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A HISTORY

OF THE

ISRAELITISH NATION

FROM THEIR ORIGIN

TO THEIR DISPERSION AT THE DESTRUCTION OF
JERUSALEM BY THE ROMANS.

BY

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, D. D.

LATE PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT PRINCETON, N. J.

PHILADELPHIA:

WILLIAM S. MARTIEN.
1853.

Entered, according to the act of Congress in the year 1853

BY WILLIAM S. MARTIEN

In the office of the Clerk of the District Court of the Eastern District of

Pennsylvania.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE nature and design of the following work may be suf ficiently gathered from the Preface which follows. It might be unnecessary to say another word, but for the fact that while the labours of the lamented author were taking their present form, it pleased God to remove him to a better world. It will be observed that the materials of the publication had to a certain extent appeared in separate volumes, which were well received by Christian readers. But an important end is attained, by throwing them into a continuous series. The chasm which existed in one great period of the annals has been filled by the hand of a clergyman whose learning and discretion commended him to Dr. Alexander as remarkably fitted for the task. He has performed his part with complete success; and there can be no doubt that the History, as now presented, will be found eminently useful as an instrument of Biblical instruction.

NEW YORK, January 1853.

5325

113

(RECAP)

JAMES W. ALEXANDER.

1700

PUBLISHER'S NOTICE.

THE revision of the following work was completed by its venerable and much esteemed author only a short time previous to the illness which terminated in his death. Circumstances have delayed its publication until the present time. Although the usual care has been taken to avoid typographical errors, yet it is possible, that in passing so large a work through the press, much of which was printed from manuscript, errors may have occurred, which would have been prevented had the proofsheets been corrected by the author himself. It is confidently hoped, however, that no material imperfection will be discovered, and that the work will be appreciated as one of the latest literary efforts of a man whose praise is in the churches.

It may be added that the Fifth and Sixth Parts of this work contain all that is important to the Biblical Student in Prideaux's "Connection of Sacred and Profane History."

PREFACE.

THE importance of the study of History as a branch of knowledge is universally admitted; and of all History, that contained in the Bible is the most ancient, the most authentic, and the most interesting. It gives us information of those events which we can learn no where else, and with which it is most necessary that we should be acquainted. Here we learn the origin of our race-the state in which they were created-their unhappy fall-the revelation of God's merciful designs towards them, and the remarkable dispensations of Divine Providence towards a chosen generation, the descendants of Abraham, with whom God entered into covenant, and to whom and his posterity he made great and precious promises; all of which were punctually and literally fulfilled. In the Sacred Scriptures we have an account of the first religious institutions established by divine authority; and a complete code of the laws given to the Israelites by the hand of Moses, which, being typical, were not intended to be perpetual, but continued to be obligatory until the advent of the promised Messiah, in whom they met with their accomplishment, and, of course, ceased to be any longer in force. The moral law, however, clearly revealed at the same time, is of perpetual obligation; and remains immutable under all dispensations, although its extent and spirituality are much better understood since the light of the gospel has been manifested.

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