A CRITICAL AND GRAMMATICAL COMMENTARY ON ST. PAUL'S EPISTLES TO THE PHILIPPIANS, COLOSSIANS, AND TO PHILEMON. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. THE second edition of this portion of my labours is now at length presented to the reader. Like the second edition of the portion which preceded, the Pastoral Epistles, it has been delayed till time could be found for calmly and deliberately reviewing and reconsidering the whole work. This duty has now been performed. Every portion of the commentary has been read over; every interpretation has been tested, and, I might almost add, every citation of Scripture has been examined and verified anew. For this labour, which has occupied a considerable portion of the past summer, there is but little to show. The book remains nearly in all its details as well as in its larger features exactly what it was. A very few readings, and those unimportant, have been changed; a certain number of alterations have been introduced in the Revised Translation; a small number of references to standard sermons, which had been either overlooked or not known when the commentary was written, are now added; and lastly, a short introduction has been prefixed to each one of the three Epistles that are included in this volume. This I fear is all that I have to show for the time spent in preparing this edition. Yet perhaps that time has not been spent wholly in vain. It now enables me with all humility, and with a thorough consciousness of my own imperfections and shortcomings, yet with some measures of chastened confidence to commend to the reader the interpretations of the many great doctrinal passages, especially those bearing on the Majesty and Divinity of our adorable b |