"pressed by my greedy auditors, farewell. Farewell, 66 emperors and courts. Farewell thou imperial city, "whose zeal, though not perhaps according to knowl"edge, I yet will frankly testify. May thy service of "God be more sincere, and thy fruits of righteousness more abundant. Ye bishops of the East and West, "farewell! why will not some of imitate this my "resignation, and restore peace to the divided and con"tentious church? I call you but to relinquish digni"ties upon earth, for heavenly thrones, far safer, and

you

more exalted. Ye angels, the guardians of this "church, and of my presence and wanderings, farewell. "Thou sacred Trinity! my meditation and my glory, O

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may I hear of the daily increase of this my people, "their growth in knowledge and grace. And ye, my "people, for mine ye are, though another shall govern 'you, my little children, keep the faith I have deliver"ed you, remembering my labors and my sufferings a.”

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He retired immediately to Nazianzum, where he lived in obscurity and quiet, employing himself in devout exercises, and in poetic composition. He died about A. D. 389, aged not far from seventy years. His plain determined integrity is worthy of all praise; and the unblemished purity of his life and manners, though veiled under the shade of monastic gloom, commands our respect, and excites our admiration. His eloquence, which has been absurdly compared to that of Demosthenes, was formed on the turgid style of the Asiatics, rather than on the severe simplicity of the Grecian; and it

Greg. Nazianz. Oratio. xxxii. fin. Tom. i. pp. 527, 528.

was therefore the better adapted to discourse on mysteries, and to excite the wonder of an ignorant populace.

The feebleness of a body subdued by rigorous austerities, must have increased the sensibility of his temperament; and this, united with the generous and confiding character of his affections, exposed him to perpetual afflictions from the baseness and ingratitude of mankind. It is no wonder that to such a man, the difficult station, which he prudently resigned, was attended with a weight of cares insupportable. The church, however, has always held his memory dear; and his name still occupies a respectable place on the pages of ecclesiastical history.

Like Basil, he was moderately given to the allegorical method of exposition; and we have already mentioned their mutual admiration of Origen's writings.

XVII. But in this he was perhaps surpassed by his friend, Gregory Nyssen, the brother of Basil the Great. This eminent father and bishop followed Origen's system in allegorizing the scriptures, farther than most of his cotemporaries; though he, at the same time, avoided many of his extravagances, and rejected some of his notions. The doctrine of Universal Salvation, however, he adopted and taught more frequently than, perhaps, any other early writer, whose works are ex

tant.

e See Gregorii Nysseni Disputat. de Anima et Resurrect. pp. 264. 265, 269.-Lib. de Creatione Hcminis cap. 29, p. 459, and cap. 30, p. 462.-De Hist. Sex Dierum, p. 293, 294. Edit. Basil. 1562.

f A plea, first advanced more than three hundred years after Gregory Nyssen's death to defend him from the imputation of Universalism, is sometimes repeated, though in a faultering manner, by

Endeavoring to wrest from the Arians that expression of St. Paul, Then shall the Son also be subject unto him who put all things under him, (i. Cor. xv. 28.) and to make it appear consistent with trinitarianism, he takes occasion to explain the connexion at large, in order to point out what he supposes to be the Apostle's argument: "What therefore," says he, "is the scope "of St. Paul's dissertation in this place? That the "nature of evil shall, at length, be wholly exterminated, "and divine, immortal goodness embrace within itself every rational creature; so that of all who were made "by God, not one shall be excluded from his kingdom. "All the viciousness, that like a corrupt matter is min

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modern critics. Germanus, bishop of Constantinople, who flourished about A. D. 730, contended, that in Gregory Nyssen's Dialogue on the Soul, in his great Catechetical Oration, and in his Tract on the Perfect Life of a Christian, all such passages as taught the restoration of the devils and of the damned, had either been corrupted or added by the Origenists; and for proof he referred to the connexions of the passages in question, and to the alleged fact that in other places Gregory had contradicted that sentiment. (See Photii Biblioth. Cod. 233.) Du Pin, who by the way misrepresents Germanus, manifestly desires to avail himself of this plea; but at the same time, betrays his want of confidence in it. (Bibliotheca Patrum, Art.Gregory Nyssen.) The truth is, it would be impossible to take Universalism out of Gregory Nyssen's works, without destroying some of his pieces, and rendering others unintelligible; and there is no reason to suspect that it was wrongfully inserted in the three books which Germanus names. That Gregory ever denies the doctrine in question, I have not discovered. The independent Daille (De Usu Patrum Lib. ii. cap. 4, Latin edition, for the English, and probably the French are incomplete) treats Germanus's supposition with merited contempt: "it is the last resort," says he, "of those who with a stupid and absurd pertinacity, will have it, that the ancients wrote nothing different from "the faith at present received; for the whole of Gregory Nyssen's "Orations are so deeply imbued with the pestiferous doctrine in ques"tion, that it can have been inserted by none other than the author "himself." Dr. T. Burnet also (De Statu Mort. et Resurg. p. 138. London, 1733.) pronounces the plea of Germanus vain. See note j. following.

"gled in things, shall be dissolved and consumed in "the furnace of purgatorial fire; and every thing that "had its origin from God, shall be restored to its pris"tine state of purity." The author proceeds to contend, in his abstruse and mystical way, that the human nature which Christ assumed, being so intimately connected with the common nature of man, that the Apostle here calls it "the first fruits" of the human race; the subjection of all mankind to God may, by a figure, be called the subjection of Christ himself, the first fruits. "When therefore the dominion of sin within us, shall "be entirely overthrown, every thing must, of course, "be subject to him who rules over all; because there " can be no opposing inclination in the Universe. Now, subjection to God is perfect and absolute alienation "from evil. Wherefore, when we all shall be freed "from sin, and perfectly assimilated to Christ, our first "fruits, and made one uniform body with him, then what "is called the subjection of Christ, is, in reality, accom"plished in us; and because we are his body, our sub"jection is attributed to him who effected it in ourselves. "Such we think is the meaning of St. Paul in this "passage: For as in Adam all die, so also through "Christ shall all be made alive; but every one in his "own order: Christ, the first fruits; then they who are "Christ's at his coming; then cometh the end, when he "shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the "Father, when he shall have abolished all dominion, "and authority, and power. For he must reign till "he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy, "death, shall be destroyed. For he hath put all things

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"under his feet. But when he saith all things are put "under him, it is manifest that he is excepted who did 'put all things under him. And when all things shall "be subjected to him, then shall the Son also himself be "subjected to him who put all things under him; that "God may be all in all. (i. Cor. xv. 22-28.) It is "manifest that here the apostle declares the extinction of "all sin, saying, that God will be all in all. For God "will be truly all in all only when no evil shall remain "in the nature of things, as he is never engaged in "evil," &c.

Gregory held different degrees of happiness in heaven, apportioned to the different merits which the blessed had acquired upon earth; and different degrees of future punishment, according the various characters of the sufferers: "I believe," said he, " that punishment "will be administered in proportion to each one's cor"ruptness. For it would be unequal to torment with "the same purgatorial pains, him who has long indulg"ed in transgression, and him who has only fallen into "a few common sins. But that grievous flame shall "burn for a longer or shorter period, according to the "kind and quantity of the matter that supports it. There"fore, to whom there is much corruption attached, with "him it is necessary that the flame which is to consume "it, should be great, and of long duration; but to "him in whom the wicked disposition has been already "in part subjected, a proportional degree of that sharp"er and more vehement punishment shall be remitted.

Tract. in Dictum Apostoli, Tunc etiam ipse Filius subjicietur, &c. p. 137, and seqq. h Lib. De Infantibus quæ præmature abripiun

tur.