od abounds, "he will do wickedly." Which is a crime above
all others abominable; for to what end is it that God erects his throne
among us, but that we should fear him? Why does he reveal his holy will
unto us, but that we should obey it? Why does he deliver us from trouble,
but that we should be witnesses unto the world, that he is gracious and
merciful?

Now, when men hearing their duty, and knowing what God requires of them,
do malapertly fight against all equity and justice, what I pray you, do
they else, but make manifest war against God? Yea, when they have received
from God such deliverance, that they cannot deny but that God himself hath
in his great mercy visited them, and yet they continue wicked as before;
what deserve they but effectually to be given over unto a reprobate sense,
that they may headlong run to ruin, both of body and soul? It is almost
incredible that a man should be so enraged against God, that neither his
plagues, nor yet his mercy showed, should move him to repentance; but
because the Scriptures bear witness of the one and the other, let us cease
to marvel, and let us firmly believe, that such things as have been, are
even at present before our eyes, albeit many, blinded by affection, cannot
see them.

Ahab, as it is written in the book of the Kings, received many notable
benefits of the hand of God, who visited him in divers sorts, sometimes by
his plagues, sometimes by his word, and sometimes by his merciful
deliverance. He made him king, and, for the idolatry used by him and his
wife, he plagued the whole of Israel by famine; he revealed to him his
will, and true religion, by the prophet Elijah; he gave unto him sundry
deliverances, but one most special, when proud Benhadad came to besiege
Samaria, and was not content to receive Ahab's gold, silver, sons,
daughters, and wives, but also required, that his servants should have at
their pleasure whatsoever was delectable in Samaria. True it is, that his
elders and people willed him not to hear the proud tyrant, but who made
unto him the promise of deliverance? And who appointed and put his army in
order? Who assured him of victory? The prophet of God only, who assured
him, that by the servants of the princes of the provinces, who in number
were only two hundred thirty-and-two, he should defeat the great army, in
which there were two-and-thirty kings, with all their forces. And as the
prophet of God promised, so it came to pass; victory was o