BRITISH ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. BOOK I. TO THE ARRIVAL OF THE SAXONS, A. D. 449. CHAP I. THE IMPORTANCE OF BRITISH ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. The Bible an Ecclesiastical History-History of England important-Of Christianity more important-Increase of Education in England requires an appropriate Ecclesiastical History-Principles of Church History. ECCLESIASTICAL History is commended to the study of every man, by the infinite wisdom of God. This is the principal method in which the Holy Spirit has chosen to give permanent instruction to mankind. Divine revelation in the Bible consists chiefly of ecclesiastical records; for the inspired sages of the Hebrew nation, both under the Levitical and the Christian dispensation, were employed to make known the will of God, by successive details of church history. Treasures of eternal truth and grace are, in that manner, imparted to our race, strikingly evincing how God "hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence," for the promotion of our salvation. Historical details are means of communicating knowledge which is most generally interesting to mankind; and through every age, some of the wisest and best of men have devoted their time and talents to this department of learning, labouring to benefit their countrymen, especially the rising genera. tion, in forming them to the love of liberty, patriotism, and virtue. Minds the most cultivated have been engaged in compiling valuable works on the History of England; suited, not only to the learned, and those having leisure for profound investigations, but also as class-books for the young,-and B Ecclesiastical History was deeply studied by the "Fath of the Protestant Reformation ;" and the inestimable "AcTS AND MONUMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH," by the immortal JOHN Fox, brought undying honour to his worthy name, contributing, in no small degree, in the sixteenth century, to the cause of religion in England. These venerable records were read with avidity, in every family whose means allowed them to purchase the ponderous folios; and every friend to Scriptural Christianity must regard the publication, at the present time, of a new edition of that great work, as among the brightest signs of our eventful times. Fuller's "CHURCH HISTORY OF BRITAIN, from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the year MDCXLVIII," having also been announced for republication, affords further evidence of a growing desire in Christians to become acquainted with the progress of religion in our country. But were Fuller's valuable work far better adapted for "family reading” and the instruction of our youth than its warmest admirers consider it to be, still it falls short of our times by nearly two centuries. - Knowledge and Scriptural Christianity have achieved their mightiest triumphs since the Protestant Reformation; and they are making progress in our days far greater than was ever imagined by Fuller. The advancement of pure religion among the English Puritans and Nonconformists — the rapid colonization of North America by those persecuted servants of Christ the prevalence of godliness in that amazing country the increase of piety among the Dissenters in Great Britain the origin and zealous labours of the Methodists the revival of religion in the Church of England — and the formation of the Missionary and Bible Societies, supported by the different denominations of Christians with the translation of the Scriptures into all languages-are most truly astonishing; and, as the most delightful facts of Church History, afford edifying and consolotary illustrations of the Word of God. General Education is creating a thirst for information on every subject; and while history is universally acknowledged to be the most instructive branch of study, what Christian, what father of a family especially, can be satisfied without a familiar acquaintance with this kind of knowledge? Every inferior school throughout the nation professes to read the History of England;" but which of all, even among those of a superior class, reads the History of the Church in England?" There has not yet issued from the British Press any work of the kind, adapted for general utility. Bede, Fox, Fuller, Burnet, Strype, Collier, Woodrow, Echard, Neal, Warner, Brown, Cook, Southey, Bogue, Bennett, Stebbing, &c. have furnished many useful works on different portions of British Church History, but no one has hitherto offered such a complete volume to the fumilies or to the youth of Britain ! That desideratum the Author has here endeavoured to supply, in a comprehensive, faithful, and condensed epitome of the History of Christianity in Great Britain. Sunday Schools alone are effecting an intellectual and moral transformation among the millions of our youth in the lower classes; and they, in no small degree, are the hopes of the Church of Christ in Britain. To contribute to enlighten them in ecclesiastical matters, and to aid that most influential body of one hundred and twenty thousand gratuitous Sunday School Teachers, the worthy benefactors of our country and age, with their one million two hundred thousand inquiring pupils, are among the chief considerations with the Author in publishing the present result of his labours in the service of his Divine Lord. Difficulties, and some of them of considerable magnitude, are inseparable from the giving of a faithful "History of the of Church of Christ in Britain." These must be obvious to every intelligent person, who surveys the present state religious profession, as followed by the different denominations of Christians. Religious liberty, the natural fruit of the Protestant Reformation-acknowledged at the "glorious Revolution," and rendered sacred by the "Act of Toleration" under William III - prompted men to follow their own convictions of divine truth, as read in the Holy Scriptures, and gave occasion for the existence of the several Christian communities in Great Britain. These are viewed by many, not as "sisterchurches," but merely in their separation from the Established Churches of England and Scotland; and, therefore, regarded under the designation, in some degree at least obnoxious, of DISSENTERS. Hence the difficulties which attend the writing of a faithful British Church History. Notwithstanding which, the Author has endeavoured to accomplish it, and he now offers it to the Christian public. He has contemplated all who acknowledge the inspiration of the Scriptures, holding the doctrines of the Divinity, Incarnation, and Atonement of Christ, and who "love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," as parts and members of the true Church of God. Archbishop Secker's sound Protestant principles are, therefore, those upon which the Author has written this Church History. "By our Saviour's appointment there was founded, and through his mercy shall ever continue," says that judicious prelate, "a society of persons, of what nation or nations is indifferent, who have faith in his name and obey his laws, without being destroyed by sin or error; as he hath promised, that the gates of hell, or of the invisible world, that is persecution and death, shall not prevail against his Church. The Jewish Church was not universal, but par |