vi

PREFACE.

retired from all Intercourfe with our World, fo that we have no more to do
with him, than to preserve a grateful Remembrance of his Character and
Favours; but that he is to be confidered as an ever-living and ever-present
Friend, with whom we are to maintain a daily Commerce by Faith and
Prayer, and from whom we are to derive thofe Supplies of Divine Grace,
whereby we may be ftrengthened for the Duties of Life, and ripened for
a State of perfect Holiness and Felicity. This is evident, not only from
particular Palages of Scripture, in which he is defcribed as always with
his Church, (Mat. xxviii. 20.) as prefent where-ever Two or Three
are affembled in his Name, (Mat. xviii. 20.) as upholding all Things
by the Word of his Power, (Heb. i. 3.) and as Head over all to his
Church; (Eph. i. 22.) but indeed from the whole Scope and Tenor of the
New Teftament. Thefe Views are therefore continually to be kept up;
and for any to pretend, that this is a round-about Method, (as fome have
prefumed to call it,) and that Men may be led to Virtue, the great End
of all, by a much plainer and more direct Way, feems to me only a vain and
arrogant Attempt to be wiser than GoD himself, which therefore
muft in the End appear to be Folly, with whatever Subtlety of Argument
it may be defended, or with whatever Pomp of Rhetorick it be adorned.

The New Teftament is a Book written with the most confummate

Knowledge of Human Nature; and tho' there are a thousand latent Beau-

ties in it, which it is the Bufinefs and Glory of true Criticifm to place in

a ftrong Point of Light, the general Senfe and Defign of it is plain to

every honeft Reader, even at the very firft Perufal. It is evidently intended,

to bring us to GOD thro' Chrift, in a humble Dependance on the Commu-

nications of his fanctifying and quickening Spirit; and to engage us to a

Courfe of faithful and univerfal Obedience, chiefly from a grateful Senfe

of the Riches of Divine Grace manifefted to us in the Gofpel. And tho

this Scheme is indeed liable to Abufe, as every Thing elfe is, it appears to

me plain in Fact, that it has been, and ftill is, the grand Inftrument of

reforming a very degenerate World; and according to the best Obfervations

I have been able to make on what has paffed about me, or within my own
passed

Breaft, I have found that in Proportion to the Degree, in which this

Evangelical Scheme is received and relished, the Intereft of true Virtue

and Holiness flourishes, and the Mind is formed to manly Devotion, dif-

fufive Benevolence, fteady Fortitude, and in short, made ready to every

good Word and Work. To this therefore I am determined at all Adven-

tures to adhere; nor am I at all ashamed or afraid of any Scorn, which I

may encounter in fuch a Caufe; and I would earnestly exhort, and intreat,

all my
Brethren in the Christian Ministry to join with me, as well know-

ing, to whom we have committed our Souls; and chearfully hoping,

that he, by whom we have hitherto, if faithful in our Calling, been fup-

ported

PREFAC E.

ported and animated, will at length confefs us before the Prefence of his

Father, and the holy Angels, in that Day, when it. will be found no

Dishonour to the greatest and wifeft of the Children of Men, to have lifted

themselves under the Banner of the Crofs, and conftantly and affectionately

to have kept their Divine Leader in View.

I cannot flatter myself fo far, as to imagine that Ihave fallen into no

Miftakes, in a Work of fo great Compass and Difficuity; but my own Con-

Science acquits me of having defignedly mifreprefented any fingle Paffage of

Scripture, or of having written one Line with a Purpofe of inflaming

the Hearts of Chriftians against each other. I should efteem it one of

the most aggravated Crimes, to make the Life of the gentle and benevo-

lent Jefus, a Vehicle to convey fuch Poifon. Would to GOD, that all ́

the Party Names, and unfcriptural Phrafes and Forms, which have di-

vided the Chriftian World, were forgot; and that we might agree to fit

down together, as humble loving Difciples, at the Feet of our common

Mafter, to hear his Word, to imbibe his Spirit, and to tranferibe his-

Life in our own !

I hope it is fome Token of fuch growing Candor on one Side, as I am:

fure 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 Perfons of

Diftinction in it, have favoured this Undertaking with their Encou-

ragement: To them, and all my other Friends, I return my most hearty.

Thanks ;- and shall remember, that the Regard they have been pleafed to

exprefs to it, obliges me to pursue the Remainder of the Work with the

utmost Care and Application; and earnestly intreat the farther Afiftance

of their Prayers, that it may be conducted in a Manner fubfervient to.

the Honour of the Gospel, and the Edification of the Church.

In these Volumes I have been defirous 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 Confequence of this is, that it hath fwelled to a Number of Sheets,

which by more than a third Part exceeds what I promijed in the Propo-

fals; which, tho' at a great Expence, I chofe to permit, rather than I

would either fink the Paper and Character beneath the Specimen, or

omit fome Remarks in the Notes, which appeared to me of Moment,

and rofe in my Mind while I was tranfcribing them. But I hope this

large Addition to what was at first expected, will excufe my not com-

plying with the Importunity of fome of my Friends, who have requested,

that I would introduce this Work with a Differtation on fuch Points

of Jewish Antiquity, as might be ferviceable for the fuller understanding

the New Teftament, or with a Difcourfe its Genuineness,, Credi

bility, Inspiration, and Ufc..

As

wiii

PRE FAC E.

As to the first of these, (a compendious View of fuch Articles of Jewish Antiquity, as may be a proper Introduction to the critical Study of Scripture,) I do with great Pleafure refer the Generality of Readers, and young Students, to the general Preface to the Pruffian Teftament, published by 'Meff. L'Enfant and Beaufobre; which Preface was fome Years fince tranflated into English, and fuits the Purpose, better than any Thing I have feen within fo fmall a Compass. As to the latter, Ipurpofe, if GOD permit, when I have finished the Second Volume, to publish with another Edition of my Three Sermons on the Evidences of Chriftianity, two or three Difcourfes more on the Infpiration of the New Teftament, and on its Ufefulness, especially that of the Evangelical Hiftory; to which I may perhaps add some farther Directions for the most profitable Manner of reading it. At prefent I shall only add, that daily Experience convinces me more and more, that as a thoufand Charms difcover themselves in the Works of Nature, when attentively viewed with Glaffes, which had escaped the naked Eye; fo our Admiration of the Holy Scriptures will rife, in Proportion to the Accuracy, with which they are ftudied.

my

As for thefe Hiftories and Difcourfes of CHRIST, Imay fay of them, with far greater Justice, what Simplicius doth of Epictetus, in the Paffage, of which my Motto is a Part, and with which I fhall conclude 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 themfelves equal Advantage for entering into it, might be guided into their true Interpretation. But if, on the whole, fl- 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 invifible World. *"

४

* Και εισι μεν οι λόγοι σαφείς ο χείρον δε ισως, κατα το δυνατον διαπρύσειν αυτός. Ο τε γαρ γράφων, συμπαθέςερος τε αμα προς αυτός γενησεται, και της αληθείας αύξων κατανοητικώτερος και των φιλομαθων οι προς λογος ασύνηθες εροι, ισως εξεσι τινα χειραγωγιαν εκ της ερμηνείας αυτων. -Ει δέ τις υπο τύλων μη πάχη των λόγων, υπό μόνων αν των εν αδι δικαςηριών υπευθυνθεί. Simplic. in Epictet. Proem.

Northampton,
Nov. 27. 1738.

A TABLE

A TABLE of
of the CHAPTERS in this Volume,
directing to the Sections where they are placed.

ix

X

A TABLE of the SECTIONS in their Order, fhewing the Difpofition of the Harmony.