A Summary of Biblical Antiquities Volume 2; Compiled for the Use of Sunday-School Teachers, and for the Benefit of Families - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1830 Excerpt: ... doctrine. They had grown up with a strong impression, which all their education tended to fix deeply in the mind, that God had shut out all other people entirely from his regard, and that the blessings of the true religion were, by his unalterable purpose, to be confined to their own nation; so that no gentile could ever be admitted to the friendship of God, except by numbering himself with the Jews as a proselyte to their church. When the gospel, therefore, declared that all difference was taken away, and invited all alike to embrace its benefits, many needed no other objection to lead them to reject it at once. (Acts xxii. 21, 22.) Even those who were truly converted to receive its truth, were slow in coming to a clear understanding of this point. It was hard for them to feel that the door of grace stood as widely and as freely open to the gentile, without any respect to the law. of Moses, as it did to the circumcised Jew. (Acts x. 10--16, 28, 45. xi. 1--18.) Hence we find it declared so often in the New Testament with a sort of peculiar emphasis, as a thing new, wonderful, and contrary to former prejudice, that the gospel offered its blessings to the gentiles--to all--to the world--to the whole world, without distinction of nation or place. (Matt, xxviii. 19. Luke xxiv. 47,48. Acta xiii. 46,47. xvii. 30,31. xxvi. 17,18. xxviii. 28. Rom. i. 16. iii. 29, 30. 1 Tim. ii. 4--6. Tit. ii. 11. 1 John ii. 2.) Paul speaks of it as a glorious mystery. (Eph. ii. 3--6.)--The word mystery in this case, as generally in his epistles, means simply something that was utterly unknown before God revealed it by the gospel--a thing that was for a long time hidden; not implying that there was any thing in its nature which could not be explained or understood, as the term commo...