A New and Complete History of the Holy Bible Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: NEW AND COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE BIBLE, TART I. CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. THE word Bible signifies The Bonk; aud is applied by way of eminence to that sacred volume which was written by Divine authority and which contains the will of God revealed to man. It comprises the Old 1'estament aud the New, or the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, and consists of history, prophecy, doctrines, precepts, and devotional exercises. In some of the larger editions of the Biblt there is a set of pieces called the Apocrypha, inserted between the two Testaments- but as they are not attended with evidences of Divine authorily, they make no part of the Bible. These apocryphal books appear to contain a portion of authentic history, and many moral lessons, with much fiction and some gross absurdities. The first five books of the Old Testament (which are called the Pentateuch), have all along been considered as written by Moses ;t the others, chiefly hy those whose names they bear ; or where they do not appear under the name of any person, by some one qualified and authorized for that purpose. The books of the New Testament show the names of the writers to whom they are ascribed, except the " Acts of the Apostles," which bears no name, but evidently appears io have been written by the Evangelist Luke4 The Holy "Scriptures are the gracious gift of God, an invaluable blessing vouchsafed to mankind. They carry with them indubitable marks of their Divine original; and that they are " written by inspiration of Gon," has been demonstrated " by many infallible proofs." The attempts of infidelity, to overturn or weaken the evidence in their favor, have tended only to illustrate and confirm them. But while the outworks of revelation are ably defend...Read More