HISTORY

OF THE

PLANTING AND TRAINING

OF THE

CHRISTIAN CHURCH

BY

THE APOSTLES.

BY

DR. AUGUSTUS NEANDER,

ORDINARY PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN,
CONSISTORIAL COUNSELLOR, ETC.

TRANSLATED
FROM THE THIRD EDITION OF THE ORIGINAL GERMAN
BY J. R. RYLAND.

LONDON ;
HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1851.

It was not my intention to give a complete history of the Apostolic age, but only what the title, advisedly selected, indicates. I have prefixed to it the Introduction from the first volume of my Church History, reserving the recasting of the whole work for a new edition, should God permit.

In reference to the arrangement of the whole plan, and the mutual relation of the parts of the representation, I must beg the reader to suspend his judgment awhile, till the completion of the whole by the publication of the second part.

It will be my constant aim to carry on to its conclusion the whole of the work I have undertaken on the history of the Church, if God con tinue to grant me strength and resolution for the purpose. Meanwhile, a brief compendium of Church History on the principles of my arrange ment, but enriched with literary notices, will be published. My dear friend, Professor Rheinwald, of Bonn, having been prevented by his new duties from executing this work, it has been undertaken at my request by another of my friends, Mr. Licentiate Vogt, already favourably known to the theological public by his share in editing the Homilarium, and still more commended to the public favour by his literary labours on the Pseudo-Dionysius, and the Life and Times of Gerson, Chancellor of Paris. May he receive from every quarter that public favour and encouragement which his character, acquirements, and performances deserve !