vault backup: 2023-12-10 18:35:40

Affected files:
Resources/Commentaries/Matthew Henry Commentary/Genesis/Introduction.md

Resources/Commentaries/Matthew Henry Commentary/Genesis/Introduction.md

@@ -1,9 +1,5 @@
-# Chapter Introduction
+# Book Introduction
 
-**AN**
-
-
-# W I T H   P R A C T I C A L   O B S E R V A T I O N S,
 We have now before us the holy Bible, or *book,* for so *bible* signifies. We call it *the book,* by way of eminency; for it is incomparably the best book that ever was written, the book of books, shining like the sun in the firmament of learning, other valuable and useful books, like the moon and stars, borrowing their light from it. We call it the holy book, because it was written by holy men, and indited by the Holy Ghost; it is perfectly pure from all falsehood and corrupt intention; and the manifest tendency of it is to promote holiness among men. The great things of God's law and gospel are here *written* to us, that they might be reduced to a greater certainty, might spread further, remain longer, and be transmitted to distant places and ages more pure and entire than possibly they could be by report and tradition: and we shall have a great deal to answer for if these things which belong to our peace, being thus committed to us in black and white, be neglected by us as a strange and foreign thing, [[Hosea 8#12]]. The scriptures, or writings of the several inspired penmen, from Moses down to St. John, in which divine light, like that of the morning, shone gradually (the sacred canon being now completed), are all put together in this blessed Bible, which, thanks be to God, we have in our hands, and they make as perfect a day as we are to expect on this side of heaven. Every part was good, but all together very good. This is the *light that shines in a dark place* ([[2 Peter 1#19]]), and a dark place indeed the world would be without the Bible.
 
 We have before us that part of the Bible which we call the *Old Testament,* containing the acts and monuments of the church from the creation almost to the coming of Christ in the flesh, which was about four thousand years-- the truths then revealed, the laws then enacted, the devotions then paid, the prophecies then given, and the events which concerned that distinguished body, so far as God saw fit to preserve to us the knowledge of them. This is called a *testament,* or *covenant* (***Diatheke***), because it was a settled declaration of the *will* of God concerning man in a federal way, and had its force from the designed death of the great testator, *the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,* ([[Revelation 13#8]].) It is called the *Old Testament,* with relation to the *New,* which does not cancel and supersede it, but crown and perfect it, by the bringing in of that better hope which was typified and foretold in it; the Old Testament still remains glorious, though the New far exceeds in glory, ([[2 Corinthians 3#9]].)