It has been maintained that the early Christians had no places set apart for public worship ; but as Bingham combats this argument, it may be as well to let him speak for him self. His remarks are for the most nart a summary of the inquiries of the learned Mede, who has treated this particular subject at considerable length : " A very singular paradox has been advanced by some learned man," says Bingham, "that for the three first centuries after Christ, (i. e.) before Constantine ascended the throne of the Roman empire, A.D. 306, when he estab lished Christianity, and soon after abolished paganism, the Christians, owing to the cruel persecutions to which they were exposed by the pagans in these centuries, first under the tyrant Nero, A.D. 6 4 ; and next under the Romani emperor Domitian, A.D. 94, had no such places of worship as churches. This statement is grounded upon some mistaken passages of Origen, 111inutius Felix, and Arnobius, who say that the Christians had no temples, which they take as a denial of their having any churches; which opinion, though advanced with some show of learning by Vedelius, Suicerus, and others, is altogether without foundation, contradicted by the authors which they allege, and by themselves in the arguments they produce. Dr. Mede has given us an elaborate disquisition on the subject, in oonfutation of this opinion, wherein he has collected the authorities of the ancients, fbr the three first ages, prove the existence of Christian churches.
" We shall briefly, for the sake of those who have not that learned author, give the substance of his proofs, and add some others of our own observation. In the first place, he shows that the ancient authors, St. Austin, St. Basil, St. Jerom, and St. Chrysostom, and those under the name of Sedulius, CEeumenius, Theophylact, in their comments on that passage of St. Pan], (1 Cor. xi. 22,) Have ye not houses to eat and drink in ? or, despise ye the church of God?' all took the word church there, not for the assembly, but fur an assembly room, or place expressly set apart for sacred devotional pur poses. Now the apostles, at stated seasons, were in the habit of meeting together for prayer, and supplication for the pros perity of Christianity, upon mount Zion, at Jerusalem, the Hyperion, or upper room, so often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, (Acts i. 13,) and where they were gathered together when the Holy Ghost came upon them, (Acts ii.) and where our blessed Lord also celebrated his Last Supper, and where he appeared to his disciples on two successive sabbaths after his resurrection, to their great amazement, and at a time when the doors were close shut and barred, for fear of the Jews, (John xx. 19.) Here the seven deacons were elected and ordained, (Acts vi. 3,) and here the first council of the churches was held at Jerusalem, (Acts xv.) This place becoming holy and sacred by these meetings, was afterwards inclosed within a goodly edifice, called the church of mount Zion ; and in the time of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, it was called the high church of the apostles.
"This was the oitcoc, or same house of assembly at Jeru salem, that is mentioned, (Acts ii. 46,) where the apostles met for the breaking of bread, when they had all things in common. Some think the word 'car oiitw is not to be trans lated from house to house, as in our version, but in the house or room where the Christian assembly was used to meet together. The next argument is drawn from what Eusebius observes of the 19Eparrevrat in Egypt, whether Essenes, or Christians, they had their ofiaTta, or places appropriated for divine worship, from the days of St. Mark, and that such places are to be understood in all such passages of St. Paul, as "Salute ye the churches" in such and such an house ; that is, the congregation which meet in the houses of such pious Christians, who had generally some part of their dwell ing, or upper rooms, or housetop, (see Acts x. 9,) remote from noise, set apart for the church to assemble in, or, like that of Lydia's, (Acts xvi. 15.) At Macedonia was such an appropriated room, (see Acts xx.,) where St. Paul, on the first day or the week, preached to an immense multitude, and continued his discourse till midnight, when a young man, named Entychus, sitting in the Whidow where the lattice was open, being overcome by sleep, fell from the upper story, and was taken up dead, but whom St. Paul again restored to life. That there were devotional places, or oratories, set apart expressly fir Christian worship in the first century, I think we have sufficient evidence ; whether we call these places churches or not. The following century is, however, more clear, where they are called sometimes by the name of Comacultim ; at others, by that which we have before men tioned. as Ilyperoon. Thus we find Lucian, a pagan, or who eve• was the author of the dialogue called Philopatris, about the time of Trajan, one of the pagan emperors, bringing in one Cretins, telling how the Christians carried him into a 1lyper5,m, the place of their assembly, with a design of making him a proselyte to their religion. Ile argues further, from the tradition of the church, derived from the ancient author of the IZeognitians, under the name of Clemens Ro manus, which says, that Theophilus, to whom St. Luke is supposed to have inscribed his Gospel at Antioch, where the name of Christians was first given to the followers of Christ, did convert his house into a church ; and the like is reported of the house of Piions, a Roman senator and martyr, in the Acta Pudentis, that it was turned into a church after his martyrdom. Ile concludes this first century with the testimony- of Clemens Romanus, in his genuine epistle to the Corinthians, who says, that God has ordained well-appropriate places, w here at appointed times and seasons he would be solemnly served, so that all things might be done religiously and orderly.