obscurity and perplexedness of his Stile, which makes his Paraphrafe somewhat difficult, and of less general Ufe; and besides, it was never printed by it self without his large Notes. The Right Reverend Father in God Dr. Patrick Lord Bishop of Ely, has with admirable Learning and Judiciousness brought this way of Writing to Perfection, in bis Paraphrafe upon some Books of the Old Testament; And all who desire to understand the Scriptures fully, will ever wish that his Lordship had gone through the whole Writings both of the Old and New Testament in the same Way. Others who have written good Expofitions upon the Holy Scriptures, have either made large Commentaries, of less general and constant Ufe; or have insisted chiefly on fuchCritical Obfervations, as are proper only for the Learned.
I have endeavoured in these Papers to express the full Sense of the Evangelist in the plainest Words, and to continue the Sense without interruption by the clearest Transitions I could. I have all along consulted the best Expofitors, and selected out of every one what seemed to discover the most natural Meaning of the Text. And where any thing remarkable offered it felf to my Thoughts, different from what I met with in Commentators; I fet it down in short Notes in the Margin. But other Critical Obfervations I havegenerally omitted,(excерting what use is made of them in the Paraphrafe,) that I might not fwell the Marginal Notes into a Commentary, and trouble the Reader with repeating what others had faid already. Through the whole, I have fincerely endeavoured to represent the Doctrine of our Saviour in its Original Simplicity, without respect to any Controverfies in Religion; And wheresoever I may have mistaken the Sense of the Evangelift, I shall be always desirous to be better informed.