Z account, becauſe we had all their Shoulders to ſtand upen.
$ The Pains which our Reverend Brother, ( 5 waxzgiris,) rook 1n his Synopſes Criticornm, 1s ſuch, as not only will make his
* . Name live in the Churches of Chriſt, bur alſo eminently fitred him for giving the Senſe of the whole Scripture in Anno- * Þ# 3ations ofthis Nature, which he undertook and carried on by his own Hand to the Fifty eighth of Iſaiah; deſigning that | : S Two Volumes ſhould comprehend the Whole, and that the firft ſhould determine with his Notes upon the Sorg of Solo |
210n. What occaſioned his firſt Thoughts and Und: rtaking, himlſelt tells us 1n his Paper of Propoſals publiſhed with re- t ference to that Work, in theſe words. * Aut altho there are many excellent Comments upon divers parts of the crip- < ture, and ſome intire Comments or large Annotations upon the whole in the Engliſh Tenguez yet becauſe of the too. »
I 7 < much brevity of ſome, and the unequal Compoſure of others, as being done by divers Hands, and the Prolixiry of - | Þ# <« choſe that have been written upon particular Books. ithath been often and earnelily wiſhed that there w: re ſome ſhort . þ# *© and full Comment, wherein all thoſe Paſſages which need the help of an Interpreter, might be ſufficiently cleared, ec. ; 3 As the firſt Edition of our E-g/;/þ Annorations, after which followed the Tranſlation of thoſe of the Learned Dj;edate in-
to our Language, and then thoſe of the Low Countrey Divines of Holland, C tho allof them deſervedly valuable ) ſeemed mnrch too ſhort to ſatisfie the Thirſt of many Pious Souls after the fuller knowledge of the Scriptures, ſo the larger Edi- tion of our Engliſh Annotations, ſeems capable of ſome Amendments by which they might be made more ſerviceable to | thoſe that uſe them, eſpecially in theſe particulars. _ | RY ? - © +2
1. The whole Text is not Printed in them. > as thoſe who will uſe them muſt make uſe of a Pzble allo, for the under- } S Kanding of them. Our Reverend Brother (with whom _ we concur) ightly judged, that it wonld be of more —_ | | BY | re cage -
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tzve to have the entire Text in the Reader's Eye, while heis ſeeking rhe Senſe of any particular place, and while he reads a Chapter, to have a Commentary/under his E ye in which he might find the Senſe of any part of it, and ſatisfie himſelf ag co any difficulty occurring 1n It, :
2. As ſome ( very eminently. Learned Men _) had been too large in thoſe Avnotations( ſaying almoſt all that hath been ſaid by any upon the Texts they handled \fſo cthers had been as much roo ſhort, and that eſpecially in the New Teflament ( which ſeems to Chriſtians to need the fulleſt Explication ) and others, from their variety of Learning, had mixed ſeveral Quotations of the Fathers, and Critical, and Phzlelogical Notions, poſlibly not ſo proper for the end for which {uch Arzo- | tations are deligned, which is to give the unlearned Chriſtians the true Sente of the Holy Scriptures 3 That thoſe who can, might read and underſtand the Will of God. , |
That our Reader may not miſtake our deſign or undertaking, we deſire that he ſhould know.that we donot pretend ( as ſome have vainly fancied ) te tranſlate Mr. Poele's Synop/7s Criticornw (that would have asked ſix Voluzzes inftead of two) and when it had been done would have ſignified very little, unleis for thoſe who ( being learned Men ) needed no ſuch Tranſlation ; poſlibly in 2 whole Leaf ofthar Book fix Lines would not ſerveour purpoſe. Nor have we had any Ambiti- on,cither roſay ſomething that none had ſaid betoreus ( we have obſerved that thoſe who have had ſuch an Itch, have for the moſt part happned to ſay, what thole who came after them would not ſublcribe ) nor yet to ſay all that we knew wag ſaid before us, ( that had been to have confounded our Readers only with a variety of Senſes ) we have,only hinted the Senſes which in our Judgment have ſeemed faireſt, and leaſt conſtrained, and ſhortly ſhewed the Conſonancy of them to other Scriptures. We have avoided all Polemical Di/cenrſes as no way proper to our deſign, and very rarely hinted thoſe
Praftical Concluſions which have aroſe from the Text when opened, ( the moſt wehave done of that nature is in our DiC | }
courſes upon the Paralles) Te | Our Reverend Brother ( deſigning but Two Volumes, and the firſt tro end with the Song of Solomon, tho' ſince it hath been
determined to concludeit with the Prophet Iſaiah, that all which he lived tofiniſh might be comprehended in one Volume) had an hard Task tocontra& his Diſceurſes ſo,as to bring them within thac compaſs,and thereby was neceſſitated not togive the intire Senſe of each Verſe in his Notes, but only of thoſe Words or Terms in the Verſe which he conceived to ftand in need of Explication, referring by Letters in the Text to the parts of the Commentary. This was not neceſſary in ſuch parts of theScripture where the entireSenſe of the whole Text is given.Nor indeed as to ſome parts is it poſſible, ſuch we mean as are opened harmonically) ;z of which nature ate the Three firſt Evangeliſts. Ir is confeſſed by. all, that the Evangelifts makeup but one entire Hiſtory, tho' ſome of them have ſome rhings which cheothers have not, and they ſeldom agree in the Phraſes and Circumſtances of any one piece of Hiſtory. This made it reaſonable, that with the [zterpretation of one Evangeliſt ſhould be joyned what the others had, with reterence to.the ſame piece of Hiſtory, Which Method hath been ac- cordingly purſued (being the ſame in which the moſt Jadicious Mr. alvin ard others have gone before us; )| nor indeed could any other courſe have been tak?n without a needleſs writing the ſame chings over again, fo as that in our Notes u- pon Mark, we bave only enlarged in the Explicatien of what he hath, which we did not meet with before in Matthews
and in theExplication of Lyke we have cnly opened what he hath, which was not in Matthewor Mark Where they all |
\ three concurrd, or but two of them concurr'd in any Story, we have opened what they all or beth ſay, in our Notes ups