PREFACE. indeed from the whole scope and tenor of the New Testament. These views are therefore continually to be kept up; and for any to pretend that this is a roundabout method (as some have presumed to call it,) and that men may be led to virtue, the great end of all, by a much plainer and more direct way, seems to me only a vain and arrogant attempt to be wiser than God himself; which therefore must in the end appear to be folly, with whatever subtlety of argument it may be defended, or with whatever pomp of rhetoric it be adorned. The New Testament is a book written with the most consummate knowledge of human nature; and though there are a thousand latent beauties in it, which it is the business and glory of true criticism to place in a true point of light, the general sense and design of it is plain to every honest reader, even at the very first perusal. It is evidently intended to bring us to God through Christ, in an humble dependence on the communications of his sanctifying and quickening Spirit; and to engage us to a course of faithful and universal obedience, chiefly from a grateful sense of the riches of divine grace manifested to us in the gospel. And though this scheme is indeed liable to abuse, as every thing else is, it appears to me plain in fact, that it has been, and still is, the grand instrument of reforming a very degenerate world; and, according to the best observations I have been able to make on what has passed about me, or within my own breast, I have found, that, in proportion to the degree in which this evangelical scheme is received and relished, the interest of true virtue and holiness flourishes, and the mind is formed to manly devotion, diffusive benevolence, steady fortitude, and, in short, made ready to every good word and work. To this therefore I am determined, at all adventures, to adhere; nor am I at all ashamed or afraid of any scorn which I may encounter in such a cause; and I would earnestly exhort, and entreat, all my brethren in the Christian ministry to join with me, as well knowing to whom we have committed our souls; and cheerfully hoping, that He, by whom we have hitherto, if faithful in our calling, been supported and animated, will at length confess us before the presence of his Father and the holy angels in that day, when it will be found no dishonour to the greatest and wisest of the children of men to have listed themselves under the banner of the cross, and constantly and affectionately to have kept their divine Leader in view. I cannot flatter myself so far, as to imagine that I have fallen into no mistakes, in a work of so great compass and difficulty; but my own conscience acquits me of having designedly misrepresented any single passage of scripture, or of having written one line with a purpose of inflaming the hearts of Christians against each other. I should esteem it one of the most aggravated crimes to make the life of the gentle and benevolent Jesus PREFACE. a vehicle to convey such poison. Would to God that all the partynames, and unscriptural phrases and forms, which have divided the Christian world, were forgot; and that we might agree to sit down together, as humble loving disciples, at the feet of our common Master, to hear his word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to transcribe his life in our own! I hope it is some token of such growing candour on one side, as I am sure it should be an engagement to cultivate it on the other, that so many of the reverend clergy of the establishment, as well as other persons of distinction in it, have favoured this undertaking with their encouragement. To them, and all my other friends, I return my most hearty thanks; and shall remember, that the regard they have been pleased to express to it, obliges me to pursue the remainder of the work with the utmost care and application; and earnestly entreat the farther assistance of their prayers, that it may be conducted in a manner subservient to the honour of the gospel and the edification of the church. In these volumes I have been desirous to express my gratitude to the subscribers, by sparing nothing in my power which might render the work acceptable to them, both with respect to its contents and its form. The consequence of this is, that it hath swelled to a number of sheets, which by more than a third part exceeds what I promised in the proposals; which, though at a great expense, I chose to permit, rather than I would either sink the paper and character beneath the specimen, or omit some remarks in the notes which appeared to me of moment, and rose in my mind while I was transcribing them. But I hope this large addition to what was at first expected will excuse my not complying with the importunity of some of my friends, who have requested that I would introduce this work with a dissertation on such points of Jewish antiquity as might be serviceable for the fuller understanding the New Testament, or with a discourse on its genuineness, credibility, inspiration, and use. As to the first of these (a compendious view of such articles of Jewish antiquity as may be a proper introduction to the critical study of scripture,) I do with great pleasure refer the generality of readers and young students to the general preface to the Prussian Testament, published by Mess. L'Enfant and Beausobre; which preface was some years since translated into English, and suits the purpose better than any thing I have seen within so small a compass. As to the latter, I purpose, if God permit, when I have finished the second volume, to publish with another edition of my Three Sermons on the Evidences of Christianity, two or three discourses more on the inspiration of the New Testament, and on its usefulness, especially that of the Evangelical History; to which I may perhaps add some farther directions for the most profitable manner of reading it. At present I PREFACE. shall only add, that daily experience convinces me more and more, that as a thousand charms discover themselves in the works of nature, when attentively viewed with glasses, which had escaped the naked eye; so our admiration of the holy scriptures will rise in proportion to the accuracy with which they are studied. As for these histories and discourses of Christ, I may say of them, with far greater justice, what Simplicius doth of Epictetus, in the passage of which my motto is a part, and with which I shall conclude my preface: "The words themselves are generally plain and intelligible: but I have endeavoured thus to unfold them, that my own heart might be more deeply impressed with the spirit and certainty of them; and that others, who have not themselves equal advantage for entering into it, might be guided into their true interpretation. But if, on the whole, any reader continue entirely unaffected with them, there is little prospect that any thing will reclaim him till he come to the tribunal of the invisible world."* Και εισι μεν οι λόγοι σαφεις η χειρον δε ίσως, κατά το δυνατον διαπλύσσειν αυλός. Ο τε γαρ γράφων, συμπαθέτερος τε άμα προς αυτός γενησεται, και της αλήθειας αυτών κατανοητικώτερος· και των φιλομαθων οι προς λογος ασυνηθεςεροι, ισως έξεσι τινα χειρα γωγιαν εκ της ερμένειας αύλων. Ει δε τις υπο τόλων μη πάσχη των λόγων, υπό μόνων αν των εν αδε δικαςηρίων υπευθυνθεση. Simplic. in Epictet. Proem. NORTHAMPTON, |