9. And therefore with reason in these plagues that occur, there are not wanting God’s stripes and scourges; and since they are of no avail in this matter, and do not convert individuals to God by such terror of destructions, there remains after all the eternal dungeon, and the continual fire, and the everlasting punishment; nor shall the groaning of the suppliants be heard there, because here the terror of the angry God was not heard, crying by His prophet, and saying, “Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the judgment of the Lord is against the inhabitants of the earth; because there is neither mercy, nor truth, nor knowledge of God upon the earth. But cursing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, is broken out over the land, they mingle blood with blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, with every one that dwelleth therein, with the beasts of the field, with things that creep on the earth, and with the fowls of heaven; and the fishes of the sea shall languish, so that no man shall judge, no man shall rebuke.”18    Hos. iv. 1–4. God says He is wrathful and angry, because there is no acknowledgment of God in the earth, and God is neither known nor feared. The sins of lying, of lust, of fraud, of cruelty, of impiety, of anger, God rebukes and finds fault with, and no one is converted to innocency. Lo, those things are happening which were before foretold by the words of God; nor is any one admonished by the belief of things present to take thought for what is to come. Amongst those very misfortunes wherein the soul, closely bound and shut up, can scarcely breathe, there is still found opportunity for men to be evil, and in such great dangers to judge not so much of themselves as of others. You are indignant that God is angry, as if by an evil life you were deserving any good, as if all things of that kind which happen were not infinitely less and of smaller account than your sins.

IX. Merito ergo incursantibus plagis non desunt 0550B Dei flagella nec verbera: quae cum nihil istic promoveant, nec ad Deum singulos tanto cladium terrore convertant, manet postmodum carcer aeternus et jugis flamma et poena perpetua. Nec audietur illic rogantium gemitus, quia nec hic Dei indignantis terror auditus est, qui per Prophetam clamat et dicit: Audite sermonem Domini, filii Israel, quia judicium est Domini adversus incolas terrae, eo quod neque misericordia, neque veritas, neque agnitio Dei sit super terram, sed execratio, et mendacium, et caedes, et furtum, et adulterium diffusum est super terram; sanguinem sanguini supermiscent. Idcirco terra lugebit cum universis incolis suis, cum bestiis agri, cum serpentibus terrae, cum volucribus coeli, et deficient pisces maris, ut nemo judicet, nemo revincat (Ose. IV, 1, 4). Indignari 0550C se Deus dicit et irasci quod agnitio Dei non sit in terris, et Deus non agnoscitur nec timetur. Delicta mendaciorum, libidinum, fraudium, crudelitatis, impietatis, furoris Deus increpat et incusat, et ad innocentiam nemo convertitur. Fiunt ecce quae verbis 0551A Dei ante praedicta sunt, nec quisquam fide praesentium ut in futurum consulat admonetur. Inter ipsa adversa, quibus vix coactata et conclusa anima respirat, vacat malos esse et in periculis tantis non de se magis sed de altero judicare. Indignamini indignari Deum, quasi aliquid boni male vivendo mereamini, quasi non omnia ista quae accidunt minora adhuc sint et leviora peccatis vestris.