In ancient and former times, before the coming of the Lord into the world, when worship consisted in outward ritual, or the symbolic Church of the Lord was made up of outward ritual, then there were open miracles almost constantly in the land of Canaan. In the desert it rained manna [Exod. 16:14-5], there was rain in its seasons [Lev. 26:4], the produce was blessed [Deut. 16:4], also at the time of Elijah [cf. 1 Kings 17:8-16]. And in the seventh year and that of jubilee the land was blessed so that the produce would be enough for years [Lev. 25:1-22], besides many other open miracles almost continually. The reason was that at that time they worshipped only outer things, so that by means of them they might be led into inner ones. Hence the open miracles.