Psalms 149:8

To bind their kings in fetters. Do you wish the peoples to be set free? bind the teachers. To bind the kings. He did not call them teachers, but kings: for they reign by the miseries of those people. To bind their kings in fetters. He put it well, in fetters: lest the teachers should run about too much, lest they deceive many, but let them be bound and stand still. And their nobles in iron chains. Their nobles. You may see them saying among the heretics: This man is learned, that one works signs, this one casts out demons. The saints of the Lord, who have the two-edged swords — that is, of two edges, both of the Old and of the New Testament — bind those teachers, and shackle their feet, so that they cannot run. And their nobles in iron chains. They bind, they do not kill; they do not slay, but they bind. They fetter the hands, and lead them captive to the Church in iron chains. These chains are made only from the testimonies of the scriptures, when I join testimony to testimony. If you wish that these chains not be broken, let them not be single, but woven together from this side and that. "A threefold cord is not broken." But why is all this done?

"That they may bind their kings in fetters, and their nobles in bonds of iron" [Psalm 149:8]. "To execute upon them the judgment written" [Psalm 149:9]. The kings of the Gentiles are to be bound in fetters, "and their nobles in fetters," and that "of iron."...For these verses which we are beginning to explain are obscure. For for this purpose God willed to set down some of His verses obscurely, not that anything new should be dug out of them, but that what was already well known, might be made new by being obscurely set forth. We know that kings have been made Christians; we know that the nobles of the Gentiles have been made Christians. They are being made so at this day; they have been, they shall be; the "swords twice sharpened" are not idle in the hands of the saints. How then do we understand their being bound in fetters and chains of iron? You know, beloved and learned brethren (learned I call you, for you have been nourished in the Church, and are accustomed to hear God's Word read), that "God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish things of the world has God chosen to confound the wise, and things which are not, just as things which are, that the things which are may be brought to nought.". ..It is said by the Lord, "If you will be perfect, go sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me, and you shall have treasure in heaven." [Matthew 19:21] Many of the nobles did this, but they ceased to be nobles of the Gentiles, they chose rather to be poor in this world, noble in Christ. But many retain their former nobility, retain their royal powers, and yet are Christians. These are, as it were, "in fetters and in bonds of iron." How so? They received fetters, to keep them from going to things unlawful, the "fetters of wisdom," [Sirach 6:25] the fetters of the Word of God. Wherefore then are they bonds of iron and not bonds of gold? They are iron so long as they fear: let them love, and they shall be golden. Observe, beloved, what I say. You have heard just now the Apostle John, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment." [1 John 4:18] This is the bond of iron. And yet unless a man begin through fear to worship God, he will not attain to love. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The beginning then is bonds of iron, the end a collar of…