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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
P R E F A C E.
THE one half of our undertaking upon the New
Testament1 is now, by the assistance of
divine grace, finished, and presented to the reader, who, it is hoped,
the Lord working with it, may hereby be somewhat helped in
understanding and improving the sacred history of Christ and his
apostles, and in making it, as it certainly is, the best exposition of
our creed, in which these inspired writers are summed up, as is
intimated by that evangelist who calls his gospel A Declaration of
those things which are most surely believed among us,
Luke i. 1.
And, as there is no part of scripture in the belief of which it
concerns more to be established, so there is none with which the
generality of Christians are more conversant, or which they speak of
more frequently. It is therefore our duty, by constant pains in
meditation and prayer, to come to an intimate acquaintance with the
true intent and meaning of these narratives, what our concern is in
them, and what we are to build upon them and draw from them; that we
may not rest in such a knowledge of them as that which we had when in
our childhood we were taught to read English out of the translation and
Greek out of the originals of these books. We ought to know them as the
physician does his dispensatory, the lawyer his books of reports, and
the sailor his chart and compass; that is, to know how to make use of
them in that to which we apply ourselves as our business in this world,
which is to serve God here and enjoy him hereafter, and both in Christ
the Mediator.
The great designs of the Christian institutes (of which these books are
the fountains and foundations) were, to reduce the children of men to
the fear and love of God, as the commanding active principle of their
observance of him, and obedience to him,–to show them the way of their
reconciliation to him and acceptance with him, and to bring them under
obligations to Jesus Christ as Mediator, and thereby to engage them to
all instances of devotion towards God and justice and charity towards
all men, in conformity to the example of Christ, in obedience to his
law, and in pursuance of his great intentions. What therefore I have
endeavoured here has been with this view, to make these writings
serviceable to the faith, holiness, and comfort of good Christians.
Now that these writings, thus made use of to serve these great and
noble designs, may have their due influence upon us, it concerns us to
be well established in our belief of their divine origin. And here we
have to do with two sorts of people. Some embrace the Old Testament,
but set that up in opposition to the New, pleading that, if that be
right, this is wrong; and these are the Jews. Others, though they live
in a Christian nation, and by baptism wear the Christian name, yet,
under pretence of freedom of thought, despise Christianity, and
consequently reject the New Testament, and therefore the Old of course.
I confess it is strange that any now who receive the Old Testament
should reject the New, since, besides all the particular proofs of the
divine authority of the New Testament, there is such an admirable
harmony between it and the Old. It agrees with the Old in all the main
intentions of it, refers to it, builds upon it, shows the
accomplishment of its types and prophecies, and thereby is the
perfection and crown of it. Nay, if it be not true, the Old Testament
must be false, and all the glorious promises which shine so brightly in
it, and the performance of which was limited within certain periods of
time, must be a great delusion, which we are sure they are not, and
therefore must embrace the New Testament to support the reputation of
the Old.
Those things in the Old Testament which the New Testament lays aside
are the peculiarity of the Jewish nation and the observances of the
ceremonial law, both which certainly were of divine appointment; and
yet the New Testament does not at all clash with the Old; for,
1. They were always designed to be laid aside in the fulness of time.
No other is to be expected than that the morning-star should disappear
when the sun rises; and the latter parts of the Old Testament often
speak of the laying aside of those things, and of the calling in of the
Gentiles.
2. They were very honourable laid aside, and rather exchanged for that
which was more noble and excellent, more divine and heavenly. The
Jewish church was swallowed up in the Christian, the mosaic ritual in
evangelical institutions. So that the New Testament is no more the
undoing of the Old than the sending of a youth to the university is the
undoing of his education in the grammar-school.
3. Providence soon determined this controversy (which is the only thing
that seemed a controversy between the Old Testament and the New) by the
destruction of Jerusalem, the desolations of the temple, the
dissolution of the temple-service, and the total dispersion of all the
remains of the Jewish nation, with a judicial defeat of all the
attempts to incorporate it again, now for above 1600 years; and this
according to the express predictions of Christ, a little before his
death. And, as Christ would not have the doctrine of his being the
Messiah much insisted on till the great conclusive proof of it was
given by his resurrection from the dead, so the repeal of the
ceremonial law, as to the Jews, was not much insisted on, but their
keeping up the observation of it was connived at, till the great
conclusive proof of its repeal was given by the destruction of
Jerusalem, which made the observation of it for ever impracticable. And
the manifest tokens of divine wrath which the Jews, considered as a
people, even notwithstanding the prosperity of particular persons among
them, continue under to this day, is a proof, not only of the truth of
Christ’s predictions concerning them, but that they lie under a greater
guilt than that of idolatry (for which they lay under a desolation of
70 years), and this can be no other than crucifying Christ, and
rejecting his gospel.
Thus evident it is that, in our expounding of the New Testament, we are
not undoing what we did in expounding the Old; so far from it that we
may appeal to the law and the prophets for the confirmation of the
great truth which the gospels are written to prove–That our Lord Jesus
is the Messiah promised to the fathers, who should come, and we are to
look for no other. For though his appearing did not answer the
expectation of the carnal Jews, who looked for a Messiah in external
pomp and power, yet it exactly answered all the types, prophecies, and
promises, of the Old Testament, which all had their accomplishment in
him; and even his ignominious sufferings, which are the greatest
stumbling-block to the Jews, were foretold concerning the Messiah; so
that if he had not submitted to them we had failed in our proof; so fat
it is from being weakened by them. Bishop Kidder’s Demonstration of
the Christian’s Messiah has abundantly made out this truth, and
answered the cavils (for such they are, rather than arguments) of the
Jews against it, above any in our language.
But we live in an age when Christianity and the New Testament are more
virulently and daringly attacked by some within their own bowels than
by those upon their borders. Never were Moses and his writings so
arraigned and ridiculed by any Jews, or Mahomet and his Alcoran by any
Mussulmans, as Christ and his gospel by men that are baptized and
called Christians; and this, not under colour of any other divine
revelation, but in contempt and defiance of all divine revelation; and
not by way of complaint that they meet with that which shocks their
faith, and which, through their own weakness, they cannot get over, and
therefore desire to be instructed in, and helped in the understanding
of, and the reconciling of them to the truth which they have received,
but by way of resolute opposition, as if they looked upon it as their
enemy, and were resolved by all means possible to be the ruin of it,
though they cannot say what evil it has done to the world or to them.
If the pretence of it has transported many in the church of Rome into
such corruptions of worship and cruelties of government as are indeed
the scandal of human nature, yet, instead of being thereby prejudiced
against pure Christianity, they should the rather appear more
vigorously in defence of it, when they see so excellent an institution
as this is in itself so basely abused and misrepresented. They pretend
to a liberty of thought in their opposition to Christianity, and would
be distinguished by the name of free-thinkers. I will not here go about
to produce the arguments which, to all that are not wilfully ignorant
and prejudiced against the truth, are sufficient to prove the divine
origin and authority of the doctrine of Christ. The learned find much
satisfaction in reading the apologies of the ancients for the Christian
religion, when it was struggling with the polytheism and idolatry of
the Gentiles. Justin Martyr and Tertullian, Lactantius and Minutius
Felix, wrote admirable in defence of Christianity, when it was further
sealed by the blood of the martyrs. But its patrons and advocates in
the present day have another sort of enemies to deal with. The
antiquity of the pagan theology, its universal prevalence, the edicts
of princes, and the traditions and usages of the country, are not now
objected to Christianity; but I know not what imaginary freedom of
thought, and an unheard-of privilege of human nature, are assumed, not
to be bound by any divine revelation whatsoever. Now it is easy to make
out,
1. That those who would be thought thus to maintain a liberty of
thinking as one of the privileges of human nature, and in defence of
which they will take up arms against God himself, do not themselves
think freely, nor give others leave to do so. In some of them a
resolute indulgence of themselves in those vicious courses which they
know the gospel if they admit it will make very uneasy to them, and a
secret enmity to a holy heavenly mind and life, forbid them all free
thought; for so strong a prejudice have their lusts and passions laid
them under against the laws of Christ that they find themselves under a
necessity of opposing the truths of Christ, upon which these laws are
founded. Perit judicium, quando res transit in affectum–The
judgment is overcome, when the decision is referred to the
affections. Right or wrong, Christ’s bonds must be broken, and his
cords cast from them; and therefore, how evident soever the premises
be, the conclusion must be denied, if it tend to fasten these bands and
cords upon them; and where is the freedom of thought then? While
they promise themselves liberty, they themselves are the servants of
corruption; for of whom a man is overcome of the same is he brought
into bondage. In others of them, a reigning pride and affectation
of singularity, and a spirit of contradiction, those lusts of the mind,
which are as impetuous and imperious as any of the lusts of the flesh
and of the world, forbid a freedom of thinking, and enslave the soul in
all its enquiries after religion. Those can no more think freely who
resolve they will think by themselves than those can who resolve to
think with their neighbours. Nor will they give others liberty to think
freely; for it is not by reason and argument that they go about to
convince us, but by jest and banter, and exposing Christianity and its
serious professors to contempt. Now, considering how natural it is to
most men to be jealous for their reputation, this is as great an
imposition as can possibly be; and the unthinking are as much kept from
free-thinking by the fear of being ridiculed in the club of those who
set up for oracles in reason as by the fear of being cursed,
excommunicated, and anathematized, by the counsel of those who set up
for oracles in religion. And where is the free-thinking then?
2. That those who will allow themselves a true liberty of thinking, and
will think seriously, cannot but embrace all Christ’s sayings, as
faithful, and well worthy of all acceptation. Let the
corrupt bias of the carnal heart towards the world, and the flesh, and
self (the most presumptuous idol of the three) be taken away, and let
the doctrine of Christ be proposed first in its true colours, as Christ
and his apostles have given it to us, and in its true light, with all
its proper evidence, intrinsic and extrinsic; and then let the capable
soul freely use its rational powers and faculties, and by the operation
of the Spirit of grace, who alone works faith in all that believe, even
the high thought, when once it becomes a free thought, freed from the
bondage of sin and corruption, will, by a pleasing and happy power, be
captivated, and brought into obedience to Christ; and, when he thus
makes it free, it will be free indeed. Let any one who will give
himself leave to think impartially, and be at the pains to think
closely, read Mr. Baxter’s Reasons for the Christian Religion,
and he will find both that it goes to the bottom, and lays the
foundation deep and firm, and also that it brings forth the top-stone
in a believer’s consent to God in Christ, to the satisfaction of any
that are truly concerned about their souls and another world. The
proofs of the truths of the gospel have been excellently well
methodized, and enforced likewise, by bishop Stillingfleet, in his
Origines Sacræ; by Grotius, in his book of the Truth of
the Christian Religion; by Dr. Whitby, in his General Preface to
his Commentary on the New Testament; and of late by Mr. Ditton,
very argumentatively, in his discourse concerning the Resurrection
of Jesus Christ; and many others have herein done worthily. And I
will not believe any man who rejects the New Testament and the
Christian religion to have thought freely upon the subject, unless he
has, with humility, seriousness, and prayer to God for direction,
deliberately read these or the like books, which, it is certain, were
written both with liberty and clearness of thought.
For my own part, if my thoughts were worth any one’s notice, I do
declare I have thought of this great concern with all the liberty that
a reasonable soul can pretend to, or desire; and the result is that the
more I think, and the more freely I think, the more fully I am
satisfied that the Christian religion is the true religion, and that
which, if I submit my soul sincerely to it, I may venture my soul
confidently upon. For when I think freely,
1. I cannot but think that the God who made man a reasonable creature
by his power has a right to rule him by his law, and to oblige him to
keep his inferior faculties of appetite and passion, together with the
capacities of thought and speech, in due subjection to the superior
powers of reason and conscience. And, when I look into my own heart, I
cannot but think that it was this which my Maker designed in the order
and frame of my soul, and that herein he intended to support his own
dominion in me.
2. I cannot but think that my happiness is bound up in the favour of
God, and that his favour will, or will not, be towards me, according as
I do, or do not, comply with the laws and ends of my creation,–that I
am accountable to this God, and that from him my judgment proceeds, not
only for this world, but for my everlasting state.
3. I cannot but think that my nature is very unlike what the nature of
man was as it came out of the Creator’s hands,–that it is degenerated
from its primitive purity and rectitude. I find in myself a natural
aversion to my duty, and to spiritual and divine exercises, and a
propensity to that which is evil, such an inclination towards the world
and the flesh as amounts to a propensity to backslide from the living
God.
4. I cannot but think that I am therefore, by nature, thrown out of the
favour of God; for though I think he is a gracious and merciful God,
yet I think he is also a just and holy God, and that I am become, by
sin, both odious to his holiness and obnoxious to his justice. I should
not think freely, but very partially, if I should think otherwise. I
think I am guilty before God, have sinned, and come short of glorifying
him, and of being glorified with him.
5. I cannot but think that, without some special discovery of God’s
will concerning me, and good-will to me, I cannot possibly recover his
favour, be reconciled to him, or be so far restored to my primitive
rectitude as to be capable of serving my Creator, and answering the
ends of my creation, and becoming fit for another world; for the
bounties of Providence to me, in common with the inferior creatures,
cannot serve either as assurances that God is reconciled tome or means
to reconcile me to God.
6. I cannot but think that the way of salvation, both from the guilt
and from the power of sin, by Jesus Christ, and his mediation between
God and man, as it is revealed by the New Testament, is admirable will
fitted to all the exigencies of my case, to restore me both to the
favour of God and to the government and enjoyment of myself. Here I see
a proper method for the removing of the guilt of sin (that I may not
die by the sentence of the law) by the all-sufficient merit and
righteousness of the Son of God in our nature, and for the breaking of
the power of sin (that I may not die by my own disease) by the
all-sufficient influence and operation of the Spirit of God upon our
nature. Every malady has herein its remedy, every grievance is hereby
redressed, and in such a way as advances the honour of all the divine
attributes and is suited and accommodated to human nature.
7. I cannot but think that what I find in myself of natural religion
does evidently bear testimony to the Christian religion; for all that
truth which is discovered to me by the light of nature is confirmed,
and more clearly discovered, by the gospel; the very same thing which
the light of nature gives me a confused sight of (like the sight of men
as trees walking) the New Testament gives me a clear and distinct sight
of. All that good which is pressed upon me by the law of nature is more
fully discovered to me, and I find myself much more strongly bound to
it by the gospel of Christ, the engagements it lays upon me to my duty,
and the encouragements and assistances it gives me in my duty. And this
is further confirming to me that there, just there, where natural light
leaves me at a loss, and unsatisfied–tells me that hitherto it can
carry me, but no further–the gospel takes me up, helps me out, and
gives me all the satisfaction I can desire, and that is especially in
the great business of the satisfying of God’s justice for the sin of
man. My own conscience asks, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before the most high God? Will he be pleased with
thousands of rams? But I am still at a loss; I cannot frame a
righteousness from any thing I am, or have, in myself, or from any
thing I can do for God or present to God, wherein I dare appear before
him; but the gospel comes, and tells me that Jesus Christ had made
his soul an offering for sin, and God has declared himself
well-pleased with all believers in him; and this makes me easy.
8. I cannot but think that the proofs by which God has attested the
truth of the gospel are the most proper that could be given in a case
of this nature–that the power and authority of the Redeemer in the
kingdom of grace should be exemplified to the world, not by the highest
degree of the pomp and authority of the kings of the earth, as the Jews
expected, but by the evidences of his dominion in the kingdom of
nature, which is a much greater dignity and authority than any of the
kings of the earth ever pretended to, and is no less than divine. And
his miracles being generally wrought upon men, not only upon their
bodies, as they were mostly when Christ was here upon earth, but, which
is more, upon their minds, as they were mostly after the pouring out of
the Spirit in the gift of tongues and other supernatural endowments,
were the most proper confirmations possible of the truth of the gospel,
which was designed for the making of men holy and happy.
9. I cannot but think that the methods taken for the propagation of
this gospel, and the wonderful success of those methods, which are
purely spiritual and heavenly, and destitute of all secular advantages
and supports, plainly show that it was of God, for God was with it; and
it could never have spread as it did, in the face of so much
opposition, if it had not been accompanied with a power from on high.
And the preservation of Christianity in the world to this day,
notwithstanding the difficulties it has struggles with, is to me a
standing miracle for the proof of it.
10. I cannot but think that the gospel of Christ has had some influence
upon my soul, has had such a command over me, and been such a comfort
to me, as is a demonstration to myself, though it cannot be so to
another, that it is of God. I have tasted in it that the Lord is
gracious; and the most subtle disputant cannot convince one who has
tasted honey that it is not sweet.
And now I appeal to him who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart
that in all this I think freely (if it be possible for a man to know
that he does so), and not under the power of any bias. Whether we have
reason to think that those who, without any colour of reason, not only
usurp, but monopolize, the character of free-thinkers, do so, let those
judge who easily observe that they do not speak sincerely, but
industriously dissemble their notions; and one instance I cannot but
notice of their unfair dealing with their readers–that when, for the
diminishing of the authority of the New Testament, they urge the
various readings of the original, and quote an acknowledgment of Mr.
Gregory of Christ-church, in his preface to his Works, That no
profane author whatsoever, &c., and yet suppress what immediately
follows, as the sense of that learned man upon it, That this is an
invincible reason for the scriptures’ part, &c.
But while we are thus maintaining the divine origin and authority of
the New Testament, as it has been received through all the ages of the
church, we find our cause not only attacked by the enemies we speak of,
but in effect betrayed by one who makes our New Testament almost double
to what it really is,2
adding to the Constitutions of the
Apostles, collected by Clement, together with the
Apostolical Canons, and making those to be of equal authority
with the writings of the evangelists, and preferable to the Epistles.
By enlarging the lines of defence thus, without either cause or
precedent, he gives great advantage to the invaders. Those
Constitutions of the Apostles have many things in them very
good, and may be of use, as other human compositions; but to pretend
that they wee composed, as they profess to be, by the twelve apostles
in concert at Jerusalem, I Peter saying this, I Andrew saying that,
&c., is the greatest imposition that can be practised upon the
credulity of the simple.
1. It is certain there were a great many spurious writings which, in
the early days of the church, went under the names of the apostles and
apostolical men; so that it has always been complained of as impossible
to find out any thing but the canon of scripture that could with any
assurance be attributed to them. Baronius himself acknowledges it,
Cum apostolorum nomine tam facta quam dicta reperiantur esse
supposititia; nec sic quid de illis à veris sincerisque
spriptoribus narratum sit integrum et incorruptum remanserit, in
desperationem planè quandam animum dejicunt posse unquam assequi
quod verum certumque subsistat–Since so many of the acts and sayings
ascribed to the apostles are found to be spurious, and even the
narrations of faithful writers respecting them are not free from
corruption, we must despair of ever being able to arrive at any
absolute certainty about them.–Ad An. Christ. 44, sect. 42, &c.
There were Acts under the names of Andrew the apostle, Philip, Peter,
Thomas; a Gospel under the names of Thaddeus, another of Barnabas,
another of Bartholomew; a book concerning the infancy of our Saviour,
another concerning his nativity, and many the like, which we all
rejected as forgeries.
2. These Constitutions and Canons, among the rest, were
condemned in the primitive church as apocryphal, and therefore justly
rejected; because, though otherwise good, they pretended to be what
really they were not, dictated by the twelve apostles themselves, as
received from Christ. If Jesus Christ gave them such instructions, and
they gave them in such a solemn manner to the church, as is pretended,
it is unaccountable that there is not the least notice taken of any
such thing done or designed in the Gospels, the Acts, or
any of the Epistles.
Those who have judged the most favourable of these Canons and
Constitutions have concluded that they were complied by some
officious persons under the name of Clement, towards the end of
the second century, above 150 years after Christ’s ascension, out of
the common practice of the churches; that is, that which the compilers
were most acquainted with, or had respect for; when at the same time we
have reason to think that the far greater number of Christian churches
which by that time were planted had Constitutions of their own, which,
if they had had the happiness to be transmitted to posterity, would
have recommended themselves as well as these, or better. But, as the
legislators of old put a reputation upon their laws by pretending to
have received them from some deity or other, so church-governors
studied to gain reputation to their sees by placing some apostolical
man or other at the head of their catalogue of bishops (see bishop
Stillingfleet’s Irenicum, p. 302), and reputation to their Canons
and Constitutions by fathering them upon the apostles. But how can it
be imagined that the apostles should be all together at Jerusalem, to
compose this book of Canons with so much solemnity, when we know
that their commission was to go into all the world, and to preach the
gospel to every creature? Accordingly, Eusebius tells us that Thomas
went into Parthia, Andrew into Scythia, John into the lesser Asia; and
we have reason to think that after their dispersion they never came
together again, any more than the planters of the nations did after the
Most High had separated the sons of Adam.
I think that any one who will compare these Constitutions with
the writings which we are sure were given by inspiration of God will
easily discern a vast difference in the style and spirit. What is
the chaff to the wheat? “Where are ministers, in the style of the
true apostles, called priests, high priests? Where do we find in the
apostolical age, that age of suffering, of the placing of the bishop in
his throne? Or of readers, singers, and porters, in the
church?”3
I fear the collector and compiler of those Constitutions, under
the name of Clement, was conscious to himself of his honesty in
it, in that he would not have them published before all, because of the
mysteries contained in them; nor were they known or published till the
middle of the fourth century, when the forgery could not be so well
disproved. I cannot see any mysteries in them, that they should be
concealed, if they had been genuine; but I am sure that Christ bids his
apostles publish the mysteries of the kingdom of God upon the
house-tops. And St. Paul, though there are mysteries in his epistles
much more sublime than any of these Constitutions, charges that
they should be read to all the holy brethren. Nay, these
Constitutions are so wholly in a manner taken up either with
moral precepts, or rules of practice in the church, that if they had
been what they pretend they had been most fit to be published before
all. And though the Apocalypse is so full of mysteries, yet a
blessing is pronounced upon the readers and hearers of that prophecy.
We must therefore conclude that, whenever they were written, by
declining the light they owned themselves to be apocryphal, that is,
hidden or concealed; that they durst not mingle themselves with what
was given by divine inspiration; to allude to what is said of the
ministers
(Acts v. 13),
Of the rest durst no man join himself to the apostles, for
the people magnified them. So that even by their own confession
they were not delivered to the churches with the other writings, when
the New-Testament canon was solemnly sealed up with that dreadful
sentence passed on those that add unto these things.
And as we have thus had attempts made of late upon the purity and
sufficiency of our New Testament, by additions to it, so we have
likewise had from another quarter a great contempt put upon it by the
papal power. The occasion was this:–One Father Quesnel, a French
papist, but a Jansenist, nearly thirty years ago, published the New
Testament in French, in several small volumes, with Moral
Reflections on every verse, to render the reading of it more
profitable, and meditation upon it more easy. It was much esteemed in
France, for the sake of the piety and devotion which appeared in it,
and it had several impressions. The Jesuits were much disgusted, and
solicited the pope for the condemnation of it, though the author of it
was a papist, and many things in it countenanced popish superstition.
After much struggling about it in the court of Rome a bull was at
length obtained, at the request of the French king, from the present
pope Clement 11 bearing date September 8, 1713, by which the said book,
with what title or in what language soever it is printed, is prohibited
and condemned; both the New Testament itself, because in many things
varying from the vulgar Latin, and the Annotations, as containing
divers propositions (above a hundred are enumerated) scandalous and
pernicious, injurious to the church and its customs, impious,
blasphemous, savouring of heresy. And the propositions are such as
these–“That the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the effectual
principle of all manner of good, is necessary for every good action;
for without it nothing is done, nay nothing can be done”–“That it is a
sovereign grace, and is an operation of the almighty hand of
God”–“That, when God accompanies his word with the internal power of
his grace, it operates in the soul the obedience which it
demands”–“That faith is the first grace, and the fountain of all
others”–“That it is in vain for us to call God our Father, if we do
not cry to him with a spirit of love”–“That there is no God, nor
religion, where there is no charity”–“That the catholic church
comprehends the angels and all the elect and just men of the earth of
all ages”–“That it had the Word incarnate for its head, and all the
saints for its members”–“That it is profitable and necessary at all
times, in all places, and for all sorts of persons, to know the holy
Scriptures”–“That the holy obscurity of the word of God is no reason
for the laity not reading it”–“That the Lord’s day ought to be
sanctified by reading books of piety, especially the holy
scriptures”–And “that to forbid Christians from reading the scriptures
is to prohibit the use of the light to the children of light.” Many
such positions as these, which the spirit of every good Christian
cannot but relish as true and good, are condemned by the pope’s bull as
impious and blasphemous. And this bull, though strenuously opposed by a
great number of the bishops in France, who were well affected to the
notions of father Quesnel, was yet received and confirmed by the French
king’s letters patent, bearing date at Versailles, February 14, 1714,
which forbid all manner of persons, upon pain of exemplary punishment,
so much as to keep any of those books in their houses; and adjudge any
that should hereafter write in defence of the propositions condemned by
the pope as disturbers of the peace. It was registered the day
following, February 15, by the Parliament of Paris, but with divers
provisos and limitations.
By this is appears that popery is still the same thing that ever it
was, an enemy to the knowledge of the scriptures, and to the honour of
divine grace. What reason have we to bless God that we have liberty to
read the scriptures, and have helps to understand and improve them,
which we are concerned diligently to make a good use of, that we may
not provoke God to give us up into the hands of those powers that would
use us in like manner!
I am willing to hope that those to whom the reading of the
Exposition of the Old Testament was pleasant will find this yet
more pleasant; for this is that part of scripture which does most
plainly testify of Christ, and in which that gospel grace which
appears unto all men, bringing salvation, shines most clearly. This
is the New-Testament milk for babes, the rest is strong meat for strong
men. By these, therefore, let us be nourished and strengthened that we
my be pressing on towards perfection; and that, having laid the
foundation in the history of our blessed Saviour’s life, death, and
resurrection, and the first preaching of his gospel, we may build upon
it by an acquaintance with the mysteries of godliness, to which we
shall be further introduced in the Epistles.
I desire I may be read with a candid, and not a critical, eye. I
pretend not to gratify the curious; the summit of my ambition is to
assist those who are truly serious in searching the scriptures daily. I
am sure the work is designed, and hope it is calculated, to promote
piety towards God and charity towards our brethren, and that there is
not only something in it which may edify, but nothing which may justly
offend any good Christian.
If any receive spiritual benefit by my poor endeavours, it will be
comfort to me, but let God have all the glory, and that free grace of
his which has employed one that is utterly unworthy of such an honour,
and enabled one thus far to go on in it who is utterly insufficient for
such a service.
Having obtained help of God, I continue hitherto in it, and humbly
depend upon the same good hand of my God to carry me on it that which
remains, to gird my loins with needful strength and to make my way
perfect; and for this I humbly desire the prayers of my friends. One
volume more, I hope, will include what is yet to be done; and I will
both go about it, and go on with it, as God shall enable me, with all
convenient speed; but it is that part of the scripture which, of all
others, requires the most care and pains in expounding it. But I trust
that as the day so shall the strength be.
| M. H. |
| 1721. |
1
It may be proper to apprise the reader that the volume to which this
preface was originally prefixed included the Acts of the Apostles,
which in the present edition will commence the second volume, in order
to secure a more equal division of the New Testament–the commentary on
the remaining books being less extended than the author
contemplated.–ED.
Whiston–ED.
Edit. Joan. Clerici, p. 245.
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