The help which I might receive from the sedulous labours of so many learned men, and those in times, places, principles, distant and distinguished from each other, as also managing their common design with great variety as to particular intentions, I looked on as a matter of no small advantage unto me. Some, I found, had critically examined many of the words, phrases, and expressions of the writer; some had compared his guotations with the places in the Old Testament from whence they were taken; some had endeavoured an analysis of the several discourses of the author, with the nature and force of the arguments insisted on by him: the labours of some were to improve the truths contained in the Epistle unto prac- tice; others had collected the difficulties which they observed therein, and scanned them in a scholastical way, with objections and solutions, after their manner ; others had an especial design unto the places whose sense is controverted amongst the several parties at variance in Christian religion:—all in their way and manner endeavouring to give light to the intentions of the Holy Ghost, either in particular passages or in the whole Epistle. The helps and advantages, in the investigation of the mind of God, which by their labours might be obtained, I looked on as a great encouragement to undertake the same work with them, and to promote the light of truth thereby.
But, on the other side, no small objection unto the whole work and design did hence also arise; for it might seem to some altogether needless to engage in that which so many had already gone through with, to the great profit and edification of the church. And nothing can or ought more justly to weaken and take off the resolution of any in this kind of endeavours, than that they are needless: for what- ever is so, will also thereby be useless; and, because useless, burdensome. This
consideration, I confess, did for a long time deter me from executing my purpose
6 TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.
of casting my mite into this treasury. But yet, after [had made a thorough perusal of all the comments, expositions, annotations, or observations on the Epistle, which by any means I could obtain, I returned again, upon sundry con- siderations, unto my former thoughts and resolutions. For, first, I found the ex- cellency of the writing to be such; the depths of the mysteries contained in it to be so great; the compass of the truth asserted, unfolded, and explained, so exten- sive and diffused through the whole body of Christian religion; the usefulness of the things delivered in it so important and indispensably necessary ; as that I was quickly satisfied that the wisdom, grace, and truth, treasured in this sacred store- house, are so far from being exhausted and fully drawn forth by the endeavours of any or all that are gone before us, or from being all perfectly brought forth to light by them, as that I was assured there was left a sufficient ground and foundation, not only for renewed investigation after rich branches in this mine for the present generation, but for all them that shall succeed, unto the consummation of all things. For, if we find it thus in human sciences, that no ability, no in- dustry, no combination of the most happy wits for their improvement, in former ages, hath precluded the way unto persons of ingenuity and learning to add con- siderably in several kinds unto their respective advancement,—nor shall the sedulity of this present age, in the furtherance and adorning of them, be ever able to bring them unto any such perfection as to condemn succeeding generations unto the slothful and servile drudgery of the mere perusal of their dictates and prescrip- tions, and so, by the use of their inventions, leave unto others only that of their memory,—how much more must we grant the same in things divine, and the spi- ritual knowledge of them, whose stores in this life are absolutely inexhaustible, and whose depths are not fully to be fathomed? Again; it is evident that the principal things asserted and taught in this Epistle,—such as is the doctrine of the person and the priesthood of Jesus Christ,—have received a more eager and subtile opposition since the labours and endeavours of the most in the exposition of it, than they had done before. And as this renders the vindication of the places wherein they are taught and asserted necessary, so it is not unknown, unto those who are conversant in these kinds of studies, what advantage may be obtained in the investigation of truth by the opposition that is made unto it, especially when that opposition is managed with a curious search into every word and syllable which may seem to give countenance unto it, as also in the sifting of every tittle and particle that stand in its way; which course of procedure the enemies of the truth mentioned have, with much art and industry, engaged themselves into. But that which most of all took off the weight of the discouragement that arose from the multiplied endeavours of learned men in this kind, was an observation that all of them, being intent on the sense of the words as absolutely considered, and the use of them to the present church, had much overlooked the direct respect and regard that the author had in the writing of this Epistle to the then past, present, and future condition of the Hebrews, cr church of the Jews. Looking at these thing's as dead and buried, of no use in the present state of the church, they did either wholly neglect them, or pass them over in a light and perfunctory manner ; nor, indeed, had many of them, though otherwise excellently well qualified, a com- petency of skill for the due consideration of things of that nature. But yet, those that shall seriously and with judgment consider the design of the writer of this Epistle, the time wherein he wrote it, the proper end for which it was composed, the subject-matter treated of in it, the principles he proceeds upon, and his manner of arguing, will easily perceive, that without a serious consideration of them it is not possible to come to a right comprehension, in many things, of the mind of the Holy Ghost therein. Many principles of truth he takes for granted, as acknow- ledged amongst the Hebrews during their former church-state, and makes them a foundation for his own superstructure; many customs, usages, ordinances, in-