Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	east_n	north_n	west_n	5,069	5	9.1516	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
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

let me observe whereas Mede saith to worship and pray Bellarmine c. 3 de cultu sanct rightly restrains to prayers only and those made publickly in the Temples For having mentioned several Authors for this adds Et omnes illi Veteres qui scribunt Apostolicam esse traditionem ut oremus conversi ad Orientem id praecipue servari par est in solemnibus precibus quae funduntur in Templis And all those Ancients which write that 't is an Apostolical Tradition that we pray turned towards the East that ought especially to be observed in the solemn Prayers which are made in Temples Secondly Tho we grant this an ancient Custom yet is it without Command or Example in the Scriptures for Christ never required it nor was it practised from the beginning of Christianity Where 's the Proof they then used so to Worship Or when this Custom first came up For as to the Constitutions rightlier to be called Apocryphal than Apostolical as we have formerly observed they deserve no Credit at all Thirdly If this necessarily implies Edifices so situated which I question and he supposes but hath not proved then those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upper rooms the coenaculum Sionis that upper room in Sion and private Houses which were the first Churches he grants in the beginning of his Treatise were all so situate which I hardly think he himself thought And much less that the Coemeteries and Vaults under Ground which so many Authors mention for their Meeting Places as we shall shew hereafter were so or had such Light Eastward more than from other Quarters of the Heavens Fourthly Bellarmine there treating of the Form of Christian Churches saith only Vt plurimum eas ad Orientem conversas fuisse quatuor latera habuisse quibus quatuor Mundi partes aspicerent That for the most part they were turned towards the East and had four sides turned towards the four parts of the World Likewise Walfridus Strabo de rebus Eccles c. 4. saith Majorem partem Ecclesiarum ita fabricari That the greater part of Churches were so made So that by their saying all were not so some might be round as we have an ancient Church in Cambridge so built which some say was the usual Form of the Jewish Synagogues such as the lesser at Amsterdam And some sited otherwise than Eastward as the Church of Antioch in Syria as Socrates l. 5. c. 21. testifies And if they were oblong and stood East and West seeing they had four sides 't is meant doubtless of the Chancel which was Eastward Of which distinction in Churches when first it began or who was the Author thereof is not set down by any Writers I have met with Tho we know in Constantine's time when stately Churches were erected this was used And if we take this in the first Ages for private places frequently stiled Oratories and Chappels such as were in Houses and Vaults under Ground or above in the open Air to say their aspect was Eastward is to beg the question and cannot be proved We may well imagine those built were rather according to the conveniency of the place or pleasure of the Founders As the Chappels of Emanuel and Sidney College in Cambridge which stood rather North and South Tho the former hath now a new one built in Mode and Figure and is no more to be derided as formerly by Cart-wright an Oxford Poet Much like the Chappel Ominous Of ' th Colledge called God with us Nor the other now in danger to be demolished as Mr. Mathews an ancient Fellow thereof told me was in the days of A. B. Land threatned therewith I confess Bellarmine brings several Authors for this situation of Churches but none that proves there was always such nor that they were all such as also for the Ceremony of praying towards the East for which he produces 5 reasons such as they are I shall briefly represent them to shew the sorry grounds of this practice which takes away the liberty Christ hath left us to advance a Custom of humane Constitution 1. Because Paradise was in the East and we being here but strangers should labour to regain our ancient Country which we were cast out of Which is produced by several other Papists as the Opinion of the Fathers and lately by the Learned Huetius c. 3. de situ Paradisi As if Paradise where ever it was the place thereof having puzzl'd so many Learned Inquisitors whether in or near Mesopotamia or elsewhere was not as well West to the Christians beyond it as East to us on this side Or that we were to look after a Terrestial Paradise more than a Coelestial whereof that was but a Type And as the Saints in the Old Testament lookt from all parts toward the Temple as a Type of our blessed Saviour so under the New we are directed to look towards Heaven as the Habitation of our Heavenly Father where Christ sits at his right hand to make Intercession for us 2. Because the Sun rising there 't is the most excellent part of the World But supposing its motion doth it not continually arise in the several Horizons to those of the same Latitude throughout the World and there set to their Antipodes so that the East of Jerusalem as Gregory explains it must needs be West to the further parts of the World And how can that be most excellent to any which is equally alike to all 3. Because Christ whom we Worship is the light of the world Vir Oriens the Man of the East It s true that as the blessed God is called light which of all creatures is the most pure So Christ is called the Sun of righteousness the light of the world and the day spring from on high c. But this is only metaphorically in regard of his illuminating us and not at all to the place of East or West North or South all being equally alike to him for that end 4. Because Christ was crucified with his Face Westward so that we look Eastward to behold his countenance And he ascended towards the East and from thence shall come to Judgment But where 's the proof of that posture in his Crucifiction Not in the Scripture sure And how should the Christians beyond Jerusalem pray towards his Face so who lived in Persia and other Eastern Countries Math. 24.27 is meant of his Gospel Dispensation or his speedy coming to destroy Jerusalem as Hammond and Lightfoot think or by that Emblem to Judgment the point of East in the Heavens being no where so to all the World he is to Judge 5. Because the Jews prayed and pray towards the West we towards the East to signifie theirs to be the killing Letter and ours the Vivificating Spirit and that the Veil still remains over their hearts which we converted unto the Lord have laide aside That the Jews at the Temple looked Westward was because the Mercy-Seat in the most holy Place was at the West end

comfortable calm Aurelian's Edict made for Persecution being never signed by him God having terrified him with Lightning as Eutropius and Vopiscus affirm and so stopt his wicked Tyranny But alas instead of being better'd they extreamly degenerated So that Eusebius saith God sent that direful storm of Persecution on them under Dioclesian for the corruptness of their lives and manners Maximè vero Ecclesiasticorum in quorum vultu simulationem in corde dolum verbis fallaciam cernere licuit livore superbia inimicitiis inter se certantes tyrannidem potius quam sacerdotium sapere videbantur Christianae pietatis omnino obliti divina mysteria profanabant potius quam celebrabant Which I forbear to English Those that please may read more in Fox's Martyrology in the 9th Primitive Persecution tho he misreckon it there having been no general Persecution in Aurelian's Reign who as he himself saith rather intended than moved Persecution But for their wickedness followed the 10th When their Churches were demolished their Bibles burnt their Persons punished with all kinds of cruelty neither Courtiers nor Friends not the Empress Prisca nor Daughter Valeria spared his Decree was aut Deos Gentilium aut mortem eligerent That the Christians should choose either the Heathen Gods or Death Of this Tenth and greatest Persecution Eusebius in his 8th Book of History Lactantius de mortibus Persecutorum from 7 to 49 Chap. with the Notes in Latin of 1693 which are 10 times larger than the Text. And Fox in his first book of Martyrology from Eusebius and several others have written largely which I shall not transcribe but dismiss with this short remark That of all the 10 general Persecutions this last which was the forest and continued above Ten Years only reached England wherein Albanus first and very many after sealed their Faith in Christ with their blood so that Christianity was almost with the Scriptures and Churches destroyed throughout the whole Kingdom tho shortly after revived by the blessed Constantine Having now examined all our Adversaries Witnesses we leave the Impartial Reader to judge of their validity and whether they prove the Christians to have had any publick appropriate places for Worship in the two first Centuries Which tho undoubtedly most sit and convenient always yet in times of Persecution men must do as they may and meet as secretly as they can and be constrained often to change their meeting places and when private Houses will not serve for secresie to seek out Vaults under ground where they may worship God And yet not even in the most secret and retired places without fear of their enemies and danger of their lives which shews our happiness in this regard above theirs who were much better than we There is but one scruple that I can imagine remaining and that is tho these places were private yet they might be as Mede terms them appropriate To which I answer that his first Argument for his Opinion which immediatly follows from their worshipping towards the East implies that he takes them for Publick and purposely built accordingly for that end And 2 who ever diligently peruses his Treatise will see that he founds their appropriation as also their holiness of which in the next Dissertation on their Consecration or as he sometimes calls it Dedication Now if we consider when this begun Platina in vitis Pontif. tells us That Telesphorus having suffer'd Martyrdom in the first year of Antomus Pius which was about the year of our Lord 142. Hyginus an Athenian succeeded him Who ordained these two things First the use of those Witnesses we commonly call Godfathers and Godmothers in the Administration of the Sacrament of Baptism Which was then I confess more necessary by reason the generallity of those amongst whom the Christians lived were Heathens And therefore in case the Parents on whom it is incumbent to see thei Children educated in the Christian Religion came to die they that were Sponsors might take care to see them brought up therein Which Institution as likewise Confirmation is now degenerated into a meer Formality few regarding their solemn Engagements made for that end And 2. he ordained also Templorum consecrationes the Consecration of Temples that or Churches being the usual Names given to all places for Gods Worship in after Ages So that Consecration being but introduced in the second Century if Mede takes it in the usual sense his Opinion that There were appropriate Places for Christian Worship both in the Apostles days and ever since falls to the Ground except it can be proved that some of them at least lived so long But if he takes it for a private House or some room therein where the Church met together as he seems in the beginning and by the expressions of the Church in their House then whensoever any Owners thereof gave leave for the Christians to assemble therein their permission was a Consecration thereof whereby they appropriated the same to the Churches use and so according to his Tenets employed them no more for their own Civil use being appropriate to a Sacred Or else some pious Christians gave their Houses as he thinks and dedicated them to the Church for a Meeting Place by which Dedication it was appropriated But neither of these can be reasonably imagined Considering 1. That we read of several that sold their Possessions for the Maintenance of the Poor but we read of none that gave their Houses to the Church for meeting in 2. The multitude of Christians increasing many Houses were requisite to contain them as we have formerly observed 3. How often in those bloody Persecutious they were forced to shift their Meeting-Places to shun the loss of their Estates Liberties and Lives we may easily conclude And lastly Had any either granted or given any House or certain place for such an use as therein constantly to assemble they had thereby without all doubt been quickly discovered certainly dispersed and often times most severely punish'd So that tho we are not to question the readiness of many that were able nor their pious liberality so we must also consider their Prudence the times wherein they lived and what was most conducible to their preservation that they might not run themselves on the rocks of destruction SECT 9. Our Opponents besides the Authorities mentioned produce several Arguments for their Opinion whereof 3 are made use of by Mede which we shall now consider First It 's certain saith he That in their Sacred Assemblies Christians used then to Worship and Pray towards the East Which how it could be done with any order and conveniency is not easie to be conceived unless we suppose the places wherein they worshipped to have been situated and accommodated accordingly that is chosen and appointed to that end This he had touched on before from Tertullian in the beginning of the 3d Century for which no authority is vouched but that only of the forged Apstolical Constitutions falsly ascribed to Clemens Here