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I should seem tedious were I to recount all the ancient miracles,
which were wrought in attestation of God's promises which He made to
Abraham thousands of years ago, that in his seed all the nations of
the earth should be blessed. For who can but marvel that Abraham's
barren wife should have given birth to a son at an age when not even a
prolific woman could bear children; or, again, that when Abraham
sacrificed, a flame from heaven should have run between the divided
parts; or that the angels in human form, whom he had hospitably
entertained, and who had renewed God's promise of offspring, should
also have predicted the destruction of Sodom by fire from heaven; and
that his nephew Lot should have been rescued from Sodom by the angels
as the fire was just descending, while his wife, who looked back as
she went, and was immediately turned into salt, stood as a sacred
beacon warning us that no one who is being saved should long for what he
is leaving? How striking also were the wonders done by Moses to
rescue God's people from the yoke of slavery in Egypt, when the magi
of the Pharaoh, that is, the king of Egypt, who tyrannized over
this people, were suffered to do some wonderful things that they might
be vanquished all the more signally! They did these things by the
magical arts and incantations to which the evil spirits or demons are
addicted; while Moses, having as much greater power as he had right
on his side, and having the aid of angels, easily conquered them in
the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. And, in fact, the
magicians failed at the third plague; whereas Moses, dealing out the
miracles delegated to him, brought ten plagues upon the land, so that
the hard hearts of Pharaoh and the Egyptians yielded, and the people
were let go. But, quickly repenting, and essaying to overtake the
departing Hebrews, who had crossed the sea on dry ground, they were
covered and overwhelmed in the returning waters. What shall I say of
those frequent and stupendous exhibitions of divine power, while the
people were conducted through the wilderness?, of the waters which
could not be drunk, but lost their bitterness, and quenched the
thirsty, when at God's command a piece of wood was cast into them?
of the manna that descended from heaven to appease their hunger, and
which begat worms and putrefied when any one collected more than the
appointed quantity, and yet, though double was gathered on the day
before the Sabbath (it not being lawful to gather it on that day),
remained fresh? of the birds which filed the camp, and turned appetite
into satiety when they longed for flesh, which it seemed impossible to
supply to so vast a population? of the enemies who met them, and
opposed their passage with arms, and were defeated without the loss of
a single Hebrew, when Moses prayed with his hands extended in the
form of a cross? of the seditious persons who arose among God's
people, and separated themselves from the divinely-ordered community,
and were swallowed up alive by the earths a visible token of an
invisible punishment? of the rock struck with the rod, and pouring out
waters more than enough for all the host? of the deadly serpents'
bites, sent in just punishment of sin, but healed by looking at the
lifted brazen serpent, so that not only were the tormented people
healed, but a symbol of the crucifixion of death set before them in
this destruction of death by death? It was this serpent which was
preserved in memory of this event, and was afterwards worshipped by the
mistaken people as an idol, and was destroyed by the pious and
God-fearing king Hezekiah, much to his credit.
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