PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

SOME years have now elapsed since the present work first issued from the Press. Its object and design, together with the circumstances that first gave rise to its publication, are fully explained in the foregoing Preface. The first edition having been exhausted in the course of one year, a second was in actual preparation, when the grave duties and responsibilities of the Episcopacy with which I became unexpectedly charged, absorbed, for the time, my undivided attention. In the present edition no change whatever has been made in either the Analysis or Paraphrase, save some unimportant verbal alterations. The Commentary, however, is considerably enlarged, by the insertion of the Greek text, from the Codex Vaticanus of Cardinal Mai, wherever the Vulgate is found to differ from the received Greek Text, and care is taken to point out, in every such case, the preponderance of authority, both with regard to manuscripts and versions, in favour of the former. The Exegetical portion of the Commentary, is also, in some instances, more fully developed. And the moral observations, which are naturally suggested by the serious study and consideration of the Sacred Text, are rendered more comprehensive. The proof of Dogmatic truth, from the context, as insisted on in the first edition, will not fail, it is hoped, to recommend itself to the reader by its advantages as a weapon, to be used against the enemies of the Church, especially in this our day. The additional expense necessarily incurred in the publication of the present considerably enlarged addition, will obviously account for the trifling advance, in its price, over that of the former.

Galway, March 2, 1860.