permitted, and ordained for our example. "For if He spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell unto torments," [1] although they were so noble, how much less will He omit to punish men obstinate in their transgressions, being as they are so vile and so base? And if the angels, " fortitudine et virtute majores non portant adversum se execrabile judicium," " who are greater than men in strength and power, bear not the execrable judgment against them," [2] but with great raging and impatience; how much less shall feeble and wretched men be able to endure it? Oh, how " fearful" " a thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God," [3] hands so heavy that the angels themselves cannot suffer them!
4. These three things I am to apply to myself, pondering how liberal Almighty God has been towards me, doing me innumerable benefits; and how ungrateful I have been to Him, committing innumerable sins against Him; and how I have deserved that God should punish me as He did the angels, and even much more, for their sin was but one, mine many; theirs was but a sin of thought only in matter of pride; mine both of thought, word, and deed, in matter of pride, of luxury, of wrath, and of other vices; theirs was not injurious to the blood of Jesus Christ, for it was not shed for them; mine are injurious against this blood of the Son of God, which was shed for me upon the cross. Then this being so, how just a thing were it that God should have sunk me into hell in the company of the devils, making me partaker of their pains, seeing I would needs be so of their sins!
Colloquy. — O God of vengeance, how is it that Thou hast not revenged thyself on a man so wicked as I?
