Note d — BOOK II.

We need not be sollicitous to elude the History of these Miracles, as if they were only poetical Strains, as Maimonides, and some others fancy Joshua’s Day to have been, viz. only an ordinary Summer’s Day; but such as had the Work of many Days done in it; and therefore by a poetical Stretch made, as if the Day had been lengthened by the Sun standing still. But in the History they are seriously related, as real Matters of Fact, and with such Circumstances as manifest them to have been miraculous Works of the Almighty; And the Prophet Habakkuk, iii. 11. mentions that of Joshua as such. And therefore taking them to be miraculous Perversions of the Course of Nature, instead of being Objections, they are great Arguments of the Power of God: For in Hezekiah’s Case, to wheel the Earth it self backward, or by some extraordinary Refractions, to bring the Sun’s Shadow backward 10 Degrees: Or in Joshua’s Case, to stop the diurnal Course of the Globe for some Hours, and then again give it the same Motion; to do, I say, there Things, required the same infinite Power which at first gave the Terraqueous Globe its Motions.