Excerpt from A Complete History of the Lives, Acts, and Martyrdoms of the Holy Apostles, Vol. 2: And the Two Evangelists, St. Mark and Luke; To Which Is Added, an Introductory Discourse Concerning the Three Great Dispensations of the Church, Patriarchal, Mosaical, and Evangelical; Being a Continuation of Christian Antiquities; And a Brief Enumeration But that which of all others challenges the greatest regard, both as it more immediately concerns the present inquiry, and as it contains accounts of things relating to our biggest interests, is the history of the church. For herein, as in a glass, we have the true face of the church in its several ages represented to us. Here we find with what infinite care those divine records, which are the great instruments of our eternal happiness, have through the several periods of time been conveyed down to us; with what a mighty success religion has triumphed Over the greatest oppositions, and spread its banners in the remotest corners of the world. With how incomparable a zeal good men have con tended earnestly for that faith which was once delivered to the saints; with what a bitter and implacable fury the enemies of religion have set upon it, and how signally the Divine Provi dence has appeared in its preservation, and returned the mis chief upon their own heads. Here we see the constant succession of bishops and the ministers of religion in their several stations, the glorious. Company of the apostles, the goodly fellowship of. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.