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before the dominion of the Jews was taken away, in the
seventieth week of Daniel, during the continuance of the second temple, the
heathen should be instructed, and brought to the knowledge of the God
worshipped by the Jews; that those who loved Him should be delivered from
their enemies, and filled with His fear and love.
And it happened that in the fourth monarchy, before the destruction of the
second temple, etc., the heathen in great number worshipped God, and led an
angelic life. Maidens dedicated their virginity and their life to God. Men
renounced their pleasures. What Plato could only make acceptable to a few
men, specially chosen and instructed, a secret influence imparted by the
power of a few words, to a hundred million ignorant men.
The rich left their wealth. Children left the dainty homes of their parents
to go into the rough desert. (See Philo the Jew.) All this was foretold a
great while ago. For two thousand years no heathen had worshipped the God of
the Jews; and at the time foretold, a great number of the heathen worshipped
this only God. The temples were destroyed. The very kings made submission to
the cross. All this was due to the Spirit of God, which was spread abroad
upon the earth.
No heathen, since Moses until Jesus Christ, believed according to the very
Rabbis. A great number of the heathen, after Jesus Christ, believed in the
books of Moses, kept them in substance and spirit, and only rejected what
was useless.
725. Prophecies.--The conversion of the Egyptians (Isaiah 19:19); an altar
in Egypt to the true God.
726. Prophecies.--In Egypt. Pugio Fidei, p. 659. Talmud. "It is a tradition
among us, that, when t
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