friend Jerome; and in the course of the work, he took occasion to treat of the 'blasphemy which shall not be 'forgiven in this age, nor in that to come.' The blasphemers, he thinks, may have been the blinded Jews; and their punishment, that which came upon them when -they were delivered up to the Romans, and scattered over the whole earth. Admitting this application, says he, "we are to understand, that they will be pursued "with vengeance from the Lord, not for a short period "only, but for the whole future age; so that they shall "be captives and fugitives even to the end of the world, "wandering among all nations, and possessing neither 66 city nor country. Nevertheless, as God who over"threw them, is naturally kind and compassionate, he "hath still reserved to them a space for repentance, if "they will but be converted. Wherefore it is said, He "hath called to mind the days of the age. Accordingly, "he hath opened the door which was closed against a "certain part of them; and after the fulness of the Gen"tiles shall have come in, then all Israel (who shall be "worthy of this appellation) will be saved "." It is not unreasonable to suppose that we are indebted to Jerome for the parenthesis. Though not reckoned among the Origenists of his time, Didymus was undoubtedly by them considered, and justly too, as their chief patron. His apparent good sense, and what was still more rare, his universal candor, reflect an agreeable light even upon their character, and clear them from some of the aspersions afterwards P Didymi Lib. De. Spiritu Sancto, cap. 3. Inter Hieronymi Opera, Edit. Martianay, Tom. iv. Pt. i. p. 522. cast upon their name. He was a voluminous writer; but only two or three of his works, his treatise On the Holy Ghost, his Commentaries on the Canonical Epistles, and a fragment of his book Against the Manicheans, have survived the waste of time, and the exterminating decrees of later ages. During his life, however, he was accounted a distinguished champion of the orthodoxy of that period; and he died peacefully in the general communion, honored and esteemed by the church. Like most of his cotemporaries, he engaged heartily in support of the monastic institution; and his renown, and his influential station as President of the first school in christendom, enabled him to exert his zeal with much effect. In the list of scholars who, at various times, studied under him, appear the names of Jerome, Rufinus, Palladius and Isidorus. He died probably in the year 394, aged about ninety'. A. D. 380, to 390. XX. Could learning, talents and immortal renown, when dissociated from sound integrity and the mild spirit of the gospel, confer honor on any doctrine, Universalism might exult in pronouncing the famous Jerome one of her advocates. Twenty or thirty years since, while yet a boy, he was sent from his native Pannonia beyond the Adriatic, to pursue his studies at Rome. There are some fragments of Commentaries on the Psalms, bearing his name, in the "Aurea Catena, interprete Daniele Barbaro," Venetiis, 1569. But I suppose that we have no good authority for attributing these to Didymus. Hieronymi Catalog. Art. Didymus Alexandrinus. Tom. iv. Du Pin mistakes his age, if indeed the figures in his account, be not an error of the press. s The year of Jerome's birth is uncertain. Du Pin whom I follow, has attempted a chronology of the principal events of his life, according to which he must have been born about A. D. 340, or 342, Biblioth. Pat. Art. Jerome, Note (b.) Having at length completed his education there, and received baptism, he travelled, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, first into the West, and visited the learned men in Gaul; whence he returned, and after a short stay in Italy, continued his journey, around the head of the Adriatic, into the East. Here he spent many years in Syria, Palestine and Egypt, studying with the eminent fathers and doctors, attending the councils, and I practising the monastic discipline in all its rigors. In the course of these various pursuits, he studied awhile (about A. D. 380,) under Gregory Nazianzen at Constantinople; and after making a visit of some length at Rome, he sailed to Egypt, and entered the monasteries of Nitria, in the year 386. He soon came down to Alexandria, however, and there spent about a monthunder the instructions of Didymus. But disliking the Origenists, though himself a professed admirer of their master, he left Egypt and retired to Palestine. Secluded in a little cell at Bethlehem, amid the scenes of our Saviour's nativity, he devoted his time to monkish austerities, and to writing Commentaries, in imitation. of Origen, on the New Testament. These appeared about A. D. 388. In that upon Ephesians, he represents the Apostle as teaching that all mankind shall eventually come, in the unity of the faith, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man in Christ Jesus; and that "in "the end or consummation of things, all shall be "restored to their original state, and be again united in t Hieronymi Comment. Lib. ii. in Epist. ad Ephes, cap, iv. 13. Tom. iv. Part. i. Edit. Martianay, "one body "." He says "we cannot be ignorant that "Christ's blood benefitted the angels and those who "are in hell; though we know not the manner in which "it produced such effects "." In another passage he represents "the whole intelligent creation by the simile of an animal body," of which the flesh, arteries, veins, nerves and bones, having been dissected and scattered around, are all to be united again, by a skilful hand, and reanimated. "Now," continues he, "in the res"titution of all things, when Christ, the true Physician, "shall come to heal the body of the universal church, "torn at present and dislocated in its members, then "shall every one, according to the measure of his own "faith and knowledge of the Son of God, assume his 66 proper office, and return to his original state; not, "however, as some heretics represent, that all will be "changed into angels, or made into creatures of one "uniform rank. But each member shall be made per"fect according to his peculiar office and capacity. "For instance: the Apostate angel shall become such 66 as he was created; and man, who has been cast out "of paradise, shall be restored thither again. And this "shall be accomplished in such a way, that all shall be "united together by mutual charity, so that the mem"bers will delight in each other, and rejoice in each "others' promotion. Then shall the whole body of "Christ, the universal church, such as it was originally, "dwell in the celestial Jerusalem, which, in another "passage, the Apostle calls the mother of saints "." u Ditto. ad Ephes. cap. iv. 4. W ▾ Ditto. ad Ephes. cap. iv. 10. 66 Again, Jerome says, "the apostate angels, and the 'prince of this world, and Lucifer the morning star, though now ungovernable, licentiously wandering "about, and plunging themselves into the depths of sin, "shall, in the end, embrace the happy dominion of "Christ and his saints *. At the time of writing these Commentaries, Jerome was towards the age of fifty. His influence among the orthodox, we shall have abundant occasion to exemplify. At present, however, we may only trace a particular friendship, the unhappy termination of which, we shall be obliged hereafter to describe as agitating the church, and in some measure affecting the cause of Universalism. Nearly twenty years since, during his first journey into the East, he happened to stop awhile in the city of Aquileia, at the northern extremity of the Adriatic, and there formed an acquaintance with Rufinus, a young Ditto. Lib. i. in Epist. ad Ephes. cap. ii. 7. In two other works, also, written about this time, Jerome asserted Universalism: Hieronymi Comment. Lib. ii. in Epist. ad Galatas, cap. iv. 1.—and Comment. in Amos cap. iv. The latter was not composed till about A. D. 390 Afterwards, in his famous quarrel with Rufinus, Jerome denied the doctrine of Universal Salvation, and attempted, by numerous prevarications, to escape the just charge of having been a follower of Origen. Among other things, he pretended (Apolog. advers, Rufinum Lib. iii. p. 447. Tom. iv. Part. ii.) that in his Commentaries on Ephesians he had merely introduced some sentiments as Origen's, without approving them. As to this pretence, I shall here only subjoin the deliberate judgment of two critics, who will not be suspected of injustice to Jerome: Huet (Origenian. Lib. ii. cap. 4, Sect. i, § 17.) thinks it fully proved against Jerome, that he had commended Origen's doctrine; and that he himself was forced, at last, virtually to confess the charge. To this judgment of Huet, says Du Pin (Bibliotheca Pat. Art. Jerome.) "I willingly subscribe; and "do not doubt that as many as have ever read Jerome, will be "of the same mind." See the next Chapter, particularly Sect. xv. |