Re: Well, the world is certainly looking grim, isn't it? 64278

[Dana]

the rest ought to be believed. And thereby we see the order of
the world to be of this kind. The miracles of the Creation and the Deluge
being forgotten, God sends the law and the miracles of Moses, the prophets
who prophesied particular things; and to prepare a lasting miracle, He
prepares prophecies and their fulfilment; but, as the prophecies could be
suspected, He desires to make them above suspicion, etc.

577. God has made the blindness of this people subservient to the good of
the elect.

578. There is sufficient clearness to enlighten the elect, and sufficient
obscurity to humble them. There is sufficient obscurity to blind the
reprobate, and sufficient clearness to condemn them and make them
inexcusable. Saint Augustine, Montaigne, Sebond.

The genealogy of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is intermingled with so
many others that are useless that it cannot be distinguished. If Moses had
kept only the record of the ancestors of Christ, that might have been too
plain. If he had not noted that of Jesus Christ, it might not have been
sufficiently plain. But, after all, whoever looks closely sees that of Jesus
Christ expressly traced through Tamar, Ruth, etc.

Those who ordained these sacrifices knew their uselessness; those who have
declared their uselessness, have not ceased to practise them.

If God had permitted only one