The method of treating ecclesiasti

nal and in

ternal branches.

error, there is nothing that will enable us to com bat them with more efficacy than the view of their deplorable effects, as they are represented to us in the history of the church. It would be endless to enumerate all the advantages that result from the study of ecclesiastical history; experience alone can display these in all their extent; nor shall we mention the benefits that may be derived from it by those who have turned their views to other sciences than that of theology, and its more peculiar utility to such as are engaged in the study of the civil law. All this would lead us too far from

our present design.

XXII. As the history of the church is external or internal, so the manner of treating it must be cal history suited to that division. As to the first, when the in its exter- narration is long, and the thread of the history runs through a great number of ages, it is proper to divide it into certain periods, which will give the reader time to breathe, assist memory, and also introduce a certain method and order into the work. In the following history the usual division into centuries is adopted preferably to all others, because most generally liked; though it be attended with difficulties and inconveniences.

XXIII. A considerable part of these inconveniences will be however removed, if, besides this smaller division into centuries, we adopt a larger one, and divide the space of time that elapsed between the birth of Christ and our days into certain grand periods, that are distinguished by signal revolutions or remarkable events. It is on this account that we have judged it expedient to comprehend the following history in four books, that will take in four remarkable periods: the first will be employed in exhibiting the state and vicissitudes of the Christian church, from its commencement to the time of Constantine the Great. The second will comprehend

the period, that extends from the reign of Constantine to that of Charlemagne, which produced such a remarkable change in the face of Europe. The third will contain the history of the Church, from the time of Charlemagne to the memorable period when Luther arose in Germany, to oppose the tyranny of Rome, and to deliver divine truth from the darkness that covered it. And the fourth will carry down the same history, from the rise of Luther to the present time.

XXIV. We have seen above, that the sphere of ecclesiastical history is extensive, that it comprehends a great variety of objects, and embraces political as well as religious matters, so far as the former are related to the latter, either as causes or effects. But, however great the diversity of these objects may be, they are closely connected; and it is the particular business of an ecclesiastical historian, to observe a method that will shew this connection in the most conspicuous point of view, and form into one regular whole a variety of parts that seem heterogeneous and discordant. Different writers have followed here different methods, according to the diversity of their views and their peculiar manner of thinking. The order I have observed will be seen above in that part of this Introduction, which treats of the subject matter of ecclesiastical history; the mention of it is therefore omitted here, to avoid unnecessary repetitions.