But now, to have a Million of People fetch'd out of his Hands, as it were all at once, and to have the immediate Power of Heaven engaged in it, and that _Satan_ saw evidently God had singled them out in a miraculous manner to favour them, and call them _his own_; this allarm'd him at once, and therefore he resolves to follow them, lay close Siege to them, and take all the Measures possible to bring them to rebel against, and disobey GOD, that he might be provok'd to destroy them; and how near he went to bring it to pass, we shall see presently.
This making a Calf, and paying an idolatrous Worship to it (for they acted the Heathens and Idolaters, not in the setting up the Calf only, but in the manner of their Worshiping, _viz._ _Dancing_ and _Musick_, Things they had not been acquainted with in the Worship of the true God) I mention here, to observe how the Devil not only imposed upon their Principles, but upon their Senses too; as if the awful Majesty of Heaven, whose Glory they had seen in Mount _Sinai_, where they stood, and whose Pillar of Cloud and Fire was their Guide and Protection, would be worship'd by dancing round a Calf! and that not a living Creature, or a real Calf, but the mere Image of a _Calf_ cast in Gold, or, as some think, in Brass gilded over.
But this was the _Devil_'s Way with Mankind, namely, to impose upon their Senses, and bring them into the grossest Follies and Absurdities; and then, having first made them Fools, it was much the easier to make them Offenders.
In this very manner he acted with them thro' all the Course of their Wilderness Travels; for as they were led by the Hand like Children, defended by Omnipotence, fed by Miracles, instructed immediately from Heaven, and in all things had _Moses_ for their Guide; they had no room to miscarry, but by acting the greatest Absurdities, and committing the greatest Follies in Nature; and even these, the _Devil_ brought them to be guilty of, in a surprising manner: 1. As GOD himself reliev'd them in every Exigence, and supply'd them in every Want, one would think 'twas impossible they should be ever brought to question either his Willingness or his Ability, and yet they really objected against both; which was indeed very provoking, and I doubt not, that when the _Devil_ had brought them to act in such a preposterous Manner, he really hoped and believed God would be provok'd effectually: The Testimonies of his Care of them, and Ability to supply them, were miraculous and undeniable; he gave them Water from the Rock, Bread from the Air, sent the Fowls to feed them with Flesh, and supported them all the Way by Miracles; their Health was preserv'd, none were sick among them, their clothes did not wear out, nor their Shoes grow old upon their Feet; could any thing be more absurd, than to doubt whether he could provide for them who had never let them want for so many Years?