disciples to send a Comforter, who should lead them into all truth. Accordingly, in due time, Mani the comforter appeared; and not only completed his Master's revelation, but also restored that doctrine which Christ had already taught, to its original simplicity, by exposing the many corruptions introduced by his followers.

Those souls who here obey the instructions of Christ, ascend, on the death of the vile body, to their native sphere; but they who neglect, are then sent into other bodies of men, brutes, or plants, to repeat their mortal course of discipline, until they are fitted for heaven. Such, however, as fight against the truth and persecute its adherents, are first driven into the dominions of the Prince of darkness, to be tormented a while in flame, before they transmigrate again upon earth.

At length, in the fulness of times, when all souls, or nearly all, shall have been reclaimed, and the captive particles of light won back to the kingdom of Deity, the whole of this world shall be destroyed by fire. Some of the Manicheans, perhaps, held the restoration of all souls; but none of them, the salvation of Hyle and his demons. These are independent powers, over whom, so long as they remain in their own sphere, the true God claims no jurisdiction. After the end of our world, they are to be forever restricted to their original empire of darkness, unblest with the least mixture of the good substance; and if any human souls shall be found utterly irreclaimable, they will be stationed, as a guard, on the frontiers of that realm, to keep the evil hosts within their rightful dominions.

e Beausobre, Hist. de Manichee, Tom. ii. pp. 569-575. And Lardner's Credibility, &c. Chap. Mani and his followers, Sect. iv. 18,

After mentioning that, like other Gnostics, the Manicheans denied the resurrection of the body, we have only to add that they rejected the Old Testament, pretended that many parts of the New, especially of the four Gospels, had been interpolated, either by ignorant or designing men; and that they received the writings of Mani, as of canonical authority d.

III. To us their scheme of doctrine appears almost too monstrous for conception; but to those brought up in the oriental philosophy, it was an ingenious system, the fundamental principles of which accorded with all their prejudices and habits of thinking. Nor was it so utterly shocking to the more simple-minded Greeks; and the advantages it was supposed to offer, in accounting for the introduction of evil without implicating the purity and goodness of God, counterbalanced weighty objections in the opinion of many. When it had spread in Persia and other oriental countries awhile, it began to appear among the christians in the eastern part of the Roman empire, as early, probably, as A. D. 280; but here its progress was, at first, undoubtedly slow, as the orthodox fathers do not seem to have taken any notice of it, till thirty or forty years afterwards.

The sources whence I have drawn this short account of Manicheism, are Moshemii De Rebus Christianorum &c. pp. 728-903. Beausobre's large work, Histoire de Manichee et du Manicheisme; and Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel Hist, Part ii. Chap. lxiii. Of Beausobre, however, I have made but little use, except what may be derived from Lardner's remarks, extracts and references

CHAPTER VI.

[From A. D. 254, to A. D. 390.]

I. Throughout the long period of nearly a century and a half, to be surveyed in this chapter, there is not an intimation found that Origen's Universalism gave any offence in the church, notwithstanding his writings, the meanwhile, underwent the severest scrutiny, and were frequently attacked on other points. In order to give a full view of the state of that doctrine in this age, we must attempt a narration intricate and often digressive, stating not only the opinions of all the principal fathers concerning future punishment, but likewise all the complaints and controversies that arose on Origen's sentiments a. As we proceed we shall discover, what is a very important fact, that even the few who treated his

a Huetii Origeniana, (inter Origenis Opera) particularly Lib. ii. cap. 4. directs to nearly all the materials for a history of Origen's doctrine. By his doctrine, we mean, of course, not his Universalism in particular, but his general religious system, or rather the whole body of his peculiar tenets. Whoever has perused Huet's work, will scarcely be repaid for reading the smaller and less critical treatise," Histoire de l'Origenisme, par le P. Louis Doucin," published at Paris, 1700, in one volume, 16mo, of 388 narrow pages; but even this contains much more information than Bishop Rust's "Letter of Resolution concerning Origen, and the Chief of his Opinions," which may be found in the first volume of The Phenix, a miscellaneous work begun at London in 1707. I have seen the following titles, but not the works: "Joh. Hen. Horbii Historia Origeniana, sive de ultima origine et progressu Hæreseos Origenis Adamantii.” Franc. 1670; and "Berrow's Illustration and Defence of the Opinions of Origen." 4to.

name with indignity, and bitterly censured various parts of his doctrine, uniformly passed, in silence, over the prominent tenet of Universal Salvation.

A. D. 257, to 263.

It was but a few years after his death that some of his views appear to have been, for the first time, publicly impeached; though in this instance, without mentioning his name. Origen had combatted, even in his earliest publications, the prevailing notion of Christ's personal reign on earth for a thousand years after the resurrection; and his successive attacks, which he continued to urge against this point with more than his wonted spirit, had eventually brought it into disrepute, to the great dissatisfaction of the few who still adhered to it. Towards the year 260, as is supposed, Nepos, bishop of some place in Egypt, published in its defence, a Confutation of the Allegorists; a title which aimed, undoubtedly, against Origen and his followers. This book, now lost, was well received in some parts of Egypt, particularly in the district of Arsinoe, south of the lake Maris; where, under its influence, the doctrine of the Millennium began to revive, and in the course of a few years, involved several churches in schism. But Dionysius the Great, formerly a scholar of Origen, and now bishop of Alexandria, happening in the infected district, about A. D. 262, undertook, with great moderation and prudence, to eradicate the sentiment, and restore the churches there to harmony. After a public discussion of three days, he had the satisfaction of bringing over all its advocates to his own opinion; and following up his peaceful victory, he wrote a book On the Divine

Promises, in which he contended that the passages which had been used in evidence of a Millennium, should be understood in an allegorical, rather than in the literal sense. Here ended this affair".

II. It will be readily believed that so obscure and momentary a disturbance could not diminish the renown of Origen. Accordingly, we find A. D. 280, that twenty or thirty years afterwards, to 290. call an author by his name, was generally esteemed the greatest honor which could be conferred; and it appears that he was imitated by some Egyptian writers, particularly by the learned Pierius, a presbyter of Alexandria, and by Theognostus, president of the Catechetical School in that city: both whose works have perished. But though his memory was held in general veneration, it seems, nevertheless, that the division originally occasioned by Demetrius, still continued in a certain degree, among the Egyptian churches".

A. D. 290, -300.

And in Asia, a public attack, more direct and hostile than that of Nepos, was, about this time, made upon several points of his doctrine. Methodius, bishop at first of Olympus in Lycia, and then of Tyre, became, from some cause unknown, bitterly prejudiced against his memory, and sought every means to render it odious. He published, professedly against him, a treatise On the

b Cave's Lives of the Fathers, Chap. Dionysius, § 15. And Mosheim, De Rebus Christian. &c. pp. 720-728. accounts of Pierius and Theognostus, in Du Pin, Lardner, &c.

c See the

d Petrus Alexandrinus, apud Justiniani Epist. ad Menam, quoted by Du Pin.