that of Origenists. These were, of course, certain followers of Origen. The name, however, of very indefinite application probably at first, did by no means extend to all his admirers, nor even to all his imitators; for though the celebrated fathers, Gregory Nyssen, Didymus and Jerome, were known to be of the latter class, it does not appear that they were considered, till after many years, as belonging to the particular party under consideration'. What distinguished the Origenists properly so called, from other avowed disciples of their master, cannot be ascertained, unless it were some special combination among themselves for party purposes, or a more clamorous zeal in urging their peculiarities. That they were, in some sense, a specific party, appears from the circumstance of their sectarian denomination; but it should be remarked, at the same time, that they were in the full fellowship of the orthodox communion, and that they seem to have been scattered among the churches, as well as monasteries, in various parts of Egypt.

There was one celebrated retreat, however, where they particularly abounded. About fifty miles south of Alexandria, beyond the lake Mareotis and a long extent of burning sands succeeded by plains heaped with pebbles, arose the bare and sun-burnt hills of Nitria,

Epiphanii Panarium, Hæres. Ixiv. § 3. This is the earliest pas sage in which I have found that appellation. r In proof of this, among many other facts, is that of Jerome's contention with some Origenists at Rome, about A. D. 382, and his forsaking Nitria, in A. D. 386, out of dislike to them; though he himself was, at this time, a devout admirer of Origen's works.

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amidst a boundless prospect of desolation. It was in the borders of the great Lybian Desert. Around these hills the monks had gathered into a vast community, the most famous, perhaps, and with one exception the most numerous, of all they had yet formed. This was the principal seat of the Origenists; who appear to have constituted the smaller part of five or six thousand reclusest. As strangers resorted hither, even from distant countries, in order to acquire the monastic discipline and precepts in their perfection, many attached themselves to the new sect; and travelling afterwards through diferent parts of christendom, propagated their views and partialities wherever they went. At a period a few years later, we shall find some, though perhaps not all, of them to have been Universalists.

XIV. The Origenists, as a party, were A. D. 376. attacked at this time, by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis on the island of Cyprus. He was a man of much reading, but very careless, inaccurate, and notoriously disposed to adopt every slanderous report against those whom he disliked. In a large work, designed to confute all the heresies that had ever appeared, he devotes one of the longest articles of thirty or forty folio pages, to the errors of Origen Adamantius and his party ". Having given an account of his life, in some points false and injurious, he says,

s Sonnini's Travels in Egypt, chap. 26 and 27. The desert of Ni-• tria is about 35 miles west of Terane, a village on the Nile.

t For the number of monks at Nitria, see Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xvi. chap. 36. u The Origeniani, whom Epiphanius describes in Hæres. Ixiii. are suspected to have been creatures of his imagination. See Lardner's Credibility, &c. chap. Noetus, and others called Heretics, &c.

"As to the heresy of Origen, it was first propagated in "Egypt; and at this day it flourishes chiefly among "those who profess the monastic life. It is a pestifer"ous heresy, exceeding in wickedness all former ones, "the errors of which, it indeed embraces. For though "it is attended with no appearance of vice among its vota"ries, it teaches the most absurd notion concerning God. "From this fountain it was, that Arius and his secta"ries derived their errors. Origen proceeded to such "an extent of temerity, as to assert that the only begot"ten Son cannot behold the Father, nor the Holy "Ghost see the Son, nor angels the Holy Ghost, nor "man the Angels. This was his first error: For "he held the Son to be of the substance of the "Father in such a way as that he was nevertheless "created. He held still more heinous errors; for he "taught that the souls of men existed before their bodies, 'and were angels or superior powers, who have been "consigned, on account of their sins, to these mortal "frames, for the purpose of punishment. We could "mention ever so many of his notions: that, for instance, which he entertained, that Adam lost the di"vine image by transgression. Hence it is, says Origen, "that the scripture mentions the coats of skins with "which God clothed our first parents: which coats he "takes to be their bodies. There are, indeed, an in"finite number of dogmas advanced by him, worthy of "ridicule and laughter. He even represented the re"surrection in an imperfect and defective manner, part"ly asserting it in appearance, and partly denying it in 'reality. In other words, he supposed that only a part

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"of man is to be raised. And finally, he turned what"ever he could into allegories: such as Eden or Para"dise, and its waters; and the waters which are above "the firmament, and those which are under the earth.” &c. Epiphanius then proceeds to treat, at considerable length, on his views of the trinity and the resurrection, inserting nearly all the treatise of Methodius on the latter subject; after which he returns to inveigh once more against his notions of the coats of skins, of preexistence, and of the resurrection, calling him "an infidel, and worse than an infidel." It is remarkable that, like all the former opposers of Origen, he too passes over the doctrine of Universalism in silence; though we discover that he, himself, at the same time, believed that there is no change of condition, nor room for repentance, after death. This attack, though professedly against the Origenists, was directed more particularly against their Master himself; and it seems to have been the last he suffered, till the famous contest that arose at the end of this century, in which Epiph-. anius will again appear, in the character of a principal

actor.

A. D. 370, to 383.

XV. We have already advanced into a period that forms a distinguished era in our history. Universalism appears to have been, for a while, the sentiment of a majority of the most eminent orthodox fathers in the East.

▾ Epiphanii Panarium, Hæres. Ixiv. § 4. This passage, which I have compressed a little, contains about every point that Epiphanius censures throughout the whole article. This part of his work is supposed to have been written in A. D. 376. See Lardner's Credibility &c. chap. Epiphanius. w Ditto. Hæres, lix,

Gregory Nyssen, Didymus, and Jerome, were its advocates; and the celebrated Gregory Nazianzen, who was elevated, at length, to the bishopric of Constantinople, hesitated between this doctrine and that of endless misery. His readiness in expounding the Nicene faith, acquired for him the appellation of The Theologian; and of all the fathers, except Chrysostom, he is the most renowned for a brilliant and glowing eloquence. His works are, of course, declamatory and exhortative, rather than doctrinal; but he has still left sufficient proofs of the unsettled state of his opinion: sometimes he represented future misery as a dispensation of mere torment, opposed to all corrective suffering; and asserted that in hell, or the place of the dead, there can be no confession nor reformation*. But at other times he thought it probable that those torments would be directed to the salvation of the sufferers: "I have mentioned," says he, "the purifying fire "which Christ came to kindle upon earth; who is "himself figuratively called fire. It is the nature of "this fire to consume the grosser matter, or vicious "character, of the mind. But there is also another "sort of fire, not of purgation, but intended for a "vindictive punishment of wickedness: whether it be "that of Sodom, which, mixed with sulphur and storm, "God pours upon all sinners; or that which is prepar"ed for the devil and his angels; or even that which 66 proceeds before the face of the Lord; or lastly, "that more formidable than all, which is connected with

Gregorii Nazianzeni Oratio Decimaquinta, p. 229, Tom, i, Edit, Paris. 1630,