HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF CHRIST. VOLUME THE FOURTH, PART I. CONTAINING THE REMAINDER OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY; ALSO THE FOURTEENTH, FIFTEENTH, AND PART OF EDITED FROM THE MANUSCRIPTS WITH ADDITIONS, CORRECTIONS, &c. BY THE REV. ISAAC MILNER, D.D. DEAN OF CARLISLE, AND MASTER OF QUEEN'S CAMBRIDGE: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS; AND SOLD BY MATTHEWS, STRAND; MAWMAN, POULTRY, LONDON; AND JOLIE, CARLISLE. MDCCCIII. CHAP. III. TH HE publication of the Fourth Volume of the History of the Church of Christ has been delayed so long, and so much beyond the period at which the Editor had hoped the Manuscripts might have been reviewed and printed, that he now feels himself called upon to state briefly the reasons, which have retarded the execution of this work. 1. The principal reason, no doubt, is the decease of the learned and industrious Author; which melancholy event took place soon after the third volume was completed. While he was alive, no time was lost, no pains were spared, in forwarding an Ecclesiastical history, in which the Writer conceived the honour of God and the benefit of mankind were materially concerned. But the progress of an undertaking, which was deprived of its main operative spring, unavoidably became slow and difficult. Add to this, what the Editor has already mentioned in his preface to the second edition of the first volume,-How extremely difficult it now is to prepare and fit for the Press such of the Manuscripts as were intended to make a fourth volume. While recourse could be had to the Author, many doubts and obscurities might be cleared up in a few minutes, VOL. IV. which, (a) |