Churches for Christian Worship, Part 1
IN THE FIRST CENTURIE.
THIS being premised, I proceed now (as I promised) to shew, that there were such places as I have described, appointed and set apart among Christians for their religious assemblies and solemn addresse unto the divine Majestie, through every one of the first three Centuries particularly; and that therefore they assembled not promiscuously, and at hap hazard, but in appropriate places; unlesse necessity sometimes forced them to do otherwise.
For the times of the Apostles therefore, or first Century in particular, which ends with the death of S. Iohn the Evangelist, I prove it, first, from the Text I premised, where is a place mentioned by the name of ECCLESIA, not to be despised or prophaned with common banquettings: at least from the authority of the Fathers, who by their so expounding it, give us to understand, they thought it not improbable, that there were such places in the Apostles times. For the further strengthening of this kinde of argument, know also, that Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. 2. cap. 16.in that discourse of his, where he endeavours to prove, that the Essenes, or foreign, which Philo describes, were the first Christian Society of the Iewish nation at Alexandria, converted by S. Mark; amongst other Characteristical notes (as he *foreign.cals them) or badges of Christianity (however he were mistaken in his conclusion or inference) alledges this for one of the first, that they had sacred Houses, called foreign, or worshipping places, that is, Churches. His words are these. Deinceps ubi eorum domicilia quaenam essent descripserat (nempe Philo) de Ecclesiis in vari…s locis extructis sic loquitur: Est in quo que agro aedes sacra, quae appellatur foreign, vel foreign, in quo illi ab aliis aforeign.soli agentes, bforeign.sanctae religiosae que vitae mysteria obeunt: cN. B.nihil que eò vel cibi, vel potionis, vel aliarum rerum, quae ad corporis usum necessariae sunt, important, dHe meanes the Bookes of the Law, the Prophets, and Psalmes, and like things of sacred use.sed leges & oracula à prophetis divinitùs edita, & hymnos, alia que quibus scientia & pietas erga Deum crescat & perficiatur. Afterwards reciting some other customes and particular observances of their discipline; as their frequent assemblies in their foreign, to heare the Scriptures read & interpreted; the distinction of places for men and women; their maner of singing Hymnes and Psalms by a Praecentor, the rest answering, eAuthor Const. Ap. vocat foreign lib. 2. c. foreign. al. 61. Alius David hymnos cana & populus foreign, idest, foreign, extremitates versuum; non versuum initia, ut malè Intepres Bovius.foreign, the extreams of the verses; the degrees of their Hierarchy, like those of Deacons and Bishops, and some other the like, he concludes; Quod foreign: That Philo wrote these things, as one having knowledge of the customes at the beginning delivered by the Apostles, is manifest to any one. But whether that be so manifest or not, this I am sure is; that Eusebius beleeved the antiquity of Churches or Oratories of Christians to have been from the Apostles times; yea, to have been an Apostolicall ordinance, or else he mightily forgot himself, to bring that for an argument or badge to prove Philo's Essenes to be S. Marks Christians: then which otherwise there could not be a stronger argument to evince the contrary to what he intended. Now who could know this better than Eusebius, who had searched into and perused all the writings and monuments of Christian antiquity then extant, for the compiling of his Ecclesiasticall history, and his Commentaries of the*He mentions it Hist. Eccl. li. 5. cap. 1. Acts of Martyrs now perished?
Adde to this, what I a little before observed out of Bede, de locis sanctis; of a tradition, that the Church of Sion was founded by the Apostles. And so I leave my first argument.
My next argument why may I not take from that singular character given to some one above other in the Apostles salutatiōs, as their peculiar? Salute such a one, foreign, and the Church at his house. As Colos. 4. 15. of Nymphas foreign, Salute Nymphas and the Church at his house. To Philemon also; To Philemon our deare brother and fellow labourer (to Appia our beloved, and Archippus our fellow-souldier,) foreign, and to the Church at thy house. See, he forgets it not after a parenthesis, neither attributes it to Archippus, but as proper to Philemon alone. The like he hath of Aquila and Priscilla two severall times, once sending salutation to them, Rom. 16. Salute Priscilla and Aquila, and the Church at their house▪ Again sending salutation from them, 1 Cor. 16. 19. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the Church at their house. Which I understand not, to be spoken of their families as it is cōmonly expounded, but of the congregation of the Saints, there wont to assemble for the performance of divine duties; that is, foreign. Whence (if it be granted) it will follow; First, that the Churches then, used to assemble, not in mutable and promiscuous, but in definite and appropriate places. Secondly, that those who are here saluted with that appendix, were such as, in their severall Cities, had bestowed & dedicated some part, or some place within their dwellings, to be an Oratory for the Church to assemble in, for the performance of divine duties according to the rule of the Gospell; Nymphas at Colosse, Philemon at Laodicea (for there Archippus, who is saluted with him, was Bishop, saith*Lib. 7. c. penul. Author constit. Apost. as Philemon himself was afterwards of the neighbouring City Colosse:) Aquila and Priscilla first at Rome, till Claudius banished thē with the rest of the Iews from thence, Acts 18. 2. afterwards at Ephesus, Ibid ver. 19. whence S. Paul wrote that first Epistle to the Corinthians.
I am not the first (I think) who have taken these words in such a sense. Oecumenius in two or three of these places (if I understand him) goes the same way, though he mention the other exposition also: As to that of Aquila and Priscilla, Rom. 16. his note is; Adeò virtute spectati erant, ut suam etiam domum Ecclesiam fecerint. Vel dicitur hoc, Quia omnes domestici fideles erant, ut jam Domus esset Ecclesia. He mentions as I said both interpretations. So upon that of Nymphas, Col. 4. His words are, Magni nominis hic vir erat, nam domum suam fecerat Ecclesiam. And unlesse this be the meaning, why should this appendant be so singularly mentioned in the salutations of some, and not of others? and that not once, but again, if the same names be again remembred, as of Aquila and Priscilla. Had none in those Catalogues of salutation, Christian families, but some one only who is thus remembred? It is very improbable, nay if we peruse them well, we shall finde they had, but otherwise expressed; as in that prolix Catalogue, Rom. 16. wee finde Aristobulus and Narcissus saluted with their houshold, Asyncritus, Phlegon, &c. with the brethren which are with them; others, with the Saints which are with them. 2 Tim. 4. 19. The houshold of Onesiphorus. This therefore so singular an Appendix must mean some singular thing, not common to them with the rest, but peculiar to them alone: And what should this be but what I have shewed?
Now because this exposition concludes chiefly for a Coenaculum devoted to be an house of prayer: let us see, if out of a Pagan writer, who lived about the end of this Centurie, we can learn what maner of ones they were. For*Or whosoever else were the Author thereof under Trajan, whose then fresh successe in subduing the Parthians and Arabians (contrary to the unlucky presages of some) his scope seemes to have been to gratulate. See Iacobus Micyllus in Argumento. Lucian in his Dialogue Philopatris, by way of derision (sed ridentem dicere verum quid vetat?) brings in one Critias, telling, how some Christians went about to perswade him, to be of their religion; and that they brought him to the place of their assembly, being an Hyperôon, which he describes thus: Pertransivimus (saith he) ferreas portas, & aerea limina; multis que jam superatis scalis, in Domum aurato fastigio insignem ascendimus, qualem Homerus Menalai fingit esse: at que ipse quidem omnia contemplabar,—video autem, non Helenam, sed mehercle viros in faciem inclinatos & pallescentes. So he.
My third proofe is from a tradition the Church hath had, of the houses of some devout and pious Christians, as afterwards; so even in the Apostles time, converted into Churches or Oratories; as the house of Theophilus, a potent man in Antioch (the same, as is supposed, to whom S. Luke (who was also an Antiochean) inscribes both his Gospell and Acts of the Apostles) who, being converted unto the Faith by S. Peter, converted his house into a Church, where S. Peter had his first See, or Episcopall Residence. This tradition is derived out of the Recognitions of Clemens, where it is first found. Which, though it be an Apocryphall writing, yet is of no small antiquity; and this passage is of such a nature, as it cannot be well imagined, to what end it should be devised or fained.
The like is reported of the house of Pudens, a Romane Senatour and Martyr, in the Acta Pudentis; That it was turned into a Church after his Martyrdome. This is that Pudens mentioned by the Apostle in the 2. Epist. to Timothy, and coupled with Linus: Pudens and Linus (saith he) salute you. All this comes not of nothing; but surely argues some such custome to have been in those times.
I will seale up all my proofes for this Centurie of the Apostles with one passage of Clemens (a man of the Apostolicall age, in his genuine*Pag. 52. Vid. Graec. Epistle ad Corinthios: Debemus omnia rite & ordine facere, quaecun que nos Dominus peragere jussit: praestitutis temporibus oblationes & liturgias obire. Ne que enim temere vel inordinatè voluit ista fieri, sed statutis temporibus & horis. VBI etiam, & A QVIBVS peragi vult, ipse excellissima sua voluntate definivit; ut religiosè omnia, secundùm beneplacitum ejus, adimpleta, voluntati ipsius accepta essent. Here Clemens saith expresly, That the Lord had ordained (even now in the Gospell) aswell appropriate places WHERE, as appropriate Times and Persons (that is Priests) When and WHEREBY he would be solemnly served, that so all things might bee done religiously and in order. Who then can beleeve, that in the Apostles times (when this Clemens lived) the places were not distinct for holy services, as well as the Times and Persons were; or that Clemens would have spoken in this maner, unlesse he had known it so to have been? The Corinthians, it seemes, in that their notorious sedition and discord, had violated this order; at the correction whereof this passage aymeth.
This one passage therefore makes all my former proofes credible, and may supply their defect, where they are not enough convictive. And it is the more precious, in regard of the penury of written Monuments by any Disciples of the Apostles remaining unto us of that Primitive Age.
If any man shall ask, where this divine ordinance, which Clemens here mentioneth, is to be found? I answer, in the Analogy of the old Testament; whence this principle is taught us: That, as the divine Majestie it self is most sacred and incommunicable, (the reason why the worship and service given unto him must be communicated with no other) so is it likewise a part of that honor we owe unto his most sacred, singular and incommunicable eminency, that the things wherewith he is served, should not be promiscuous and common, but appropriate and set apart to that end and purpose. And thus I conclude the first Seculum.