AN HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, FROM THE EARLIEST PERIODS TO THE PRESENT TIME; GREG BY G. GREGORY, D. D. JOINT EVENING PREACHER AT THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, AND CURATE OF ST. GILES'S, CRIPPLEGATE; AUTHOR PRINTED FOR C. AND G. KEARSLEY, FLEET-STREET. M DCC XCV. 10 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND: The Lord Bishop of Durham. MY LORD, YOUR Lordship's favourable acceptance of these volumes in the very imperfect form in which they first appeared, and your ready acquiefcence in my wish of introducing them to the Public under the fanction of your respectable name, were great inftances of liberality in iv DEDICATION. in your Lordship; and I trust the manner in which thefe favours have been received will not be cited as an instance of ingratitude in me. It will be only doing justice to my intentions, my Lord, to believe that my fole object in the compilation of this history has been the cause of truth and of piety. If, in the courfe of my refearches, I have feen fome occafion for commendation on that national establishment, of which I have the honour to be a member, the candid of every fect will, I flatter myself, not ascribe those commendations to venal motives-Few perfons have lefs obligation in a pecuniary view than I have to the Church; few have lefs fanguine hopes of preferment than I entertain; and the evening of my life, which is fast approaching, will neceffarily preclude both the defire and the enjoyment of it.-I-fhall probably |