supposed error; and with such grace was this accomplished, that Beryllus became the lasting and ardent friend of his victorious opponent. It was a little after this, perhaps the next year, that he wrote, at the solicitation of Ambrosius, his books Against Celsus, a heathen philosopher of the second century, who had hoped, by a labored treatise, to overthrow christianity. To this learned and witty enemy of the Gospel, Origen's work is generally esteemed a candid and thorough answer; though some of the more judicious and impartial have detected in it a few instances of the prevailing disingenuousness and sophistry of the times. He was soon- called again into Arabia, by another council of bishops, in order to reclaim some christians there, who held that the soul dies with the body, and with it awakes to consciousness at the resurrection. On his arrival, he contended so successfully against the obnoxious sentiment, that its advocates changed their opinion, and returned to the cordial fellowship of the church. was under the reign of Philip, to whom, perhaps, more properly belongs the distinction, commonly allowed to Constantine, of having been, though secretly, the first christian emperor. Be that as it may, Origen appears to have been honored with his correspondence, and with that of the empress.

A. D. 245, to 253.

This

IX. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of his pursuits, the variety of his situations, and the changes of his fortune, he seems never to have neglected the Hexapla or Octapla", that

n It was called Tetrapla, Hexapla, or Octapla, according as the copy contained three, six, or all of the columns.

name.

great work, which alone would have immortalized his At what time it was completed is unknown; probably, however, not far from this period. In its entire state, it consisted of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, placed in the first column; the same, but written in Greek letters, in the second; the translation of Aquila, in the third; that of Symmachus, in the fourth; the Septuagint in the fifth; the version of Theodotion in the sixth; two other versions of the prophets, in the seventh and eighth; together with a translation only of the Psalms. Wherever he found the Septuagint to depart from the Hebrew text, he affixed different marks to denote what was omitted, or what was added; and by the same means he distinguished the various readings of the Original itself, according to the countenance each one received from the several translations. This is supposed to have been the first attempt at a Polyglott, or critical compilation of the scriptures in different languages; and in the great uncial letters of ancient manuscripts, it must have swelled to an enormous bulk, amounting, as Montfaucon thinks, to at least fifty volumes of a very large size. Mosheim says, that "though almost 66 entirely destroyed by the waste of time, it will even "in its fragments, remain an eternal monument of the "incredible application with which that great man la"bored to remove those obstacles which retarded the "progress of the gospel."

But neither the services he had rendered the church, nor the veneration with which his name was generally regarded throughout the East, could stifle a strong disaf

fection in many christians of that day, towards some of his extravagances. We may perceive, in his later writings, allusions to the complaints of such as reprehended his perpetual use of heathen philosophy, and of those who animadverted on his allegorical system of interpreting the scriptures. And we occasionally discover that he felt and lamented, what is the common misfortune of greatness, that the unbounded praises lavished upon him by his personal admirers, had awakened, in others, a spirit of envy and abuse. An invidious hostility, once excited, could never be at a loss, amidst the prodigious number of his writings, to select some wild notions, many unguarded expressions, which would seemingly justify the clamors of passion, and the cold discountenance of more prudent malignity; and it is said that Origen at length judged it expedient to write a letter to Fabian, the bishop of Rome, in vindication of his impeached orthodoxyo.

o Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. Lib. vi. cap. 36,) barely mentions that Origen wrote a letter to Fabian concerning his own orthodoxy; but Jerome, who is not the best authority, says, (Hieron. Epist. xli. vel 65, ad Pammach. p. 347,) that Origen therein lamented that he had written those things for which he had been censured, and that he also cast upon Ambrosius the blame of having circulated those writings which contained them, and which he himself had intended only for private use. How much of this improbable account is true, cannot be determined, as the letter is lost. It is natural, here, to ask, Was Universalism one of those tenets which then gave offence? But to this interesting question no certain answer is to be found. Circumstances, however, would lead us to hazard an answer in the negative 1, Origen continued to advocate that doctrine even in his latest publications, (See note s. to § xi. of this chapter,) without an intimation that it was censured; 2, in all the succeeding controversies concerning his orthodoxy, which began to rage in about forty years after his death, we never find that doctrine involved, till after the contention had lasted a century; (See chapters vi. and vii.) and it is not likely that a doctrine of so much consequence, had it once been

Though now above sixty years of age, (A. D. 246,) he appears to have subjected himself to as great exertions as at any former period; proceeding in the composition of some large works, and at the same time delivering daily lectures to the people of Cesarea. These, though extemporaneous and unprepared, were nevertheless so highly esteemed, that, with his consent, transcribers were now employed, for the first time, to take them down as they were delivered, and then to publish them under the title of Homilies. At length his Commentaries on St. Matthew's Gospel, those on the twelve minor Prophets, and on the Epistle to the Romans, were finished in succession, having employed him till near the year 250. At this date the terrible

pointed out as a subject of complaint, would have been forgotten, as such, both by his adversaries and his apologists.

It does, indeed, appear, from an expression in his Letter to his Alexandrian friends, as explained by Jerome, that a Valentinian heretic endeavored to stigmatize him with holding the salvation of the devil. But we have only a part of the Letter, and that only in the translations of Rufinus (De Adulterat. Librorum Origen.) and of Jerome (Apolog. adversus Rufin. Lib. ii. pp. 413, 415): both of whom are well known to have taken considerable freedom with Origen's language. There is some difference in their versions of this passage; but much more in the light in which they leave the subject. According to the former, Origen incidentally observes that his enemies accused him of asserting the salvation of the devil, "which," adds he, "no one can assert, unless transported, or manifestly insane." According to Jerome, who corrects the misrepresentations of Rufinus, Origen barely alludes to the cavils of a certain Valentinian concerning the salvation of the devil; "which," continues he, none could avow, unless insane." What is unaccountable in these two translations, is, not their difference, but the point in which they agree, viz. that they both make Origen pronounce the salvation of the devil a tenet which none could assert, unless insane; when he himself had asserted and illustrated it (De Principiis Lib. i. cap. 6, and Lib. iii. cap. 6, § 5,) and continued to do so in his latest works (Tom. xiii. in Matt. and Homil. in Josh.) As neither Rufinus nor Jerome had this sentence particularly in view, we may suspect that they have given it a false construction.

persecution under the emperor Decius broke out; and Origen was seized at the city of Tyre, cast into prison, and loaded with irons. Here he suffered the most excruciating torments: his feet were kept in the stocks, distended to the utmost extremity, for several days; he was then threatened with being burned alive; and when it appeared that threats could not shake his constancy, he was racked with several kinds of torture. At length his executioners, tired with the infliction of unavailing cruelties, or more probably prevented by the death of Decius, (A. D. 251,) suffered him to escape alive. After this he held several conferences, and wrote many letters, in all which he evinced a soul worthy of the life he had led. He died at Tyre about A. D. 253, in the sixty-sixth or sixty-seventh year of his age; and a splendid tomb, erected in that city, declared to future times the grateful veneration which the church paid to his memory".

X. Nothing but a frame like iron could so long have held out under his rigid privations and unremitted labors. Employed, for the most of his life, in the numerous duties of a public and daily instructer, he still found time to perfect himself in the whole circle of human knowledge, such as it then was, and after all, to

P For the Life of Origen, I have had recourse to the moderns, instead of attempting to collect, arrange and illustrate the original accounts scattered through Eusebius and other ancient writers. See Huetii Origeniana, inter Origenis Opera; Cave's Lives of the Fathers; Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum; Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History; and Delarue's Notes and prefatory Remarks, (Edit. Origenis Operum Delarue,) and Mosheim's Criticisms (De Rebus Christian. Ante Constantinum.) These authors, though they agree in every thing important, differ somewhat in dates and in the order of events.