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allied to her, or defcended from her. Nor am I able, in all the Overflowings of the most affectionate Gratitude and Duty, which I now feel, to form a more important Wifh for that condefcending Patronefs to whom I am addreffing, than (to borrow the Words of the Hebrew Monarch,) that the Teftimonies of GOD may be her Delight and her Counsellors! And I truft, MADAM, that they are fo; I truft that, conscious of a Heart devoted to GoD, and fupported by a wellgrounded Confidence in his Favour, You are fixing Your Eyes on a Celeftial Diadem, which fhall sparkle with immortal Glories, when the Kingdoms of this Earth fhall be known no more, and all its Pageantry fhall be paffed away like a Dream. May You at length, in a very diftant Moment, have a happy Acceffion to that never-fading Crown; and after having long adorned the higheft Stations here with that amiable PRINCE, whofe conftant and indearing Friendship is so much more to Your Royal Highnefs, than all the Grandeur which can refult from Your Relation to Him, may You be Both exalted to the fuperior Glories of the Heavenly Kingdom!

I HOPE Your Royal Highnefs will pleafe to pardon me, that I have expreffed myfelf with fo much Warmth and Freedom in a Prefence, I fo highly revere: But I fhould be moft unworthy of the Name and Honour of a Chriftian Minifter, if I were ever afhamed of Sentiments like thefe; and the Affiduity with which I have lately been fitting at the Feet of my Divine Mafter, while commenting on these authentick Memoirs of his Life and Hiftory, hath in

fpired

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fpired me with a Veneration and Ardor which it is not eafy to reprefs. I am fenfible, MADAM, thefe are unfashionable Strains on fuch an Occafion; and it would have been eafy to have filled many more Pages than these with Panegyrick, on what I have read of Your Illuftrious Ancestors, and what I have heard from Multitudes, of the Charms of Your Royal Highness's Perfon and Character: But I imagined that fuch Hints as thefe were more fuitable to that Plainnefs and Simplicity, which at all Times become a Servant of CHRIST; and I flatter myfelf, that to a Perfon of Your Royal Highnefs's Penetration, they will not seem less expreffive, of that undiffembled Efteem, and affectionate Zeal, with which I am,

MADAM,

Your ROYAL HIGHNESS'S

Moft Faithful,

Moft Dutiful,

and Moft Obedient

Humble Servant,

Philip Doddridge.

*

THE

PREFACE.

I

HAVE long been convinced, that if any Thing can flop that Progrefs of Infidelity and Vice, which every wife Man beholds with Sorrow and Fear; that if any Thing can allay thofe Animofities, which (unnatural as they are,) have fo long inflamed us, and pained the Heart of every generous Chriftian; in a Word, that if any Thing can establish the Purity and Order, the Peace and Glory of the Church, or Spread the Triumphs of Perfonal, and Domeftick Religion among us, it must be an attentive Study of the Word of GOD, and efpecially of the New Teftament; that beft of Books, which, if read with Impartiality and Serioufnefs, under the Influences of that Bleffed Spirit by whom it was infpired, would have the noblest Tendency to inlighten and adorn the Mind, and not only to touch, but to animate and transform the Heart.

The Station of Life, in which Divine Providence has placed me, rendered it peculiarly necessary for me to make thefe Sacred Oracles my principal Study; and having, to my unspeakable Delight and Advantage, felt much of their Energy, I long fince determined, that it should be the main Business of my Life as an Author, to illuftrate them, and to lead my Fellow-Chriftians into a due Regard for them, by endeavouring, in as plain and popular a Manner as I could, to display their Beauty, their Spirit, and their Ufe. And I thankfully acknowledge the Goodness of GOD to me, in giving me Health and Spirits to finish fo confiderable a Part of my Defign, tho' I have fo much other Bufinefs daily on my Hands, and have been obliged to execute this in a much more laborious Manner, than I at first apprehended would have been requifite.

The Title I have given to the Work fufficiently explains its original Defign, which was chiefly to promote Family Religion, and to render the reading of the New Teftament more pleafant and improving, to thofe

VOL. I.

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that

that wanted the Benefit of a learned Education, and bad not Opportunity or Inclination to confult a Variety of Commentators. And I thought it proper ftill to retain the Title of The Family Expofitor, even when I bad made fome Alteration in the Plan; because that is fill the leading View of the greater Part of the Work. In Pursuit of this I have given a large Paraphrafe on the Sacred Text, well knowing, that this is the most agreeable and ufeful Manner of explaining it to common Readers, who hardly know how to manage Annotations, especially when they are to be read to others. The chief Objection against this Way is, that when a whole Verfe, and much more, when feveral Verfes are taken together, (as they frequently are,) it requires a great Attention, and in fome Places fome confiderable Penetration, to trace the exact Correspondence between the respective Claufes of the Text, and the Paraphrafe. There are fome Performances of this Kind in our own Language, as well as in others, in which fuch Liberties are taken, that I freely confefs, that were it not for the initial References, or oppofite Column, I should not be able to guess from the Paraphrafe itself, what the Scripture was, which it pretended to explain. This muft undoubtedly give the greatest Advantage for Difguife and Mifreprefentation; and where thofe Gloffes are read by themselves without the Scriptures, (which I know has been the Cafe in fome Families,) it is really exchanging the Prophets and Apoftles for modern Divines. To prevent this intolerable Evil, I have formed my Paraphrafe so, that it is impoffible to read it without the Text, having every where interwoven the Words of Scripture with it, and carefully diftinguished them from the reft by the Italic Character. So that every one may immediately fee, not only the particular Claufe to which any Explication anfwers, but also what are the Words of the Sacred Original, and what merely the Senfe of a fallible Man; who is liable, tho' in the Integrity of his Heart, tá mislead his Readers, and dares not attribute to himself the fingular Glory of having put off every Prejudice, even while he would deliberately and knowingly allow none.

I thought it might be fome additional Improvement to this Work, and Jome Entertainment to the more accurate Reader, to give the Text in a New Verfion, which I have accordingly done from the Original with all the Care I could. There are fo few Places, in which the general Senfe will appear different from our received Tranflation, that fome will perhaps think this an unnecessary Trouble: But I can by no means repent it as it has given me an Opportunity, of fearching more accurately into feveral Beauties of Expreffion, which had before escaped me; and of making fome Alterations, which tho' they may not be very material to the Edifi cation of Men's Souls, may yet in fome Degree do a farther Honour to Scripture; raifing fome of thofe Ornaments, which were before depressed;

and

PREFACE.

and fufficiently proving, that feveral Objections urged against it were entirely of an English Growth: Ends, which might yet more abundantly be answered by a new Verfion of the Old Teftament, which has fuffered much more in our Tranflation, as it is natural to fuppofe it muft.

I thought it might also conduce to the Ufefulness of this Expofition, to digeft the Hiftory of the Four Evangelifts into one continued Series, or in other Words, to throw it into the Order of an Harmony. By this Means each Story and Difcourfe is exbibited with all its concurrent Circumstances, as recorded by the facred Penmen; frequent Repetitions are prevented; and a Multitude of feeming Oppofitions are fo evidently reconciled, as to superfede many Objections, and render the very Mention of them unneceflary. My Reader will hardly imagine the Pains, that this Part of the Work bas coft me, both in examining the Order of the feveral Texts, and collating the different Accounts in each, in fuch a Manner, that no one Claufe in any of the Evangelifts might be omitted; and yet the feveral Paffages to be inferted might make one connected Senfe, and, without any large Addition, fand in a due Grammatical Order. I was the more fenfible of this Labour, as I laid it down for a Maxim to myself, when I entered on this Work, that I would ftudy as much as poffible to make it an Original in all its Parts. Accordingly the firft Copy of it was drawn up with hardly any other Affiftance, than that of the Greek Teftament, which I éndeavoured to harmonize, to tranflate, to paraphrafe, and to improve, just as if none had ever attempted any thing of that Nature before me: Afterwards I was obliged to compare it with what others had done; and, as may easily be fuppofed, I found in many Instances an Agreement, and in many others a Difference, betwixt them and myself. Where we differed, I endeavoured impartially to examine the Reasons on both Sides; and where I have perceived myself indebted to any, for leading me into a more just and beautiful Verfion, Explication, or Difpofition, than I had before chofen, I have generally, and fo far as I can recollect, univerfally, acknowledged it; unless where the Hint came from fome living Friend, where fuch Acknowledgment would not have been agreeable. There are, no doubt, many other Inftances, in which the Thoughts, that feemed originally my own, might be fuggefted by Memory, tho I knew not from whence they came; and a thousand more are so obvious, that one would fuppofe they must occur to every attentive Reader, who has any Genius and Furniture for Criticifm. To have multiplied References and Quotations in fuch a Cafe, would have been, I think, a very useless and burthenfome Piece of Pedantry, and might, (as I fear has been the Cafe with Pfeiffer, and Wolfius,) have difcouraged the Reader from confulting any, in fo great a Croud. I could not well brook the Drudgery of tranfcribing the Works of others, and should fcorn the Meannefs of dreffing myself up in borrowed Plumes;

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