sented. Many of these differences are nearly verbal, and would cease, if due allowance was made for the imperfection of human language, and the effects of an accustomed phraseology, which often lead people to affix different ideas to the same expressions, or to express the same ideas in different words. And if, in some things, we cannot exactly agree, since we confess that we are all weak and fallible, mutual patience and forbearance would be equally becoming the acknowledgements we make, and the Gospel which we profess. We should thereby act in character, as the followers of Him who was compassionate to the infirmities and mistakes of his disciples, and taught them, not every thing at once, but gradually, as they were able to bear.
The author ought not to be very solicitous upon his own account, what reception his performance may meet with. The fashion of this world is passing away. The voice, both of applause and of censure, will soon be stifled in the dust. It is, therefore, but a small thing to be judged of man's judgement. But conscious of the vast importance of the subject which he thus puts into the reader's hands, he cannot take leave of him without earnestly entreating his serious attention. The one principle which he assumes for granted, and which he is certain cannot be disproved, is, that the Bible is a revelation from God. By this standard he is willing that whatever he has advanced may be tried. If the Bible be true, we must all give an account, each one of himself, to the great and final Judge. That when we shall appear before his awful tribunal, we may be found at his right hand, accepted in the Beloved, is the author's fervent prayer, both for his readers and for himself.
LONDON, 15th April, 1786.