Excerpt from The History of the Church of Christ, Vol. 1: Containing the Three First Centuries No doubt fome more ancient voluminous church-hifiorians, as well as Molheim in his Compendium, have given us much ufe. Ful information, and if one can look on them as civil hiflorians altogether, they are not to be blamed. Had they incorporated into their fecular narratives an 'account of the pro grefs of godlinefs itfelf, Ilhould not have dared to reprehend them as Ecclefiafiical Hifiorians. But they evidently give a much larger proportion to the hiftory of wickednefs, than to that of piety in general. Hence the evils which have been practifed in Chrifiian countries feem even greater than they really were; and the difagreeable efl'eft which the reading of Molheim had on my own mind is probably no fingular cafe, that real religion feems fcarce to have had any exiflence. Infidel malice has triumphed, though very unreafon ably, on account of thefe things; the vices of Chriflians, (0 called, have certainly been ex aggerated on the whole; and Deifts and Seep tics have taken advantage, partly from hence, and partly from the poverty of our information concerning Mahometans and Pagans, to repre fent them as more virtuous than Chriflians. 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.