Such as these, I suppose," continues Mede, " were the places at first set apart for holy meetings, much like to our private chapels now in great men's houses, though not for so general a use.
"In process of time, as the multitude of believers increased, some wealthy and devout Christian gave his whole house or mansion, either while he lived, if' he could spare it, or bequeathed it at his death, unto the saints. to be set apart and accommodated for sacred assemblies and religious uses.
"At length, as the multitude of believers still more in creased, and the Church grew more able, they built them structures of purpose, partly in the cemeteries of martyrs, partly in other public places ; even as the Jews—whose religion was no more the empire's than theirs—had, never theless, their synagogues in all cities and places where they lived among the Gentiles." The following quotations from writers of the period xvill give some insight into the general use and nature of distinct places of worship in their days. in the second century, Ignatius speaking to the. Magnesians, says, in the passage alluded to above, " All of you meet together for prayer in one place, let there be one common prayer, one mind, one hope in love, in the immaculate ffiith in Jesus Christ, than which nothing is better. All of you as one man run together to the temple of God, as to one altar, to one Jesus Christ, the high Priest of the unbegotten God." In the third century Ilippolytns, describing the state of the world at the coming of antichrist, says, " the temples of God shall be as common and ordinary houses ; churches shall be utterly demolished everywhere ; the Scriptures shall be despised :" thus showing the esteem in which churches were then held.
Gregory of Neoemsarea, surnamed Thaumaturgus, who lived in the middle of the third century, describing the five degrees or admission of penitents according to the discipline of his time, says, 1st. Weeping (the first degree of penance) was without the porch of the oratory, where the mournful sinners stood, and begged of all the faithful as they went in to pray for them. 23. Hearing (the second degree) was within the Porch, in the place called Narthex, the place where these penitent sinners (being now under the ferule or censure of the church) might stand near to the and hear the Scripture read and expounded, but were to go out before them. 3d. Prostration or lying along on the Church-pavement. These prostrate ones were admitted some what further into the church, and went out with the cate chumens. 4th. Standing or slaying with, the People or Congregation. These Consistentes did not go out with the Catechumens, but after they and the other penitents had left, remained, and joined in prayer with the faithful. 5th. Par ticipation of the Sacraments." This is a somewhat remarkable passage, to which we shall have occasion again to refer.
In the rescript of Galienus the churches of the Christians are mentioned as To7rot OpnaKEvatizot or Places of Worship. Gregory Nyssen, speaking of the success of Gregory of Neoca:sarea, relates, " How that, becoming all things to all men, be had in a short time gained a great number of converts through the assistance of the Divine Spirit, and that hereupon he had a strong desire to set upon the building of a temple or place for sacred assemblies ; wherein he was the more encouraged by the general forwardness he observed among the converts to contribute both their moneys and their best assistance to so good a work. This is that temple which is to he seen even at this day." Eusebius, speaking of the long peace which the Church enjoyed before the persecution of Diocletian, says, ‘' How shall any one be able to express those infinite multitudes of Christians assembling in every city, those famous meetings of theirs in their oratories or churches ? and therefore they, not being content with those smaller churches which before they had, (those their ancient edifices not being large enough to receive so great a number,) took care to erect from the very foundation fairer and more spacious ones in every city."
Soon after this dreadful persecution Constantine succeeded to the government, and having been fully convinced of the truth of the Christian faith, with hearty and unremitting zeal set about its establishment, nor to any thing did he give more constant attention than to the erection and adornment of churches. Before, however, entering upon a description and examination of these edifices, it may be as well to say a few words respecting a subject which has not been agreed upon amongst the learned ; it is this, whether the early Christians made use of heathen temples for the performance of their pub lic services. Bingham enters into the subject at some length, from whom we quote the following :— " At first, when the reformation from heathenism was in its infancy, no idol-temples were made use of as churches, but were either permitted to the heathen for some time, or else shut up or demolished. Till the twenty-fifth year of Constan tine, A.D. 333, the temples were in a great measure tolerated, but in that year he published his laws commanding temples, altars, and images to be destroyed, which laws are sometimes referred to in the Theodosian code. And pursuant to these laws, a great many temples were defaced in all parts of the world, and their revenues confiscated, as appears not only from the Christian writers, St. Jerome and Eusebius, and others, hut also from the complaints of the heathen writers, Eunapius, Libanius, and Julian. In some of the following reigns also the same method was taken to shut up or to deface the tem ples, as is evident from the account which Ruffin gives of the general destruction of them in Egypt by the order of Valen tinian. But in the next reign, in the time of Theodosius, another method was taken with some of them. For as Gothofred observes, out of the Chronicon Alexandrinum Theodosius turned the famous temple of Heliopolis, called Balanium, into a Christian church, (EITotreavro EKK?.?Jatav xptartavwv.) And about the same time Socrates tells us, That when Valens had banished the two Macarii, the heads of the Egyptian monks, into a pagan island, they converted all the inhabitants, and turned their temple into the form of a church.' The like was done by the famous temple of the Dea Celestis at Carthage, by Aurelius, the bishop, in the time of Honorins, A.D. 399, which the author of the book, de prcedictionibus, under the name of Prosper, tells, with this remarkable circumstance, that it had been dedicated before by one Aurelius, a heathen high•riest, with this inscription, Aurelius pontifex dedicavit, which our author says was left in the frontispiece, to be read by all the people, because, by God's providence, it was fulfilled again in Aure lius the bishop, for whom it served as well as the former Aurelius, when he had once dedicated it to the use and ser vice of the Christian religion, and set his chair in the place of the goddess. Not long after this, Honorius published two laws in the Western empire, forbidding the destruction of any more temples in cities, because they might serve for ornament, or public use, being once purged of all unlawful furniture—idols and altars, which he ordered to be destroyed wherever they were found.