they had believed, so as not to be
kept back by the example of their refusal. But it is their very refusal that
is the foundation of our faith. We should be much less disposed to the
faith, if they were on our side. We should then have a more ample pretext.
The wonderful thing is to have made the Jews great lovers of the things
foretold, and great enemies of their fulfilment.
746. The Jews were accustomed to great and striking miracles, and so, having
had the great miracles of the Red Sea and of the land of Canaan as an
epitome of the great deeds of their Messiah, they therefore looked for more
striking miracles, of which those of Moses were only the patterns.
747. The carnal Jews and the heathen have their calamities, and Christians
also. There is no Redeemer for the heathen, for they do not so much as hope
for one. There is no Redeemer for the Jews; they hope for Him in vain. There
is a Redeemer only for Christians. (See Perpetuity.)
748. In the time of the Messiah the people divided themselves. The spiritual
embraced the Messiah, and the coarser-minded remained to serve as witnesses
of Him.
749. "If this was clearly foretold to the Jews, how did they not believe it,
or why were they not destroyed for resisting a fact so clear?"
I reply: in the first place, it was foretold both that they would not
believe a thing so cle
.
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