An inquiry into the Doctrine of the Eternal Sonship of Our Lord Jesus Christ

humble hope of accumulating and illustrating the evidence of the glorious and ineffable Godhead of Christ.

Considerable care has been exercised to avoid making any of the following reasoning dependent upon doubtful scriptural readings; and the writer is not aware of ever having cited a justly suspected passage, without duly apprising his readers of the fact, nor under any circumstances of having employed a text of this description as a ground of other than hypothetical argument. It is not necessary to insist upon the propriety and discretion of great caution in this respect; and whatever impression an unscrupulous polemic may produce on the uninformed, it is satisfactory to know that with persons of discrimination no writer, and especially no controversial writer, is likely to gain credit, who eagerly and wittingly compels into the service of his argument passages of questionable genuineness.

In prosecuting the present inquiry, recourse has been had to the labours of preceding authors upon the subject, so far as they could be rendered available. The writer has also to acknowledge his obligation to several other eminent divines and critics, particularly to the Rev. Dr. J. P. Smith. Although in several instances he has ventured to dissent from the conclusions of this admirable theologian, yet to his great work on The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, the author has been indebted for a number of suggestions, the full amount and value of which he himself is probably not able to appreciate; and particularly for a model which, however inadequately employed, has contributed more than any other single cause to whatever small degree of merit the present dissertation may be thought to possess. The reader, as he proceeds, will find acknowledgments to other distinguished writers.

For the sake of brevity, the passages hereafter quoted from ancient and foreign writers, are generally given in translations only. This is not the plan that best accorded with the feelings of the writer, nor that which would have been adopted, had there not seemed a sort of necessity in the case. As it is, however, every effort has been made to ensure fidelity in these renderings. Each passage, besides an independent translation, has since been collated, where it was possible, with the version of some approved scholar; and in not a few instances the latter has substantially been preferred. Thus, for example, most of the citations from Philo Judæus are given almost literally from Dr. J. P. Smith's "Scripture Testimony to the Messiah." The passages from the Apostolic Fathers have been compared with Archbishop Wake's version; and the renderings of Dr. Burton, Bishop Kaye, and others have been freely employed to give clearness and accuracy to many of the citations from subsequent ecclesiastical writings. Except, however, where the translations are acknowledged as literally quoted, the writer himself must remain responsible for their correctness. The necessary information respecting the editions employed the reader I will find in the list of authors at the conclusion of the volume.

And here, upon the occurrence of the name of Philo Judæus, it may be proper to remark, that since the Note (B), on the character of that individual was printed off, the writer, for the first time, has met with Bryant's Tract upon the subject. His theory is, that Philo was a learned Jew, well versed in Christianity, who, though he had hardened his heart against its divine claims, did not scruple to borrow both from its doctrines and its morality. The principal argument in support of this

conjecture is founded upon the similarity between passages in the writings of Philo and in those of the New Testament. This is a mode of treating a question to be determined according to individual tastes and perceptions; and it is not therefore of great importance for the writer to say that his own preconceptions remain undisturbed, since what appears to him fanciful and unsatisfactory may wear a very different aspect to a mind of different complexion or temperament. Still, having said thus much, the reader will not expect that he should at present offer any further remarks upon the subject.

Principally with a view to the unbroken continuity of the text throughout the following argument, several critical dissertations, and other passages comparatively excursive, have been thrown into notes; the more voluminous being supplementary to the sections to which they severally belong. It is not to be supposed that the notes are of less importance than the text, or that they are unessential to the completeness of the argument. In the judgment of the writer the very opposite is the fact, and hence he takes the liberty of suggesting, especially to the critical reader, that in general they should be read at the places where their references occur.

A recital of the disadvantages under which the following work has been prosecuted, would probably fail to interest any one, much less to mitigate the judgments which may be passed upon it. Did the occasion admit, it would be far more agreeable to the feelings of the writer that the world should be told with what kindness and encouragement the announcement of his undertaking has been hailed, and how deeply he is indebted to the good offices of several highly valued friends. Still, he does himself no more than justice in appropriating

the language of an illustrious prelate of the Anglican church:

"Habes quod à me, homine mediocris ingenii et doctrinæ, modica Bibliothecæ Domino, valetudinariô, domesticis curis impeditô,-ac denique procul a consuetudine doctorum Virorum agente, tanquam literati orbis exule, præstari potuit."

The foregoing is faithfully descriptive of the writer's circumstances. The following, from the same composition, is not less true to his feelings :-"Si quid autem tibi, veritatis et pietatis studiose Lector, ad fidem tuam confirmandum, hæc nostra profuerint, erit, de quo et tu, et ipse Deo Opt. Max. gratias agamus. Laboris mei pretium hoc unum abs te expeto, (hoc verò vehementer expeto,) ut in precibus tuis mei peccatoris meorumque interdum memor sis. Vale in Christo Servatore, Do

mino Deoque nostro."-BISHOP BULL. Præf. in Defens. Fid. Nicæn.