explanation. As the progress of the Christian commonwealth for the first
three hundred years has been recently described by British, German, and
American writers of eminent ability, it may, perhaps, be thought that
the subject is now exhausted. No competent judge will pronounce such an
opinion. During the last quarter of a century, various questions
relating to the ancient Church, which are almost, if not altogether,
ignored in existing histories, have been earnestly discussed; whilst
several documents, lately discovered, have thrown fresh light on its
transactions. There are, besides, points of view, disclosing unexplored
fields for thought, from which the ecclesiastical landscape has never
yet been contemplated. The following work is an attempt to exhibit some
of its features as seen from a new position.

The importance of this portion of the history of the Church can scarcely
be over-estimated. Our attention is here directed to the life of Christ,
to the labours of the apostles and evangelists, to the doctrines which
they taught, to the form of worship which they sanctioned, to the
organization of the community which they founded, and to the indomitable
constancy with which its members suffered persecution. The practical
bearing of the topics thus brought under review must be sufficiently
obvious.

In the interval between the days of the apostles and the conversion of
Constantine, the Christian commonwealth changed its aspect. The Bishop
of Rome--a personage unknown to the writers of the New Testament--
meanwhile rose into prominence, and at length took precedence of
all other churchmen. Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor
Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of
divine institutions. Officers, for whom the primitive disciples could
have found no place, and titles, which to them would have been