A26898:160
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by B. Griffin for Thomas Simmons, 1680
Church-History OF BISHOPS And their COUNCILS ABRIDGED, &c. › Chapter 1
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
I do not hence gather that every Man, Woman, and Child was present: In our Parish Churches that hold the Assembly, some are there, and usually some stay at home and come by turns: But it seemeth hence plain that even in Alexandria the Christians were no more than that the main Body of them at great Solemnities could meet and hear in one Assembly. Which in many of our Parishes they cannot do.
§. 29. Add to this, that Athanasius tells them that his Predecessor Alexander did as much as he had done, on such occasions assembling their whole Multitude in one Church before it was dedicated, pag. 532.
§. 30. I add a further Argument from the City it self, as offered me also while I was writing this, by a learned Friend in his own Words.
This City was, by Strabo's description of it, like a Soldiers Coat, whose length at either side was almost thirty furlongs, its breadth at either end seven or eight Furlongs, Geogr. li. 17. p. 546. So the whole compass will be less than ten Miles. A third or fourth part of this was taken up with public Buildings, Temples, and Royal Palaces, ibid. Thus is two miles and a half, or three and a quarter taken up. I take this to be that Region of the City which Epiphanius calls [Greek or Hebrew] (where he tells us was the famous Library of Ptolemy Philadelphus) and speaks of it in his time as destitute of Inhabitants, de ponder, & mensir. n. 9. p. 166. A great part of the City was assigned to the Jews. So Strabo indefinitely, as Josephus quotes him, Antiqu. Jud. l. 14. c. 12. Others tell us more punctually that their share was two of the five Divisions (Ushers Annals Lat. p. 859.) Though many of them had their habitations in the other Divisions, yet they had two fifth parts entire to themselves: And this is I suppose the [Greek or Hebrew] which Josephus saith the Successors of Alexander set apart for them, Bell. Jud. l. 2. c. 21. Thus we see how six or seven miles of the ten are disposed of. The greatest part of the Citizens (as at Rome and other Cities) is the beginning of the fourth Age were Heathens. Else Antonius had wronged their City, who in Athanasius time is brought in thus, exclaiming by Jerome, Vit. Paul. p. 243. Civitas meretrix in quam totius orbis Daemonia confluxere, &c. A charge thus formed supposeth the prevailing Party to be guilty. But let us suppose them equal and their proportion half of the five or four miles remaining. Let the rest be divided between the Orthodox, and the Arians, and Novatians, and other sorts. And if we be just, a large part will fall to the share of Heretics and Sectaries. For (not to mention others) the Novations had several Churches and a Bishop there, till Cyril's time, Vid. Socrat. Hist. l. 7. c. 7. The Arians were a great part of those that professed Christianity, Sozom. Hist. li. 1. c. 14. And if we may judg of the Followers by the Leaders, no less than half: For whereas there were nineteen Presbyters and Deacons in that Church (Theodor. Hist. li. 4. c. 20.)