OF THE PLAGUE.

and that [God] governs man and all things, but does not send any pestilence without employing natural causes. The garment is made of wool and linen: thus physical wisdom slips, so that it judges God rashly, with human dreams too much intermingled with the divine Word, and it judges in such a way that it binds God to secondary causes, without which He does not act, which was once also the opinion of the Stoics; it also binds Him to those causes which it invents out of itself. For God can employ secondary causes which have nothing in common with the natural course, and if this happens, as it certainly does, how much does this physics harm true piety? These errors are not to be tolerated, and physics must be returned to its proper order, and our eyes must be wiped clean of the prescriptions of nature if we inquire what is the cause of such great vengeance for our crimes. Here it is necessary that the unique Word of the Lord suffices for us. Let us speak about the author.

That God sends the pestilence is evident from Scripture everywhere: Exodus 12, Deuteronomy 28, Psalm 77, 2 Samuel 24, Jeremiah 15, Ezekiel 5, 14, and in many other places. This cause, when diligently considered, nourishes the fear of God and true piety. For the Christian runs back to the One who strikes, and in the plague itself seeks help and grace from the Lord, acknowledges his sins, confesses, and attempts to amend himself through repentance. Then, if anything is contrary to Christian duty, he does not easily commit it, lest he aggravate the hand of God against himself; and what is most important in this place, he does not flee from the Lord by abandoning the station in which he knows himself to have been placed by the Lord. Those who elsewhere investigate causes