THE WHOLE COMPRISING AN ABRIDGMENT OF AN "ORIGINAL DRAUGHT SEELEY, BURNSIDE, AND SEELEY. BATH BINNS AND GOODWIN. TO THE REV. THOMAS LEGH CLAUGHTON, M.A. VICAR OF KIDDERMINSTER, AND LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD, THE FOLLOWING WORK IS VERY FAITHFULLY AND GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED BY THE EDITOR. THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. THE Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity, and Worship of the Primitive Church, is a work of extensive popularity, and confessedly exhibits, as a youthful performance, considerable ingenuity and research. It was written by Sir Peter (afterwards Lord Chancellor) King,* at the * Lord Chancellor King was born at Exeter, in 1669, and, for some years, was brought up to his father's business in that city; but having a strong inclination to learning, he laid out all the money he could spare in books, and devoted all his leisure hours to study. By the advice of his maternal uncle, Mr. Locke, he studied some time at Leyden, and afterwards entered at the Inner Temple. Raised by superior abilities to eminence, he obtained a seat in the House of Commons in 1699, for Beeralston, Devon. In 1708 he was made Recorder of London, and knighted by Queen Anne; the next year he was one of the managers of the House of Commons, at the trial of Dr. Sacheverell. In 1714 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and soon after was made one of the Privy Council. In 1725 he was created a peer, and succeeded Macclesfield, as Lord Chancellor. |