Stimulated by Miracles

Now many a man will think and inquire whence the Devil came?
Be it, therefore known to him that
God created as a great Angel him who is now the Devil

but God did not create him as the Devil
but when he was wholly fordone
and guilty towards God

through his great haughtiness and enmity
then became he changed to the Devil
who before was created a great Angel

It is read in historic narratives that John the Evangelist would marry
and Christ was invited to his nuptials
Then it befell that at the nuptials wine was wanting

Jesus then bade the serving men fill six stone vessels with pure water
and he with his blessing turned the water to noble wine
This is the first miracle that He openly wrought in His state of man

Now John was so stimulated by that miracle
that he forthwith left his bride in maidenhood
and ever afterwards followed the Lord

It is probable that some of you know not what circumcision is:
God commanded Abraham that he and his offspring
should hold His covenant that there might be some sign on their bodies

to show that they believed in God
and commanded him to take a sharp-edged flint
and cut off a part of the foreskin

and that token was then as great among believing men
as is now the holy baptism
excepting Christ turn it to a spiritual sense

They were not ripened for slaughter yet they blessedly died
Snatched from their mothers' breasts, they were instantly
committed to the bosoms of Angels

The wicked persecutor could not by any service
so greatly favor those little ones so greatly
as he favored them by the fierce hate of persecution

They are called blossoms of martyrs because they were
as blossoms springing up in the midst of the chill of infidelity
consumed as it were by the frost of persecution