punishment to have apprehended the proud tyrants, when the
man of God pronounced these words, yet shortly after God did give witness,
that those words did not proceed from flesh nor blood, but from God's very
Spirit. For not long after, being in warfare, Julian received a deadly
wound, whether by his own hand, or by one of his own soldiers, the writers
clearly conclude not; but casting his own blood against the heaven, he
said, "At last thou hast overcome, thou Galilean:" so in despite he termed
the Lord Jesus. And so perished that tyrant in his own iniquity; the storm
ceased, and the church of God received new comfort.

Such shall be the end of all cruel persecutors, their reign shall be
short, their end miserable, and their name shall be left in execrations to
God's people; and yet shall the church of God remain to God's glory, after
all storms. But now shortly, let us come to the last point:

"For behold," saith the prophet, "the Lord will come out of his place, to
visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of the earth upon them; and the
earth shall disclose her blood, and shall no more hide her slain." (Verse
21.) Because that the final end of the troubles of God's chosen shall not
be, before the Lord Jesus shall return to restore all things to their full
perfection.

The prophet brings forth the eternal God, as it were, from his own place
and habitation, and therewith shows the cause of his coming to be, that he
might take account of all such as have wrought wickedly; for that he
means, where he saith, "He will visit the iniquity of the inhabitants of
the earth upon them." And lest any should think the wrong doers are so
many, that they cannot be called to an account, he gives unto the earth as
it were an office and charge, to bear witness against all those that have
wrought wickedly, and chiefly against those that have shed innocent blood
from the beginning; and saith, "That the earth shall disclose her blood,
and shall no more hide her slain men."

If tyrants of the earth, and such as delight in the shedding of blood,
should be persuaded that this sentence is true, they would not so
furiously come to their own destruction; for what man can be so enraged,
that he would willingly do even before the eyes of God that which might
provoke his Majesty to anger, yea, provoke him to become his enemy for
ever, if he understood how fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of
the living God?

The cause then of this blind