and pious man; and even Pope Anastasius and Augustine addressed him in terms of respect and esteem. Indeed, such as he actually appears, it would be no disparagement to the generality of his cotemporaries to compare them with him. He was a zealous patron of the monastic life, and joined in the prevailing veneration of relics; and his last days were honored, to adopt the language of those times, by the miraculous discovery of the bodies of Stephen the first martyr, of Nicodemus who came to our Saviour by night, and of Gamaliel the master of St. Paul. These remains, undoubtedly of some nameless persons, drew vast concourses on their revelation from the grave, excited universal awe, and of course wrought numerous miracles, according to the invariable custom of relics in that superstitious agez

In taking our final leave of John of Jerusalem, we must also bid adieu to an individual who has borne a still more conspicuous part in the events of this History. Jerome died, very old, at Bethlehem, in the year 420; but the account we have already given of his life and conduct, sufficiently exhibits his character, without the tediousness of a formal description.

A. D. 420, to 429.

IX. Of all the ancient Universalists, the most respectable for good sense and sober judgment, if we may rely on the opinion of modern critics ", was, probably, Theodorus bishop of Mopsuestia, a very eminent orthodox

2 Fleury's Eccl. Hist. Book xxiii. chap. 22, 23. a Beausobre, (Hist. de Manichee Lib. i. chap. 4. Tom, i. p. 288.) Lardner, (Credibility &c. Chap. Theodore of Mopsuestia) and Mosheim, (Eccl. Hist. Cent, v. Part ii. chap. 2, 3.) speak in the highest terms of his useful talents and apparent sound judgment.

father of the East, and a voluminous writer. Unlike the earlier believers in the salvation of all mankind, he was neither a follower nor admirer of Origen, but on the contrary stood forth an opposer of him, by publishing a book against his allegorical system of interpretation b. Belonging to a small school of divines who may in some sense merit the epithet of rationale, he was the principal advocate, of that age, for the simple, historical method of explaining the scriptures; and it seems, from a few fragments which alone have descendto us of his numerous works, that he pursued that course with more care and success than most even of our modern Commentators.

Born of illustrious Syrian parents, he spent his youth under the famous heathen sophist, Libanius of Antioch; and then, in company with the celebrated Chrysostom, he applied himself to the study of divinity under the instructions of Diodorus, afterwards bishop of Tarsus in Cilicia, the birth place of St. Paul. Nearly forty miles eastward of this city, stood the ancient Mopsuestia, divided into two parts, the old and the new, between which flowed the river Pyramus, on its way across extensive plains from the gorges of Mount Taurus in the north, to the Cilician Sea". Theodorus was elevated to the bishopric of this place as early as the year 394.

b Facundi Hermianensis De Tribus Capit. Lib. iii. cap. 6. inter Sirmondi Opp. Tom. ii. p. 362. c Eusebius Emisenus an Arian, Diodorus of Tarsus an Orthodox, and Theodorus of Mopsuestia, (of whom the two former were much older than the last) appear to have been singular in their attachment to the rational method of exposition. d See the abstract of Capt. Kinnier's Travels, in the Modern Traveller, Part vi. pp. 278-281. Also Beaufort's Karamania. Chap. xiii.

Here he passed a long episcopate of about thirty six years, in composing Commentaries, and polemical works; and in the meanwhile, he maintained the reputation of a distinguished preacher, at Antioch, at Constantinople, and over all the east. He had been a firm and steady opposer of Arianism; and during his life time, his orthodoxy seems never to have been impeached, notwithstanding it is certain that he held, to their utmost extent, the tenets for which Pelagius was condemned, and though it is probable that he was the source whence they were indirectly transmitted to that unfortunate heretic. It appears also that he avowed with impunity, the restoration of the wicked from hell, long after the contest with the Origenists, had brought it into disrepute ; and it is suspected that he was the

e Photius, of the ninth century, the best ecclesiastical critic of all antiquity, says he had read a work of Theodorus of Mopsuestia, "in five books, against those who asserted that men sin by nature, and not by free will. "Theodorus considers it a doctrine held by the western christians, and from "them brought into the east, especially by an author called Aram, (who he "is I do not know,) who had written several books in defence of it. The "opinions of that sect, Theodorus represents in this manner : One of them "is, that men sin by nature, not by choice; by nature, however, not mean“ing that in which Adam was first formed, (for that, they say, was good,} "but that which he had after he transgressed, when his nature had become "evil instead of good, and mortal instead of immortal. Hence, men, hav"ing become bad by nature, who were before good, now sin by nature and "not by choice. Consequent upon this is another opinion of theirs, that in"fants, even when just born, are not free from sin; forasmuch as from "Adam's transgression, a sinful nature, as they express it, is derived to "all his posterity: for which they allege those words of the Psalmist, I was "born in sin, (Ps. li. 5,) and other passages.' Here also," adds Photius, appear Nestorian principles, and the NOTION OF ORIGEN CONCERNING "2 THE TERMINATION OF THE PUNISHMENTS OF THE FUTURE STATE: "He also says that man was at first made mortal, though death be represented as the consequence of his transgression, the better to convince us of the "evil of sin." Photii Bibliothecæ Cod. 177. N. B. I have placed the date of the book here described, between A. D. 420, and the time of Theodorus's death; for it is evident it was written after the Pelagian controversy had made considerable noise, even in the east.

father of Nestorianism, a doctrine which arrived, though in a blind and very circuitous way, to little else than the simple humanity of Jesus Christ. He died undisturbed, however, in the catholic communion, about A. D. 429, aged not far, probably, from seventy years.

But after his death he was often reproached for his Pelagianism, and for his connexion with his scholar Nestorius; and in the middle of the next century, he was anathematized on the latter account, by the Fifth General Council. Accordingly, his works, for the most part, have either perished, or been preserved only in the Syriac language, among the Nestorians of the eastf; and one of these lots, probably the former, has fallen to the particular treatise in which, it is said, he advanced the doctrine of Universal Restoration.

A. D. 430, to 450.

X. Directing our attention from Cilicia down the Mediterranean coast to the Holy Land, we discover that here Universalism prevailed, about this time, to a considerable extent among the monks, especially around Cesarea in Palestine. But the glimpse we obtain of the fact is casual and imperfect, and soon obstructed by surrounding darkness. We only know that Origenism had openly appeared in the country, with a numerous party of advocates; and that the particulars in their doctrine

f Besides fragments of his writings among the ac ts of the Fifth General Council, in Facundus Hermianensis, and in Photius, it is supposed that the Commentary on the Psalms, under the name of Theodorus, in Catena Corderii, belongs to our author. It is said also that his Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, exist in manuscript in the Emperor's Library at Vienna, in the Library of St. Mark at Venice, and in the Library of the Vatican. These, however, form but a very small part of the ancient cata logue of his works.

which gave most offence, were the pre-existence of ouls, and the Universal Restoration. Against both of hese points, Euthymius, the chief abbot who then preided over the monasteries in the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, opposed his utmost zeal and indignation, but with what effect we are not informed. It does not appear, however, that any of the party were arraigned, nor their tenets condemned. We may naturally suspect that their faith had always lingered around the churches where Origen preached, and where Alexander, Theoctistus and John presided; and there is some reason to suppose that it continued to exist in the country, till it broke out, as we shall learn, sixty or seventy years afterwards, and spread through a large part of Palestine.

But for the remainder of the present cenA. D. 450, tury, we seek in vain for any traces of the to 500. doctrine. It had grown unpopular. For though it had not hitherto been judicially

of heresy, save when devil and his angels, extending only to the

branded with the indelible mark it embraced the salvation of the yet even in its restricted form, as restoration of all mankind, it had been pointed out as an obnoxious and kindred error; and the repose of the public, as well as the quiet of the individual, must have suggested the prudence of concealment. Even the

familiar name of Origenism almost wholly disappears,

Vita Euthymii, per Cyrillum Scythopolitanum, inter Cotelerii Monumenta Græc. Ecclesiæ Tom. iv. p. 52. See also a Paraphrase of this work, by Symeon Metaphrastes, in Tom. ii.