Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	find_v	great_a	king_n	3,579	5	3.5272	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36252	A reply to Mr. Baxter's pretended confutation of a book entituled, Separation of churches from episcopal government, &c. proved schismatical to which are added, three letters written to him in the year 1673, concerning the possibility of discipline under a diocesan-government ... / by Henry Dodwell ...	Dodwell, Henry, 1641-1711.	1681 (1681)	Wing D1817; ESTC R3354	153,974	372

the Province and having actually made enquiry after the Christians in their persecutions of them I BELIEVE the great reason that inclines you to believe the paucity of Christians in those times is that in great and popular Cities they were able to communicate at one Altar upon which account you conceive them to have been no more than what may assemble in our ordinary Parochial Congregations But you might as well have concluded whole Cities indeed nay whole Nations to have no more people in them than our ordinary Parochial Assemblies You know every clean Male in Jewry was to appear before God at the two solemn Feasts of Easter and of Tabernacles whose numbers computed by Cestius Gallus amounted to a number sure too great for a Parish and the number in Jerusalem when besieged by Titus taken there upon occasion of Easter is a plain Argument of the vastness of their religious Assemblies Nor was it onely proper to the Jews thus to confederate and unite their Commonwealth by their Conventions on account of Religion to partake of the same Altar but the same Policy was observed among the Heathens The Assemblies of whole Cities are so ordinary that it were but pedantick to give instances of them For those of Nations you may observe the Athenian Panathenaicks the Olympick Solemnities which were of all Greece and then the Panionia of the Asiatick Iones not now to mention those of the Barbarians Nor were onely Sacrifices common to these vast Assemblies from the same Altar which is more easily intelligible but speeches also were made to numbers much greater than our Parochial Assemblies which I believe you will think the greater difficulty how the Bishop who you say then was the principal if not the onely Preacher should be heard in a Multitude proportionable to a populous City Yet is this so far from being incredible as that it was in those Ages frequently practised I will not instance in places of special contrivance as that at the Roman Rostra the Theatres and Amphitheatres where many thousands sometimes 100000 or more have heard with convenience And yet it is very probable that these publick places of religious Assemblies were contrived with conveniency for that purpose Nay it is certain that the Jews had their Suggesta and Cathedrae raised on high for that end Nor shall I mention the Orations of Generals to their Armies who had the like advantages It is very clear that upon occasions not so solemn nor prepared great Routs of tumultuous people wanting heads to whom a particular address might have been confined have yet been spoken to I will not again instance in the Speeches of Petronius and King Agrippa to the generality of the Jewish Nation of which we are discoursing Scripture Examples though purely historical I find most easily admitted by you and therefore I am the rather willing to insist on them Rehoboam speaks to all Israel 1 Kings 12. 1 13 16 20. So Jehoiada makes a covenant with all the people of the Land 2 Kings 11. 17 18 20. Our Saviour preaches his Sermon on the Mount to great multitudes from several places S. Matth. 4. 25. v. 1. And several other places to 4000 at one time and 5000 at another though in wildernesses by which we may guess how much greater his Auditories were in populous Cities The Town Clerk of the Ephesians to the whole City Acts 19. 29 35. S. Paul to all the City of Jerusalem Acts 21. 30 36 39 40. And by the multitudes converted by single Sermons of the Apostles you may easily conjecture the vastness of their Auditories Which will be the rather credible when it is considered that the principal preaching of the first Propagators of Christianity was generally in places of greatest frequent such as the Temple or Synagogues or Streets or or Schools or Market-places Thus you see that it will not follow that the number of Christians must have been few if they assembled in one place for the Word and Sacraments and if the Bishop alone had preached BUT neither supposition is so very certain at least not so general as you seem to believe it For preaching we see that while the extraordinary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of prophecy lasted under which preaching was comprehended as well as prayer which by the way is observable against them who allow studied Sermons and yet complain of the Spirit 's being quenched if their prayers be other than extemporary several Prophets met and officiated in their Synaxes 1 Cor. 14. 29 30 31. so far was it then from being confined to any person Bishop or other to preach to the people And even afterwards we find preaching not always performed by the Bishop though I am apt indeed to think it was ordinarily The Catechists were usually Presbyters and Origen though a Presbyter yet preached before Bishops But for the times of persecution wherein they could not meet so numerously in one Assembly yet other provisions might have been made agreeably enough to the Principles of those Ages for supplying the necessities of much greater than parochial multitudes Such was that of reserving the species which I believe was a shift found out in times of persecution when every particular person could not get any opportunity of frequenting the Synaxes as often as he was desirous to communicate which was then daily it being the first meat they tasted This reservation is clear from S. Cyprian de laps the Author De Spectaculis among his works Tert. l. 11. and Ux. Dionys Alex. ep ad Fab. Antioch in Euseb S. Iren. to Pope Victor Now by this means very great multitudes might frequently communicate though their Synaxes were rarely and thinly celebrated that they might not give their Governours any just offence by their numerousness For by Pliny's Epistle to Trajan it appears that they did upon this account utterly forbear their feasts of charity upon his putting of the Law De Hetaeriis in force and in all probability yielded as far as lawfully they conceived they might in the Eucharist it self A second shift was that of sending the Sacraments by the Deacons to those that were absent So S. Justin Martyr expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And who knows whether the breaking of bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or from house to house as we read it Acts 11. 46. if it be meant of the Sacrament and not rather of their feasts of love may not allude to this custom I shall not now dispute it but onely observe that this practice though not grounded on this Text yet certainly used in those times might from the same Altar have communicated much greater multitudes than are contained in our ordinary Parishes But there was also a third Expedient for these numerous Communions that though indeed the Roman Altar where the blessed Sacrament was ordinarily and solemnly administred were onely one even in those populous Cities and that in the power of the Bishop yet