Quia crucior in hac flamma, Because I am tormented in this flame.
Gods chastisements are like Lightning, which kill one, but fright many; and the vengeance which God taketh of one sinner, is an occasion giuen to the Iust, to wash their hands in his bloud. According to that of Dauid, Cum viderit vindi∣ctam, manus suas lauabit in sanguine peccatoris. And Saint Gregorie expoundeth it thus, That the Iust doth wash his hands in the bloud of a Sinner, when by ano∣ther mans punishment he learnes to amend his owne life. There is nothing doth more terrifie a Theefes heart, than the gallowes and rope wherewith his fellow was hanged: Funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me, & Legem tuam non sum oblitus; when I saw another strangled,* 1.1 those cords which choked him sate likewise close to my necke; but giuing thee thankes, ô Lord, that thou hadst kept mee from comming to so bad an end, I did resolue with my selfe, that I would not forget thy Law. And therefore God would haue vs to lay vp in an euerlasting remem∣brance, as it were, his seuerest and sharpest punishments. Desiderium Impij m••ni∣mentum est pessimorum; so saith Salomon. To this end the Scripture recounteth, that the earth swallowed vp Korah, Dathan, & Abiram, & the rest of those rebelli∣ous schismaticks, wrapping them in flames & smoke; & the Censers remaining in the midst of the fire, Moses commanded that they should be taken out, & broad plates made of them for a couering of the Alter, Vt haberent postea filij Israel, qui∣bus commonerentur,* 1.2 That they might serue as a memoriall and warning to the children of Israell: As false weights doe, that are nayled vp in the Market place; grounds that are ploughed with salt, and the heads of malefactors in the highway. Be∣cause the people of God had intangled themselues with the Moabites, there pe∣rished of them twentie foure thousand; but God commanded that the Princes should be hanged against the Sunne. Saint Augustine saith, That this was done for an admonishment to the people; The Seuentie read, Ostende eos Domine, con∣tra Solem; That God and all the world may see them, and that they may remaine as a perpetuall example to posteritie. The Historie of the Machabees reports vnto vs,* 1.3 That Nicanor vttered a most beastly blasphemie, saying, That his power was as great as that of God; but the diuine justice punishing this his insolencie, his head was set vp on the highest tower in the citie, & his right hand, which he had held vp so proudly, they nayled it against the doore of the Temple, and cau∣sed his tongue to be cut in little pieces, and to be cast vnto the Fowles. Pharaohs and his Peoples death,* 1.4 the booke of Wisedome saith, That it was conuenient that the people of Israell should see it and consider it; Vt ostenderet quemadmodum ini∣mici eorum exterminabantur, That the people might trie a meruailous passage, and that these might find a strange death. Theodoret brings a comparison of him that makes an Anotomie, or dissection vpon a dead bodie, for the instruction of those that are liuing. And Zacharie paints out vnto vs a Talent of lead: And this was a woman that sate in the midst of the Ephah, whose name or title was, Impietie, or Wickednesse; which (hee saith) was carried vnto Babylon, Vt poneretur super