The reader will perceive, in the commencement of the following work, that I have not introduced a statement of the Scripture doctrine upon the subject of my History, For the omission, which some may consider a defect, I submit these reasons: it seemed to me that a brief statement would prove useless, since every one would form his own opinion from other authority; and it was thought that a satisfactory discussion of the important question belonged rather to the Polemic than to the Historian. Accordingly, for the commencement of my undertaking, I fixed on a date posterior to the publication of most of the New Testament; and yet, as it was desirable to take into view every other Christian production extant of the first ages, it was necessary to begin as early as a. d. 90, before some of St. John's writings were composed.