To give to any Christian who has been taught to read his Bible some correct ideas of the state of the Church of Christ, in the times that immediately followed the death of the Apostles; to show by various accounts and passages, taken from writers of credit, some of the particular customs, ways of life, and habits of thinking, common among the first believers in our holy Religion; to point out also in what respects the Church of England has followed them; in a word, to impart a general knowledge of the character of the early Christians during their gradual, but yet rapid, increase from a mere handful of despised and persecuted men to a vast multitude scattered over nearly all the earth;—such are the chief objects of this little work. Many of the records which have come down to us of the behaviour of the early Christians must fill every thinking mind with admiration and astonishment. The boldness, the zeal, the tenderness, the virtue, the faith, the devotion, displayed by them would seem improbable in a tale of fancy; and nevertheless they are recorded in histories bearing upon them the stamp and mark of truth itself; they are described, not merely by admiring friends, but also by the astonished enemies of the Gospel. Did we not know the spring