Excerpt from General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. 7: Translated From the German

These volumes (vii. And vm.) complete the translation of the General History of the Christian religion and church, as far as the work had been published when its lamented author was called away from the scene of his earthly labours. Another volume, as he himself intimates in the Preface to his Tenth Part, was to have brought the history of the church down to the times of the Reformation. What progress had been made by the author in preparing this interesting portion of his work for the press, I do not certainly know, though I feel strongly confident it must have been such that the last labours of the eminent historian will not long be withheld from the public. In a letter to the publisher dated April 9, 1848, Dr. Neander writes that he was then occupied with this promised volume; and it is well known, that one of the last acts of his life was to dictate a sentence of it to his amanuensis. As he had therefore been employed upon it for as long a time, to say the least, as had ever intervened between the dates of his earlier volumes, it is not unreasonable to conjecture that the volume was left by him in a sufficient state of forwardness to admit of being finished without much labour. That it may be so finished, and the whole work brought down to the epoch to which the author in his later volumes was evidently looking forward as a resting-place, must appear highly desirable to every one who is capable of appreciating the minute and com prehensive learning, the scrupulous fidelity, the unexampled candour and simplicity of spirit, the unobtrusive but pervading glow of Christian piety, which have thus so far eminently characterized every portion of this great work.

If such a volume should soon be given to the world, the publisher of the present translation will take measures to have it converted into English.

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