[ LXVI] God is not to be provoked to anger.
THe gods of the Gentiles were senslesse stocks and stones,* 1.1 not able to apprehend, much lesse to revenge an injury done unto them. Well therefore might the Philosopher be bold with Hercules, to put him to his thirteenth labour, in seething of his dinner; and Martial with Priapus, in threatning him to throw him into the fire,* 1.2 if he looked not well to his Trees. A child may play at the hole of a dead Aspe, and a silly woman may strike a dead Lion; but who dare play with a living Serpent? who dare take a roaring Lion by the beard? Let Christians then take heed, how they provoke the living God,* 1.3 for He is a consuming fire, and with the breath of his mouth, he is able to throw down the whole frame of Nature, and destroy all crea∣tures from the face of the earth.