1. WHEN we lately pointed out, taking our theme from the epistle of the Apostle Paul, that every wise man is free, we seemed to have fallen into philosophical discussion. But afterwards, in reading the epistle of the Apostle Peter, I perceived that every wise man is also rich: and this he says without distinction of sex, for he writes that all a woman’s ornaments consist in a virtuous life, not in costly jewels, _Whose adorning_, he says, _is not that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel, but the hidden man of the heart_. 2. Here then are two things, both that there is a man within the man, and that he is rich who seeks not for himself the enjoyment of any riches. And he has well said, _the man of the heart_, in that the whole man of wisdom is hidden, as is wisdom itself, which is not seen but understood. No one before Peter used such an expression as, _the man of the heart_; for the outward man consists of many members, but the inward man of the heart is entirely full of wisdom, full of grace, full of beauty. Sidenote: 1 S. Pet. iii. 4. 3. _In that_, he says, _which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price_. And he is truly rich, who can appear rich in the sight of God, in whose sight the earth is small, the world itself is narrow, but God considers him only to be rich who is rich for eternity, who lays up the fruit not of riches, but of virtues. And who is rich before God but that meek and quiet spirit which is never corrupted? Does not he appear to you to be rich, who possesses peace of mind and the tranquillity of rest? who desires nothing, is not tossed by the storms of lust, despises not old things, seeks not new, so as by his constant desire to become poor in the midst of riches? Sidenote: Phil. iv. 7. Sidenote: Prov. xxviii. 10. 4. That peace is truly rich, which _passeth all understanding_. Peace is rich, modesty is rich, faith is rich, for _to the faithful the whole world is a possession_. Simplicity is rich, for there are also the riches of simplicity; for she scrutinizes nothing, has no mean, no suspicious, no deceitful thoughts, but pours herself forth with pure affection. Sidenote: Job v. 17–24. Sidenote: Gen. xxvii. 37. Sidenote: Job v. 26.