12 The `Preface, before, the f ppoi%tion hereof, is the foundation of all our present contefts about Church Order and Rule, I (hall yet proceed a little farther in the Declarationof the Way and manner whereby the Apoftacy alerted was begun, and carried on. And I shall not herein inlìft on particular Inftances, nor make a Tranfcriptián of Stories out ofantient Writers, giving Evidence unto the Truth, becaufe it bath been abundantly done byothers, especially thofe of Magdeburg in the (sixth and feventh Chapters oftheir Centuries, unto whofc 'Observations ma- ny other Learned men have made considerable Additi- ons ; but I (hall only treat in general of the Caufes, Ways and Manner, of the Beginning and Progress of the Apoftacy or Declenlion of Churches from their first Institution, which fell out in the fuccef live Ages after the Apostles efpecially after the End of the ficond Centu- ry, until when, Divine Inftitutions as unto the fubs`iánce of them, were preferved entire. Decays in any kind even in things K:atural and `Po- liticzl, are hardly difcernable butin and by their effects. When an Heëlick Difiemper befalls the Body ofany marl, it is oftimes not to be discerned until it is impossible to be cured.The Roman Hifforian gives this advice untohis Readers ; . after he hath considered the ways and means whereby the Empire came to its Greatness ; labente de- lude difiplina vetut diffidentesprimo moresfequatur animo ; delude-ut magis mag f ; lapI lint, turn ire cxperint prxci- pites, donee ad shee tempera, quibua nec vitia nofira, nec remedia pati pof fumais, periculum eft. Liv. Prxfat His words do not give us a more graphical Defeription of the Rife and Decay, as unto Vertue and Vice, of the Roman empire, then of the Roman Church, as unto Es Rife by Holiness and Devotion, and its Ruine by Sen- fuality
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