have the satisfaction of reflecting, that it has been his wish simply to follow the Oracles of God. The Scriptures and the Church of England have been claimed, by each of these two parties, as exclusively favouring their peculiar system; and if the same comprehensive and liberal character be found in his writings, he shall consider it, whatever may be the judgment of mere partisans, as no small presumption in his own favour.
There is another point also, in respect to which it has been his aim not to offend ; and that is, in not so perverting the Scripture as to make it refer to Christ and his salvation, when no such object appears to have been in the contemplation of the inspired writer. He regrets to observe, in some indivi- duals, what he knows not how to designate by any more ap- propriate term than that (which however he uses with much hesitation) of an ultra-Evangelical taste; which overlooks in many passages the practical lessons they were intended to convey, and detects in them only the leading doctrines of the Gospel. This error he has laboured earnestly to avoid ; being well assured, that lessons of morality are, in their place, as useful and important as the doctrines of grace. In a word, it has been his endeavour faithfully to deliver, in every instance, what he verily believed to be the mind of God in the passage immediately under consideration : and in the adoption of this principle of interpretation, he trusts for the approbation of all, who prefer the plain and obvious comments of sobriety to the far-fetched suggestions of a licentious fancy. He wishes much that the practice of expounding the Scriptures, which obtained so generally, and with such beneficial effects, at the time of the Reformation, were revived. He has in his present work introduced many Discourses constructed upon this model ; and he cannot but earnestly recommend it to his Younger Brethren in the Ministry, especially those who preach three times in the week, to reserve at least one of these seasons for exposition. It is his wish, however, to guard them against a desultory manner of explaining the Scripture ; and to advise, that the leading point of the whole passage be the point mainly regarded ; and the subordinate parts only so far noticed, as to throw additional light upon that. If this caution be not attended to, the minds of the people are likely to be distracted
xxu PREFACE.
with the diversity and incoherence of the matter brought before them. But if an unity of subject be preserved, the discourse will conic with ten-fold weight to the minds of the audience ; who will be led, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to search the Scriptures for themselves, and to read them with more profit at their own homes. To this it may be added, that it is not necessary the whole passage should be read for the text : let the most striking part of it alone be introduced in the first instance ; and then the whole ex- plained, with such remarks as are suited to impress on the mind the truths contained in it. This will be found to have been the course pursued in many of the following Discourses, to a greater extent perhaps than at first sight appears.
In order to render the work useful as a Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, the Author has made it his object carefully to consider the context, and, in every passage wrhich he un dertook to examine, has uniformly limited his considera- tion of every distinct subject to the view of it presented in the context. The Author thinks it expedient, that discourses deli- vered before mixed assemblies should present a complete view of a subject, without reference to any preceding or following discourse : and to this he has directed his attention throughout the whole work ; so that any single Discourse will present to the Reader all that was judged necessary for the elucidation and improvement of the subject in hand. And, if in some few instances there be an idea repeated in two consecutive Dis- courses, it may well be accounted for, from the circumstance, that, though standing together here, many, so placed, were preached at the distance of twenty or thirty years from each other.