There seemed to be a certain advantage in presenting the results of the enquiry in the order in which it was conducted.

If time and strength are allowed me, I hope to be able to carry several of the investigations that are begun in this book some stages further.
I ought perhaps to explain that I was prevented by other engagements from beginning seriously to work upon the subject until the latter end of December in last year.

The first of Dr.Lightfoot's articles in the Contemporary Review had then appeared.

The next two articles (on the Silence of Eusebius and the Ignatian Epistles) were also in advance of my own treatment of the same topics.

From this point onwards I was usually the first to finish, and I have been compelled merely to allude to the progress of the controversy in notes.