" In the second century, while the persecutions were still rife against the Christians, more cruel sets were passed under Trajan, A. 0. 107, and Marcus Aurelius, A. D. 166, against them, by which it became necessary for them to act with firmness, and in compact. Thus Ignatius, in his epistle to the \lagnesians, exhorts them to meet together in one place, which he calls 76 0E8, the temple of God, and, in his epistle to the Philadelphians, he informs us, that at this time there was one altar in every church, and one apostolic bishop, or head, appointed with his presbytery and deacons. The present Greek copies, indeed, read it a little different from Dr. Mode, leaving out the word church, but the mentioning one altar is sufficient to intimate they had then a stated place for their ecclesiastical or Christian assembly. Tertullian, who lived in the following century, has clearly intimated that the Christians, at this time, had churches, when, com plaining against those who followed the trade of idol-making, (fim. the Gentiles excused themselves, that they did not wor ship them,)—he says, the zeal of firth cannot declaim all the day long upon this point, bewailing that any Christians should come into the house of God from the shop of the enemy, and lift up their hands to God the Father, which were the mothers or makers of idols.' In another place he calls the church Domes Columba•, the house of the dove, meaning either Christ, or his dove-like religion. And again, he expressly distinguishes between the baptistry and the church, which in those days were places separate from each other. In this age, Pius, bishop of Rome, wrote two short epistles to Justus, bishop of Vienne in Gaul ; in the first of which is mentioned one Euprepia, a pious matron, who is said to have consigned the title of her house over to the church, in which was to be celebrated Divine offices of wor ship. And in the other epistle is named one Pastor, a pres byter, who is commended for erecting a titulus, that is, a small Christian church ; Clemens Alexandrinus, towards the end of this century, also uses the name Ecelesia, for the place of the assembly, as well as the congregation ; for, speaking of the church, he says, call not now the place alone by this name, but the congregation of the elect people, the church ;' and so, in his famous homily, Otis dives Salvetur, he brings in the Asian bishop, to whom St. John committed the. young man to be trained up in the Christian discipline, complaining that the youth was become a villain and a robber, and, instead of following the church, had now betaken himself to the mountains, with a company like himself By this it is plain, that, in his time, the word Ecelesia was taken for a church, or sacred place, as well as for the Christian assem bly themselves, and that such a building as a church must have been known and understood. We have also the Scrip ture accounts of the seven Apocalyptic churches, in Asia Minor, to whom St. John the Divine, wrote from the isle of Patmos, where he was banished by the emperor Domitian, A. D. 96. These churches were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, (Revelation ii. and iii.); some of whose ruins, as travellers inform us, now remain.
" In the third century, the testimonies are both more numer ous and certain respecting the churches of the Apostolic Christians, though a succession of Roman emperors had passed edicts against them of a more severe and cruel nature, with the exception of that of Nero's. The persecuting emperors of this century were Soptimius Severus, A.D. 203; Maximi nus Thrax, A. D. 236 ; De•ius, A. D. 250 ; Gallus, A. D. 253 ; Valerians, A. D. 258 ; and lastly, Diocletian, A. D. 302.
" We have a testimony, in this age, of the existence of Christian churches, from a heathen author. Lampridius, in the life of Alexander Severus, reports, 'that there happening a dispute between the Christians and victuallers about a cer tain noted public place, each party challenging it as their own, the emperor's rescript determined it thus, in favour of the Christians : that it was better thr.t God should be wor
shipped there after any manner, than that it should be given up to the victuallers.' About the middle of this period lived the ffimous Gregory of Neoefesarea, surnamed Than maturgus, who himself built several churches in Neoccesarea, and the adjacent parts of Pontus, as Gregory Nyssen reports in his life. St, Cyprian, about the same time, speaks of the place where the church assembled, under the name of Domini cum, the Lord's house; and, in another, opposes the church and the capitol—the altar of the Lord's house, and the altars of images and idol-gods, to one another ; for, speaking against some that had lapsed, and, without due contrition, were for intruding themselves into the church again— If this were once permitted,' says he, what then remains but that the church should give way to the capitol, and the priests with draw and take away the altar of the Lord with them, and let the images and id•gods, with their altars, succeed, and take possession of the sanctuary, where the venerable bench of our clergy sit V About this time, also, Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, speaks of the churches as appropriate to the service of God.
"It appears from the rescript Gallienus the emperor, recorded by Eusebius, where he restores the Chris tians their churches, under the name 70170t Oppipitapw, wor shipping places ; and from what has been noted before, out of the letter of Aurelian, which chides the senate for demur ring about opening Sibylline books, as if they had been con sulting, not in the capitol, but in a Christian church. As also that other rescript of his, in Eusebius, that the request of the council of Antioch ordered Paulus Samosatensis to be turned out of the house of the church. But the testi mony of Euscbius goes further beyond all others; for, speaking of the peaceable times which the Christians enjoyed from the persecutions of Valerian to that of Diocletian, he observes, that the number of Christians so grew and mul tiplied in that fifty years, that their ancient churches were not large enough to receive them, and therefore they erected, from the foundations, more ample and spacious ones in every city.' " The only objection against all this, made with any show of probability, is drawn from some of the ancient apologists Origen, Minutius Felix, Arnobius, and Lactantius, who seem to say, that the Christians, in their time, had no temples or altars, nor ought to have any ;' but, as Dr. Mede shows at large, this is only spoken against such temples, as the heathens pleaded for in the notion of encloistering the Deity by an idol, otherwise the very authors from whom the objection is drawn, must largely contradict themselves ; for Arnobius owns they had their conventicula, houses of assem bly, which he complains were barbarously destroyed in the last persecutions. And Lactantius says the same, giving them also the name of the temples of God, which Diocletian ordered to be demolished, at Bithynia. And Origen himself speaks of adorning the Christian churches and altars, in one of his Homilies upon Joshua. Lactantius, in another of his Institutions, speaks of one of the Christian conventicula in a town of Phrygia, which the heathen had burnt, with the whole assembly in it. And in his book (le difortibus Perse eutorum, he gives a more particular account of the destruc tion of the churches throughout the heathen world ; for he not only mentions the demolishing the stately churches of Nico media, in the kingdom of Bithynia, but intimates, that the same thte attended the churches over all the world ; however it was, both Eusebius and Lactantius agreed in this one point, that there were churches before the last persecution.