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A43790 Dissertation concerning the antiquity of churches wherein is shewn, that the Christians in the two first centuries, had no such publick separate places for worship, as the papists generally, and some Protestants also presume, and plead for. Hill, Joseph, 1625-1707. 1698 (1698) Wing H1999; ESTC R19760 56,800 78

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curse Christ And if they confest were certainly condemned to Punishment which was of several kinds most usually Death Altho no other Crime was alledged or proved then their Christianity Their Christian Constancy termed inflexible obstinacy was judged sufficient ground for their Condemnation Of which the Primitive Fathers Apologies and Pliny's Epistle to Trajan inform us sufficiently And if they were brought to a Publick Tryal where less Tumultuousness and more legal Proceedings were used Yet how little Hopes they could have of escaping the utmost Severities of the Laws against them may be easily imagined seeing all that Tryed them as well as those that Accused them were their implacable Enemies For when an Accusation was brought in the Pretor in Rome and the Proconsul or Supream Governour in the Provinces having appointed the Time of Tryal then came and sate on the Tribunal and the Judges chosen by Lot more or fewer according to the Quality of the Cause sate on Benches And all the Favour the Accused had was to Object against those he thought good as we are wont in England of the Juries which the Accuser had likewise Liberty to do and the number of those rejected being again supplied by Lot the Cause was pleaded and the Judges gave Sentence by Capital Letters in Tables A. absolvebat absolved C. condemnabat condemned N. L. non liquet It s not manifest As our Juries pronounce Guilty or Not Guilty or Ignoramus I know the manner of the Grecians passing Sentence was otherwise by casting small stones into an Urne the White and whole signifying Absolution the Black and Holed Condemnation But this only by the by Having thus laid down so many Considerations to support our Assertion I submit them to the Judgment of all impartial Readers if they do not preponderate our Opponents Reasons for theirs and proceed in the last Place to produce several Testimonies for Defence of the Truth we have laid down and undertaken to prove SECT 11. We come now to alledge several Testimonies to make good our Position which we shall take from such Authentick Authors as are beyond all Exceptions and not such spurious ones as several that have been brought against us And for the more distinct proceeding herein we shall reduce them to these three General Heads 1. Such as speak of the Persecution of the Primitive Churches whereby any one may judge whether they were in a Condition suitable to the injoyment of certain appropriate Places call them Oratories Churches or as some of our Opponents falsly Temples for that Name came not in for them till the fourth Century if you please much less to build such publickly in the first Ages for their constant worshipping in 2. Such as declare that for two hundred Years at least they had no such as our Adversaries avouch 3. What kind of Places they then assembled in Which were the most Private they could find or contrive for their Security As to the first of these concerning the Persecution of the Primitive Church mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles we have spoken something already in the second Section and shall therefore proceed to that part of Nero's Reign that immediately Succeeds For St. Paul's coming to Rome about the fifth of that Emperour and Imprisonment there for the space of two Years concludes the Acts. There he found a flourishing Church as appears by c. 1. v. 8. of that admirable Epistle he had Written to them between two and three Years before Whether Founded by those Strangers of Rome that were at Jerusalem in the Day of Pentecost Acts 2.10 Or by those mentioned in the 16. Chapter of his Epistle or joyntly by them all I determine not But that it was not by Peter who had not as yet been there is apparent by the Series of History During his Imprisonment he wrote several of his excellent Epistles as that to the Galatians a People inhabiting Tanium pessinunt and Anoyra in Asia the Ephesians Philippians Colossians Philemon and as most think even those that were last as that to the Hebrews and those to Timothy Tho' Dr. Cave and others Judge the first to Timothy was written in 's return to Rome and the second in the Year following For both some Places of Scripture and many Ancient Fathers testifie that being released after two Years by Nero he went and Preached the Gospel in the East Italy France and Spain for about four Years and being apprehended and brought again to Rome was there Beheaded For Nero now inraged at the increase of the number of Christians and the decrease of the Worshippers of the Idol Gods made that bloody Decree Quisquis Christianum se confitetur tanquam generis humani convictus hostis sine ulteriore sui defensione capite Plectitor Whosoever confesseth himself to be a Christian shall as thereby a convicted Enemy of Mankind without any further Defence of himself loose his Head And Orosius l. 7. c. 7. Primus Nero Romae Christianos supplicits mortibus affecit ac per omnes Provincias pari Persecutione execruciari imperavit ipsumque nomen extirpari conatus c. Nero was the first at Rome that punished the Christians and put them to Death and commanded that through all the Provinces they should be tormented with like Persecution and endeavoured to extirpate the very Name of Christians Where Note that tho' all Authors generally make him the first Persecutor of the Christians it must either be understood as first of the Emperors or the first general Persecution after the Constitution of Churches amongst the Gentiles which is usually reckoned from our Saviours Ascension the Time of twenty five Years to Nero. For that both particular Persons and the Church at Jerusalem were persecuted before Nero's Time is manifest in the Acts of the Blessed Apostles There is a Passage in Tacitus Annals l. 15. c. 44. transcribed by Sulpicius Severus l. 2. Hist very remarkable for Congruity with Scripture and clearing some Places therein Which I shall therefore tho' somewhat large relate and improve Having set forth the burning of Rome attributed to Nero Abolendo rumori subdidit reos quaesitissimis paenis affecit quos per flagitia invisos vulgus Christianos appellabat Auctor nominis ejus Christus qui Tiberio Imperitante per Proconsulem Pontium Pilatum supplicio affectus erat Repressaque in Praesens exitiabilis Superstitio rursus erumpebat non modo per Judaeam originem ejus mali sed per urbem etiam quo cuncta undique atrocia aut pudenda confluunt celebranturque Igitur primo correpti qui fatebantur deinde judicio eorum multitudo ingens haud perinde in crimine incendii quam odio humani generis convicti sunt Et pereuntibus addita ludibria ut ferarum tergis contecti leniatu canum interirent aut crucibus affixi aut flamandi atque ubi defecisset dies in usum nocturni luminis uterentur Hortos sui ei spectaculo Nero obtulerat Nero to extinguish the Rumor of