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 clear and that they would not be destroyed. And nothing
is more to the glory of the Messiah; for it was not enough that there
should
be prophets; their prophets must be kept above suspicion. Now, etc.
750. If the Jews had all been converted by Jesus Christ, we should have
none
but questionable witnesses. And if they had been entirely destroyed, we
should have no witnesses at all.
751. What do the prophets say of Jesus Christ? That He will be clearly
God?
No; but that He is a God truly hidden; that He will be slighted; that none
will think that it is He; that He will be a stone of stumbling, upon which
many will
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