The State ofthefirfl Churche.t, &c. xi i fairs, fo with all other circumflances, it evidenceth that thofe, Churches were particular or Congregational only. Nor is there any thing in the wholeEpiftle that fhould give the leaft intimationof any other Church fiate known unto them. This Epiftle as recorded byEufebius, gives us as noble Reprefentation of the Spirit and Communion that was then among the Churches of Chrift , being writ- ten with Apoffolical fitaplicity and gravity, and remote from thofeTitles of Honour, and affeáed fwelling words, which the faigned writings of that Age, and force that are genuine in thofe that followed, are fluffed withal. Tertullian,who lived about the end of the fecond Cen- tury, gives us the fame account of the State, Order, and Worfhip of the Churches, as was given before by Juflin Martyr, Apol. ad Gen. cap. 39. The Defcription of a Church he firfl lays down in thefe words; Corp*, Antra de confcientia Religionis , & Difciplin e imitate, .&fpei federe. We-are a Body (united) in the Confcience of Re- ligion, (or a confcientious Obfervation of the Duties of Religion) by an Agreement in Difcipline, (whereby it was ufual with the Antients to exprefs Univerfal Obedience unto the Doarine andcommands of Chrift) and in a Co- venant of Hope. For whereas Inch a Body or Religious Society could not be united but by aCovenant, he calls it a Covenant of Hope; becaufe the principal refpett was had therein unto the things hoped for. Theycovenanted together fo to live and walk in the Difciplineof Chrift, or Obedienceuntohis commands, as that they might come together unto the enjoyment of Eternal B1efednefs. ThisReligious Body or Society thus united by Cove- nant, did meet together in thefame Affemblyor Congre- gation. Corpusfamus, soimusin calm& Congregatio- nem,at adDeus quaf mane fatlaprecationibus ambiamus orantes. And cogimar ad divinaram literarum comme morationem 9
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