De peste quaestiones duae explicatae

not even if someone should receive an oracle for the prolonging of life, as we demonstrated a little earlier by the manifest example of Paul, Acts 27:14 and 31, let alone that it is not permitted to use them, when it is still hidden from us what God has decreed from eternity regarding our life being either extended or ended. Next, why should he be said to distrust the promises of God who follows the reasons for avoiding evils prescribed by God in such a way that he still depends entirely on God, unless perhaps we should find this dogma expressly written in the Holy Scriptures, "When the plague rages, let no one flee." Among those reasons, prophylactic remedies are also to be reckoned, and among these, timely withdrawal is also to be numbered, as the very name contagion demonstrates. But it is also certain that he does not sin against Christian charity, nor does he tempt God, who avoids the plague by withdrawal in such a way that meanwhile he omits no duty of piety toward God nor of charity toward his neighbor; and conversely, unless he sometimes does this, he could deservedly be said to provoke God against himself, and be judged worse than an infidel, as one who, exposing himself rashly to lethal contagion, seems to have had regard for neither himself nor his own.

The fifth and sixth accusations are no truer. They do not love God, they say, and panting after earthly things, they neglect heavenly ones. Tell me why? Because those who love God desire nothing more than