great things of God, and have no taste or relish of them, because they know little of them: but, perhaps, we have more reason to wonder at ourselves, that, conversing so frequently, so intimately, with them, we are not more affected with them, so as even to be wholly taken up with them, and in a continual transport of delight in the contemplation of them. We hope to be so shortly in the meantime, though, like the three disciples that were the witnesses of Christ's transfiguration upon the mount, we are but dull and sleepy, yet we can say, Master, it is good to be here; here let us make tabernacles, Luke ix. 32, 33.
I have nothing here to boast of, nothing at all; but a great deal to be humbled for, that I have not come up to what I have aimed at, in respect of fulness and exactness. In the review of it, I find many defects, and those who are critical perhaps will meet with some mistakes in it; but I have done it with what care I could, and desire to be thankful to God, who, by his grace, has carried me on in his work thus far: let that grace have all the glory, (Phil. ii. 13.) which works in us both to will and to do whatever he will or do, that is good, or serves any good purpose. What is from God, I trust, shall be to him, shall be graciously accepted by him, according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not, and shall be of some use to his church; and what is from myself, that is, all the defects and errors, shall, I trust, be favourably passed by and pardoned. That prayer of St. Austin is mine, Domine Deus, quæcunque dixi in his libris de tuo, agnoscant et tui; et quæ de meo, et tu ignosce et tui—Lord God, whatever I have maintained in these books correspondent with what is contained in thine, grant that thy people may approve as well as thyself; whatever is but the doctrine of my book, forgive thou, and grant that thy people may forgive also.
I must beg likewise to own, to the honour of our great Master, that I have found the work to be its own wages; and that the more we converse with the word of God, the more it is to us as the honey and the honeycomb, Ps. xix. 10. In gathering some gleanings of this harvest for others, we may feast ourselves; and when we are enabled, by the grace of God, to do so, we are best qualified to feed others. I was much pleased with the passage I lately met with of Erasmus, that great scholar and celebrated wit, in an epistle dedicatory before his book De Ratione Concionandi, where, as one weary of the world and the hurry of it, he expresses an earnest desire to spend the rest of his days in secret communion with Jesus Christ, encouraged by his gracious invitation to those who labour and are heavy-laden to come unto him for rest; (Matth. xi. 28.) and this alone is that which he thinks will yield him true satisfaction. I think his words worth transcribing, and such as deserve to be inserted among the testimonies of great men to serious godliness. Neque quisquam facilè credat quàm miserè animus jamdudum affectet ab his laboribus in tranquillum otium secedere, quodque superest vitæ, (superest autem vix brevis palmus sive pugillus,) solum cum eo solo colloqui, qui clamavit olim, (nec hodiè mutat vocem suam,) "Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis, et onerati estis, ego reficiam vos;" quandoquidem in tam turbulento, ne dicam furente, sæculo, in tot molestiis quas vel ipsa tempora publicè invehunt, vel privatim adfert ætas ac valetudo, nihil reperio in quo mens mea libentiùs conquiescat quàm in hoc arcano colloquio—No one will easily believe how anxiously, for a long time past, I have wished to retire from these labours into a scene of tranquillity, and, during the remainder of life, (dwindled, it is true, to the shortest span,) to converse only with him who once cried, (nor does he now retract,) "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you;" for in this turbulent, not to say furious, age, the many public sources of disquietude connected with the infirmities of advancing age leave no solace to my mind to be compared with this secret communion. In the pleasing contemplation of the divine beauty and benignity we hope to spend a blessed eternity, and therefore in this work it is good to spend as much as may be of our time.
One volume more, containing the Prophetical books, will finish the Old Testament, if the Lord continue my life, and leisure, and ability of mind and body for this work. It is begun, and I find it will be larger than any of the other volumes, and longer in the doing; but as God, by his grace, shall furnish me for it, and assist me in it, (without which grace I am nothing, less than nothing,) it shall be carried on with all convenient speed; and sat citò, si sat benè—if with sufficient ability, it will be with sufficient speed. I desire the prayers of my friends, that God would minister seed to the sower, and bread to the eaters, (Isa. Iv. 10.) that he would multiply the seed sown, and increase the fruits of our righteousness; (2 Cor. ix. 10.) that so he who sows and they who reap may rejoice together; (John iv. 36.) and the great Lord of the harvest shall have the glory of all.
Chester, May 13, 1710.
