without seeking further, and extending their
inquiries to the Orientals. Historian succeed-
ed historian, each gathering as he went in one
uniform course, with little difference, excepting
as to lime or place, and our \vriters have ga-
thered from them, with some improvements, it
miist be allowed, but not so as to produce a
complete and intire Church History.
Most of those authors maybe comprehended
under the following heads, as to their contents :
1. The history of the church in the times of the
Apostles, and their immediate successors, until
the end of the third century. 2. The history of
the Greek church, and its dependencies from
Cotistantine, to the dissolution of the Greek
Christian Empire by the Mohammedan arms
in the fifteenth century, comprehending a pe-
riod of nearly twelve hundred yfears. 3. The
history of the church of Rome, and its depen-
dencies throughout Europe, until the age of
the Reformation, which event made a new
epoch in the Ecclesiastical state of Europe.
4. The history of the Reformed chttEches/fTom
that time, whose increasing number, extent, and
power, has been .obtained at the expense of
the; Romish communion. Aqdhere- we ob^
serve are wanting : —.
