De peste themata sacra tria

DE PESTE.

B 4

of opinion, which you think was believed in all ages. We find it easy to demonstrate that in that time, when charity was purer and less contaminated by the opinions of philosophers, what they claim was not believed. Instead, only that which we have defended so far was received by pious hearts as something to be believed, and was proposed to us as an example to follow. The passage exists in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. It is acknowledged by all, just as scripture itself testifies, that Israel was struck by a pestilence. God gives King David the power to choose one of three punishments. He chooses the pestilence, which arrives immediately and kills 70,000 men in his kingdom, from Dan to Beersheba. Now, you sharp-witted men who insist on the air and natural causes, how could it happen that, once the opinion was accepted, such a plague arose immediately, and consumed so many thousands in such a short time? You will say the air was immediately corrupted by God. I knew you would say this, but explain to us those natural causes that arose so suddenly in the air. If you confess that God could disturb the air without them, what is the need for such circumlocution, and why wander so far from the mark? If He could do that, let us confess what scripture holds: these men were struck by the Lord through an angel without any infection of the air. You answer nothing unless you show that the air itself was infected and that natural causes were present within it. But where will you stand when your