CHRISTIAN AUTHORS. 215 



narrative, or the highly finished and in- 

 teresting account of his travels to doubt 

 the truth of our holy religion. I had in- 

 dulged in poring over authors, in my leisure 

 hours whose arguments, founded on inde- 

 fatigable research and direct testimony 

 confuted the reasoning and exposed the 

 sophistry of the French philosopher's in- 

 sidious attacks ; and in searching for my- 

 self, I had become acquainted with many 

 authors sacred and profane ancient and 

 modern whose writings, in the remotest de- 

 gree, had reference to this all-important 

 subject. 



Consequently, I had but to refresh my 

 memory with Tacitus -and Seutonius, and 

 the writers on ecclesiastical history, to fur- 

 nish me with the necessary incidents for a 

 subject that comprised a period, when our 

 creed was in its infancy, and when its 

 growth was expedited by the very means 

 taken for its destruction. 



Meeting my friend shortly after, I 



