PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME. IN submitting the sequel of this treatise to the judgment of the public, the author has to regret that the causes stated in the preface to the first volume have deferred the publication much longer than he had expected. He has wished and sedulously laboured to be concise but he fears that he may not have escaped from that kind of tediousness which is likely to accompany the continued use of the two chief instruments by which he has prosecuted this inquiry; the patient investigating of the meaning of terms, and the elucidating of the connexion and scope of controverted passages. Whatever conviction he entertains of the truth of his own sentiments, he wishes for their adop tion by others, only so far as the strength of evidence shall warrant. His anxious and constant endeavour has, therefore, been to lay down that evidence with impartiality and fulness; and thus to place before his readers the proper materials for the forming of their own conclusions. He has occasionally, in the notes, indulged in brief digressions; but these have been either to subjects closely connected with the great topic under consideration, or to principles of criticism and interpretation, the familiarizing of which to young persons, and especially to theological students, is an object, in his opinion, too important to need an apology. The reasons of his departing from the authorized version of the Bible, have been stated in the preface to the former volume. It is, however, his earnest hope that this circumstance, having been resorted to for the purpose of superseding or abridging such critical remarks as would have been otherwise indispensable, |