down my life for the sheep. But its being divided into two sentences, and put into separate verses, has occasioned the disjointed and improper version given in the common translation. 14. I am the good Shepherd and know my sheep; and am known of mine. 15. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. In this artificial distribution (which seems to have originated from Beza; for he acknowledges that before him, the fifteenth verse included only the last member, and I lay down, &c.) the second sentence. is an abrupt, and totally unconnected, interruption of what is affirmed in the preceding words, and in the following. Whereas, taking the words as they stand naturally, it is an illustration by similitude quite in our Lord's manner, of what he had affirmed in the foregoing words. But, though the translator should not be misled in this manner, a desire of preserving, in every verse of his translation, all that is found in the corresponding verse of his original, that he may adjust the one to the other, and give verse for verse, may oblige him to give the words a more unnatural arrangement, in his own language, than he would have thought of doing, if there had been no such division into verses, and he had been left to regulate himself solely by the sense.

4. INFLUENCED by these considerations, I have determined, neither entirely to reject the common division, nor to adopt it in the manner which is usually done. To reject it entirely, would be to

give up one of the greatest conveniences we have in the use of any version, for every purpose of occasional consultation, and examination, as well as for comparing it with the original, and with other versions. Nor is it enough that a more commodious division than the present may be devised, which shall answer all the useful purposes of the common version, without its inconveniencies. Still there are some advantages which a new division could not have, at least, for many centuries. The common division, such as it is, has prevailed universally, and does prevail, not in this kingdom only, but throughout all Christendom. Concordances in different languages, commentaries, versions, paraphrases; all theological works, critical, polemical, devotional, practical, in their order of commenting on Scripture, and in all their references to Scripture, regulate themselves by it. If we would not then have a new version rendered in a great measure useless, to those who read the old, or even the original, in the form wherein it is now invariably printed, or who have recourse to any of the helps above mentioned, we are constrained to adopt, in some shape or other, the old division.

5. For these reasons, I have judged it necessary to retain it; but, at the same time, in order to avoid the disadvantages attending it, I have followed the method taken by some other editors, and confined it to the margin. This answers sufficiently all the purposes of reference and comparison, with

out tending so directly to interrupt the reader, and divert him from perceiving the natural connection of the things treated. I have also adopted such a new division into sections and paragraphs, as appeared to me better suited than the former, both to the subject of these histories, and to the manner of treating it. Nothing, surely, can be more incongruous, than to cut down a coherent narrative into shreds, and give it the appearance of a collection of aphorisms. This, therefore, I have carefully avoided. The sections are, one with another, nearly equal to two chapters; a few of them more, but many less. In making this division, I have been determined, partly by the sense, and partly by the size. In every section I have included such a portion of Scripture as seemed proper to be read at one time, by those who regularly devote a part of every day to this truly Christian exercise. To make all the portions of equal length, or nearly so, was utterly incompatible with a proper regard to the sense. I have avoided breaking off in the middle of a distinct story, parable, conversation, or even discourse, delivered in continuance.

The length of three of the longest sections in this work, was occasioned by the resolution, not to dis.. join the parts of one continued discourse. The sections I allude to are, the sermon on the mount, and the prophecy on Olivet, as recorded by Matthew, together with our Lord's valedictory consolations to his disciples, as related by John. The first occupies three ordinary chapters, the second two long ones,

and the third four short chapters. But, though I have avoided making a separation, where the scope of the place requires unity, I could not, in a consistency with any regard to size, allot a separate section to every separate incident, parable, conversation, or miracle. When these, therefore, are briefly related, insomuch that two or more of them can be included in a section of moderate length, I have separated them only by paragraphs. The length of the paragraph is determined merely by the sense. Accordingly, some of them contain no more than a verse of the common division, and others little less than a chapter. One parable makes one paragraph. When an explanation is given separately, the explanation makes another. When it follows immediately, and is expressed very briefly, both are included in one. Likewise one miracle makes one paragraph; but when the narrative is interrupted, and another miracle intervenes, as happens in the story of the daughter of Jairus, more paragraphs are requisite. When the transition, in respect of the sense, seems to require a distinction more strongly marked, it has been judged expedient to leave a blank line, and begin the next paragraph with a word in capitals.

§ 6. It was not thought necessary to number the paragraphs, as this way is now, unless in particular cases, and for special purposes, rather unusual; and as all the use of reference and quotation may be sufficiently answered by the old division on the margin. In the larger distribution into sections, I have, ac

cording to the most general custom, both numbered and titled them. But as to this method of dividing, I will not pretend that it is not, in a good measure, arbitrary, and that it might not, with equal propriety, have been conducted otherwise. As it was necessary to comprehend distinct things in the same section, there was no clear rule by which one could, in all cases, be directed where to make the separation. It was indeed evident that, wherever it could occasion an unseasonable interruption in narration, dialogue, or argument, it was improper: and that this was all that could be ascertained with precision. The titles of the sections I have made as brief as possible, that they may be the more easily remembered; and have, for this purpose, employed words, as we find some employed in the rubric of the common prayer, which have not been admitted into the text. To these I have added, in the same taste, the contents of the section, avoiding minuteness, and giving only such hints of the principal matters, as may assist the reader to recall them to his remembrance, and may enable him, at first glance, to dis. cover whether a passage he is looking for, be in the section, or not. I have endeavoured to avoid the fault of those who make the contents of the chapters supply, in some degree, a commentary, limiting the sense of Scripture by their own ideas. Those who have not dared to make so free with the text, have thought themselves entitled to make free with these abridgments of their own framing. To insert thus without hesitation into the contents prefixed to