the condition of the Jews is more tolerable; they are subject indeed, but to divine ordinances, not to the precepts of men. However, the Church, surrounded as she is with chaff and tares, endures many things, yet she cannot tolerate what is con+ trary to Christian faith and practice." He par ticularly condemns the custom of divining by the Gospel, and of managing temporal concerns accord ing to words which strike the eye at the first opening of the book.

His conduct toward the Donatists bids the fairest for reprehension; but he acted sincerely: you differ with him in judgment, but it is impossible for you to blame his temper and spirit, if you read him can. didly. He carefully checks his people for calumniating the Donatists, and is constantly employed in moderating and healing.

Finally, in Ethics he is superior to most. On the subject of veracity and of faithfulness to oaths, and in general in the practice of justice, in the love of mercy, and in walking humbly with his God, as he wrote most admirably, so he practised most sin cerely.

CHAP;
X.

Jerom born,

CHAP. X.

THE LIFE AND WORKS OF JEROM

THIS renowned monk was born at Stridon, a A. D. town in the confines of Dalmatia and Pannonia, 331. under the emperor Constantine, in the year 33 The place was obscure, and was rendered still more so by the desolations of the Goths. Nor is it a very clear case whether it ought to be looked on as part of Italy or not*. That Jerom was of a liberal and opulent family, appears from the pains taken with his education, which was finished at Rome, that he

• Erasm. Life of Jerom, prefixed to his works.

might there acquire the graces of Latinity. He was in truth the most learned of the Roman fathers, and was eminent both for genius and industry. He was brought up in Christianity from infancy, and hence, like other good men, who have had the same advantages, he appears never to have known the extreme conflicts with indwelling sin, which, to later converts, have given so much pain, and often have rendered them more eminently acquainted with vital religion.

CENT.

V.

After his baptism at Rome, he travelled into France, in company with Bonosus, a fellow-student. He examined libraries, and collected information from all quarters; and, returning into Italy, he determined to follow the profession of a monk: a term, which did not, at that time, convey the modern idea of the word. In Jerom's time, it meant chiefly the life of a private recluse Christian, who yet was fettered by no certain rules nor vows, but acted according to his own pleasure. Such a life suited the disposition of a studious person like Jerom. He was, however, made a presbyter of the church, but never would proceed any further in ecclesiastical dignity. He spent four years in the deserts of Syria, reading and studying with immense industry. A commentary on the prophet Obadiah, which he published, bore strong marks of juvenile indiscretion, as he afterwards frankly owned. And here, by the assistance of a Jew, who visited him, Nicodemus-like, in the evenings, lest he should give umbrage to his brethren, he acquired the know- ner ledge of the Hebrew tongue, and with indefatigable labour he studied also the Chaldee and the Syriac.

On his return to Rome, he became intimate with Paula, the illustrious descendant of the Pauls, so famous in Roman story, with Marcella, and other opulent ladies. The monastic life, which had long flourished in the East, was only beginning to be fashionable in the West. The renowned Athana

CHARO

sius, and his Egyptian friends, rendered respectable, during their exile at Rome, by their sufferings for ) the faith, contributed to throw a dignity on such a course of life: and the zeal of Jerom nursed thei: same spirit among serious persons. The ladies I haveb mentioned, were hence induced to impart a celebrity to the monastic taste by their own example.HỈ oPaula, her daughter Eustochium, her son-in-law{} Pammachius, Marcella, and others, admired and f revered Jerom; and he, whose temper was choleric) and imperious to a great degree, seems to have lived e in much harmony with females, probably because het more easily gained submission from them than from persons of his own sex...

Spleen and calumny hastened the departure ofl Jerom from Rome. This great man had not learned ! to command his passions, and to disregard the breath of fame. Unjust aspersions on his character! affected him with a very blameable acrimony. He i retired again to the East: there several of his adem mirers followed him. He chose Bethlehem as the! seat of his old age, where Paula erected four monas-w teries, three for the women, over which she presided, and one for the men, in which Jerom lived the rest of his life, enjoying at times the society of his learned ɓ friends. He instructed the women also in theology, s and Paula died, after having lived twenty years in s the monastery, boneca inie od ved I shall not spend any time in vindicating the chase! at the age tity of Jerom, because his whole life was a sufficient s answer to calumny in that respect. He was certainly serious in the very best sense of the word, and died in the 91st year of his age, in the year 420. Jouboɔ

Jerom dies

of 91,

A. D. 420.

Yet it is to be lamented, that a man of so greatit sincerity, and of a mind so vigorous, should have d been of so little service to mankind. The truth is,of mon his knowledge of theology was contracted and low. no dust He confessed, that while he macerated his body in the deserts, he was thinking of the pleasures and

delights of Rome. He understood not the true Gospel-mystery of mortifying sin, and, by his voluntary humility and neglect of the body, added to the fame and splendour of his voluminous but illdigested learning, he contributed more than any other person of antiquity to the growth of superstition. His quarrel with Ruffinus is a reproach to both their memories. Yet, of the two, Jerom seems to have been more evangelical in his views; because Origen was erroneous in his doctrines: and it is a sufficient account of so uninteresting a controversy to say, that Ruffinus defended, Jerom accused, Origen.

For the view of his controversy with Augustine, I must refer the reader to the accounts of that Father of the Church.

derom was, however, humble before God, and truly pious and of him it must be said, to the honour of Christian godliness, how much worse a man he would have been had he not known ChristTM Jesus, and how much better if he had known him with more clearness and perspicuity!

The works of a writer so superstitious, though sound in the essentials of Christianity, will not deserve a very particular review. Here and there a vigorous and evangelical sentiment breaks out amidst the clouds. His epistles discover him to have been sincere and heavenly minded, though his temper was choleric. In a letter to Nepotian there are various rules worthy the attention of Pastors, concerning the contempt of riches, the avoiding off secular familiarities, and the regulation of external? conduct. One observation will deserve to be distinctly remembered: "A clergyman easily subjects himself to contempt who never represses invitations to dinner, however frequent."

He wrote an epitaph upon the death of this same Nepotian some time after †, eloquent, pious, pathetic.

X

CHAP. In this he confesses the doctrine of original sin, and celebrates the victory of Christ over death. He makes an excellent use of the public miseries of the times, by recommending more strongly a practical attention to piety. Hence, also, he makes the best apology which could be invented for his favourite solitude.

His letter

In his letter * to Rusticus the monk, the learned to Rusticus. reader, who would see a practical comment on St. Paul's cautions against voluntary humility in the Epistle to the Colossians, may behold it in Jerom, He abounds in self-devised ways of obtaining ho of liness, while the true way of humble faith in Jesus is not despised indeed, but little attended to.

Another letter to

A short letter to Florentius shows genuine huFlorentius. mility and acquiescence in Christ, as his sole hope, after all his austerities. He calls himself a polluted sinner altogether; "yet, because the Lord sets free the captives, and looks to the humble and the contrite, perhaps he may say to me also, lying in the grave of wickedness, Jerom, come forth." It was this humble faith in Christ, which checked the impetuosity and arrogance of his natural temper, repressed his vain-glory, and in some degree changed a lion into a lamb. For Jerom, though exactly formed by constitution and habit, to sustain the character of a Pharisee, was too deeply conscious of internal pollution to be one in reality.

Toxotius, the son of Paula, had married Læta, by whom he had a daughter, whom the grandmother destined to virginity. Jerom writes to the mothert, advising, that the child be sent to Bethlehem, when grown up, and promising himself to superintend her education. At present he gives rules for her education, while an infant, which are useful, but mixed with superstition. Læta's father, it seems, was a Pagan. Jerom, however, despairs not of his conversion: “ All things, he says, are possible with 1.30: I 15 G. -19 G.