s shed in Dietmar; nor that of our brother Anthony, of England, who
was cruelly and without a hearing slain by his English countrymen. I
could mention a thousand others who, although their names are not so
prominent, were yet fellow-sufferers with confessors and martyrs. The
blood of all these, I say, will not be silent; in due time it will
cause God to descend from heaven and execute such judgment in the
earth as the enemies of the Gospel will not be able to bear.

171. Let us not think, therefore, that God does not heed the shedding
of our blood! Let us not imagine for a moment that God does not regard
our afflictions! No! he collects all our tears, and puts them into his
bottle, Ps 56, 8. The cry of the blood of all the godly penetrates the
clouds and the heavens to the very throne of God, and entreats him to
avenge the blood of the righteous, Ps 79, 10.

172. As these things are written for our consolation, so are they
written for the terror of our adversaries. For what think you can be
more horrible for our tyrants to hear than that the blood of the slain
continually cries aloud and accuses them before God? God is indeed
long-suffering, especially now toward the end of the world; and
therefore sin lies the longer "at the door," and vengeance does not
immediately follow. But it is surely true that God is most grievously
offended with all this sin, and that he will never suffer it to pass
unpunished.

173. Such judgment of God on Cain, however, I do not believe to have
been executed on the first day, but some time afterward. For it is
God's nature to be long-suffering, inasmuch as he waits for the sinner
to turn. But he does not, on that account, fail to punish him. For he
is the righteous judge both of the living and of the dead, as we
confess in our Christian Faith. Such judgment God exercised in the
very beginning of the world with reference to these two brothers. He
judged and condemned the living murderer, and justified murdered Abel.
He excommunicated Cain and drove him into such agonies of soul that
the space of the whole creation seemed too narrow to contain him. From
the moment Cain saw that God would be the avenger of his brother's
blood, he felt nowhere safe. To Abel, on the other hand, God gave for
enjoyment the full width of earth and heaven.

174. Why, then, should we ever doubt that God ponders and numbers in
his heart the afflictions of his people, and that he measures our
tears and inscribes them