The Devil's own Scheming.
Book I. Chapter XLVII.
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Then Adam and Eve came into
the cave, yet trembling at the fire that had scorched their
bodies. So Adam said to Eve:—
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"Lo, the fire has burnt
our flesh in this world; but how will it be when we are dead, and
Satan shall punish our souls? Is not our deliverance long and
far off, unless God come, and in mercy to us fulfill His
promise?"
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Then Adam and Eve passed into
the cave, blessing themselves for coming into it once more. For
it was in their thoughts, that they never should enter it, when they
saw the fire around it.
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But as the sun was setting
the fire was still burning and nearing Adam and Eve in the cave, so
that they could not sleep in it. After the sun had set, they
went out of it. This was the forty-seventh day after they came
out of the garden.
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Adam and Eve then came under
the top of hill by the garden to sleep, as they were wont.
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And they stood and prayed God
to forgive them their sins, and then fell asleep under the summit of
the mountain.
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But Satan, the hater of all
good, thought within himself: Whereas God has promised salvation
to Adam by covenant, and that He would deliver him out of all the
hardships that have befallen him—but has not promised me by
covenant, and will not deliver me out of my hardships; nay, since He
has promised him that He should make him and his seed dwell in the
kingdom in which I once was—I will kill Adam.
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The earth shall be rid of
him; and shall be left to me alone; so that when he is dead he may not
have any seed left to inherit the kingdom that shall remain my own
realm; God will then be in want of me, and He will restore me to it
with my hosts.
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