Although the work was undertaken in consequence of the advertisement referred to, the author has felt the necessary study for its execution a labour of love. While engaged in the exposition of what he humbly but earnestly accepts to be the truth, he believes that he has not been influenced in the performance of it by any motive more earnest than that of making the work suggestive and useful to the Christian reader. He loves the Christian Church, considered as a spiritual institution, designed to teach Scriptural truths for the rational faith of mankind, and to insist upon the cultivation of charity as an essential for their salvation. For this Church he has laboured, for this he hopes to continue his labours to the end of his career; it is among his chief pleasures; he owes to it a variety of blessings; he looks to its existence as the medium of a thousand mercies which the world is now enjoying, without a sufficient knowledge of their source; and he regards it as a medium of spiritual light which future generations will embrace with wonder at the hesitation and obscurities felt by the present, and employ it as the handmaid of heaven for the purpose of promoting the Divine teachings.
Of course, with opinions long formed on the subject of this essay, it was scarcely possible to treat them with entire impartiality: no one can reasonably pretend to be indifferent to that which he honestly believes and loves; but the effort to explain and confirm it does not necessarily imply a sectarian advocacy: it simply requires that those who undertake such efforts should love the truth and be
