Subjects left you. An incomprehenfible Account, fure! if the biggeft City in the Empire had no more than a fingle Congregation in it.

Let me add a Hint or two from the excellent Eufebius to the fame Purpose here: That accurate Hiftorian, when he speaks in general of the Primitive Chriftian Churches in every City and Country, about the Close of the Apoftolick Age, ufes fuch fingular Terms to éxpress the Multitudes and Numbers of them, * as, any impartial Reader must needs confefs, do rather denote them to be Hofts and Legions, than any fuch thing as meer Parochial Affemblies. His Words are hardly to be render'd in our own Tongue; for the greatest Number of throng'd and crowded Societies of them are an imperfect Tranflation of his Original, (as you may fee it in the Margin) and his Comparison for them is this, that they were like heaped Grain upon a Barn-Floor. It is ftrange, if fo exact an Author as this fhould ftrain for fuch fuperlative Words as these are, to defcribe only a common Congregation by. Yet thus he represents (we fee) the State of Chriftian Churches at the Entrance, as it were, of that Period of Time to which our learned Author all along appeals: And before he comes to the End of his third Century, he confutes, (I think) even to a Demonstration, the whole Hypothefis at once; For, fpeaking of the peaceful

* Καὶ δῆτα ἀνὰ πάσας πόλεις τε καὶ κώμας, πλη Ανέσης άλων θ δίκω, μυρίανδροι και παμπληθές αθρόως ἐκκλησίας συνεσήκεσαν. Eurob, Hift. Eccl 3.2. C. 3.

peaceful and bleffed Times that Chriftians enjoy'd after the Valerian Perfecution ended, and before the Dioclefian began, which was the last 40 Years of the third Century; Who can defcribe (fays he) the innumerable Increase and Concourfe of them? the Numbers of Affemblies in each City? and the extraordinary Meetings in their Houfes of Prayer? So that not content with the Buildings they had of old, they founded new and larger Churches throughout every City: Which agrees directly with what Optatus † (the holy Bishop of Milevis) tells us, that when Dioclefian destroy'd the Chriftian Churches, (which was but five Years after the third Century at the moft) there were above forty Bafilice, that is, Publick Places for Chriftian Worship, in the fingle City of Rome. When were these forty Churches built, or dedicated to this holy Ufe? None of them, can we imagine, fo much as five or fix Years before? Had the Chriftians en-" joyed forty Years of Peace and Favour with the Emperors, juft at that Time, and not provided fo much as two or three fuch Houfes of God for their folemn Assemblies, and yet had Occafion for forty of them, and actually had them too, before the fatal Edict was iffued out, that le

vell'd

* Πῶς δ ̓ ἂν τις διαγράψεις τὰς μυριάνδρος εκείνας ἐπισωαγωγὰς ; καὶ τὰ πλήθη 7 και πάσαν πόλιν αθρο ισμάτων, τὰς τε επισήμως ἐν τοῖς προσεκτηρίοις συνδρομάς; ὧν δὴ ἕνεκα μηδαμῶς ἔτι τοῖς παλαιοῖς οικοδομήμασι αρκόμινοι, ευρείας εἰς πλάτΘ ἀνὰ πάτας τὰς πόλεις ἐν σημελίων ανίσων Εκκλησίας. Eufeb. Hift. Eccl. 1. 8. c. 1.

Optat, de Schifm, Donat. 1. 2. p. 39.

vell'd them all to the Ground? I leave the Reader to decide the Probability of this: And that the City of Rome was not fingular in this Cafe, I believe any reasonable Man would eafily agree.

Neocafarea, (we know) the fam'd Metropolis of Cappadocia, was long before this as happily stored, as Rome itself proportionably could be, with fuch Christian Oratories for the Exercife of their Religion: For when their Apoftolical Bishop S. Gregory had converted that whole City (fave only 17 Perfons) by the mighty Hand of God upon him, the zealous Citizens pull'd down their Altars, Temples, and Idols, and in every Place built Houfes of Prayer in the Name of Christ in the room of them. The venerable Father of the Church, who relates this, lived in the fourth Century indeed, which our ftri&t Enquirer, I know, would in no Cafe have concern'd himself in this Matter: But fince it is only an Historical Matter of Fact, and that within his own Period of Time too, I hope fo unexceptionable an Author as S. Gregory Nyffen may be allow'd to bear Witnefs to it. Though I can fcarce forbear taking Notice upon this Occafion, that all the glorious Lights of the Chriftian Church in the fourth and fifth Centuries, whose Names can scarcely be mention'd without Deference

* Βωμῶν τε καὶ Ἱερῶν καὶ Εἰδώλων ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀναζε τραμμλύων Πάντων ἢ καὶ τόπον πάντα.

+ Εκκλησίες ἐπὶ τῷ ὀνόματι Χeις ναὸς ἀνεγειρόν Greg. Nyffen. in Vit. Thaumat. Tom. 3. P 567. Paris Edit. 1638.

των.

ference and Veneration by any true Sons of the Church of Chrift, must be wholly fet afide, and (implicitly at leaft) ftigmatiz'd with Innovation, and Prevaricating from the Evangelical Inftitution and Apoftolical Eftablishment of the Chriftian Church, to make Way for this Congregational Scheme; which makes the fagacious Author of the Enquiry before us, lay such strict Injunctions (as in his Preface he does) upon any that fhou'd confider his elaborate Work, not to ftir a Hair's Breadth from the third Century of the Church; for to the glorious Bafils, Gregories, Chryfoftome, Austin, or any of their Contempo raries, he dares not appeal; knowing how notoriously the Catholick Church of God (then acknowledg'd in the World, and ever fince) had Dioceses and Churches of a very different Constitution from his. This Confideration, I verily believe, wou'd a little affect fome fort of Modest Men, but I leave it to themselves: And having briefly fhewn you in what Manner Scripture, Church-Hiftory, and ancient Fathers, applaud the Honour of God, and do Justice to the bleffed Labours of the holy Apostles, in fetting forth the innumerable Souls they gain'd to God and his Church, in fo little a Compafs of Time; I fhall now, without farther Interruption, confider the important Obfervations which our learned Enquirer has made upon fundry Passages in the Writings of the Primitive Fathers, which have prevail'd upon him to affirm, that there was no more than one fingle Congregational Church

of

of Chriftians for three hundred Years toge ther in the greatest City in the World.

He begins with Juftin Martyr, and renders a Paflage in his firft Apology, thus: On Sunday (fays he) * All affemble together in one Place. Now Faftin's Words are thefe: On Sunday all throughout Cities or Countries meet together; and why do we think he left out thefe Words, (throughout Cities or Countries) which were in the very Middle of the Sentence? Why? because those Words of the holy Martyr wou'd undeniably fhew it to be a general Account of Chriftian Practice in all Places of the Christian World; whereas our Enquirer's Business was to make it a particular Inftance of a fingle Bishop's Diocese, and that all the Members of it, both in City and Country, met in one and the fame Place together at once; and if it were fo, then Cities and Countries in the Plural Number would be too much for him; for if they prov'd any thing in that Senfe, they wou'd prove that Cities and Countries, indefinitely taken, wherever there were any Chriftians in them, met All together every Sunday, and made but one Congregation; and therefore the Cowindos Vive EA TO AUTÒ which properly fignifies, AfJembling together, tho' tis exprefs'd in the Singular Number, yet being spoken with reference to a Complex Body,as it evidently is here in relation to Cities and Countries at large,

does

* Enquiry, p. 17. Πάνων ἐπὶ τὸ αυτὸ σωέλεσις ive. Juft. Mart. Apol. 1. p. 98. Fuftin's Words are there ; Πάντων και πόλεις ἢ ἀγρὸς μενόντων ἐπὶ τὸ αυτὸ συνέλευσις γίνει.