by means of His instruments Pie accommodates Himself to the grossness of our perceptions. It is not, however, our part arrogantly to define, but humbly to believe what is worthy of God, 1 Cor. ii. 1, and xiv. 21. The holy men of God, both in the Old and New Testaments, exhibit, not only an exact know ledge of the Truth, but also a systematic arrangement of their subject^ a precise expression of their meaning, and a genuine strength of feeling. Beyond these three requisites nothing need be desired. The result of these three qualifications wras, that the writers of the New Testament, however unlearned, wrote always in a style becoming their subject, and, raised far above the technical rules of Greek Rhetoricians, produced an eloquence truly natural, and devoid of all study after mere effect. We shall describe these characteristics one by one, indicating at the same time what has been observed concerning them in the present work.
The arrangement of subjects, contained in each book, is exhi bited in the several Tables, which I have prefixed to each of them ; not merely with the view of assisting the reader's memory, but that I might also show the plan of the sacred writer, as accurately as possible. Any one, who has impressed those tables upon his mind, will perceive their utility. No one would have wished for an argument of each chapter, at its com mencement. The division of the New Testament into chapters, now in use, was made in the dark ages, after the selection of portions for ecclesiastical readings, which frequently therefore run on from one chapter into another. That division frequently separates things which are closely connected, and joins together things which are really distinct. The arguments of the chap ters, therefore, are more rightly to be sought for in the tables,
natural world, and which reveals to us exquisite colours, and the most grace ful texture in the petals of a flower, the fibres of a plant, the plumage of a bird, or the wings of an insect, we shall discover new sources of delight and admiration in the least portions of Holy Writ." — CHRISTOPHER WORDS WORTH. — (I. B.)