while they continue such, can have neither lot nor part in this matter; for giving no credit to the Scripture account of things, either in the Old Testament or the New, to discourse with them concerning a connexion and analogy subsisting between the one and the other, is to reason about a fifth sense with a man who has only four. For the conviction both of the Jews and deists, other arguments are to be urged; arguments from undeniable miracles openly wrought, and plain prophecies literally fulfilled. Such proofs are" for them that believe not." And such have been repeatedly urged, in their full force, by the many able champions, who have stood forth (success evermore attend their labours!) in defence of the evidences of Christianity. Expositions and meditations, like those in the subsequent pages, serve not, nor are intended to serve, "for them who be"lieve not, but for them who believe;" who will exercise their faculties in discerning and contem

"O God, thou God of my salvation; and my tongue shall sing " aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not "SACRIFICE, else would I give it; thou delightest not in "BURNT-OFFERING. The sacrifices of God are a broken spi"rit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. O do good in thy good pleasure to Zion; build thou "the walls of JERUSALEM !"

1 Cor. xiv. 22.

plating the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and who are going on unto perfection; to increase their faith, and inflame their charity: to delight them in prosperity, to comfort them in adversity, to edify them at all times. Such effects, the author doubts not, will be experienced by believers, who will read this book with an honest and good heart, with seriousness and attention; for though he humbly trusts it will not be deemed altogether unworthy a place in the libraries of the learned, he builds chiefly on that approbation which he is solicitous it should receive in the closets of the devout; as considering, that it is LOVE, heavenly LOVE, which "never faileth; but whether there be "prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues,

they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it "shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part: but when that which is perfect "is come, then that which is in part shall be done

away." They who find not the wished-for satisfaction in one portion, will find it in another; they who disapprove of an interpretation at the first reading, may, perhaps, approve of it at the second; and they who still continue to disapprove of some particulars, will not therefore disdain to accept the benefit of the rest. He has written to gratify no sect or

* 1 Cor. xiii. 8.

party, but for the common service of all who call on the name of JESUS, wheresoever dispersed, and howsoever distressed, upon the earth. When he views the innumerable unhappy differences among Christians, all of whom are equally oppressed with the cares and calamities of life, he often calls to mind those beautiful and affecting words which Milton represents Adam as addressing to Eve, after they had wearied themselves with mutual complaints and accusations of each other :

But rise, let us no more contend, nor blame

Each other, blamed enough elsewhere; but strive
In offices of love, how we may lighten

Each other's burden in our share of woe.

B. x. V. 958.

Enough has been given to the arts of controversy. Let something be given to the studies of piety and a holy life. If we can once unite in these, our tempers may be better disposed to unite in doctrine. When we shall be duly prepared to receive it, "God

may reveal even this unto us.". To increase the number of disputes among us, is, therefore, by no means the intent of this publication. The author having, for many years, accustomed himself to consider and apply the Psalms, while he recited them, according to the method now laid down, has never failed to experience the unspeakable benefit of it,

both in public and in private; and would wish, if it so pleased God that death might find him employed in meditations of this kind He has likewise frequently taken occasion; in the course of his ministry, to explain a Psalm, upon the same plan, from the pulpit and whenever he has done so, whether the audience were learned or unlearned, polite or rustic, he has generally had the happiness to find the discourse, in an especial manner, noticed and remembered. But still many may be of a different opinion, who may conscientiously believe the doctrines, and practise the duties of the Gospel, whether they see them shadowed out in the Psalms or not. Such will enjoy their own liberty, and permit their brethren to do the same. Or, if they shall think it necessary to take up the 'polemical pen, he desires only to receive that treatment, which he has himself shown to every writer; cited or referred to by him †.

1

"I have lost a world of time," said the learned SALMASIUS, on his death-bed; `" if I had one year more, I would spend it in "reading DAVID'S PSALMS, and PAUL'S EPISTLES."

+ Detur igitur erratis meis venia: ipse demum exemplo meo mihi prosím, qui neminem eorum, a quibus dissenserim, contumeliis affecti; qui non, vitio criticorum, in diversæ sententiæ propugnatores acriter invectus sum; qui denique eam veniam antecessoribus meis libens tribui, quam ab iis, qui hæc in manus sumturi sint, velim impetrare. PEARCE in Præfat. ad edit. Cic. de Oratore.

instead of engaging in a tedious, and, perhaps, unprofitable altercation upon the subject, he feels himself at present much rather inclined, in such a case; to follow, at his proper distance, the amiable ex ample of his greatly respected Diocesan, who reprinted in England the objections made by a foreign professor, to some parts of his Lectures on the Hebrew Poetry, and left the public to form its own judgement between them *. From that Public, the author of the following work is now to expect the determination of his fate. Should its sentence be in his disfavour, nothing further remains to be said, than that he has honestly and faithfully endeavoured to serve it, to the utmost of his power, in the way, in which he thought himself best able; and to give the world some account of that time, and those op

"In his quæ sunt, quæ mihi minus persuasit Vir Clarissimus, ea malui hoc modo libero lectorum nostrorum judicio permittere, quam in disceptationem et controversiam injucun"dam, et fortasse infructuosam, vocare." LowTH, in Præf. ad edit. 2dam Prælect. de Sacra Poesi Hebræorum. "Authors "should avoid, as much as they can," says another very learned critic, "replies and rejoinders, the usual consequences of which "are, loss of time and loss of temper. Happy is he who is en"gaged in controversy with his own passions, and comes off "superior; who makes it his endeavour, that his follies and "weaknesses may die before him, and who daily meditates on Imortality and immortality." JORTIN'S Preface to his Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, p. xxxiv.