Verklaring van de evangelische parabolen

"...in order to perfect my thoughts: for if I had to add much to it original: "bydoen", it would be impossible for that to happen at present. For the rest, I would make Your Reverence master of the whole work, and leave the freedom to revise, to place before or after, or to illuftreren clarify with examples, or also to differ, as Your Reverence should see fit: for Your Reverence knows that no man is freer in that regard than I, and gives more freedom: and I shall therefore hear Your Reverence's further resolution regarding this when the opportunity arises."
Upon which, I having sent some small samples to his Right Reverend, and consulted about one thing and another, I received an answer on the 18th of October of the same year.
"With Your Reverence's pleasant letter of the 24th of the previous month, I have received the first Specimen sample of my exercises on the parables, and in my spare time I have looked into and gone through it. I must say that I have been amazed that I found the meaning so complete with Your Reverence's necessary insertions, and much better than I had thought: so that I would not have recognized my own work if it had come to me from elsewhere. The trouble that Your Reverence has been pleased to take in this is proportioned to Your Reverence's tireless industriousness, for so much benefit to the Church, and to the love which it bears me beyond my merits. Furthermore, I have little critique to exercise. If it should fall on anything, it would be regarding my own work: but I cannot touch that, or I would have to review and fault everything; and then I still do not know if the latter would be better than the former. I have found Your Reverence's aanmerkingen annotations for clarification to be very useful and thorough, and they will bring light and ornament to the work. I have the most concern about the broad applications, which will make the work practicaal applied to life and cause it to expand greatly; and I have also seen that Your Reverence has reservations about leaving them out, or only adding them with short propositions. I have found them solid, edifying, and fruitful, and they can certainly be of great utility; and it is a heartache to me to give even the slightest reason to deprive Your Reverence of the fruit of such a worthy work. But I know the age in which

we live, and Your Reverence knows it too; and I know that most of our order, being set on the Theoretische theoretical or doctrinal, regard the practicalia practical matters as being within their reach. Meanwhile, it is true that many have great need of such guidance. Therefore, I have no other counsel in this than to surrender the whole work, with its entire contents, into Your Reverence's judgment and hands, to arrange it as you shall see fit, if Your Reverence still persists in taking this trouble upon yourself; and I leave it at that. I also give Your Reverence full freedom over my work, to reform the imperfect meaning, or what is imperfectly expressed, according to your thoughts and sense: with heartfelt thanks for the great affection toward me. May Almighty God give a blessing to everything."
Meanwhile, the transcript according to which I directed my translation was defective with respect to one parable, namely, that of the Royal Wedding, Matthew 22, which was not to be found in it. For which reason I requested Mr. Vitringa whether his Right Reverend would please fulfill that lack; be it through his own manuscript, or through a transcript from this or that capable student or preacher (among his former pupils) who might be provided with it.
Whereupon his Right Reverend was so good as to send me his own manuscripts, not only concerning that one, but also over all the other parables, except for a small piece of it that was not at hand. From which I not only had the opportunity to fill that gap of the parable in Matthew 22; but also to compare his Right Reverend’s manuscript whenever I might be in doubt about one thing or another that I had found in the transcript.
It happened here that yet another very neatly written transcript of the same Dictata lecture notes was sent to me in the year 1714, by the Reverend Mr. Johannes Andriessen, worthy preacher at Goes. Which transcript I had understood to be in his Reverence's possession from the mouth of his Reverence's brother, Mr. Jacobus Andriessen, likewise a worthy preacher at Vlissingen. Which I nevertheless perceived to be the same one that Mr. Cremer had used; because in it also the same parable, Matthew

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