ORIGEN. 
age, that he was guilty of that rafh and ia hanes action, 
which he intended, as well to preferve him from temptation 
as to fulfil upon himfelf, in a literal fenfe, the faying of Chritt, 
{peaks of thofe « ga themfelves eqndehs 
gdom of heaven.” He w afterwards fatisfied 
of his error, and publicly confuted in es writings the literal 
interpretation of that text, in fuch a manner, as to fhew that 
e condemned him as 
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fhort ftay there, he returned to Alexandria, and applied 
himfelf with great diligence to - ordinary work of teaching 
the Hal of religion. utation was now fo great, 
and the number of his difciples neil fo much, that he 
found it neceffary to have an affiftant, and feleéted for this 
purpofe Heraclius, who became bifhop of Alexandria after 
the death of ae trius. About this time he made himfelf 
h the Hebrew language, and compofed his 
“ aan which fee. This work induced numbers 
what boo he required, he ‘s being at the expence of 
maintaining feven or more amanuenfes to write down what 
diated, and as many young women or others, who ex- 
celled in the art of writing, to cop his works. After this 
he went into Sin at the invitation of a prince of that 
on y 
the moft determined and violent enmity. He ured a 
paffed d, that not only prohibited ee from 
teaching ee more in the city, but pronounced a fentence of 
banifhment upon him; and he afterwards prevailed on a 
Arabia, et and Achaia, who were well acquainted 
with his extraordinary merit, and knew him perfonally, re- 
fafed to join in his con ndemnation, and continued to enter- 
He opened a 
n which he ee facred and profane ines 
‘to a numerous train of difciples. About the year 240, 
al took a fecond journey ta Athens, where he pro- 
bably ftaid ne length of time, fince he finifhed at that 
place his « maa upon Ezekiel, and began that 
apon Canticle 
> 
oa 
re) 
s, and upon the gofpel by St. Mat- 
th ring the Decian perfecution, and in the year 250, 
he fuffered much with exemplary and invincible fortitude, on 
account of his great zeal in the Chriftian sc oug 
far advanced in life, he was imprifoned and chained down to 
his place, and in fuch a peuaeos as to e xcite the moit ex- 
profeffi 
this per eouien, one affo 
raed who might 
rded arg 
be placed in the ee 
Gallus, in the 7oth year of his a works were very 
numerous; but though feveral estalogues of them were 
compofed, none of them are remaining. It was faid he had 
written 6000 volumes, to which Dr. Lardner feems to give 
greateft portion confifts of Latin tranflations, made by Je- 
rome and Rufinus, chiefly the latter; neverthelefs, fays Dr. 
Lardner, “ we ftill have, in the original Greek, Origen’s 
treatife of Prayer: his Exhortation to Martyrdom, addrefled 
to Ambrofe and Protoctetus, written in the perfecution 
under Maximin: his Apology for the Chriftian Religion, in 
eight books, againft Celfus the Epicurean, compofed, as fome 
think, in the year 246, or, according to others, not before 
249, an excellent performance, greatly efteemed, not only by 
Eufebius and Jerome, but likewife by many judicious men of 
later times.’ e high eftimation in whic 
ordinary man was ci fome notice muft be taken. 
in his work “ De Viris Illuftribus,’’ calls man 
immortal wit, and afcribes to him a deep eats of logic, 
willingly undergo all the hatred Origen had ever met with, 
if he had but his knowledge of the f{criptures: again 
adds, that ene was reat man from his childhood, and 
and explaining them. 
Origen, “ he wonders how one and the fame 
man could be fo different from himfelf: that where he is 
right, he had not had an equal fince the Apoftles.”” After 
reciting thefe and other teftimonies to the character and 
talents of Origen, Dr. Lardner adds from his own reading, 
that ‘¢he had a capacious mind, and a large compafs of 
and in teaching oe word of mouth 
tical inftru@tion, public difcourfes to the people, and confe- 
rence. He had the happinefs of uniting different accom- 
plithments, being at once the greateft egal and t 
moft learned and voluminous writer age; nori at 
eafy to fay which is moft admirable, his eae or ie 
2 virtue. 
