An Enquiry Into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church, That Flourish'd Within the First Three Hundred Years After Christ. Faithfully Collected Out of the Extant Writings of Those Ages. By an Impartial Hand. by King, Peter - 1719

J[ohn] Wyat and R. Robinson. Hardcover. B00JFF2AOA [1719] printed for J[ohn] Wyat, and R. Robinson (London), 5 1/8 x 8 inches tall hardbound, marbled boards over red leather spine and tips, marbled endpapers, top page edges gilt, viii, [2], 181, [1], 176 pp. Early edition, following the first of 1691. This is a work in two parts, each with separate pagination and register, bound as one volume. Though the first part is undated, it could be a 1719 imprint, ESTC No. T211076, which calls for the dated 1719 'Second Part' (separately catalogued by ESTC as No. T26100). But it is also possible that Part 1 is an earlier issue; the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts bound the book with '1691' in gilt to the spine, and a prior owner wrote '1691' at the bottom of the title page. The covers are mildly rubbed and edgeworn, especially to spine, but the binding is quite solid and the book gives a handsome shelf appearance. Massachusetts Episcopal Diocese bookplate to front pastedown and Episcopal Divinity School bookplate to rear pastedown. 2-inch tear to front marbled endpaper at the top. Prior owner notation to front free-endpaper regarding William Sclater's 1717 response to this work, entitled 'An original Draught of the Primitive Church.' Mild darkening and staining to first title page, with the author's name ('Lord King') in black ink below the printed 'by an impartial hand' and '1691' in ink at the bottom of the title page. Otherwise, apart from a bit of occasional minor foxing, a very good copy - clean, bright and unmarked. ~JJJ~ The anonymous author, Peter King, first Baron King (circa 1669-1734) was an English lawyer and politician, who became lord chancellor of England. He was born and educated in Exeter, England. In his youth he was interested in early church history, and published this work anonymously in 1691. It engaged the interest of his cousin, John Locke, the philosopher, by whose advice his father sent him to the university of Leiden, where he stayed for nearly three years. He entered the Middle Temple in 1694 and was called to the bar in 1698. This history of the early church was influential on John Wesley, co-founder of Methodism, whose reading of it in 1746 helped him begin to see that in the primitive Christian church, bishops and presbyters were of the same order. Soon after reading King's work, Wesley wrote in his journal, 'Episcopal Succession is a fable which no man ever did or could prove.' . Very Good. 1719.