7. Behold, the Lord is angry and wrathful, and threatens, because you turn not unto Him. And you wonder or complain in this your obstinacy and contempt, if the rain comes down with unusual scarcity; and the earth falls into neglect with dusty corruption; if the barren glebe hardly brings forth a few jejune and pallid blades of grass; if the destroying hail weakens the vines; if the overwhelming whirlwind roots out the olive; if drought stanches the fountain; a pestilent breeze corrupts the air; the weakness of disease wastes away man; although all these things come as the consequence of the sins that provoke them, and God is more deeply indignant when such and so great evils avail nothing! For that these things occur either for the discipline of the obstinate or for the punishment of the evil, the same God declares in the Holy Scriptures, saying, “In vain have I smitten your children; they have not received correction.”13    Jer. ii. 30. [Compare Aug., City of God, passim.] And the prophet devoted and dedicated to God answers to these words in the same strain, and says, “Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast scourged them, but they have refused to receive correction.”14    Jer. v. 3. Lo, stripes are inflicted from God, and there is no fear of God. Lo, blows and scourgings from above are not wanting, and there is no trembling, no fear. What if even no such rebuke as that interfered in human affairs? How much greater still would be the audacity in men, if it were secure in the impunity of their crimes!

VII. Indignatur ecce Dominus et irascitur, et quod ad eum non convertamini comminatur; et tu miraris aut quereris, in hac obstinatione et contemptu vestro, si rara desuper pluvia descendat, si terra situ pulveris squaleat, si vix jejunas et pallidas herbas sterilis gleba producat, si vineam debilitet grando caedens, si oleam detruncet turbo subvertens, si fontem siccitas statuat, aerem pestilens aura corrumpat, hominem 0549B morbida valetudo consumat, cum omnia ista peccatis provocantibus veniant, et plus exacerbetur Deus quando nihil talia et tanta proficiant? Fieri enim ista vel ad disciplinam contumacium vel ad poenam malorum declarat in Scripturis sanctis idem Deus dicens: Sine causa percussi filios vestros, disciplinam non exceperunt (Hierem. II, 30). Et Propheta devotus ac dicatus Deo ad haec eadem respondet et dicit: Verberasti eos, nec doluerunt; flagellasti eos, nec voluerunt accipere disciplinam (Hier. V, 3). Ecce irrogantur divinitus plagae, et nullus Dei metus est: ecce verbera desuper et flagella non desunt, et trepidatio nulla, nulla formido est . Quid si non intercederet rebus humanis vel ista censura, quanto adhuc major in hominibus esset audacia, facinorum 0549C impunitate secura?