Chapter 5 examines how George Herbert confronts the profound limits on human capacities to create worldly security. The security dilemmas Hebert addresses derive from a tension built into the basic organizing metaphor of his theological vision, an understanding of God as a king. On the one hand, Herbert understands faithful devotion to require a perpetual payment of praise. Herbert offers his poems as a kind of fiscal payment, a mode of praise and devotion that he wishes, in turn, to correspond with divine protective care. On the other hand, Herbert’s fiscal theology must accommodate a God whose care frequently manifests as affliction and who understands worldly security as antithetical to faith. This chapter focuses on how Herbert confronts the disconnect between these distinct definitions of security and strives to reconcile God’s sovereign concern for his subjects’ eternal salvation and the need for protection and care in this world.