Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of Churches, Section 13
SECT. 13.
We ſhall now proceed, to confirm our Opinion, by producing undeniable Teſtimonies, from approved Ancient Authors, ſuch eſpecially as writ Apologies for the Chriſtians againſt the Gentiles. Wherein they plead for thoſe of former Ages, as well as their own; and in all places, as well as where they lived; though eſpecially where their Enemies endeavoured to defame their Holy Profeſſion.
1. Minutius Felix, who flouriſhed as Dodwel thinks about the end of M. Antoninus's Reign; but Bellarmine, under Alex. Severus, or about A. D. 206. And Baldwin yet later. However Cecilius the Heathen Objects, Cur occultare & abſcondere, quicquid illud colunt, magnopere nituntur? Cum honeſta ſemper publico gaudeant, ſcelera, ſecreta ſint? Cur nullas aras habent, Templa nulla, nulla nota ſimulachra? Why the Chriſtians greatly endeavour to keep ſecret and hide, that they Worſhip: Seeing honeſt Things may rejoice to be Publick, but wicked Things would be kept ſecret? Why they have no Altars, no Temples, nor known Images? To which Octavius the Chriſtian replies, by way of Conceſſion, think ye that we hide that we Worſhip, if we have no Temples or Altars? What Image ſhall I make of God, ſince Man is his Image? What Temple ſhall I build for him, ſeeing the whole World made by him cannot contain him? Concluding it better. He be ſet up in our Minds and Hallowed in our Hearts.
2. Origen, who flouriſhed by Bellarmin's account, about the Year 226. in his excellent Book againſt Celſus, the Epicurean Philoſopher. Which he wrote at above ſixty Years of Age, as Euſeb. ſaith l. 6. c. 36. Therefore A. D. 245. having been born, 185. Wherein Celſus Objects in the end of l. 7. That the Chriſtians foreign, could not indure to ſee the Temples, Altars, and Statues, and l. 8. p. 389, 390, and 391. of the Cambridge Edition, objects the ſame. To which Origen replies, That the Chriſtians had for Altars ſpiritual Minds, and Prayers out of a pure Conſcience for Incenſe. For Statues, the Image of God their Maker; and Temples agreeable to theſe; Holy Bodies, and the moſt excellent Temple of all, the Body of Chriſt, John 2.19, 22. 1 Pet. 2.5. Iſa. 54.11, 12. Not regarding liveleſs and ſenſleſs Temples, which ſenſleſs Men admire: Becauſe taught to ſhun thoſe counterfeit Religions, which make all thoſe impious, that depart from the Religion of Jeſus Chriſt, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. By which ſome might think, Origen thought it unlawful to Worſhip God in a Temple, as when He ſaith foreign. We avoid to Build liveleſs and dead Temples to him that is the beſtower of all Life. But Origen hath no ſuch meaning, as the Series of his Diſcourſe ſhews: But that whereſoever Righteous Perſons are found, that offer up Vows and Prayers to God from a pure Mind and Conſcience, there God is worſhipped after the beſt Manner, whether within a Temple, or without, elſewhere. And Lil. Giraldus in's Hiſt. Deorum Syntagm. 1. Commends this as a moſt acute Diſcourſe in Origen. For, whereas the Pagans thought they performed, a great piece of Service and Worſhip to God, by building Temples to him: This Origen oppoſeth, becauſe a Temple is a ſenſleſs or a liveleſs Thing, and Contributes nothing to the pleaſing of God in his Worſhip. Our Saviour and his Apoſtles, having by Word and Prayers, worſhipped God as acceptably often in the open Air, as in the Temple of Jeruſalem. So that hitherto the Chriſtians had no Publick Places of Worſhip, but only in Private, may be rationally concluded.
3. Arnobius, who flouriſhed by Bellarmin's account about A. D. 285. or as other later, brings in the Gentiles objecting againſt the Chriſtians as the greateſt Crime, that they had no Temples, Altars, nor Images; and anſwers not by denial, but granting what they ſaid; and for Temples, In cujus rei neceſſitatem, aut dicitis eſſe conſtructa, aut eſſe …urſus aedificanda cenſetis? What Neceſſity think you doth urge Men to build them, or after they are pulled down, to repair and reſtore them? See his Reaſons for the Chriſtians forbearing to build them Temples, l. 6. He ſhews that Temples were not neceſſary, though convenient for their Religion. Therefore when they had Liberty, they built them Oratories, in the Third Century, which were now demoliſhed by Diocleſian. For the Chriſtians in all Times, and Places of the Empire, underſtood very well, that it was in the Emperors Power to pull down, whatſoever they Built, whenſoever they pleaſed. And therefore if their Religion depended on Temples or Structures (as the Religion of the Heathens did, who as Lactant. ſaith l. 5. c. 19. found it all there, and left it there) they had been in an ill Caſe. If they have but a Private Houſe, or Room, as our Saviour when he inſtituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood, or the Diſciples met in at Troas, their Service is as acceptable to God, as if performed in a Temple as glorious as Solomons. And this is the meaning of Arnobius, when he ſaith, Neque aedes ſacras ad venerationis Officia extruamus, They did not build Temples, to perform Off…ces of Worſhip. For that God is equally ſerved, honoured, and worſhipped, as well without Temples as in them: Which Clemens Alexandrinus, Euſebius, Athanaſius, &c. have often aſſerted and proved.
4. Lactantius, Arnobius's Schollar, Condemns the Gentiles for their Temples, Altars, and Images. Quid ſibi Templa, quid arae volunt? Quid denique ipſa ſimulachra? What means your Temples, Altars, and Images? In his Inſtit. l. 6. c. 25. Non Templa illi congeſtis in altitudinem ſaxis extruenda ſunt: In ſuo cuique conſecrandus eſt pectore. Temples are not to be built to God, of Stones raiſed on heighth, every one ought to Conſecrate him in his own Bre…ſt So again, Si Deus non videtur, ergo his rebus coli debet quae non videntur. If God be Inviſible, He is to be Worſhipped with ſuch Things as cannot be ſeen.
From theſe Ancients, it appears, the Primitive Chriſtians held it as a Thing indifferent, as to the acceptableneſs of their Worſhip to God, whether they performed it in Temples, or without: And that Gods Worſhip being meerly of a ſpiritual Nature, the Place though never ſo magnificent and glorious, contributed nothing thereto: Which was directly oppoſite to the Opinion the Heathen had of Temples. And Secondly, The Gentiles Objections againſt Chriſtians, ſhews that they had no Temples in the Days of Minutius Felix, and Origen.
For we deny not, that there were Churches or Houſes of Divine Worſhip in Arnobius or Lactantius's Time, who lived in the end of the Third or beginning of the Fourth Century. For they both acknowledge them, though but in ſome Places (it being improbable that Chriſtians in all Places had them) Lactan. l. 4. mentions a Conventicle pull'd down, and l. 5. c. 21. Of one burnt in Phrygia with all the People therein. and l. 5. c. 2. Of a Temple of God demoliſhed. For about his Time, in the F…urth Century, begun the Chriſtians to uſe the Word Temple, for the Place of Chriſtian Aſſemblies: Which formerly, to diſtinguiſh them from the Gentiles Temples they called, Oratories, Aſſemblies, Congregations, Collects or gatherings together, Churches, and ſometimes alſo Stations; as Bellarmin, and Vedelius, formerly mention'd; and Bauldrus in's Notes on Lactantius, de mortibus Perſecutorum, and Spanhem have ſhewn.
Nor ſay we, that Lactantius taxed the Heathens barely for their Buildings; but for their Error, in thinking, God was better ſerved in Temples than without: And that the more glorious they were, their Service was more grateful to God. Whereas the Chriſtian Religion, tota in animo colentis eſt, is all in the mind of the Worſhipper. And this appears all along in his Book, l. 2. c. 6. l. 5. c. 19. and l. 6. c. 1. and 25.
Alſo Chryſoſtom, Homil. 36. on 1 Corinth. ſaith, That in the Apoſtle's Days, Houſes were Churches, meaning Private Houſes no doubt. And Iſidore Peluſiota his Schollar is very plain and poſitive, l. 2. Epiſt. 246. That in the Time of the Apoſtles, when the Church abounded with the Graces of the Spirit, and Holineſs of Life, there were no Temples, though ours now are adorned more than is meet. And having diſtinguiſhed between foreign and foreign, the Church, and the Place, as foreign, and foreign, the Sacrifice and Altar, foreign, and foreign, the Councel, and Place of their Convention; concludes that in the Apoſtle's Times foreign, there were no Artificial Churches.
Theſe with other of the Ancients, are followed by many of the Learned in after Ages. Gerhard the Glory of the Lutherans for Learning, c. 2. §. 9. de Eccleſia, ſaith, Ex Actis Apoſtolicis, & Seriptoribus vetuſtioribus conſtat, quod Chriſtiani. Apoſtolorum tempore nondum habuerunt Publica Templa, ſed in Privatis Domibus convenerunt. That 'tis manifeſt from the Acts of the Apoſtles, and Ancient Writers, that the Chriſtians had no Publick Temples in the Apoſtles Time, but met in Private Houſes.
The Learned Jeſuit Juſtinian, in's excellent Comments on the Epiſtles on 1 Cor. 11.18. ſaith, The Chriſtian Aſſemblies were firſt in Privatis Domibus in Private Houſes; afterwards in Oratoriis & Eccleſiis, in Oratories and Churches: Plainly diſtinguiſhing Oratories from Private Houſes, and ſhews by Reaſon of Perſecution, they met very often in Vaults, and Burying-places. Our renowned Biſhop Pearſon in's Comment on the Creed, p. 337. having ſaid Acts 11.26. and 1 Cor. 11.18. ſeem to take the Church for the Place, in the following Page ſaith, its not certain the Apoſtle uſes them in that Senſe, nor that there were any Houſes ſet apart for the Worſhip of God, in the Apoſtles Times, which then could be called by the Name of Churches.
And that the Primitive Chriſtians thus continued, without Publick Oratories or Churches, is concluded by Vedelius in Ignat. Ʋltra ducentiſſimum annum, nullum Oratoriorum Publicorum veſtigium apparet: That there's no footſteps in Antiquity of any Publick Places of Worſhip for above the firſt Two Hundred Years after Chriſt: And upon the ſame grounds Spanhemius in Hiſt. Saeculo 2do. That Templa adhuc Chriſtianis nulla, ex ſilentio veterum & conditione temporum liquet, &c. That the Chriſtians had no Temples in the Second Century is apparent, from the Ancient Writers making no mention of any, and the Condition of thoſe Times, by Reaſon of Perſecution. So alſo Cuperus in's Ep. ad P. Voet. amongſt the Notes on Lactantius de mortibus Perſecutorum.
I ſhall add no more Teſtimonies for this, that the Chriſtians had not any Publick Places to aſſemble in from the Times of the Apoſtles and ever after, as our Adverſaries affirm; having ſhewn the Opinions of Clem. Alexandrinus, Euſebius and others, concerning Temples in my firſt Diſſertation. But proceed to the Third Thing propoſed, which will further clear this Controverſie: In ſhewing, what Time, and in what kind of Places they aſſembled, during their Perſecution under the Heathens.