P R E F
A C E
THE one half of our undertaking upon the New Testament1
is now, by the assistance of divine grace, finished, and presented to the
reader, who, it is hoped, the Lord working with it, may hereby be somewhat
helped in understanding and improving the sacred history of Christ and his
apostles, and in making it, as it certainly is, the best exposition of our
creed, in which these inspired writers are summed up, as is intimated by that
evangelist who calls his gospel A Declaration of those things which are
most surely believed among us, Luke i. 1. And, as there is no part of
scripture in the belief of which it concerns more to be established, so there
is none with which the generality of Christians are more conversant, or which
they speak of more frequently. It is therefore our duty, by constant pains in
meditation and prayer, to come to an intimate acquaintance with the true
intent and meaning of these narratives, what our concern is in them, and what
we are to build upon them and draw from them; that we may not rest in such a
knowledge of them as that which we had when in our childhood we were taught to
read English out of the translation and Greek out of the originals of these
books. We ought to know them as the physician does his dispensatory, the
lawyer his books of reports, and the sailor his chart and compass; that is, to
know how to make use of them in that to which we apply ourselves as our
business in this world, which is to serve God here and enjoy him hereafter,
and both in Christ the Mediator.
The great designs of the Christian institutes (of which these books are the
fountains and foundations) were, to reduce the children of men to the fear and
love of God, as the commanding active principle of their observance of him,
and obedience to him,--to show them the way of their reconciliation to him and
acceptance with him, and to bring them under obligations to Jesus Christ as
Mediator, and thereby to engage them to all instances of devotion towards God
and justice and charity towards all men, in conformity to the example of
Christ, in obedience to his law, and in pursuance of his great intentions.
What therefore I have endeavoured here has been with this view, to make these
writings serviceable to the faith, holiness, and comfort of good Christians.
Now that these writings, thus made use of to serve these great and noble
designs, may have their due influence upon us, it concerns us to be well
established in our belief of their divine origin. And here we have to do with
two sorts of people. Some embrace the Old Testament, but set that up in
opposition to the New, pleading that, if that be right, this is wrong; and
these are the Jews. Others, though they live in a Christian nation, and by
baptism wear the Christian name, yet, under pretence of freedom of thought,
despise Christianity, and consequently reject the New Testament, and therefore
the Old of course. I confess it is strange that any now who receive the Old
Testament should reject the New, since, besides all the particular proofs of
the divine authority of the New Testament, there is such an admirable harmony
between it and the Old. It agrees with the Old in all the main intentions of
it, refers to it, builds upon it, shows the accomplishment of its types and
prophecies, and thereby is the perfection and crown of it. Nay, if it be not
true, the Old Testament must be false, and all the glorious promises which
shine so brightly in it, and the performance of which was limited within
certain periods of time, must be a great delusion, which we are sure they are
not, and therefore must embrace the New Testament to support the reputation of
the Old.
Those things in the Old Testament which the New Testament lays aside are the
peculiarity of the Jewish nation and the observances of the ceremonial law,
both which certainly were of divine appointment; and yet the New Testament
does not at all clash with the Old; for,
1. They were always designed to be laid aside in the fulness of time. No other
is to be expected than that the morning-star should disappear when the sun
rises; and the latter parts of the Old Testament often speak of the laying
aside of those things, and of the calling in of the Gentiles.
2. They were very honourable laid aside, and rather exchanged for that which
was more noble and excellent, more divine and heavenly. The Jewish church was
swallowed up in the Christian, the mosaic ritual in evangelical institutions.
So that the New Testament is no more the undoing of the Old than the sending
of a youth to the university is the undoing of his education in the
grammar-school.
3. Providence soon determined this controversy (which is the only thing that
seemed a controversy between the Old Testament and the New) by the destruction
of Jerusalem, the desolations of the temple, the dissolution of the
temple-service, and the total dispersion of all the remains of the Jewish
nation, with a judicial defeat of all the attempts to incorporate it again,
now for above 1600 years; and this according to the express predictions of
Christ, a little before his death. And, as Christ would not have the doctrine
of his being the Messiah much insisted on till the great conclusive proof of
it was given by his resurrection from the dead, so the repeal of the
ceremonial law, as to the Jews, was not much insisted on, but their keeping up
the observation of it was connived at, till the great conclusive proof of its
repeal was given by the destruction of Jerusalem, which made the observation
of it for ever impracticable. And the manifest tokens of divine wrath which
the Jews, considered as a people, even notwithstanding the prosperity of
particular persons among them, continue under to this day, is a proof, not
only of the truth of Christ's predictions concerning them, but that they lie
under a greater guilt than that of idolatry (for which they lay under a
desolation of 70 years), and this can be no other than crucifying Christ, and
rejecting his gospel.
Thus evident it is that, in our expounding of the New Testament, we are not
undoing what we did in expounding the Old; so far from it that we may appeal
to the law and the prophets for the confirmation of the great truth which the
gospels are written to prove--That our Lord Jesus is the Messiah promised to
the fathers, who should come, and we are to look for no other. For though his
appearing did not answer the expectation of the carnal Jews, who looked for a
Messiah in external pomp and power, yet it exactly answered all the types,
prophecies, and promises, of the Old Testament, which all had their
accomplishment in him; and even his ignominious sufferings, which are the
greatest stumbling-block to the Jews, were foretold concerning the Messiah; so
that if he had not submitted to them we had failed in our proof; so fat it is
from being weakened by them. Bishop Kidder's Demonstration of the
Christian's Messiah has abundantly made out this truth, and answered the
cavils (for such they are, rather than arguments) of the Jews against it,
above any in our language.
But we live in an age when Christianity and the New Testament are more
virulently and daringly attacked by some within their own bowels than by those
upon their borders. Never were Moses and his writings so arraigned and
ridiculed by any Jews, or Mahomet and his Alcoran by any Mussulmans, as Christ
and his gospel by men that are baptized and called Christians; and this, not
under colour of any other divine revelation, but in contempt and defiance of
all divine revelation; and not by way of complaint that they meet with that
which shocks their faith, and which, through their own weakness, they cannot
get over, and therefore desire to be instructed in, and helped in the
understanding of, and the reconciling of them to the truth which they have
received, but by way of resolute opposition, as if they looked upon it as
their enemy, and were resolved by all means possible to be the ruin of it,
though they cannot say what evil it has done to the world or to them. If the
pretence of it has transported many in the church of Rome into such
corruptions of worship and cruelties of government as are indeed the scandal
of human nature, yet, instead of being thereby prejudiced against pure
Christianity, they should the rather appear more vigorously in defence of it,
when they see so excellent an institution as this is in itself so basely
abused and misrepresented. They pretend to a liberty of thought in their
opposition to Christianity, and would be distinguished by the name of
free-thinkers. I will not here go about to produce the arguments which, to all
that are not wilfully ignorant and prejudiced against the truth, are
sufficient to prove the divine origin and authority of the doctrine of Christ.
The learned find much satisfaction in reading the apologies of the ancients
for the Christian religion, when it was struggling with the polytheism and
idolatry of the Gentiles. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, Lactantius and
Minutius Felix, wrote admirable in defence of Christianity, when it was
further sealed by the blood of the martyrs. But its patrons and advocates in
the present day have another sort of enemies to deal with. The antiquity of
the pagan theology, its universal prevalence, the edicts of princes, and the
traditions and usages of the country, are not now objected to Christianity;
but I know not what imaginary freedom of thought, and an unheard-of privilege
of human nature, are assumed, not to be bound by any divine revelation
whatsoever. Now it is easy to make out,
1. That those who would be thought thus to maintain a liberty of thinking as
one of the privileges of human nature, and in defence of which they will take
up arms against God himself, do not themselves think freely, nor give others
leave to do so. In some of them a resolute indulgence of themselves in those
vicious courses which they know the gospel if they admit it will make very
uneasy to them, and a secret enmity to a holy heavenly mind and life, forbid
them all free thought; for so strong a prejudice have their lusts and passions
laid them under against the laws of Christ that they find themselves under a
necessity of opposing the truths of Christ, upon which these laws are founded.
Perit judicium, quando res transit in affectum--The judgment is overcome,
when the decision is referred to the affections. Right or wrong, Christ's
bonds must be broken, and his cords cast from them; and therefore, how evident
soever the premises be, the conclusion must be denied, if it tend to fasten
these bands and cords upon them; and where is the freedom of thought then? While
they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of
corruption; for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought into
bondage. In others of them, a reigning pride and affectation of
singularity, and a spirit of contradiction, those lusts of the mind, which are
as impetuous and imperious as any of the lusts of the flesh and of the world,
forbid a freedom of thinking, and enslave the soul in all its enquiries after
religion. Those can no more think freely who resolve they will think by
themselves than those can who resolve to think with their neighbours. Nor will
they give others liberty to think freely; for it is not by reason and argument
that they go about to convince us, but by jest and banter, and exposing
Christianity and its serious professors to contempt. Now, considering how
natural it is to most men to be jealous for their reputation, this is as great
an imposition as can possibly be; and the unthinking are as much kept from
free-thinking by the fear of being ridiculed in the club of those who set up
for oracles in reason as by the fear of being cursed, excommunicated, and
anathematized, by the counsel of those who set up for oracles in religion. And
where is the free-thinking then?
2. That those who will allow themselves a true liberty of thinking, and will
think seriously, cannot but embrace all Christ's sayings, as faithful,
and well worthy of all acceptation. Let the corrupt bias of the carnal
heart towards the world, and the flesh, and self (the most presumptuous idol
of the three) be taken away, and let the doctrine of Christ be proposed first
in its true colours, as Christ and his apostles have given it to us, and in
its true light, with all its proper evidence, intrinsic and extrinsic; and
then let the capable soul freely use its rational powers and faculties, and by
the operation of the Spirit of grace, who alone works faith in all that
believe, even the high thought, when once it becomes a free thought, freed
from the bondage of sin and corruption, will, by a pleasing and happy power,
be captivated, and brought into obedience to Christ; and, when he thus makes
it free, it will be free indeed. Let any one who will give himself
leave to think impartially, and be at the pains to think closely, read Mr.
Baxter's Reasons for the Christian Religion, and he will find both that
it goes to the bottom, and lays the foundation deep and firm, and also that it
brings forth the top-stone in a believer's consent to God in Christ, to the
satisfaction of any that are truly concerned about their souls and another
world. The proofs of the truths of the gospel have been excellently well
methodized, and enforced likewise, by bishop Stillingfleet, in his Origines
Sacræ; by Grotius, in his book of the Truth of the Christian Religion;
by Dr. Whitby, in his General Preface to his Commentary on the New
Testament; and of late by Mr. Ditton, very argumentatively, in his
discourse concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; and many others
have herein done worthily. And I will not believe any man who rejects the New
Testament and the Christian religion to have thought freely upon the subject,
unless he has, with humility, seriousness, and prayer to God for direction,
deliberately read these or the like books, which, it is certain, were written
both with liberty and clearness of thought.
For my own part, if my thoughts were worth any one's notice, I do declare I
have thought of this great concern with all the liberty that a reasonable soul
can pretend to, or desire; and the result is that the more I think, and the
more freely I think, the more fully I am satisfied that the Christian religion
is the true religion, and that which, if I submit my soul sincerely to it, I
may venture my soul confidently upon. For when I think freely,
1. I cannot but think that the God who made man a reasonable creature by his
power has a right to rule him by his law, and to oblige him to keep his
inferior faculties of appetite and passion, together with the capacities of
thought and speech, in due subjection to the superior powers of reason and
conscience. And, when I look into my own heart, I cannot but think that it was
this which my Maker designed in the order and frame of my soul, and that
herein he intended to support his own dominion in me.
2. I cannot but think that my happiness is bound up in the favour of God, and
that his favour will, or will not, be towards me, according as I do, or do
not, comply with the laws and ends of my creation,--that I am accountable to
this God, and that from him my judgment proceeds, not only for this world, but
for my everlasting state.
3. I cannot but think that my nature is very unlike what the nature of man was
as it came out of the Creator's hands,--that it is degenerated from its
primitive purity and rectitude. I find in myself a natural aversion to my
duty, and to spiritual and divine exercises, and a propensity to that which is
evil, such an inclination towards the world and the flesh as amounts to a
propensity to backslide from the living God.
4. I cannot but think that I am therefore, by nature, thrown out of the favour
of God; for though I think he is a gracious and merciful God, yet I think he
is also a just and holy God, and that I am become, by sin, both odious to his
holiness and obnoxious to his justice. I should not think freely, but very
partially, if I should think otherwise. I think I am guilty before God, have
sinned, and come short of glorifying him, and of being glorified with him.
5. I cannot but think that, without some special discovery of God's will
concerning me, and good-will to me, I cannot possibly recover his favour, be
reconciled to him, or be so far restored to my primitive rectitude as to be
capable of serving my Creator, and answering the ends of my creation, and
becoming fit for another world; for the bounties of Providence to me, in
common with the inferior creatures, cannot serve either as assurances that God
is reconciled tome or means to reconcile me to God.
6. I cannot but think that the way of salvation, both from the guilt and from
the power of sin, by Jesus Christ, and his mediation between God and man, as
it is revealed by the New Testament, is admirable will fitted to all the
exigencies of my case, to restore me both to the favour of God and to the
government and enjoyment of myself. Here I see a proper method for the
removing of the guilt of sin (that I may not die by the sentence of the law)
by the all-sufficient merit and righteousness of the Son of God in our nature,
and for the breaking of the power of sin (that I may not die by my own
disease) by the all-sufficient influence and operation of the Spirit of God
upon our nature. Every malady has herein its remedy, every grievance is hereby
redressed, and in such a way as advances the honour of all the divine
attributes and is suited and accommodated to human nature.
7. I cannot but think that what I find in myself of natural religion does
evidently bear testimony to the Christian religion; for all that truth which
is discovered to me by the light of nature is confirmed, and more clearly
discovered, by the gospel; the very same thing which the light of nature gives
me a confused sight of (like the sight of men as trees walking) the New
Testament gives me a clear and distinct sight of. All that good which is
pressed upon me by the law of nature is more fully discovered to me, and I
find myself much more strongly bound to it by the gospel of Christ, the
engagements it lays upon me to my duty, and the encouragements and assistances
it gives me in my duty. And this is further confirming to me that there, just
there, where natural light leaves me at a loss, and unsatisfied--tells me that
hitherto it can carry me, but no further--the gospel takes me up, helps me
out, and gives me all the satisfaction I can desire, and that is especially in
the great business of the satisfying of God's justice for the sin of man. My
own conscience asks, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself
before the most high God? Will he be pleased with thousands of rams? But I
am still at a loss; I cannot frame a righteousness from any thing I am, or
have, in myself, or from any thing I can do for God or present to God, wherein
I dare appear before him; but the gospel comes, and tells me that Jesus Christ
had made his soul an offering for sin, and God has declared himself
well-pleased with all believers in him; and this makes me easy.
8. I cannot but think that the proofs by which God has attested the truth of
the gospel are the most proper that could be given in a case of this
nature--that the power and authority of the Redeemer in the kingdom of grace
should be exemplified to the world, not by the highest degree of the pomp and
authority of the kings of the earth, as the Jews expected, but by the
evidences of his dominion in the kingdom of nature, which is a much greater
dignity and authority than any of the kings of the earth ever pretended to,
and is no less than divine. And his miracles being generally wrought upon men,
not only upon their bodies, as they were mostly when Christ was here upon
earth, but, which is more, upon their minds, as they were mostly after the
pouring out of the Spirit in the gift of tongues and other supernatural
endowments, were the most proper confirmations possible of the truth of the
gospel, which was designed for the making of men holy and happy.
9. I cannot but think that the methods taken for the propagation of this
gospel, and the wonderful success of those methods, which are purely spiritual
and heavenly, and destitute of all secular advantages and supports, plainly
show that it was of God, for God was with it; and it could never have spread
as it did, in the face of so much opposition, if it had not been accompanied
with a power from on high. And the preservation of Christianity in the world
to this day, notwithstanding the difficulties it has struggles with, is to me
a standing miracle for the proof of it.
10. I cannot but think that the gospel of Christ has had some influence upon
my soul, has had such a command over me, and been such a comfort to me, as is
a demonstration to myself, though it cannot be so to another, that it is of
God. I have tasted in it that the Lord is gracious; and the most subtle
disputant cannot convince one who has tasted honey that it is not sweet.
And now I appeal to him who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart that
in all this I think freely (if it be possible for a man to know that he does
so), and not under the power of any bias. Whether we have reason to think that
those who, without any colour of reason, not only usurp, but monopolize, the
character of free-thinkers, do so, let those judge who easily observe that
they do not speak sincerely, but industriously dissemble their notions; and
one instance I cannot but notice of their unfair dealing with their
readers--that when, for the diminishing of the authority of the New Testament,
they urge the various readings of the original, and quote an acknowledgment of
Mr. Gregory of Christ-church, in his preface to his Works, That no profane
author whatsoever, &c., and yet suppress what immediately follows, as
the sense of that learned man upon it, That this is an invincible reason
for the scriptures' part, &c.
But while we are thus maintaining the divine origin and authority of the New
Testament, as it has been received through all the ages of the church, we find
our cause not only attacked by the enemies we speak of, but in effect betrayed
by one who makes our New Testament almost double to what it really is,2
adding to the Constitutions of the Apostles, collected by Clement,
together with the Apostolical Canons, and making those to be of equal
authority with the writings of the evangelists, and preferable to the
Epistles. By enlarging the lines of defence thus, without either cause or
precedent, he gives great advantage to the invaders. Those Constitutions of
the Apostles have many things in them very good, and may be of use, as
other human compositions; but to pretend that they wee composed, as they
profess to be, by the twelve apostles in concert at Jerusalem, I Peter
saying this, I Andrew saying that, &c., is the greatest imposition
that can be practised upon the credulity of the simple.
1. It is certain there were a great many spurious writings which, in the early
days of the church, went under the names of the apostles and apostolical men;
so that it has always been complained of as impossible to find out any thing
but the canon of scripture that could with any assurance be attributed to
them. Baronius himself acknowledges it, Cum apostolorum nomine tam facta
quam dicta reperiantur esse supposititia; nec sic quid de illis à veris
sincerisque spriptoribus narratum sit integrum et incorruptum remanserit, in
desperationem planè quandam animum dejicunt posse unquam assequi quod verum
certumque subsistat--Since so many of the acts and sayings ascribed to the
apostles are found to be spurious, and even the narrations of faithful writers
respecting them are not free from corruption, we must despair of ever being
able to arrive at any absolute certainty about them.--Ad An. Christ. 44,
sect. 42, &c. There were Acts under the names of Andrew the apostle,
Philip, Peter, Thomas; a Gospel under the names of Thaddeus, another of
Barnabas, another of Bartholomew; a book concerning the infancy of our
Saviour, another concerning his nativity, and many the like, which we all
rejected as forgeries.
2. These Constitutions and Canons, among the rest, were
condemned in the primitive church as apocryphal, and therefore justly
rejected; because, though otherwise good, they pretended to be what really
they were not, dictated by the twelve apostles themselves, as received from
Christ. If Jesus Christ gave them such instructions, and they gave them in
such a solemn manner to the church, as is pretended, it is unaccountable that
there is not the least notice taken of any such thing done or designed in the Gospels,
the Acts, or any of the Epistles.
Those who have judged the most favourable of these Canons and Constitutions
have concluded that they were complied by some officious persons under the
name of Clement, towards the end of the second century, above 150 years
after Christ's ascension, out of the common practice of the churches; that is,
that which the compilers were most acquainted with, or had respect for; when
at the same time we have reason to think that the far greater number of
Christian churches which by that time were planted had Constitutions of their
own, which, if they had had the happiness to be transmitted to posterity,
would have recommended themselves as well as these, or better. But, as the
legislators of old put a reputation upon their laws by pretending to have
received them from some deity or other, so church-governors studied to gain
reputation to their sees by placing some apostolical man or other at the head
of their catalogue of bishops (see bishop Stillingfleet's Irenicum, p.
302), and reputation to their Canons and Constitutions by fathering them upon
the apostles. But how can it be imagined that the apostles should be all
together at Jerusalem, to compose this book of Canons with so much
solemnity, when we know that their commission was to go into all the world,
and to preach the gospel to every creature? Accordingly, Eusebius tells us
that Thomas went into Parthia, Andrew into Scythia, John into the lesser Asia;
and we have reason to think that after their dispersion they never came
together again, any more than the planters of the nations did after the Most
High had separated the sons of Adam.
I think that any one who will compare these Constitutions with the
writings which we are sure were given by inspiration of God will easily
discern a vast difference in the style and spirit. What is the chaff to the
wheat? "Where are ministers, in the style of the true apostles,
called priests, high priests? Where do we find in the apostolical age, that
age of suffering, of the placing of the bishop in his throne? Or of
readers, singers, and porters, in the church?"3
I fear the collector and compiler of those Constitutions, under the
name of Clement, was conscious to himself of his honesty in it, in that
he would not have them published before all, because of the mysteries
contained in them; nor were they known or published till the middle of the
fourth century, when the forgery could not be so well disproved. I cannot see
any mysteries in them, that they should be concealed, if they had been
genuine; but I am sure that Christ bids his apostles publish the mysteries of
the kingdom of God upon the house-tops. And St. Paul, though there are
mysteries in his epistles much more sublime than any of these Constitutions,
charges that they should be read to all the holy brethren. Nay, these Constitutions
are so wholly in a manner taken up either with moral precepts, or rules of
practice in the church, that if they had been what they pretend they had been
most fit to be published before all. And though the Apocalypse is so
full of mysteries, yet a blessing is pronounced upon the readers and hearers
of that prophecy. We must therefore conclude that, whenever they were written,
by declining the light they owned themselves to be apocryphal, that is, hidden
or concealed; that they durst not mingle themselves with what was given by
divine inspiration; to allude to what is said of the ministers (Acts v. 13), Of
the rest durst no man join himself to the apostles, for the people
magnified them. So that even by their own confession they were not
delivered to the churches with the other writings, when the New-Testament
canon was solemnly sealed up with that dreadful sentence passed on those that add
unto these things.
And as we have thus had attempts made of late upon the purity and sufficiency
of our New Testament, by additions to it, so we have likewise had from another
quarter a great contempt put upon it by the papal power. The occasion was
this:--One Father Quesnel, a French papist, but a Jansenist, nearly thirty
years ago, published the New Testament in French, in several small
volumes, with Moral Reflections on every verse, to render the reading
of it more profitable, and meditation upon it more easy. It was much esteemed
in France, for the sake of the piety and devotion which appeared in it, and it
had several impressions. The Jesuits were much disgusted, and solicited the
pope for the condemnation of it, though the author of it was a papist, and
many things in it countenanced popish superstition. After much struggling
about it in the court of Rome a bull was at length obtained, at the request of
the French king, from the present pope Clement 11 bearing date September 8,
1713, by which the said book, with what title or in what language soever it is
printed, is prohibited and condemned; both the New Testament itself, because
in many things varying from the vulgar Latin, and the Annotations, as
containing divers propositions (above a hundred are enumerated) scandalous and
pernicious, injurious to the church and its customs, impious, blasphemous,
savouring of heresy. And the propositions are such as these--"That the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the effectual principle of all manner of
good, is necessary for every good action; for without it nothing is done, nay
nothing can be done"--"That it is a sovereign grace, and is an
operation of the almighty hand of God"--"That, when God accompanies
his word with the internal power of his grace, it operates in the soul the
obedience which it demands"--"That faith is the first grace, and the
fountain of all others"--"That it is in vain for us to call God our
Father, if we do not cry to him with a spirit of love"--"That there
is no God, nor religion, where there is no charity"--"That the
catholic church comprehends the angels and all the elect and just men of the
earth of all ages"--"That it had the Word incarnate for its head,
and all the saints for its members"--"That it is profitable and
necessary at all times, in all places, and for all sorts of persons, to know
the holy Scriptures"--"That the holy obscurity of the word of God is
no reason for the laity not reading it"--"That the Lord's day ought
to be sanctified by reading books of piety, especially the holy
scriptures"--And "that to forbid Christians from reading the
scriptures is to prohibit the use of the light to the children of light."
Many such positions as these, which the spirit of every good Christian cannot
but relish as true and good, are condemned by the pope's bull as impious and
blasphemous. And this bull, though strenuously opposed by a great number of
the bishops in France, who were well affected to the notions of father Quesnel,
was yet received and confirmed by the French king's letters patent, bearing
date at Versailles, February 14, 1714, which forbid all manner of persons,
upon pain of exemplary punishment, so much as to keep any of those books in
their houses; and adjudge any that should hereafter write in defence of the
propositions condemned by the pope as disturbers of the peace. It was
registered the day following, February 15, by the Parliament of Paris, but
with divers provisos and limitations.
By this is appears that popery is still the same thing that ever it was, an
enemy to the knowledge of the scriptures, and to the honour of divine grace.
What reason have we to bless God that we have liberty to read the scriptures,
and have helps to understand and improve them, which we are concerned
diligently to make a good use of, that we may not provoke God to give us up
into the hands of those powers that would use us in like manner!
I am willing to hope that those to whom the reading of the Exposition of
the Old Testament was pleasant will find this yet more pleasant; for this
is that part of scripture which does most plainly testify of Christ, and in
which that gospel grace which appears unto all men, bringing salvation,
shines most clearly. This is the New-Testament milk for babes, the rest is
strong meat for strong men. By these, therefore, let us be nourished and
strengthened that we my be pressing on towards perfection; and that, having
laid the foundation in the history of our blessed Saviour's life, death, and
resurrection, and the first preaching of his gospel, we may build upon it by
an acquaintance with the mysteries of godliness, to which we shall be further
introduced in the Epistles.
I desire I may be read with a candid, and not a critical, eye. I pretend not
to gratify the curious; the summit of my ambition is to assist those who are
truly serious in searching the scriptures daily. I am sure the work is
designed, and hope it is calculated, to promote piety towards God and charity
towards our brethren, and that there is not only something in it which may
edify, but nothing which may justly offend any good Christian.
If any receive spiritual benefit by my poor endeavours, it will be comfort to
me, but let God have all the glory, and that free grace of his which has
employed one that is utterly unworthy of such an honour, and enabled one thus
far to go on in it who is utterly insufficient for such a service.
Having obtained help of God, I continue hitherto in it, and humbly depend upon
the same good hand of my God to carry me on it that which remains, to gird my
loins with needful strength and to make my way perfect; and for this I humbly
desire the prayers of my friends. One volume more, I hope, will include what
is yet to be done; and I will both go about it, and go on with it, as God
shall enable me, with all convenient speed; but it is that part of the
scripture which, of all others, requires the most care and pains in expounding
it. But I trust that as the day so shall the strength be.
1 It may be proper to apprise the reader that the
volume to which this preface was originally prefixed included the Acts of the
Apostles, which in the present edition will commence the second volume, in
order to secure a more equal division of the New Testament--the commentary on
the remaining books being less extended than the author contemplated.--ED.
2 Whiston--ED.
3 Edit. Joan.
Clerici, p. 245.
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