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surly of We know besides that it was a practice with thelr *stians of the apostolic times to assemble together^Ppointed place for the purpose of worship and devo-te 1 * s evident from the accounts of the evangelists, thatHmi. ' en continued together after their Master’s crucifixion,
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i zy ^ en gaged in prayer and fasting, we cannot say ; but1(1 H,. ere cei 'tainly in one place when the women came and
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■ ^ise’* the resurrection. In the evening of the same day,
place
*b o n ; e ', 11 * s mentioned that they were assembled togethersight ace ’ an< l with closed doors, for fear of the Jews ; and^°°rs 'ra 8 a iterwards, they were again together with closedth e ; r les ewouldseemsomewhat toinvalidate the supposition^ r !iy er „ ),;ui g collected together for prayer, or at least publictotn j> ar it is mentioned that after the return of the apostlesbl ■ ny ’ “ they were continually in the Temple praising
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' v «re .!i ( Ss ' n g God .” Again on the day of Pentecost, theys^Cord to Scther in one house, and, as it is noticed, with one°i So Itl ’ e Uc ' 1 expression would seem to express the existencejj n i wi® t ob j ect , reason, or purpose of their being together,'funded f 101 " 6 likely than for common prayer ? yet they still> af ter the . Public services of the Temple, for it is relatede iftp[ e r ^** 8 > “ Peter and John went up together into the
th,
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2 j, 1 toe hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.” After
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le n j> ent which occurs at this time in the Temple, andan< ^ J°l in were released from custody, theyJj'prol),^. 0 their companions, who were assembled togethertK sifcn y ln t ^ le sarae place as before—and after relatingtK ' v °i'</ n |f' tanCeS ’ ** ' s t0 ^ us t * iat the y P ra yed an d “ spakeSe ev ° ^°d with boldness.” Some time subsequent to, ,A.nti r , e . nt3 ’ it is related of Paul and Barnabas , while"-'th ;, ioc h,
is related of Paul and Barnabas ,ft ' tile ft ^ at y ° r a whole year they assembled themselves; 'bilj t C . rc i'> an d taught much people. This was in all. j'tftggj, ? 111 a stated place set apart for the purpose. Still. ■it's p' 3 the probability with regard to the house of Mary,8 ' lri y Ch 6 ’ 61 - ^ e d after his escape from prison, and wheref l*Pos e J ls tians were gathered together praying; one mights ? p th e aat a room in her house had been given by Maryti^'^r gif^ ose public worsliip. Lydia probably made a^Wly But, not to multiply instances, we would par-
ty "‘th ((
d. Bta^^de to a circumstance which occurred while Paulbj y °t the” at ^ roas > lor it is related that “ upon the first
_? Week, when the disciples came together to break
Co • Ie d u ot * ler words, to celebrate the eucharist,—“ Paulli^i'iue,! i at ° them, ready to depart on the morrow, andto 1 in ti' 8 s P eec k until midnight. And there were manytimber. ■!? upper chamber, where they were gatheredlor^Eut ft W t * lere sat * n a window, a certain young mant|, H Pr e , u .j y . ‘us, being fallen into a deep sleep; and asPaul wasg. tliir,j ]"p°’ be sunk down with sleep, and fell down from'Wn , ’ ? n< i was taken up deadupon which Paul\y rj »to st tt ,-° bim, and restores him to life. This is probably(jJ^bip *Uute description of the place, time, and mode ofW*Pe r ein iu the Sacred Writings. It will not
N* 1 atl un t ^ at *b® room in this instance is said to have
W a Pt'acr r room > and there is reason to believe that ita, ‘ ‘‘Son c Ce am ongst Christians , to use the upper room, or"ft*. for this ■ - - -
!‘Perfo» '»sti
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i purpose; it will be remembered that it was
■ft( "' 8 iitut ln which the Saviour celebrated the passoveraft^Ute r the eucharist, and it may possibly have been0 t° n °f this kind, rather than from the situationba 3 the place, that the upper room was adopted.'bi^ 8 Set aD en uiaintained that the early Christians had noai '§Utn^u. rt -^ or Public worship; but as Bingham combatsfeta ark ’ ^ ma y be as well to let him speak for himself,uto for the most part a summary of the4 L
inquiries of the learned Mede, who has treated this particularsubject at considerable length :—
“ A very singular paradox has been advanced by somelearned men,” says Bingham, “ that for the three firstcenturies after Christ, (i. e) before Constantine ascendedthe throne of the Homan empire, a.d. 306, when he estab-lished Christianity , and soon after abolished paganism, theChristians , owing to the cruel persecutions to which theywere exposed by the pagans in these centuries, first underthe tyrant Nero , a.d. 64; and next under the Roman emperorDomitian , a.d. 94, had no such places of worship aschurches. This statement is grounded upon some mistakenpassages of Origen, Minutius Felix, and Arnobius , who saythat the Christians had no temples, which they take as adenial of their having any churches ; which opinion, thoughadvanced with some show of learning by Yedelius, Suicerus,and others, is altogether without foundation, contradicted bythe authors which they allege, and by themselves in thearguments they produce. Dr. Mede has given us an elaboratedisquisition on the subject, in confutation of this opinion,wherein he has collected the authorities of the ancients, which,for the three first ages, prove the existence of Christian churches.
“ We shall briefly, for the sake of those who have not thatlearned author, give the substance of his proofs, and add someothers of our own observation. In the first place, he showsthat the ancient authors, St. Austin, St. Basil , St. Jerom,and St. Chrysostom, and those under the name of Sedulius ,CEcumenius, Theophylact , in their comments on that passageof St. Paul, (1 Cor. xi. 22,) ‘ Have ye not houses to eat anddrink in ? or, despise ye the church of God ?’ all took theword church there, not for the assembly, but for an assembly-room, or place expressly set apart for sacred devotional pur-poses. Now the apostles, at stated seasons, were in the habitof meeting together for prayer, and supplication for the pros-perity of Christianity, upon mount Zion, at Jerusalem , theHyperoon, or upper room, so often mentioned in the Acts olthe Apostles , (Acts i. 13,) and where they were gatheredtogether 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 successivesabbaths after his resurrection, to their great amazement, and ata time when the doors were close shut and barred, for fearof the Jews , (John xx. 19.) Here the seven deacons wereelected and ordained, (Acts vi. 3,) and here the first councilof the churches was held at Jerusalem, (Acts xv.) Thisplace becoming holy and sacred by these meetings, wasafterwards inclosed within a goodly edifice, called the churchof mount Zion ; and in the time of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem ,it was called the high church of the apostles.
“ This was the oboe, or same house of assembly at Jeru-salem, that is mentioned, (Acts ii. 46,) where the apostlesmet for the breaking of bread, when they had all things incommon. Some think the word kut ohw is not to be trans-lated from house to house, as in our version, but in the houseor room where the Christian assembly was used to meet toge-ther. The next argument is drawn from what Eusebius observes of the Stpaxtvrai in Egypt , whether Essenes, orChristians , they had their ce/xvcia, or places appropriated fordivine worship, from the days of St. Mark, and that suchplaces 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 suchpious Christians , who had generally some part of their dwell-ing, or upper rooms, or housetop, (see Acts x. 9,) remotefrom noise, set apart for the church to assemble in, or, likethat of Lydia’s, (Acts xvi. 15.) At Macedonia was such an