cerning him that brings and presents the fame to God."

NUM B. XXIV.

DIDYMUS ALEXANDRINUS.

A.D. 370.

Didymus of Alexandria was blind from

his childhood, fo that he never learned letters, and yet was a perfect master of Logic and Geometry; he was living in the 14th Year of Theodofius, A. D. 392. being then above 83 Years of age; he was the author of many things, and among the rest of a treatife concerning the Holy Spirit, translated into Latin by Jerom; in which he says. indeed, that Chrift tafted death for all, and that he vouchfafed to come down on earth for the falvation of all; but then he explains these all of the children of God, and believers in Chrift, for citing Isaiah lxiii. 8. which he thus renders, "He is made Jalvation to them, that is, fays he, to them, of whom the Lord fays, Are not my people children? And they will not prevaricate; for

b

2 Hieron. Catalog. Script. Ecclef. N° 119. fol. 101. G. à Didymus de Spiritu Sancto, 1. 2. fol. 181. C. inter opera Hieron. Tom. 9.

Ib. 1. 3. fol. 183. E.

Ib. A.

because

because they do not prevaricate, nor have despised the Father, he is made falvation to them; or because they are called children he is made the caufe of falvation to them." And a little after " He is made the occafion of eternal falvation, cunctis qui in eum credunt, to all that believe in him; and he is the Saviour of the world, who came to feek what was loft."

NUMB. XXV.

GREGORIUS NYSSENUS.

G

A. D. 380.

Regory bishop of Nya, and brother of Bafil, died A. D. 395. or 396. according to Monfieur Daille. There are two volumes of his works extant, in which he fometimes, indeed, fpeaks of Chrift's tafting death for every one; of his reconciling the world to himfelf; and of his giving himfelf for the life of the world. But inafmuch as thefe fcriptural expreflions are capable of being understood in a fenfe which no ways favours the doctrine of general redemption, fo they cannot be thought to hold forth explicitely this writer's fenti

d Apolog. p. 798.

Gregor. Nyff. in Pfalm. c. 16. Vol. I. p. 363. in Cant. Homil. 7. p. 570. Homil. 15. p. 697.

ments

ments upon that fubject. Befides, in other places he speaks of the fufferings of Chrift, and the benefits of them, as belonging to certain perfons; for he not only fays', that Chrift fpilled his blood, and endured fufferings, e nucer, for us, but also intimates, that all this was for the fake of fuch as believe in him; for fpeaking of the clufter of grapes which the fpies brought from Canaan, he has thefe words, "The cluster hanging on the ftick, what else was it, but the clufter which in the laft days hung upon the tree ? s το αιμα ποτον τοις πιςεύεσι γιγνε και σωτερον, whole blood is become a falutary drink to them that believe." And in another place he reprefents the church speaking after this manner to Chrift, "How should I not love thee, who hath fo loved me, though fo black, as to lay down thy life, UTTER TWV TOCbzlwv, for the sheep, which thou feedeft." Two paffages are cited out of this author by Monfieur Daille, as on the fide of the general fcheme; the firft is this k "The will of God is the falvation of men;" which no body will gainfay; for certain it is, that it is owing to the good will of God that any of the fons of men are faved; and

h

h Ib. in Cant. Homil. 2. p. 498.

i Pag. 798, 799.

* Greg. Nyff. de orat. Dominic. orat. 4. p. 741.

no

no man would be faved, God not willing his falvation. The other is this, where he makes Chrift to speak thus, "Through the firft fruits which I have affumed, I bring in

my felf all human nature to God the Father." But Gregory, in the place referr'd to, is fhewing in what fenfe Chrift is called the first born, and the first born from the dead, and obferves, that the human nature. which he affumed was the firft fruits of all human nature, and that in his refurrection he was the first fruits of them that flept, and fuggefts, that not only the refurrection of Chrift is a pledge, but a kind of a reprefentation of the general refurrection, which.. is what he means when he fays, that Chrift brought all human nature in himself to the Father, his human nature being the first fruits of the whole. There's another paffage in Gregory, which, upon first fight, may be thought to favour the doctrine of general Redemption more than either of thefe, where he fays ", that " 'Redemption fignifies a return from captivity; God gave himself a ranfom for thofe who are held under death by him that has the power of death, and feeing all were in the custody of death, he redeems all from thence by his ranfom, fo that not one is left under the

1 Ib. contra Eunom. 1. 1. Vol. 2. p. 25. : m Ib. in Pfalm. c. 8. p. 279, 280.

power

power of death, after the redemption of every one is made; for it is not poffible that any one should be under the power of death, death it felf being no more; wherefore the whole world, according to its fituation, being divided into four parts, no part of it remains without the divine redemption;" and yet, I apprehend, he means no more than this, that as all mankind are fubject to a corporal death, and are under the power of it, fo they fhall be delivered from it, or be raifed from the dead in virtue of Christ's ranfom; which, as a benefit arifing from Chrift's death, fome allow to all mankind, who yet are not in the general scheme.

NUMB. XXVI.

PACIANUS BARCINONENSIS, vel BARCILONENSIS, A. D. 380.

PAcianus bishop of Barcelona in Spain, died

in a very advanced age under the emperor Theodofius", and before A. D. 391. he wrote A.D. many little pieces, in one of which ftands this paffage, produced by M. Daille in favour of universal redemption "No artificer (fays he) defpifes his own works, or thinks

" Hieron. Catalog. Script. Eccl. § 115. Pacian. contr. Novat. Ep. 3. p. 112.