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may the Disposer give thee such warning of his awful judgment as he gave not to Nathan!
Did not God, then, love Nathan?
My child, Nathan was a Jew, and received not the Prophet.
Eber then spoke, saying, Paul the Apostle was also a Jew, and once received not the prophet of God, but even persecuted the faith; yet was he cared for by God, even in the days of his unbelief. God is a father to all men.
Yet mark, said Aza, the difference of his decrees according as men are faithful or infidels. — A viper came out of the fire, and fastened on the hand of Paul, who shook it off and was not harmed. A viper stung the foot of Nathan from among the grass, and he died. Such was the righteous judgment of God, who ordains all things from everlasting.
Was it written of old, inquired the child, that Paul should thus be saved, and that Nathan should thus die?
From everlasting, replied Aza, it has been written on the table of decrees, where also the Book was first inscribed.
Was it not also written that Paul should believe, and that Nathan should be an infidel?
