THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. VOLUME THE THIRD. CONTAINING THE SIXTH, SEVENTH, EIGHTH, NINTH, CENTURIES. TO WHICH IS ADDED, THE HISTORY OF THE WALDENSES TO BY THE REV. JOSEPH MILNER, M. A. MASTER OF THE GRAMMAR SCHOOL IN KINGSTON CAMBRIDGE, "PRINTED BY JOHN BURGES PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY; MDCCXCVII. 7963 1164 3 PREFACE. F the real Church-Hiftorian find it a difficult task, to extract a connected View of his peculiar fubject from the Ecclefiaftical materials of the fourth and fifth Centuries, that difficulty is multiplied a hundred fold, while he labours through the long and gloomy period, which in the present Volume engages his attention. Impreffed, however, with the certain truth of the declaration made by the divine Author of Christianity, "that the gates of hell fhall never prevail against his Church," I have endeavoured all along to difcover her actual exiftence. How far I have fucceeded, the Reader must determine for himfelf. If the fundamental doctrines of the Gofpel have not been exhibited, both as profeffed in various parts of the world, and as productive of thofe fruits of holiness, which are peculiarly Chriftian, my aim has been miffed, and the grand defign of the whole narration has failed. But I hope the Scriptural Reader will fee the lineaments of the Church pervading these dark Centuries; provided he diveft himself of all partial regards for fects and denominations, ages and countries, and attend exclufively to the marks and evidences of genuine Chriftianity. This is the right frame of fpirit, which the fubject before us requires; and it is what I have fteadily endeavoured to preserve. Tros Rutulufve fuat, nullo difcrimine habebo. In the former part of the Volume, Gregory I. of Rome, and the English Chriftians, will be found a 2 |