OXFORD: PRINTED BY D. A. TALBOYS, R. GRIFFIN AND CO. GLASGOW; TEGG AND CO. DUBLIN ; 10131. e. 10. JOHN CALVIN, TO THE GODLY AND CANDID READERS, HEALTH, ETC. If the benefit accruing to the church of God from reading my Commentaries, be as great as the advantage I have derived from writing them, I shall have no reason to regret having undertaken the task. Although I had expounded the Book of Psalms in this small school of mine three years ago, when I had concluded this labour, I resolved not to publish more extensively what I had deposited with those of my own household in a spirit of familiarity. Also before I commenced my exposition at the request of my brethren, I said in all sincerity that I regarded it as superfluous, because that most faithful teacher of the church, Martin Bucer, by the consummate erudition, diligence, and fidelity he had displayed in this walk, had at least wrought this effect, that there was the less necessity for my work. Nor if the Commentaries of Wolphgang Musculus had at that time been before the public, could I in justice have passed them over in silence, since he too has earned no small praise in the judgment of good men by his carefulness and pains. I had not yet arrived at the conclusion of the work, when lo I am assailed with fresh importunities, not to suffer my meditations, which had been taken down faithfully and dexterously, and not without great labour, to be lost to the world. I still persisted in my purpose: only promising, and this I had long since purposed, to write something in French, that our own nation might be assisted in the study of so useful a book. While thinking about making this attempt, suddenly, and beside my purpose, by some mysterious impulse or other, I made the experiment of a Latin exposition in one Psalm. And now, as my success, while it corresponded with my wishes, far sur |