79MADJS0N ST. AjVCHtCA60.r< . / X . /e\ o « vV.^"^ ^X \\t ®ltw%% ^ '^' %: PRINCETON, N. J. ^-Jfc 5?: Presented by V-Vs.5\cX<2,rAV \ caWox^ I BX 9931 .B3 1872 Ballou, Hosea, 1796-1861. Ancient history of universalism Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2009 witii funding from Princeton Tiieoiogicai Seminary Library littp://www.arcliive.org/details/ancientliistoryof1872ball ANCIENT HISTOEY UNIVERSALISM, TROM THE TIME OF THE APOSTLES TO THE FIFTH GENERAL COUNCIL, WITH AN APPENDIX, TRACING THE DOCTRINE TO THE REFORUA.TION. HOSEA BALLOU, 2d., D. D. WITH NOTES, BY REV. A. ST. JOHN CHAMBRlS, A.M., AND T. J. SAWYER, D.D. »>©<«^ BOSTON : UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, 37 CORNHILL. 1872. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by THE UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE, In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. The reader will perceive, in the commencement of the following work, that I have not introduced a statement of the Scripture doctrine upon the subject of my History. For the omission, which some may consider a defect, I submit these reasons : it seemed to me that a brief statement would prove useless, since every one would form his own opinion from other authority ; and it was thought that a satisfactory discussion of the important question belonged rather to the Polemic than to the His- torian. Accordingly, for the commencement of m}^ under- taking, I fixed on a date posterior to the publication of most of the New Testament ; and yet, as it was desirable to take into view every other Christian production extant of the first ages, it was necessary to begin as early as a. d. 90, before some of St. John's writings were composed. The attentive reader will also discover, as he proceeds, that the Ancient History of Uuiversalism is naturally dis- tinguished, by certain peculiarities, into three successive Periods : the First, extending to the year 190, and ejn- braced in the first two chapters, affords but few indisputable traces either of that doctrine or of its opposite ; the Second, running through the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters, to the year 390, or 394, is distinguished by the prevalence both of Universalism and of the doctrine of endless misery, without producing the least disturbance or uneasiness in the church; the Third, reaching to the Fifth General Council, in a. d. 553, is marked with continual censures, IV PREFACE. frequent commotions, and some disgraceful quarrels, on that subject. And, as I have endeavored to vary my general plan, so as to suit the peculiar character and circumstances of each of these periods, I would here bespeak the reader's attention to the method I have pursued. In the first Period, then, I have been careful to state, in his own words, the opinion of every Christian author who has left us any remarks concerning future punishment, or the eventual salvation of the world ; arid down to the year 150, I have, with still more particularity, inserted every passage which I thought belonged to either of those subjects. Accordingly, it may be ex|3ected that, to many, the first two chapters will prove more tedious than the rest of the work. In the second Period, while it has been my principal object to give a full account of all those fathers who, during that time, advo- cated or favored Universalism, I have also aimed to present a correct view of the opinions entertained, the meanwhile, by the Christian world at large, on that point. In the third Period, I have pursued nearl^^ the same course ; leav- ing, however, the common sentiment of the church, concern- ing the doctrine in question, to be gathered from the controversies and quarrels which then occurred, and which I have minutely described. Thus far, I may venture to pronounce the Historj^ complete, in one respect : it contains an account of every individual of note, whom we haA'^e now the means of knowing to have been a Universalist. In the Appendix the plan is very diff'erent, since a regular and connected history of Universalism, from the Fifth General Council to the Reformation, is, with me, utterly impracticable. Here, therefore, nothing but a sketch is attempted, pointing out those traces of the doctrine which I have happened to discover in the course of reading. I would also take this opportunity, once for all, to ajp- prize my readers of the sense in which they will find certain PREFACE. V terms and phrases used in the following work. The title hisliop is supposed to have signified, at first, only the chief minister of a city, or territory ; though it afterwards be- came confined in its application to a distinct and superior order of clergy. By the popular epithets ortJiodox and heretic, I mean, not the true and the false, but the pre- dominant, or catholic, and the dissenting, or anathematized. To conclude, I have frequently spoken of the Western or Latin Churches, in distinction from the Eastern or Greek; though they were not finally separated from each other's communion, till the ninth century. EoxBURY, Oct. 22d, 1828. A SECOND edition of this work was published in 1842. It always filled an important place in the literature of the Universalist Church ; and it is now republished with such additions to the notes as later researches have suggested. THE PUBLISHERS. Boston, Dec. 1st, 1871. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGB From A. D. 90 to A. D. 150 7 CHAPTER II. From A. D. 150 to A. D. 190 33 CHAPTER III. From A. D. 190 to A. D. 230 52 CHAPTER IV. Origen 69 CHAPTER V. Origen's Scholars and Cotemporaries 103 Appendix to Chapter V. 121 CHAPTER VI. From A. D. 254 to A. D. 390 130 CHAPTER VII. From A. D. 390 to A. D. 404 ..".... 191 CHAPTER VIII. From A. D. 404 to A. D. 500 224 CHAPTER IX. From A. D. 500 to A. D. 554 255 APPENDIX. From A. D. 554 to A. D. 1500 283 7 THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF UNIVERSALIS!. CHAPTEE I. FROM A. D. 90 TO A. D. 150. At the date with which this history begins, a.d.9o. none of the apostles are supposed to have been alive, except St. John, who then resided, at a very advanced age, in the great city of Ephesus. St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martp'dom at Eome more than twenty years before ; and St. James the Great, and St. James the Less, at Jerusalem, at a still earlier period. Of the deaths of the other apos- tles, nothing can be pronounced with confidence, notwithstanding the accounts given of their martyr- dom by some ancient writers, and adopted by many of the moderns. Nor must we pretend to define the extent to which Christianity had now spread ; since, on this subject, it is often impossible to distinguish the true from the fabulous accounts of early historians. It is probable, however, that some churches were already established in most of the Roman provinces, especially in the 7 8 THE ANCIENT HISTORY eastern. But the number of professed Christians must still have been very small, compared with the whole mass of the community ; and it must have been composed, with some exceptions, of the lower classes of people. The rich and noble were, for the most part, attached to the ancient forms and institutions ; and the men of great learning, and those of refined tastes, did not depart, as indeed they seldom do, from that popular course where they might find reward, or at least hope for admiration. The Christians were, nevertheless, not an obscure sect. Their religion was so novel, so difierent from every other, and they were so zealous and successful in its cause, that it drew much attention wherever it was introduced. It was, indeed, greatly misunder- stood by the public at large ; and still more misrepre- sented by its particular enemies. Of these, the most bitter were the heathen priests, who felt their long unmolested repose disturbed by the growing desertion of their temples, and neglect of their services.^ Still it must be remarked, that the Christians had su fibred very little persecution, except slander, since the death of Nero, more than twenty years before. But the time drew near when they were to encounter pro- scription, danger, and even death, from the civil authorities. It was but four or five years afterwards, that the jealousy of the Emperor Domitian revived the 1 Plinii Epist. 97, lib. x. and Taciti Annal. lib. xv. cap. 44. Afterwards, or towards the year 150, we find the most outrageous calumny heaped upon the Christians : they were commonly called Atheists ; and all kinds of licentiousness, even such as cannot, with decency, be mentioned, were charged upon them. To refute and expose these slanderous falsehoods was a grand object with several of the early Christian writers. OF UNI VERS ALISM. 9 storm, which raged, with some considerable intervals, for more than two centuries, till the ominous conver- sion of Constantine gave to the church the kingdoms of this world, and the glory of them. As to the system of doctrine held by the Christians at this period, we can determine few of its particulars, if indeed it be proper to say that such a system then obtained. Their religion had not, as yet, been taught on any regular plan, like that of a body of divinity. Its fundamental truths, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the Christ of the only true God, and the Sa- viour of men, and that he rose from the dead, neces- sarily engrossed the chief attention of its professors, since these were the important facts they were obliged, almost continually, to urge on the people, and to de- fend against opponents. It is extremely difficult for us, who are brought up in a state of society Avhere Christianity is the original and universal religion, and where our disputes extend only to its particular tenets, to conceive of the simplicity in which the first preach- ers taught their faith, when, not the doctrine, but the truth itself, of that religion, was the principal point in dispute. When people were brought to acknowledge the mission of Christ, they were considered Christians, and, if their conduct became their profession, they were gladly received into the churches ; though fur- ther instructions were then given, or afterwards added as opportunities offered.^ Such being the liberal con- 1 This was the practice of the apostles. See the abstracts and accounts of those discourses which they addressed to unbelievers ; Acts ii. 14 — 41 ; iii. 12 — 26 ; iv. 8—12; V. 29—32; viii. 30—38; ix. 20—22; x. 34—48; xiii. 16—41; xvi. 30—33; xvii. 2—4, 18, 22—34; xxiii. 6; xxv. 18, 19; xxvi., xxviii. 23. 10 THE ANCIENT HISTORY ditions on which the churches were gathered, they, of course, admitted persons of difierent, and even of op- posite sentiments, on many points of doctrine. Both the Jewish and Gentile converts retained many of their respective prejudices. The consequence was, that disputes had ah-eady arisen among them, particu- larly concerning the obligation of the Mosaic rituals, on one hand, and the heathen schemes of philosophy on another. The apostles themselves had, years before, interposed to decide these controversies ; but even thek authority could not remove the prejudices of the parties, nor silence their contentions. Even at this early period, some of the Gnostic believers, in particular, had prob- ably gone so far as to separate from the other churches and to form themselves into distinct bodies, which, however, must have been small and obscure. We can- not suppose, after all, that the Christians, in general, had so soon obliterated from their faith the prominent features of the apostolic doctrine ; especially, when we consider that most of the books of the New Testa- ment were now in circulation, and that St. John still lived to be consulted, and to give instructions.^ Proceeding, now, to the particular subject of our history, we shall, in the present chapter, produce all that can be known, with any degree of certainty, of the views entertained by the Christians, from this time till A. D. 150, in relation to a future state of punish- ment and the eventual salvation of the world. The only direct light that gleams, at intervals, through the 1 The principal facts in this section are illustrated at large by Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. Cent. i. ; and more particularly in his Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, before the Time of Constantine, etc. Vol. 1. VidaVs Translation. OF UNIVERSALISM. 11 obscurity of the course we attempt, is derived from the few Christian T\Titings of this period, which are still extant. These are the productions of those com- monly called the Apostolical Fathers, the first Christian authors, whose works have reached us, after the apos- tles themselves. They are the following : The First Epistle of Clemens Romanus; seyen Epistles of Igna- tius; The Epistle of Polycarp; The Epistle of Barna- bas; and The Shepherd of Hermas. Among these, we should perhaps insert a Relation of the Martijrdom of Ignatius.^ These writings, composed by men of little learning, and, for the most part, of as little judgment, arq still valuable, as they afford some notion of the state of the early Christians, and of their sentiments ; but whoever expects to find them instructive or edify- ing in other respects will rise from their perusal in disappointment, if not with disgust. The Epistle of Clemens Romanus is distinguished for the respect it received from the ancient _ ^^ ■'■ , A. D. 90—95. churches, some of which caused it to be read, in public, with the books of the New Tes- tament. It may be allowed, at least, the com- mendations, that it is simple though difi*use, and that it contains but one instance^ of those absm'd 1 Of the Second Epistle of Clemens Romanus, so called, the genuineness is con- sidered doubtful by Eusebius, Jerome, Du Pin, Mosheim, etc., and wholly denied by Photius, Archbishop Usher, Lardner, Brucker, Le Clerc, and others. Scarcely one admits it. There are other writings extant, ascribed to Clemens Romanus. but which are now universally considered forgeries, and of a much later date. I omit The Acts of Paul and Thecla, a forgery of the first century, because our present copy is either a forgery upon that original one, or else so much interpo- lated that we cannot determine what is ancient. See Lardner's Credibility, etc., Chap. Supposititious Writings of 2d Century. The reason why I place The Epis- tle of Bar7iabas, and The Shepherd of Hermas last in this catalogue will be given under the accounts respectively of those works. 2 Clemens' Rom. Epis. § 12. Wake's Translation. The date of this Epistle was 12 THE ANCIENT HISTORY allegories which abound in the succeeding fathers. Clement, of Rome, who was bishop of the church in that city, and perhaps the same person whom St. Paul had mentioned (Phil. iv. 3), wrote this Epistle to the Corinthian Christians for the purpose of dissuading them from their quarrels and seditions. Earnestly exhorting them to repent of their mutual envy and abuse, he adduces, among other considerations, the justice of God as a motive of fear, and the terrible destruction of Sodom, and its neighboring cities as instances of the divine judgments on sinners. But it is remarkable that, in the whole of this Epistle, about as long as St. Mark's Gospel, there is no expressign which discovers whether he believed in any future state of punishment, nor whether he held the salvation of all mankind.^ There are, indeed, two passages,^ which may naturally, not necessarily, be understood to intimate that those only who here serve the Lord will hereafter be raised from the dead.^ probably between a. d. 90 and 95. Lardner places it at A. D. 94 or 95 ; Junius, at 98; Baronius and Cotelerius, at 92; Dodwell, Wake, and De Clerc, between 64 and 70. 1 He probably believed in the salvation of all mankind. He says, '' Let us reflect how free from wrath He is towards all His creatures," Ep. 1, xis. See also XX., where towards the last we read, that God "does good to all, but most abundantly to us who have fled for refuge to His compassions through Jesus Christ our Lord," etc. See also xsxii. We are "not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning. Almighty God has justified all men; to whom we glory forever and ever. Amen." — A. St. J. C N. B. — My notes through this volume are, for the most part, condensed from my MS. History of " Christianity and the Church." — A. St. John CEiAMBRt:. Clem. llom. Epis. § 26 and 49. In these two passages, Clemens expressly men- tions the resurrection of those who " religiously serve the Lord," and are "made perfect in love; " but nowhere docs he assert the resurrection of others. 3 Clem. Rom. Ep. 1, xxviii., however, seems to teach otherwise. In that all are called to forsake sin, since none can escape God's judgments, nor remove them- OF UNIVEUSALISM. 13 111 passing over the time at which St. John is commonly supposed to have written his Gospd and three Epistles,^ we " " may remark that this last of the apostles died at Ephesus, about the year 100. He left the world at a period when old errors appear to have been spreading in the church, and springing up there under new forms and modifications. They were chiefly of the Gnostic kind, derived from the Oriental or Persian philosophy, of which we shall have a more particular account to give in the sequel. We come next to the famous Epistles of Ignatius; the o^enuineness of which has been at- 11 -,-„,-., . -, A. D. 107, or 116. tacked and deiended with an immoderate zeal, altogether disproportioned to their worth, or real weight, in any cause whatever. Though the question is still involved in uncertainty, we shall follow, with some doubt, what appears the prevailing selves from him, here or hereafter. The passage quoted to justify this is Ps. cxxxix. 7— 10. — A. St. J. C. 1 Of the Herniation, the date has been a point of much dispute ; but there seems, now, a general inclination to place it before the destruction of Jerusalem. Of the date of St. John's other writings, various opinions are entertained : Dr. Wither- spoon places the Gospel atA. D. 96,a and the i;>^■.s«e.s at 98; Lardner dates the Gospel at a. d. 68, and the Epistles at 80 and 85; by Le Clerc, the Gospel is as- signed to the year 97, and the Epistles to 91 and 92; Dr. Owen places the Gospel at about A. D. 69 ; Jer. Jones, at 97 ; and Du Pin, at about A. D. 100. " The latest and best authorities now attest the Apocalj-pse to have been writ ten before the destruction of Jerusalem, in A. D. 70. Internal evidence is con elusive to our mind. For external evidence may be consulted, Grotius, Lightfoot. Sir Isaac Newton, Stewart ( Andover), T\Tiittemore, Blunt, Gieseler, Ewald, etc. etc. It was written, probably, about A. D. 67. No doubt Nero's second name Domiiianus, misled early writers into the idea that it was the production of the age of Domitian. The Apocalypse is positively a sealed book upon any hypoth- esis that places its production after the overthrow of the city and temple of Jerusalem, when ended the Jewish dispensation. — A. St. J. C. 14 THE ANCIENT HISTORY opinion, that the seven/ translated by Archbishop Wake, are, in the main, genuine. They were written, if by Ignatius, while he was conducted, partly by sea, and partly by land, on a tardy journey of nearly two thousand miles, ^ from Antioch to Rome, for the exe- cution of the sentence of martyrdom. He is said to have been bishop of the church in the former city, for about forty years, and to have been personally ac- quainted, in his younger days, with some of the apos- tles. His writings, however, are not always worthy of his advantages : they contain some puerile conceits,^ betray an inclination to the Eastern fables concerning the angelic world, ^ and abound with earnest injunc- tions of the most unreserved submission in reason, faith, and practice, to the clergy, whose authority is often expressly likened to that of God and Jesus Christ. We cannot ascertain the author's views concerning the final extent of salvation ; and the following is all 1 Even of these there are two very different copies : the larger, which is gen- erally supposed to be much interpolated; and the shorter, which is followed by Wake, and almost universally preferred. Mosheim, however (Comment, on the Affairs of the Christiatis, etc.), seems to doubt whether the larger be not the genu- ine, if indeed either be so.** 2 His route, real or fabulous, is traced from Antioch to Smyrna, Troas, over the ^gean, into Macedonia and through Epirus, across the Adriatic and Tyrrhene Seas, to the mouth of the Tiber, and thence to Rome. The date of his journey, and of course of his Epistles and Martyrdom, is placed at A. D. 107, by Du Pin, Tillemont, Cave, andLardner; but at A. D. 116, by Pearson, Lloyd, Pagi, Le Clerc, and Fabricius. If the Relatio7i of the Martyrdom of Ignatius, which professes to be written by eye-witnesses, be genuine, this disputed date is fixed at A. l). 116. See § 3. Wake's Translation. " Ignat. Epist. to the Ephesians, § 9. Wake''s Trans. 4 Ditto, § 19, and Epistle to the Trallians, § 5. a Modern researches leave little doubt of the essential genuineness of the shorter recension of these epistles, and of the Syriac versions (discovered in A. D. 1838, 1839, and 1842, by Archdeacon Tattam, in the monastery of St. Mary Dei- para, in Nitrian Desert, Egypt), of the Epistles to Ephesians, Romans, and Poly- carp.— A. St. J. C. OF UNIVERSALISM. 15 that seems to refer to a future state of punisliment : "Those that corrupt families by adultery shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If therefore they, who have done this according to the flesh, have suffered death, how much more shall he die, who by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which Christ was crucified? He, that is thus defiled, shall depart into unquenchable fire, and so also shall he that heark- ens to him." ^ In another place he says, in rather a disjointed paragraph : " Seeing, then, all things have an end, there are these two indifierently set before us, life and death ; and every one shall depart unto his proper place." ^ In the same unconnected manner, he says again: "For what remains, it is very reasonable that we should return unto a sound mind, whilst there is yet time to return unto God." ^ Some of these pas- sages may, indeed, have no allusion to a future state. It must, however, be remarked here, that the author evidently believed that certain heretics, and perhaps the wicked in general, will not be raised from the dead, but exist hereafter as mere incorporeal spirits.'* The Relatio7i of the Martyrdom of Ignatius, written by Christian eye-witnesses of his trial and sufferings, contains nothing to our purpose ; we, therefore, pro- ceed to The Epistle of Poly carp, — a piece which evinces a more connected tenor of thought than most of the ecclesiastical writ- ings of that age. The author is guilty of one A Epist. to the Ephes., § 16. 2 Epist. to the Magnesians, § 5. 3 Epist. to the Smyrneans, § 9. 4 Ditto, § 2 and 7, compared with Epist. to the Trail., § 9, and Epist. to the Ro- mans, § 2. 16 THE ANCIENT HISTORY exception to his usual moderation, when he exhorts his brethren " to be subject to the elders and deacons as unto God and Christ."^ They who receive this epistle as Polycarp's ^ generally suppose it to have been written soon after the martyixlom of Ignatius, to which it alludes. Polycarp was a bishop of the church at Smyrna, from about the year 100, till after the middle of the second century. He is said to have been the disciple of St. John ; and he was certainly regarded, after the death of that apostle, as the most eminent of the Christians of Asia.^ The following is all that his Epistle contains in relation to the particular subject of this history : " To whom [Christ] all things are made subject, both that are in heaven and that are in earth ; whom every living creature shall worship ; who shall come to be the judge of the quick and dead ; whose blood God shall require of them that believe not in him."^ Alluding, without doubt, to some of the Gnostic heretics, he says, " AYhosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, he is antichrist. And whoever does not confess his suffering uj)on the cross, is from the devil. And whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there shall be neither any resurrection, nor judgment, 1 Polycarp's Epist., § 5. Wake''s Trans. 2 M. Daille and Blondel reject it, and Mosheim says it " has merely a question- able claim to credit." But Lardner, on the contrary, asserts that " there is scarce any doubt or question among learned men about the genuineness of this Epistle of Polycarp." 3 By some he is considered the angel of the church in Smyrna, addressed in Rev. ii. 8. This, however, is doubtful, as it is probable that he was not ordained till after the Revelation was written, 4 Polycarp's Epist., § 2. OF UNI VERS ALISM. 17 he is the first-born of Satan." ^ There may also be a question, whether the author does not intimate that the future resurrection depends on faith and obedience in this life. 2 To these dates succeeds a period of several years, from which no Christian writings have descended to us, except a few passages that happen to have been quoted, by later writers, from Papias, Quadi-atus, and Agrippa Castor ; of which, however, we shall take no notice, as they throw no light upon our subject. But it is important to remark that Papias and Aristides (a writer of whom nothing whatever remains) con- tributed, undesignedly, to pervert the simplicity of Christianity; and that they serve, at the same time, to exemplify the manner in which corruptions grew up in the church. The former who was bishop at Hierapolis, near Laodicea, is said to have devoted himself to collecting traditions of the apos- tolic doctrine and sayings ; but being very credulous and of a weak mind, he received, with little discrimination, whatever was related to him. Having thus formed a collection of idle tales and foolish notions, he published them to the world as the authoritative instructions of Christ and his apostles. Such was the character of the church, that his w^ork appears to have been well re- ceived; and it certainly met with considerable 1 Ditto, § 2 and 7. 2 Ditto, § 2 and 5. If Clemens Komanus and Polycarp, as well as Ignatius, really held a partial resurrection, that of the saints exclusively, the circumstance would seem to prove that the notion of the Jews, or rather of the Pharisees, on this point, had spread pretty extensively in the church, — from Asia Minor to Rome, — at this early period. That such was the notion of the Pharisees, about the end of the first century, see Josephus, etc. 18 THE ANCIENT HISTORY credit among the succeeding fathers, who adopted some of its fictions.^ But whatever were the injurious effects of these pretended traditions, the cause of truth sustained a much greater detriment from the gradual incorporation of the Grecian philosophy. Aristides was probably the fii'st pro- fessed philosopher from the Grecian schools, who took an active part in support of Chris- A. D. 124-126. . . -r, T tiamty. But he appears, unhappily, to have clothed it in the robe of the Academy ; for Jerome informs us that the Apology, which he presented to the Emperor Adrian, in behalf of the persecuted Christians, was full of philosophic notions, which were afterwards adopted by Justin Martyr.^ The Grecian philosophy was nearly as incompatible with Christianity as was the Oriental ; but the cor- ruptions it introduced, flom-ished in the church, after a few years, as in a congenial soil ; and, in less than a century, gave a new appearance to the general mass of doctrine considered orthodox. The Epistle of Barnabas is the next in order; unless, as has been hitherto conjectured, it belongs to the first centmy.^ It was composed by some Jewish Christian, of mean abilities, for the purpose of representing the Mosaic law and 1 Du Pin's Bibliotheca Patrum, Article, Papias. Papias is said to have flourished about A. D. 116, 2 Du Pin's BibJioth. Pat. Art. Quadratus and Aristides, The Apology of Aris- tides is supposed to have been written about A. D. 124, or 126, 3 It has been thought, by most of the learned, that the Epistle of Barnabas was written in the first century ; and, by many, that it was the work of that Barnabas who was the companion and fellow-traveller of St. Paul. The latter opinion Mosheim treats as scarcely worthy of a refutation ; and, though it has had some eminent advocates, it is now generally discarded. That the former opinion is also OF UNIVERSALISM. 19 other parts of the Old Testament as containing a hidden account of Christ and his religion. The allegorical and mystical interpretations, of which the Epistle mostly consists, present an extraordinary instance of blind stupidity aiming at discoveries.^ incorrect, I cannot but think sufficiently evident from the Epistle itself. The au- thor, speaking of the temple of Jerusalem, says, ''Again, he [Christ] speaketh after this manner: Behold, they that destroy this temple, even they shall again bicild it tip. And so it came to pass : for through their wars, it is now destroyed by their enemies; and the servants of their enemies build it up." (Barnab.Epist, § 16. Wake's Trans.) It will not be questioned that the author here speaks, 1, of the destruction of the temple after our Lord's ministry; that is, of its destruc- tion by Titus ; and 2, of attemjits at rebuilding it by the servants of the Ro- mans, at the time of writing this Epistle. Now, it is well known that there was no attempt at rebuilding either the temple or the city, after their destruction by Titus, till the time of Adrian, who, in A. D. 130 or 136, sent a colony to Jerusa- lem to restore the city, and on or near the site of the former temple to ei-ect a new one, which he afterwards dedicated to Jupiter. This circumstance appears to de- termine the date of the allusion quoted from Barnabas ; and I know of nothing that can be urged against the hypothesis. Irenseus, about A. D. 190, is the first who seems to have imitated any of the expressions of this Epistle ; and Clemens Alexandrinus, about A. D. 194, is the first who cither mentioned it, or formally alluded to it. It is but just, however, to apprize the reader, that my hypothesis is not supported by the authority of the critics ; who, so far as I know, have taken no notice of Barnabas's allusion to the rebuilding of the temple. Mosheim sup- poses the Epistle to^have been written in the first century; and he agrees with Cotelerius, Brucker, Basnage, and others, that its author was not the Barnabas who was the companion'^of St. Paul. Wake, Du Pin, and Lardner, on the contrary, ascribe it to that Barnabas, and place its date about A. D. 71 or 72. 1 *' Understand, children," says he, '' these things more fully, that Abraham, who was the first that brought in circumcision, pei'formed it, after having received the mystery of three letters, by which he looked forward in the spirit, to Jesus. For the Scripture says that Abraham circumcised three hundred and eighteen men of his house. But what, therefore, was the mystery that was made known unto him ? Mark, first, the eighteen ; and next, the three hundred. For the numeral letters of ten and eight are IH [that is, the Greek Eta, or long E, — IE are the fixst two letters of the word Jesus] . And these denote Jesus. And because the cross was that by which we were to find grace, he therefore adds three hundred; the numeral letter of which is T [the figure of the cross]. T\Tierefore, by two letters he signified Jesus, and by the third, his cross. He who has put the engrafted gift of his doctrine within us knows that I never taught to any a more certain truth ; but I trust that ye are worthy of it." — Barnabas's Epist., § 9. Such is one of the important discoveries our author communicates ; and, strange as it may seem, the later fathers, even those of undoubted learning, as Justin Martyn, Irenaeus, Clem- ens Alexandrinus, etc., appear to have been by no means insensible to the charms of this kind of nonsense. 20 THE ANCIENT HISTORY It is worthy of remark, that of all the Christian writings, after the sacred Scriptures, this Epistle is the first in which we find the word everlasting^ or eternal^ applied to suffering ; near the end, Barnabas represents two ways, that of light, over which the angels of Grod are appointed, and that of darkness, where the angels of Satan preside ; and after describing the manner of walking in the way of light, he says, "But the way of darkness is crooked, and full of cursing ; for it is the way of eternal death with punishment, in which they that walk meet with those things that destroy their own souls." ^ He afterwards adds, that he who chooses this part shall "be destroyed, together with his works. For this cause, there shall be both a resurrection and a reti*ibution."2 Throughout his Epistle he says noth- ing of universal salvation; and it appears, from what we have quoted, that he believed in a future state of punishment. But whether he thought it endless can- not be determined ; since the word everlasting or eter- nal was used, by the ancients, to denote indefinite rather than interminable dm-ation.^ The last, as well as the longest, of the works of the Apostolical Fathers, so-called, is that effusion of second childishness. The Sheijlierd of Hernias.'^ It was wiitten at Eome, by a brother of 1 Barnabas's Epistle {Wake's Translation), §§ 18 and 20. 2 Ditto, § 21. 3 See instances of this, in the next chapter, sects, iii. iv. xi., and in succeeding chapters. 4 It had long been debated, by the learned, whether this work was composed in the first century, by that Hermas whom St. Paul mentions (Rom. xvi. 14) ; or in the second century, by another Hermas, brother to Pius, Bishop of Rome. But the question was finally decided by a fragment of a work of the second century, brought to light by Aluratori : •• Hermas, brother to Pius, bishop of the church in the OF UNIVERSALISM. 21 the bishop of that city; but it betrays an ignorant and imbecile mind, in absolute dotage. Its object appears to have been to excite the professors of Christianity to more uprightness, zeal, and abstraction from the business as well as ordinary pleasures of life ; and this the author strives to effect by relating pre- tended visions, and by introducing instructions from an angel, who occasionally appeared to him, as he as- serts, in the habit of a shepherd. But the conversa- tion he attributes to . his celestial visitants is more insipid than we commonly hear from the weakest of men. Without exti'acting at full length, as in the case of former works , the several passages which seem to have relation to our subject, it is sufficient to observe, that Hermas has left nothing to determine his views of the final extent of salvation, unless it may be gathered, from the following, that he totally precludes some of the human race from all prospect of bliss : he teach- es that a Christian, if he sin after his baptism, may possibly be allowed the privilege of one repentance, and of one only ; ^ but that for such as apostatize from city of Rome," says this fragment, '* wrote very lately, in our own time. The Shep- herd, at Rome." (See Mosheim's Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, etc., Eccl. Hist, of the First Cent., § liv., notes n and o; where may he found a full discussion of this point.) The date of The Shepherd, therefore, cannot he much eaUer than A. D. 150; perhaps later. 1 Hermas, hook ii., command, iv., § 3, compared with hook i., vis. ii., § 2. Wake's Trans. a This position is not tenable. The author of the fragment is unknown. Even the original language is obscure, and a matter of doubt. This opinion only occurs in a note of Muratori, and in a poem falsely ascribed to Tertullian. It doubtless belongs to the time of Hadrian, or Antoninus Pius, — A. D. 117 — 138. It is prob- ably an early ^fiction ; but is exceedingly valuable as reflecting the thought of that period. — A. St. J. C. 22 THE ANCIENT HISTORY the faith, and blaspheme God, there is no return. They have /or erer • departed from God; and, in the next world, they are to be bm-ned, together with the heathen nations.^ Strong as such language may seem, those acquainted with the style of the earliest fathers, will not, perhaps, account it decisive in favor of end- less perdition. We may here add, that Hermas supposed that the apostles, after their death, went and preached to the souls of those who had led pure and virtuous lives before Christ's birth ; and that, when those spirits had thus heard the gospel, they re- ceived water baptism, in some way untold, and then entered the kingdom of God.^ He also held an opin- ion, common during the remainder of this century, that the end of the world was near at hand.^ We must now take om^ leave, for a while, of the or- thodox believers, and go back to an account of a very different kind of Christians, concerning whom we have not even the feeble light hitherto enjoyed to guide our investigations. Xo part of ecclesiastical history is involved in more uncertainty than that of the Gnostic heretics of the first and second centuries. Their own writings, except a few unconnected fragments, are wholly lost ; and the only way of attaining to an acquaintance with them and their sentiments is by comparing the faulty, and often al)usive, representations of their zealous opposers, with the imperfect knowledge we 1 Hermas, book iii. simil. vi. § 2. 2 Ditto, book iii. simil. ix. § 16. 3 Ditto, book i., vis. iv. § 3. The idea of salvation, after punishment hereafter, seems taught. B.i. vis. iii. ch. vii. But of punishment even after repentance. B. iii. simil. vii. 1. —A. St. J. C. OF IINIVERSALISM. 23 have of that system of philosophy, the Oriental, which they amalgamated with Christianity. ^ That they be- lieved in our Saviour as a messenger from the supreme God, and generally maintained their Christian profes- sion, amidst the opposition of the heathens, and the obloquy of the orthodox, is certain. But it is now considered equally certain that they believed, some of them, that Jesus Christ was an angelic being of the highest order, who came into om- world with only the visionary appearance, not the real body, of a man ; and others, that Jesus alone was a mere man, with a hu- man soul, into whom the Christ, a high celestial spirit, descended at his baptism in Jordan. As to the object of our Saviour's mission, they are thought to have been perfectly agreed, that it was not to satisfy any vin- dictive justice in Deity, whom they considered infi- nitely good, but to deliver mankind from the oppressive service of the degenerate gods of this world, and to teach them how to subdue their passions, and approx- imate the supreme God, the fountain of purity and bliss. From the long-venerated, but chimerical phi- losophy of the Persians, they retained the notion, that the material world was formed, not by the self-exist- ent, but by the inferior gods, called ^ons, whose be- ing was derived through a long and intricate succession, as most of them thought, originally from him.^ This • 1 1, however, attempt only to follow our modern historian, Mosheim (Ecclesiasti- cal History, and Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians, etc.), with some help from Le Clerc (Histor. Eccl. duorum primonun, a Christo nato, Sasculorum), from Beausohre (HistOire de Manichee, etc.), and from the History of Heretics, in Lardner's Works. 2 A few of them, perhaps, held two original, self-existent beings, an evil, as well as a good, deity. Such it is conjectured, was the opinion of the Saturninians, about A. D. 120, and of the Marcionites, about A. D. 140. This is denied, however, in the History of Heretics, in Lardner's Works, and also by Beausobre. 24 THE ANCIENT HISTORY led them to regard the God of the Jews, the Jehovah of the old Testament, as but a secondary bemg, the principal Maker of this world ; and they also con- cluded that he had apostatized, more or less, from the divine allca'iance, inasmuch as he had arros^ated to himself the honors of worship, and as Christ had been sent to annul his ancient covenant, and to overthrow his institutions. From the same philosophy they also received the doctrine of the eternity of matter, and, especially, of its inherent, radical depravity. Hence, they in general discarded the hope of the resurrection of the material body, which, in their view, would but perpetuate the bondage and corruption of the soul. "With such dislike did most of them regard the body, that they prescribed an excessively rigid discipline, a continual abstinence, in order to thwart all its inclina- tions, and to weaken, as far as possible, its power over the mind. Such are the common outlines of their several sys- tems, as laid down by the more judicious of modern historians, who at the same time confess and lament the impossibility of arriving at a satisfactory knowl- edge of the subject. All the Gnostics were charged, by their cotemporary orthodox adversaries, with be- ing abandoned to licentiousness ; a scandal which the heathens first poured forth, with unsparing liberality, upon the orthodox themselves, and which these, in turn, have as freely passed over, and doubtless from nearly the same motives, to the successive orders of heretics.^ 1 The licentiousness, alleged by the ancient orthodox against the Gnostics, ia in ^rt denied, and in part admitted, by Mosheim ; uniformly mentioned in terms of OF UNIYERSALISM. 25 Some of the Gnostics, perhaps some of the earliest, believed in the endless exclusion of a part of mankind from the abodes of celestial light. But, among those who arose in Egypt, there were many, particularly the Basilidians, the Carpocratians, and the Yalentinians, who are supposed to have held an eventual restoration, or rather transmigration, of all human souls to a heaven of purity and bliss. But this tenet they appear to have involved in other notions, wild and chimerical enough to warrant the suspicion of lunacy, were it not for the antiquity, prevalence, and reputation of that whimsical philosophy from which they were derived. The Basilidians and Carpocratians, it is said, believed that such souls as here follow the instructions of our Saviour will, at death, ascend immediately to the happy mansions above; while, on the contrary, such as neglect and disobey, will be condemned to pass into other bodies, either o*f*men or of brutes, until b}^ their purification they shall be fitted to share the joys of the incorporeal blest ; and so, all will finally be saved. uncertainty by Le Clerc; and wholly denied by Beausobre; as it likewise is, in the History of Heretics, in Lardner's Works. The following remark deserves more consideration than, I fear, most readers wiU allow it : '* This is certain, that as bad things were said of the primitive Christians as were ever said of the ancient heretics by the Catholics [Orthodox]. Modern Refonners have been treated just in the same manner. (Hist, of Heretics, book i. sect. 8, Lardner's Works.) Look Into Roman Catholic writings, and see all kinds of immoral tenets attributed to Luther, Calvin, and their associates; turn to the Protestant side, and see the charge retorted with, at least, equal exaggeration; hear the mutual criminations of our modern sects, who accuse each other of j)rincij)les of conduct which they never thought of ; — and then judge how much credit should be given to ancient calum- nies of the same sort! It is a curious circumstance, that Mosheun, honored and admired, and standing on high ground in a national church, had never, himself, encountered the slander of bigotry ; while Le Clerc, an odious Arminian from Ge- neva, and Beausobre, a Protestant refugee from France, had ample experience of its malignity and falsehood. The Unitarian Lardner, was, in his own country, a heretic of the most obnoxious kind." 26 THE ANCIENT HISTORY The Basiliclians were the followers of Basilides, a Gnostic Christian and Egyptian philosopher, who flourished, at Alexandria, in the early part of the second century, and died there between the years 130 and 140. Though he believed in one self-existent, supreme, and infinitely glorious God, yet he also held that depraved matter had been, in one state or another, coeval with him. In the past ages of eternity, the Deity produced from himself certain ^ons, who, in their turn, begat others, but of a rank somewhat inferior, and of a lower station ; and from these again proceeded a species still less exalted ; and so on, in succession, till the celestial hierarchy extended from the highest heaven down to the vicinity of chaotic matter. The lowest race of ^ons, whose station was the nethermost heaven, undertook, at length, to reduce the immense material mass below them from its pristine state of disorder; and having formed it into a world, and made man with a body and a material soul, the Deity, approving their work, gave the creature a rational mind, and thus completed the undertaking. He then allowed these ^ons to divide, among themselves, the government of the world they had formed. But they, swerving by degrees from their allegiance, arrogated at length divine honors from their creatures, grew ambitious of enlarging, each one, his dominion over the territory of the others, and for this purpose embroiled mankind in mutual wars, till the world became full of wretchedness and crime. Touched with compassion for the human race, God sent his Son, the first-begotten and noblest of nil the ^ons, to take up his abode in the man Jesus ; OF UXIVERSALISM. 27 and through him to prochiim the supreme, but for- gotten, Deit}^ teach mankmcl to abjure the authority of their tyrannical gods, especially of the God of the Jews ; and to instruct them how to subdue their own sinful propensities, by mortifying their bodies, as well as by governing their passions. The God of the Jews, alarmed for his dominion, excited the people to apprehend and crucify Jesus ; but the Christ, the celestial ^on, had left his mortal associate, before the suffering man was nailed to the cross. Basilides taught that God is perfectly good, or be- nevolent, in the real sense of those words ; but that he inflicts the proper punishment for every wilful transgression, whether of saint or sinner. Reforma- tion and improvement are the grand objects, as he appears to have held, of all punishment, and of all God's dealings with mankind. Though he treated the Old Testament with respect, as the revelation of that dignified Being who governed the Jews, he did not think it inspired by the supreme God ; and he is accused of having also rejected some parts of the New Testament ; which, though possibly a fact,^ cannot be satisfactorily proved. He wrote a Qommentary ^ in twenty-four books, on the Gospels, which was soon answered by Agi'ippa Castor, a cotemporary ortho- dox writer. Basilides is thought to have been a grave and pious man, but bewildered by the fabulous theology of the East. He had a son, named Isidore, who wrote some books, long since lost, in illustration of their religious 1 Mosheim thinks it credible; Beausobre sees no proof of it; and in the Historj of Heretics, in Lardner, it is disputed. Le Clerc says nothing about it. 4 28 THE ANCIENT HISTORY sentiments. His sect, though often assailed, and con- stantly opposed, both b}^ the orthodox and the heathens, was for a long time numerous, chiefly in Egypt and Asia. After having continued about two hundred years, we find it broken and decreased in the fourth century ; and not long afterwards it probably became extinct, or perhaps coalesced with that of the Manicheans.^ The Carpocratians, who arose at the same place with the Basilidians, and nearly at the same time, agreed with them in the final salvation of all souls, and did not gi-eatly differ from them in the general system of their doctrine. Like them, they clis- tinsruished between the Deitv and the inferior ^ons who formed the world ; like them they believed that matter had existed from eternity, and was unalterably corrupt. They, indeed, aiTanged the JEons in a little different order ; and there is some reason to think that they considered our Sa^dour not a twofold beings human and angelic, but a mere man, though of more than ordinary wisdom and divine intelligence. He was appointed by Deit}^ to teach mankind the knowl- edge of the true God, and to abolish the dominion of the arrogant makers of the world. This sect, which seems never to have been large, spread chiefly in Egypt and the adjoining parts of Asia ; and disappeared, probably, in little more than a century after its rise, if indeed it ii^ad ever been altogether distinct from that of the Basilidians, Its founder was Carpocrates, a learned Pgyptian^ who 1 As to the time Aiwi cause of the disappearance of the Gnostic sects, Bee ^u*;» dock's Moshedm, vol. 1, p. 233, note. or UXIVERSALISM. 29 flourished at Alexandria, about the year 130. His son Epiphanes, Tvas a youth of vast attainments and extraordinary promise ; but he died (about a. d. 140) at the early age of seventeen, after having written several treatises on religious subjects. Their ancient opponents accuse the Carpocratians of avowing the most infamous principles of moral con- duct, and even of teaching that, to arrive at heaven, we must devote ourselves to the perpetration of every vile and licentious abomination : a calumny which, by its manifest exaggeration and malice, reflects only on its authors. Some of the learned allow no credit what- ever to any of the disadvantageous representations of their moral character ; while others refuse to exculpate them entirely, at the consequent expense of their or- thodox slanders.^ A sect^of Gnostics, still more whimsical than either of the precedins^, was' the Yalentinians. . . About A. D. 130. Man, m theu^ view, was a complex being, , consisting, 1, of the outward visible body ; 2, of an- other body ^within this, composed of fluid matter, and imperceptible to the senses; 3, of an animated soul, the seat of life and sensation only ; and 4, of a nobler, rational soul, of an angelic substance. The bodies, both outward and internal, were, they held, destined to perish; of the two souls, the animal or sensitive 1 Among the licentious tenents charged on the Carpocratians, some of the most moderate and judicious of the moderns consider that of the community of women, as well as of goods, justly imputed to them. But in the Hist, of Heretics, in Lard- ner (book ii. ch. iii. § 11). this charge is, I think, fairly shown to rest on very un- certain authority, and to be, in itself, quite improbable. Mosheim, in his Com- mentaries, etc.. has softened the features of the picture which he had drawn of the Carpocratians, in his Ecclesiastical Historj^. 2 At least, so asserts Mosheim, confidently ; from whom, therefore, I dare not wander, though, in this particular, I follow him with much doubt. 30 THE ANCIENT HISTORY could be saved by its obedience, or by its negligence bring upon itself entire dissolution at death ; but the rational, intelligent soul will, in all cases, be admitted to the realms of bliss. In the immediate habitation of Deity, a world of pure light, infinitely above the visible heavens, the Yalentinians placed thirty ^ons, divided into three orders. These were guarded by Horns, stationed on the extreme verge of the high abode, to prevent them from wanderinsr off into the immense res^ions of chaotic matter, which lay around. The ^Eons, in process of time, grew envious of the distinguished and peculiar felicity enjoyed by the first and highest individual of their number, who alone was adequate to compre- hend the supreme Father's greatness. The ardent desire to attain the same divine pleasure grew stronger and stronger among them ; until wisdom, the youngest and weakest of all, became excessively agitated. From her ungovernable perturbations sprang a daughter, who was immediately expelled into the vast abyss of rude and unformed matter without. To allay the agitation thus raised in the celestial realm, the Deity produced two new tEous, who instructed the others to be content with their limited capacity, and to unite all their powers in giving existence to a being called Jesus, the noblest and brightest of all the ^ons. Scarcely was the tranquillity of the heavenly world thus restored, when the most violent commotions began to agitate the drear abyss without. The exiled daughter of Wisdom had caught some glimpses of the eternal radiance, and attempted to reach the glorious OF UNIVEKSALISM. 31 abode ; "but being continually repulsed by its watcli- ful guardian, her passions of grief, anxiety, and desire grew so violent, that the chaotic mass of matter, in which she was immersed, caught the strong contagious emotions, and became thereby separated into the difierent elements which exist in our world. By the assistance of Jesus, she formed a being who is the Maker and Governor of the material system. This Creator, having afterwards, with the same assistance, constructed the visible Universe, took up his abode in the lowest heaven, far from the refulgent habitation of the Deity ; and here his vanity at length transported him to fancy himself the only true God, and to call upon mankind by his prophets, especially by those he sent to the Jews, to worship him as such. To extri- cate mankind from this delusion, to reveal the Deity to them, to teach them piety and virtue, was Christ, one of the ^ons, sent into the world. He had a real body, but unlike those of mortals, since it was com- posed of an ethereal substance ; and when he was baptized in Jordan, Jesus himself, in the form of a dove, descended into him. Thus completely con- stituted, our Saviour proceeded, by means of instruc- tions and miracles, to fulfil his ministry. The Maker of the world was enraged by his success, and procured his apprehension and crucifixion ; but not till both Jesus and the spiritual, rational soul of Christ had ascended, leaving nothing but the sensitive soul and the ethereal body to sufler. Like other Gnostics, the Valentinians denied the resurrection of the body, and thought the authors of the Old Testament to have 32 THE ANCIENT HISTORY been under the inspiration of the ^laker of this world. This sect sprung from Valentine, an Eg}^3tian, who, after propagating his notions, for a while, in his native country, went, about a. d. 140, to Rome. Here, so many professors embraced his views, that the church became alarmed, and, after thrice excommifiiicating him, succeeded in rendering his residence in Italy so uncomfortable that he withdrew to the island of Cy- prus. In this delightful and luxurious region, his sect flourished in quiet ; and after his death, which oc- curred a little subsequent, perhaps, to a. d. 150, it was widely diffused thi'oughout Asia, Africa, and Europe, and excited considerable fear in the orthodox churches. It existed about a century and a half; when it seems to have sunk gradually into oblivion. Many of its sentiments, however, were then revived among the Manicheans, whom we shall consider in their proper place. In closing our account of these Gnostic sects, it is important to remark, that while the orthodox fathers warmly and bitterly attacked their respective s^^stems at large, it does not appear that they ever selected the particular tenet of the salvation of all souls as obnox- ious. "What chiefly excited their resentment and ani- madversions was the distinction between Deity and the jNIaker of the world, the fables of the ^ons, the views of our Saviour's person, the rejection of the Old Testament, and the denial of the resurrection and of a futui-e judgment. OF UNI VERS ALISM. 33 CHAPTER II. FROM A. D. 150 TO A. D. 190. It has been seen that heresies had multiplied to such a number, and spread to such an extent, as to become troublesome^ to the regular and approved churches, and that several sects had estab- lished separate communities, in distinction from the common body. Most of these were of the Gnostic kind, already described ; but there vras one which, though small, deserves particular mention, as consist- ing of that part of the original church at Jerusalem which continued to adhere, with unyielding tenacity, to the practice of the Mosaic rituals. This was the Nazarene, or Ebionite sect, which is said to have held the simple humanity of Jesus Christ. But from the heretics, of all kinds, we return to a view of the doctrine and character of the orthodox. JNIany of the vulgar superstitions of the Gentiles pre- vailed among them, concerning magic, the demons, and the poetical regions of the infernal" world ; and the Greek philosophy, which had begun to mingle with the doctrine of Christ, was rapidly modifying his re- ligion to its own genius. The credulity of this age was rank, and the learning of the day, at least that of 1 This is also evident from the circumstance that Agrippa Castor wrote a hook against the heretics some years before this period, and Justin Martyr a little after. 34 THE ANCIENT HISTORY the fathers, was too superficial to prove either a pre- ventive or remedy. Apostolical tradition also began to be urged as a proof, when it was so far lost or cor- rupted that even they who had been disciples of the apostles adduced contrary traditions on one and the same point ; ^ and yet upon this very precarious au- thority some whimsical notions ^ prevailed. To these shades in the picture we must add a still darker ; the Christians, orthodox as well as heretics, appear to have employed, in some cases, known falsehood in support of their cause. This pernicious artifice they are said to have derived from the Platonic paradox, that it is lairful to lie for the truth; but one would sujDpose it to have been suggested by their own intemperate zeal, rather than by any maxims of philosophy. They had already begun to forge books in support of their relig- ion, a practice which, it is thought, they borrowed from the heretics ; and they now proceeded to propa- gate accounts of frequent mu^acles, concerning which all the early writers, after the apostles, had been en- tirely silent. In the works which we have hitherto had under examination we can discover little that belongs to the Grecian literature, except the language. All their fanciful conceits, all their extravagancies, are either of that peculiar character which denotes a Jewish, at least Asiatic, origin ; or else are the natural effusions 1 For instance, Polycarp visited Anicetus, Bisliop at Rome, about A. D. 150, and held an amicable discussion with him on the proper time for holding Easter. Each, according to Euscbius (Hist. Eccl., lib. v., cap. 24), alleged apostolical tradition for his own time, in opposition to that of the other; and they parted, but in friend- ship, without coming to an agreement on the point. '■^ The doctrine of the proper Millennarians, for instance. OF UXIVERSALISM. 35 of a stupidity that needs not the aggravation of false learning to become ridiculous. But when we pass the Shepherd of Hermas, we enter immediately on a new series of ecclesiastical writings, in most of which the learning of the Athenian and Roman schools is di- vested of its elegance, and converted into Christianity. This, however, we shall have occasion to exemplify, in detail, as we pursue the course of our examination. The works which have descended to us from the period embraced in this chapter, and which succeed those of the Apostolical fathers, are The Sibylline Oracles, The Writings of Justin Martyr, A Relation of the Martyrdom of Poly carp, The Oration of Ta- tian, The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne, Two Productions of Athena gov as, A Treatise of Theophilus, and The Works of Irenmus.^ Through these, successively, we shall now attempt to follow the traces of our general subject. It will be difficult to give the reader a just notion of the first work. The Sibylline Oracles, They were forged^ by some Christian, or Christians, generally supposed orthodox, for the pur- pose of convincing the heathens of the truth of Chris- 1 The book of one Rermas, in ridicule of the heathen philosophers, though often mentioned among the ecclesiastical works of this period, is, by all, acknowledged to be of uncertain date, and by the best critics considered the production of a later age. 2 Cave thinks the larger part of them composed about A. D. 130, and the rest before A. d. 192. Du Pin places them at about A. D. 160. Lardner thinks they may have been completed before A. D. 169, though possibly not till A. D. 190. Jus- tin Martyr repeatedly refers to them; and Hermas probably alluded to them in book 1. vis. n.a a The original Sibylline Oracles (Pagan) -were destroyed B. c. 74. Very soon, however, new ones were collected; and from these, with perhaps also some of Jewish origin (Josephus, Antiq. 1, 4, 3, of Orac. Sibyll. Ill : 35), the Christian 36 THE ANCIENT HISTORY tianity. The Sibyls were regarded as very ancient prophetesses, — of extraordiuai;y inspiration among the Eomans and the Greeks ; but their books, if, in- deed, they ever existed, had always been carefully concealed from the public, and consulted only upon emergencies, and by order of the government. The great veneration in which these supposed, but un- known, prophecies were held among the vulgar, in- duced some zealots to fabricate, under the name of the Sibyls, and in the form of ancient predictions, a nar- rative of the most striking events in sacred history, and a delineation of what was then considered the Christian faith. This work, which we now have with Sibyllines were formed. They have been variouslj' attributed to Montanus, to Christiana of Alexandria, to the Gnostics, and even to Tertulliau ; and have also been deemed the productions of different ages, — by some as reaching from about B. c. 200 (in some of their materials) to A. D. 500, Much of this is mere con- jecture. They are certainly of very early origin, and have been generally accred- ited to the second centary, to which an important portion undoubtedly belongs. They were used, not only by Justin Martyr, but by Theophilus of Antioch, Athenagoras, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Augustine, Eusebius, etc. Opso- pceus, in his notes, p. 27, says the Oracles teach '"that the wicked, suffering in hell (Gehenna), after a certain period, and through expiations of griefs, would be released from punishments, which was the opinion of Origen," etc. Opsop. Paris, 1599. It may, perhaps, be well to state that there is a general agreement among the learned to the fact that these Oracles do teach Universalism. There is an inter- esting note upon this point in the Universalist Quarterly, for July, 1868, written, by an acknowledged scholar. Dr. T. B. Thayer. The learned Musardus, In His- toria Deorum Fatidicorum, etc., Colonise AUobrogium, 1675, p. 184, referred to by Dr. Thayer, affirms that the author of the Oracles says " that the damned shall be liberated after they shall have endured infernal punishments for many ages," "which was an error of Origen." Bicit danmatos liberandos postquam pcunas infernaUa per aliquot secida erunt perpessi, qui Origenis fuit error. So Davis, in his translation from the French of Blondel's Treatise of the Sibyls, etc., London, 1661, evidently takes the same view, though turning the passage referred to as implying that God gives men the power to save themselves. Dr. Thayer also well notices, that in the Latin Translation of the Oracles by Castalio (which is bound with the Greek of our edition), avdpiLiroi^ is rendered homines in the pas- sage quoted by Dr. Ballou. The Latin of Gallaeus, 1688, Amsterdam, has homines. In his Dissertationes, c. xxiii.,he argues against Universalism, as taught by the Sibyls and Origen. — A. St. J. C. OF UNIVERSALISM. 37 some rariations,^ in eight bool^s of coarse Greek verses, was then sent into the world, to convert the heathens by the pretended testimony of their own prophetesses. It appears to have been seized with avidity by the orthodox Christians in general ; and all their principal wiiters^ quoted it as genuine, and urged its testimonies as indubitable evidence. It is mortifying to relate that not one of them had the honesty to discard the fraud, even when it was de- tected by their heathen opponents. These books, though brought forth in iniquity, serve to show what sentiments existed among the Christians ; which is, indeed, about all the .utility of the genuine productions of this period. They contain the earliest explicit declaration extant of a restoration from the torments of hell. Having predicted the burning of the universe, the resurrection of the dead, the scene before the eternal judgment-seat, and the condemna- tion and horrible torments of the damned in the flames of hell, the writer proceeds to expatiate on the bliss and the privileges of the saved ; and he concludes his account by saying that, after the general judgment, "the omnipotent, incorruptible God shall confer an- other favor on his worshippers, when they shall ask him : he shall save mankind from the pernicious fire 1 So think Fabricius, Du Pin, Le Clerc, Lardner, and Jortin. Others speak of these now extant as wholly the same with the ancient. Paley, who by calling them Latin verses, betrays his ignorance of them, supposes they cannot be that ancient work, because such is the manifestness of their forgery that these could not have deceived the early fathers into a belief of their genuineness. (Evidences of Christianity, part i., chap, ix, sect, xi.) Cut all this he might have said, with equal propriety, of the very passages which they actually quoted. They were probably aware of the forgery. 2 Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus of Antioch, Clemens Alexandrinus, and the succeeding fathers. 38 THE ANCIENT HISTORY and immortal agonies. This will he clo. For, hav- ing gathered them, safely secured from the miwearied flame, and appointed them to another place, he shall send them, for his people's sake, into another and an eternal life, with the immortals on the Elysian plain, where flow perpetually the long, dark waves of the deep sea of Acheron." ^ This work is full of the fables of the Greeks con- cerning demons, the Titans or giants, and the in- fernal regions. The world was to be burned about the end of the second century ; and then all mankind were to be brought forth from the secret receptacle of the dead to judgment ; when the vicious and abomi- nable should be condemned to an intense fiery torment, repeatedly called everlasting, and described nearly in the language of the heathen poets, and with many of the circumstances they emplo3^ed. The righteous, on the contrary, were to be received into a heaven too nearly resembling the Elysian fields ; ^ and finally, at their request, the damned were to be admitted to the like happiness.^ l-Sibyll. Oracular, lib. ii p. 212, edit. Opsopoei, Paris, 1667. 2 All these particulars may be found in lib. ii. 3 The following prophecy of the final conflagration may amuse, as a specimen of the author's descriptions: Elijah, ''the Thesbite, shall descend from heaven, drawn in a celestial car, and show the whole world the three signs of the destruction of all life. Woe unto them whom that day shall overtake oppressed with the burden of the womb ; woe unto them who shall nurse children at the breast, and unto those who shall dwell near the waters. Woe unto them who shall see that day; for from the rising to the setting sun, and from the north to the south, the Avholo world shall be involved in the gloom of hideous night. A burning river of fire shall then flow from the lofty heavens, and utterly consume the earth, the vast ocean with its cerulean abyss, the lakes, rivers, fountains, the horrible realm of Pluto, and the celestial pole. The stars in heaven shall melt and drop down without form. All mankind shall gnash their teeth, encompassed on every hand with a flood of fire, and covered with burning cinders. The elements of the world shall lie forsaken : the air, the earth, the heavens, the sea, the Ught, and nights and days be confounded." — Lib. ii., p. 201, OF UNIVEESALISM. 39 We proceed to the writings of the renowned Justin Martyr, the first professed scholar of the •^ ' ^ . ,A. D, 150 to 162. Grecian philosophy, whose productions in favor of the Christian religion have reached us. He was a native of Neapolis, the ancient Sichem, in Pal- estine. Having sought, as he says, for the knowledge of the true God, among all the sects of heathen phi- losophers, he was at length converted to Christianity by the conversation of an old man ; but he never laid aside the peculiar habit nor the profession of the Platonists. He engaged, however, with gi'eat zeal and boldness in the Christian cause, for which he wrote two Apologies: one, addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, about a.d. 150, and the other about a.d. 162, to the succeeding emperor, Marcus Antoninus, and to the Senate and People of Rome.^ It was in this city, where he had resided for many years, that he sealed his testimony by martyrdom, about a. d. 166. His profession of philosophy, his extensive though cursory reading, together with his zeal and piety, se- cured him a great reputation and influence among the early fathers, who lacked the discernment to perceive his want of sober judgment, and to discover the fre- quent mistakes into which his carelessness and gi'oss credulity betrayed him. His early heathen notions, so far from being dispelled by the light of truth, were only modified to his new religion, and the more fondly 1 Cave, Pagi, Basnage, and Le Clerc date Justin's First Apology at about A. D. 140; Massuet, 145; The Benedictine Editors and Tillemont, Grabe, Du Pin, and Lardner, at 150. The Dialogue with TrjiDho was writteji certainly after the First Apology, but perhaps before the Second, which is generally placed at the year 162. Besides these three works, some attribute to him Two Orations to the Greeks, and the Epistle to Diognetus. 40 THE ANCIENT HISTORY cherished, as they now formed part of a system he deemed sacred. Augels, he supposes, once descended to the earth, became enamored of women, and in their embraces begat the demons. These demons, learning from the prophets the principal events in Christ's life and administration, fabricated, in order to imitate them, the stories of the heathen m^i^hology. They first instituted idolatry, and they still continue to allure men to practise it, by the mysterious tricks they perform for the purpose; and all this, out of a desire to feed on the fumes of the sacrifices and liba- tions.^ Nothing can be more wonderful than the va- ried part which the demons perform in this world, ac- cording to Justin's representations. They labored, however, under one essential disadvantage ; for our author assures us, that the Christians, in his time, had the miraculous gift of exorcising them at pleasure, whatever shape they assumed, or wherever they con- cealed themselves.^ The reader cannot be surprised that Justin applied and explained Scripture without the least regard to rational interpretation. His opinion concerning the future state of mankind was, that all souls, after death, are reserved in a cer- tain place, probably the Infermim of the Latins, till the general resurrection and judgment; when the righteous, whether Christians or virtuous heathens, such as Socrates and Plato, shall reign with Christ a thousand ^xars upon the earth, and then be admitted to the celestial mansions ; ^ while the wicked shall be 1 Justini. Apolog. Pi-im., p. 61, edit. Paris. 2 Apol. Secund., p. 45, axid passim. 3 Compare Dialog, cum. Tryph. p. 223, 306, Apol. i., p. 71; Apol. ii.,p. 83, etc., edit. Paris, 1742. OF UNIVERSALISM. 41 condemned to a punishment which he frequently calls- everlasting .^ In another place, however, he states his opinion upon this last point more particularly, and intimates that the wicked will be, eventually, annihi- lated : "Souls," says he, "are not immortal . I do not say that all souls will die. Those of the pious will remain [after death] in a certain better place, and those of the unholy and wicked in a worse, all expecting the time of judgment. In this manner, those which are worthy to appear before God never die ; but the others are tormented so long as God wills that they should exist and be tormented . Whatever does or ever will exist in dependence on the will of God is of a perishable nature, and can be an- nihilated so as to exist no longer. God alone is self- existent, and by his own nature imperishable, and therefore he is God ; but all other things are begotten and corruptible. For which reason souls both suffer punishment and die."^ It was about this period, that the venerable Poly- carp closed an aged and pious life, amidst the flock he had long cherished in the " ' ~ ' ' great city of Smyi-na. Exhausted nature was not per- mitted to expire in quiet decay; the persecuting heathens sought him out, and crowned him with the honors of martyrdom. TJie Relation of his Martyr- dam, written,^ if genuine (of which there is some 1 Apol. Prim., pp. 57, 64, etc. He says the devil will be punished througli an endless duration, anipavrov aiUva. I Apol. c. xxviii. — A. St. J. C. 2 Dialog, cum. Tryphonc pp. 222, 223." 3 Probably very soon after the martyrdom it relates ; which is placed by Pearson a Compare c. V. vi. — A. St. J. C. 42 THE ANCIENT HISTORY doubt) , by his own church at Smyrna, asserts that the martyrs hoped, by suffering the momentary torments of their cruel death, "to escape that fire which is eter- nal and shall not be extinguished." ^ And Poly carp himself is represented, by these writers, as reminding the Proconsul, before whom he was arraigned and tried, of "the fire of future judgment, and of that eternal punishment which is reserved for the un- godly." 2 This Relation, though composed apparently by plain, unlettered men, and manifestly free from the corruptions of the Greek philosophy, aflbrds a mod- erate specimen of the hyperbolical genius of that age. When the flame, say the writers, had arisen to a great height around Polycarp at the stake, it made a sort of arch, leaving him untouched in the midst ; while a rich odor, as of frankincense, proceeded from his body, and filled the air. The executioners, perceiving that they could not destroy him by burniug, struck him through with a dagger ; upon Avhich there came from him such a quantity of blood as extinguished the flames ! so that it " raised an admiration in all the people to consider what a difference there was between the infidels and the elect." ^ Tatian the Syrian, a convert from heathenism, and the scholar, perhaps; of Justin Martp', was a man of considerable Greek reading, and the in A. D. 147; by Usher and Le Clerc in 169 ; and by Petit in 175. Polycarp %isited Rome while Anicetus was bishop there ; to which office the latter is commonly supposed to have been chosen as late as A. D. 150. 1 Relation of the Martyrdom of Polycarp, § 2. Wake^a Translation. 2 Ditto, § 11. 3 Ditto, §§ 15, 16. OF UNIVERSALISM. 43 author of several works ; of which only his Oration against the Gentiles is extant. In this he represents that such souls as have not the truth or knowledsre of God die with the body, and with it rise to judgment, at the end of the world ; when they are to undergo " a death in immortality." ^ To the wicked demons he assigns the same final doom.^ It is sufficiently evident that Tatian was, at this time, like his master, a follower of the Platonic philosophy ; but towards the end of his life he ran into heresy, by prohibiting marriage, wine, and divers sorts of meat, and by advocating certain Gnostic notions. In order to embrace everything that relates to our subject, we must insert a small fragment from an Ucclesiastical History hy Hegesij[>ims^ an author whose works are lost, but who is suspected of having been a weak and credulous writer. He relates that when some of our Saviour's kindi'ed were called before the Emperor Domitian, and questioned on the nature of the kingdom they attributed to Christ, they answered that it was merely celestial, and would take place "at the consummation of the world, when he should come in his glory, judge the quick and the dead, and reward every man according to his works." ^ 1 Tatiani Assyr. Contra Graec. Orat., §§ 6 and 13, a inter. Justini Martyr, 0pp. edit. Paris, 1742. Ttiis Oration is placed by Lardner between A. D. 165 and 172. 2 Ditto, § 14. 3 Eusebii Hist. Eccl., lib. iii., cap. 20, Lardner dates Hegisippus's History at the year 173. « There is nothing in § 6, to this effect. In § 13 the language is, "The soul in itself, O Greeks, is not immortal, but mortal. But it is possible for it not to die. At death it is dissolved with the body, if it is ignorant of the truth ; but it after- wards rises again, at the end of the world, united with the body, receiving death by punishment in immortality" — Qa.va.yQv 5td Ti/xwpt'as iv o.Qa.va.