The power of fire over man.
Book I. Chapter XLIV.
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Yet Adam and Eve were
standing and looking at the fire, and unable to come near the cave
from their dread of the fire.
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And Satan kept on bringing
trees and throwing them into the fire, until the flame thereof rose up
on high, and covered the whole cave, thinking, as he did in his own
mind, to consume the cave with much fire. But the angel of the
Lord was guarding it.
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And yet he could not curse
Satan, nor injure him by word, because he had no authority over him,
neither did he take to doing so with words from his mouth.
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Therefore did the angel bear
with him, without saying one bad word, until the Word of God came who
said to Satan, "Go hence; once before didst thou deceive My
servants, and this time thou seekest to destroy them.
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"Were it not for My
mercy I would have destroyed thee and thy hosts from off the
earth. But I have had patience with thee, unto the end of the
world."
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Then Satan fled from before
the Lord. But the fire went on burning around the cave like a
coal-fire the whole day; which was the forty-sixth day Adam and Eve
had spent since they came out of the garden.
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And when Adam and Eve saw
that the heat of the fire had somewhat cooled down, they began to walk
towards the cave to get into it as they were wont; but they could not,
by reason of the heat of the fire.
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Then they both took to
weeping because of the fire that made separation between them and the
cave, and that drew towards them, burning. And they were afraid.
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Then Adam said to Eve,
"See this fire of which we have a portion in us: which
formerly yielded to us, but no longer does so, now that we have
transgressed the limit of creation, and changed our condition, and our
nature is altered. But the fire is not changed in its nature,
nor altered from its creation. Therefore has it now power over
us; and when we come near it, it scorches our flesh."
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