PUBLISHED BY R. B. SEELEY AND W. BURNSIDE : AND SOLD BY L. AND G. SEELEY, FLEET STREET, LONDON. MDCCCXXXVII. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. THE assurance that the following production of the immortal and beloved reformer, Luther, would be acceptable and beneficial to every lover of divine and experimental truth, was the motive that led the Translator to present it, in an English version, to the British church of Christ. No commendatory remarks are needed: the work itself will at once speak its own worth. The translator would only observe, that in the following MANUAL COMMENTARY on the Book of Psalms, Luther has most divinely, experimentally, and beautifully opened up the vanity and delusion of all forms (even a gospel "form") of godliness, without the known and possessed "power" thereof;-the opposition and malicious persecution which the real disciples of Christ ever meet with from the wicked, and, above all, from hypocrites in religion ;-the true and only grounds of a Christian man's hope, peace, and salvation; which are, a trust and rest alone in the grace, righteousness, and atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ;-the blessedness of a nation where the pure word and worship of God guide, and are upheld by, its throne and government; and the sure destruction of a kingdom when its magistrates act against |