most distinguished Scholar of his time, Dr. Samuel Parr. At the feet of this highly-gifted Gamaliel, it was very long the Author's good fortune to sit, and by him, for fifteen years, it was his pride to be regarded as a confidential friend and literary associate. Some years ago, the Author was urged, at the earnest exhortations of that revered friend, to digest and arrange for publication his Biblical collections. It may easily be conceived that such a requisition, and from such a quarter, would not be made in vain, and accordingly the task of arrangement was immediately and cheerfully entered upon. But little did the Author imagine the labor improbus that he was destined to encounter; for, in order to appreciate the value of these miscellaneous notes, it was indispensably necessary to prosecute profound researches, and institute extensive comparisons of them with the annotatory matter of the most eminent commentators of every age, and occasionally to ascend to the fountain heads of interpretations to be found in the early Versions, the ancient Fathers, and Greek Commentators. These labours had consumed a considerable time, when it occurred to the Editor, and was partly suggested by some judicious friends and faithful well-wishers of our church, and of the cause of orthodox protestantism in general, that he might engraft on his original design another of far greater importance, and thereby supply a universally acknowledged desideratum in theological literature.* It was proposed that, within

* See Mr. Horne's Introduction, Vol. 2. p. ult.

a moderate compass, and in a convenient form, he should endeavour to bring together the disjecta membra Exegeseos, the most important materials for the right interpretation of Scripture, hitherto dispersed amidst numerous bulky and expensive volumes; carefully digesting, condensing, simplifying, and moulding those heterogeneous materials, including his own original notes, into one connected and consistent body of erudite and accurate annotation, and, at the same time, intermixing with the whole a series of critical remarks, which might serve to guide the judgment of the student, or junior minister, amidst the contrarieties of jarring interpretations; and, finally, in order to more effectually adapt the work to general use, clothing the foreign matter in a vernacular dress, and expressing the sense in simple and perspicuous phraseology. Of this plan one of the most important advantages proposed was this, that it would render it no longer necessary for English Students in Divinity to have recourse to certain foreign works, however learned, of very questionable orthodoxy, and thereby obtaining the aids, valuable as they are, of exegetical and philological knowledge at too dear a rate, by the sacrifice, or, at least, depravation of sound principles in doctrinal theology. It is scarcely possible, however, for the most experienced theologian to conceive how ar duous has been the task of accomplishing such a plan, and with what almost insuperable difficulties the Editor has had to struggle. These he has fearlessly, and he trusts not quite unsuccessfully, encountered, and, to use the words of Dr. Samuel Johnson, he

now commits his labours to the Public, with the confidence of one who has endeavoured to be useful, and who is conscious of having done his best.

Having premised thus much on his plan generally, the Editor will now proceed to further develope its details, and indicate the nature and contents of the present work. It has been, throughout, especially adapted to the use of Academical students, Candidates for Holy Orders, and all persons who possess any tolerable knowledge of the Greek of the New Testament, and it will, he hopes, materially tend to fix and establish the interpretation of the New Testament on the authority of the most eminent Commentators, both ancient and modern; and subserviently thereto, the phraseology is explained, and the subject matter illustrated, both from the Classical authors, and the Rabbinical writers. One peculiar feature of the work is, that the interpretations of the ancient Fathers and early Greek Commentators (as Theophylact, Theodoret, Euthymius, Ecomenius, and Aretas) together with the Scholiasts and Glossographers, have formed the basis of the exegetical and doctrinal matter, and the copious stores of Elsner, Raphel, Kypke, and Wetstein, that of the philological, or illustrative. Indeed, the present work contains the whole of the exegetical and philological annotations of Wetstein (whose New Testament has been emphatically termed by a celebrated Prelate, THE invaluable book), and of the immensely numerous Classical and Rabbinical illustrations, all such as, on a diligent examination, appeared to be at all apposite, or important to the interpretation of

the New Testament. As approximating in authority to the Fathers and Greek Commentators, the Editor has assigned the next place of importance in interpretation to the works of those illustrious and orthodox Commentators of the modern School, who flourished from the glorious era of the Reformation to about the middle of the last century, and who, treading in the footsteps of a Chrysostom, an Origen, a Basil, a Gregory Nazianzen and a Jerome, completed the superstructure of legitimate interpretation, which had been originally founded, and partly raised, by the hands of those venerable Fathers of the Church.

Adverting, however, to the peculiar exigencies of the present times, and in compliance with the wishes and suggestions of some judicious friends, equally interested in the welfare of our Church, and attached to the cause of orthodoxy in general, the Editor has been induced to make by far the most ample selection from the exegetical and philological annotations of the foreign Commentators of the last half century; as Wetstein, Heumann, Kypke, Koecher, Carpzov, Ernesti, Bengel, Morus, Storr, Valcknaer, Michaelis, Fischer, Koppe, Pott, Henrichs, Knapp, Jaspis; and especially Rosenmuller, Kuinoel, and Tittman; from whose ample stores the Editor has largely profited; insomuch that it will, in future, be little necessary for the Student to resort to the works themselves. The Editor has, moreover, carefully compiled all important illustrations of the New Testament from the Classical writers found in the works of Grotius, Pricæus, Bos, Alberti, Homberg, Elsner, Raphel, Abresch, Palairet, Pincinelli,

Krebs, Munthe, Loesner, Kypke, and Wetstein; and, of our own countrymen, Blackwall, Wakefield, and Bulkley, including his own copious collections, formed gradually in a diligent study of the Classical writers during the last eighteen years. Nor has the Editor omitted to avail himself of the valuable aids to be found in the illustrations of the Scriptures from the Rabbinical writers, as collected by Cartwright, Drusius, Buxtorf, Lightfoot, Pococke, Hackspan, Surenhusius, Lampe, Schoettgen, Meuschen, Wetstein, and others, of which all that were found directly apposite have been adopted, though generally with abridgment, and often translated into English. Nor have the highly meritorious labours of our great English Theologians, of every age, been overlooked or undervalued, though the Editor has derived comparatively few materials from that quarter, partly because he supposed that the works of those Divines were generally in the hands of his readers, and especially since few of them supply much of those kinds of matter of which the present work is chiefly composed, i. e. exegetical and philological. The reader, however, will find several valuable annotations derived from that quarter, both exegetical and doctrinal; of these latter, indeed, the number would have been greater, had not the Editor wished to avoid the adoption of such as had already been extracted, and are to be found in the valuable Family Bible of Dr. D'oyly and Bp. Mant, or in those of Mr. Hewlett, or Dr. Adam Clarke, in Mr. Horne's Introduction, or the Abstracts of Mr. Elsley and Mr. Slade.

In order to a fuller comprehension of the system