With these objects constantly in view, the author has long been steadily and laboriously devoted to the preparation and composition of this book. In presenting this result of his labors, he is not conscious of having actually failed to comply with the general terms of his published engagement; yet the critical eyes of many among his readers will doubtless light upon parts of the work, which have been materially affected in their character by the very peculiar circumstances under which the labor has been undertaken and prosecuted; circumstances so _very_ peculiar, that, in accordance with the universal custom of those who have completed such tasks, he is justified in referring to some important details of the history of the writing. The first summons to the task found him engrossed in pursuits as foreign to the investigations necessary for this work, as any department of knowledge that can be conceived; and though the study of critical and exegetical theology had, at a former period, been to him an object of regular attention, the invitation to this work seemed so uncongenial to his adopted pursuits, that he rejected it decidedly; nor was it until after repeated and urgent solicitations, that he consented to undertake it. But even then, so little aware was he of the inexhaustible richness of his noble subject, that he commenced his researches with oft-expressed doubts, whether it would admit of such ample disquisition as was hoped by the original proposer. How just those doubts were, may be best learned from the hurried and brief notice which many important points in this great theme have necessarily received within such narrow limits.