Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1832 edition. Excerpt: ... PART III. Of our Saviour's Ministry on Earth; of the Mysteries and Doctrines which he came among us to reveal; and of the Duties which he has commanded us to fulfil. Having, as we proposed, brought down the sacred history of the world from the creation, to the birth of our Saviour, we shall now proceed with the last part of our subject, which is, to give an account of his ministry on earth, and the revelation which he came to make to us. In order the more fully to appreciate the loving mercies of God, in sending his only Son to redeem us, let us cast a look behind, that we may be convinced of the many and multiplied instances in which His chosen people had provoked Him to abandon them. We cannot do this more effectually, than by reading the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, in which are recorded the words of St. Stephen, reproaching the Jews for their ingratitude, before he suffered martyrdom at their hands. This had all been laid before them from the time of Moses, (Deut. xxviii. Hosea ix. 17, ) and after him by a succession of prophets up to the time of Malachi, the last of them who flourished, about 420 B. C. And yet they had constantly disregarded and despised the mercies of God, so as to merit the reproaches of Stephen, who accused them (v. 51, 52, ) with being "stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ' &c. So unable were they to contradict him, that the same scripture goes on to say, (v. 54, ) "When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth." Here, then, we have at once a proof of the loving mercy of God, that inasmuch as it exceeded the sinfulness of man, "who in times past was suffered to walk in his own way," (Acts xiv. 16, ) he still mercifully determined to...
