UNUM igitur hoc est immobile fundamentum; una hæc est felix fidei petra ; FOURTH EDITION. LONDON: WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 2, CASTLE-STREET, CITY-ROAD; SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER-ROW. AUG 3-1905 LIBRARY. 58370 ENTERED AT STATIONERS'-HALL. LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS, 46, HOXTON-SQUARE. PREFACE. THE design of the following pages is to arrange, in a regular series, the evidences of our Lord's eternal filiation. To a considerable number of Christian students, such an attempt, it is presumed, will not seem to require apology. Others there are, however, both of those who admit and of those who reject that doctrine, from whom may be anticipated objections, which, if not of great weight, are some of them not without plausibility. Nor, till these are obviated, or at least in some measure deprived of their force, can we reasonably expect an equitable estimation, either of the arguments employed, or of their general result. At the risk of a degree of tediousness, therefore, it yet seems necessary here to notice a few of the more obvious objections which may possibly be advanced against the present undertaking. It may readily be imagined that some exception will be taken to the apparent disproportion between the size of this volume and the supposed importance of the question investigated. The doctrine, assuming it to be true,thus it will probably be argued,-is not of moment. Many theologians, whose general orthodoxy and whose zeal for the analogy of faith are unquestionable and distinguished, take the negative side of the argument; and surely it cannot be of great consequence to correct an error which may thus consist with unimpaired piety, and with a cordial acceptance of all the fundamentals of Christianity. This reasoning is so specious, and so popular, that we |