without our doing. To know this, is indeed to know the works
of God, to meditate on His works, [Ps. 143:5, 119:52] and by the
remembrance of them to comfort ourselves in our adversities. But
they that know this not come under that other word in Psalm
xxvii, "Because they regard not the works of the Lord, nor the
operations of His hand, He shall destroy them, and not build them
up." [Ps. 28:5] For those men are ungrateful toward God for all
His care over them during their whole life, who will not, for one
small moment, commit their care to Him.

CHAPTER IV

THE FOURTH IMAGE

THE INFERNAL EVIL, OR THE EVIL BENEATH US

Hitherto we have seen, in all the evils that we endure, naught
but the goodness of God, which is so great and so near that of
all the countless evils with which we are surrounded in this
life, and in which we are shut up as in a prison, but a very few
are permitted to approach us, and these never for long together.
So that, when we are oppressed by any present evil, it is only to
remind us of some great gain with which God is honoring us, in
that He does not suffer us to be overwhelmed by the multitude of
evils with which we are surrounded. For what wonder that a man,
at whom an infinite number of blows is aimed, should be touched
by one now and then! Nay, it is a mercy not to be struck by all;
it is a miracle to be struck by but a few.

The first, then, of the evils beneath us is death, and the other
is hell.

If we will but consider the deaths, so diverse and so terrible,
with which other sinners are punished, we shall soon see how
great a gain is ours in that we suffer far less than we have
deserved. How many men are hanged, strangled, drowned or
beheaded, who perchance committed less sins than we! And their
death and misery are held up to us by Christ as in a mirror, in
which we may behold what we have deserved. For it is said in Luke
xiii, when they told Him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had
mingled with their sacrifices, that He replied: "Suppose ye that
these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because
they suffered these things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye
repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon
whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they
were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you.
Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." [Luke
13:1 ff.] For we need not expect that we, who have committed