶν γὰρ ἀνωτέρω τῶν δικτύων ἐκείνης πετομένων ἐστὶν ἡ εὐχή· οὐ τῶν ἄρκυσιν ὑποκυπτόντων ἑαυτοὺς ταῖς αὐτῆς ἢ ὡς ἂν ἀπὸ πλοίου εἰς πέλαγος ἄπειρον σαὐτὸν. βλίπτων, ἀντιδολοίης σωθῆναι ἐμβρόντητε, σαυτῷ κα- τασκευάζων τὸν κίνδυνον, εὐχῇ σωθῆναι (38). Καὶ πῶς οἷόν τε; Τῶν γὰρ πάντα τὰ παρ' ἑαυτῶν πλη- ρούντων, καὶ παρακαλούντων μὴ βαπτισθῆναι τὴν οἰκείαν τέχνην ὑπὸ τοῦ χειμῶνος, ἐστὶν αὕτη ἡ δέη- σις· σὺ τῶν ἑαυτοῦς εἰς τὸ πέλαγος καὶ πρὸ τοῦ κλύδωνος ῥιπτούντων. Παῦσαι τοίνυν τρυφῶν, Εἰ γὰρ γαστρὸς περιέσῃ, καὶ τῶν μετὰ γαστέρα κρατήσεις, καὶ γέλωτα οὐκ ὀφλήσεις, ὡς τἀναντία ὧν διαπράττῃ λαβεῖν προσευχόμενος.