till the second resurrection, and perhaps still longer, that they may be purified from their wickedness. These three classes, the perfect saints, the imperfect, and the sinners, shall each be arraigned, except perhaps the first, at the great Judgment-day; and what is remarkable, all who are then tried, shall sooner or later be saved. But there is another, a fourth class, which he distinguishes as the impious or the infidels, who, together with the Devil and his angels, shall never be brought to judgment, because they have been already condemned. For these he apparently reserves chance of restoration, but leaves them to an eternity of hopeless suffering. no The author usually quoted under the name of Ambrosiaster, who is generally supposed to have been one Hilary a deacon of Rome, held that all such believers as embrace erroneous doctrines, while they nevertheless retain the essential principles of christianity, must be subjected to the purification of fire, in the future world, before they can be saved. He likewise taught that our Saviour descended, after his crucifixion, to the invisible regions of the dead, and there converted all, whether impious or ordinary sinners, who willingly sought his aid. Christ's mission, indeed, according to him, enabled even the erring and apostatized powers of heaven to cast off the yoke of the devil, and to re c Ambrosii Mediolanensis in Psalm. 1. Enarrat, § 51, 52, 53, 54, 56; in Ps. cxviii. Exposit. Serm. iii. § 14-17. & Serm. xx. § 12. 13, 14, 23.24. The dates of these works are placed from A. D. 386 to A. D. 390. d Comment. ad Epist. i Corinth. cap. iii. 15. in Append. ad Ambrosii Mediolanensis Oper. Tom. ii. e Comment, in Epist. ad Ephes. cap iv. 8, 9. turn to God; but still it appears to have been his T decided belief that there were cases of such obstinate w rebellion, among wicked souls as well as angels, as to red be past all recovery. bo With the notice of this writer, we close, for the pres-to a ent, our account of the orthodox christians. 5275 XXIV. During more than half of this century, the w Arians were numerous enough to dispute the superiority en in the church, especially in the East; and it is natural Do for us to enquire, what were their sentiments with re-rth gard to the ultimate salvation of the world? But we disc shall seek in vain for their own testimony in answer. reg Though they were supported, in their day, by the influence of eminent bishops, and defended by the labors Ma of learned doctors, the victorious fortune of their ad- bee versaries has obliterated almost every fragment of their to writings from the pages of time, and left a wide erasure Afr which no learning nor art can restore. We only know irre that, except what related to the trinity, their doctrine was considered the same with that of the Consubstantialists; and it seems that in all the passion of contro- | ho versial warfare, they never reproached their unsparing by opponents for their frequent avowal of Universalism". f Ditto ad Ephes. cap. iii. 10. N. B. These Commentaries are supposed to have been written about A. D. 384. g Eunomius, one of the most celebrated Arians, who flourished from A. D. 360 to A. D. 394, is charged by three Greek writers of the 12th century, with having held that all the threatenings of eternal torments were intended only to terrify mankind, and were never meant to be executed. (See Balsamon ad Canon. i Constantinopol. And Harmenopulus, De Sect. 13. And J. Zonaras ad Canon, in Deiparam.) The authority of these modern Greeks, however, is but small; and in this case it is not sustained by any testimony more ancient, nor by 10 gua sec seb the ma 4. Fa log His These circumstances may strengthen a conjecture, which is not in itself improbable, that the doctrine received about the same degree of patronage among both parties; so that neither was under temptation to accuse the other. From similar considerations, the suspicion of ambiguity naturally rests, likewise, upon the few Sabellians of this period. And we may extend the remark to the small schismatical sects of Novatians, Donatists, and Meletians; who were separated from the orthodox church, only by some trivial distinctions of discipline and ecclesiastical government, or by the irregular succession of their bishops. The uncertain, or perhaps divided, opinions of the Manicheans, on the subject of Universal Salvation, have been already mentioned. At present, however, it seems to have become the general belief, at least of those in Africa, that many human souls would prove utterly irreclaimable, and be therefore stationed forever, as a guard, upon the frontiers of the world of darkness. The sect had now increased to a vast number, although abhorred by every other party, and indefatigably opposed by a large proportion of the orthodox writers, from Eusebius Pamphilus downwards; and it lurked in all parts the fragments of Eunomius yet extant. On the contrary, in the formal Declaration of Faith, which he sent to the emperor Theodosius, A. D. 383, he says, "they who persevere in impiety or sin till the "close of life, shall be delivered to everlasting punishment." (Fabricii Biblioth. Græc. Tom. viii. p. 260.) At the end of his Epi log. ad Apologiam, he remarks that in the general judgment, Christ will consign such as make light of sin, to remediless suffering, (Cavei Hist. Literar. Art. Eunomius, p. 222.) h Lardner's Credibility &c. Chap. Mani and his Followers. Sect. iv. § 18. Ir sill I appears to hav repeate SLII TRA SOLS is Wen as are heres respec Cluse eelved the a custande. the future *ther. The in the prin - seventeen, hough never instructed med doctrine Reding how vas so struck -- the eloquent to forsake the r or two, he was , and received D) 104.] ncipal Sees of christen'ed by Pope Siricius at bitious and unprincipled 4 by Evagrius, (not EvagOf some inferior, yet disof Constantinople was held or of Gregory Nazianzen; that by Epiphanius, the aged and the Origenists; and John the over that of Jerusalem. In the "ned the churches of Milan, and ence controled the civil as well rns of Italy and Gaul. Of a mulcal writers who flourished at this mention only three: the learned had already filled the world; young e of christian orators, whose renown eyond the sphere of his labors in the h; and the immortal Augustine, who otice, amidst his native Numidia in uthors formerly mentioned, Titus of the Great, had long been dead; Greg |