out of the great Regard they had for a Man of _Origen_’s Piety and Learning, either ascribed to others the Errors they found in his Works, or excused them, by putting on his Words the most charitable Construction they could bear. [Sidenote: Origen _excused by some of the Fathers, and once by_ Jerom _himself_.] _Jerom_ himself had been formerly one of _Origen_’s greatest Admirers, had translated above Seventy of his Books, and thought he could not employ his Time better than in enriching the _Latin_ Tongue with the Works of _the best Writer and first Doctor of the Church after the Apostles_[1379], as he then styled him. As _Ruffinus_, in his Translation of the _Periarchon_, endeavoured to excuse the Errors of _Origen_, so had _Jerom_ done before him in translating his other Works, chusing rather to _veil and excuse_, than expose the Faults of one whom in other respects he so much admired[1380]. But this Admiration being afterwards changed into an open and avowed Enmity, _the first Doctor of the Church after the Apostles_ became at once not only an _heterodox_, but an _impious Writer_; all who stood up in his Defence were arraigned of the same _pestilential Doctrines_; and what was found amiss in his Works was no longer _veiled_ or _excused_, but set out in the worst Light[N45]. ----- Footnote N45: Some of the Fathers would not allow even his Doctrine concerning the Trinity to be heterodox. For some Passages being quoted out of his Works by the _Arians_ to confirm their Opinions, _Basil_ and _Nazianzen_ undertook to prove, from other Passages, that his Sentiments with respect to the Trinity were quite orthodox; and that the _Arians_ had either out of Malice misinterpreted, or out of Ignorance misunderstood his Meaning, not being capable of fathoming the Depth of his Thoughts[N45.1]. It must be owned, that _Origen_, in several Places, speaks of the Trinity agreeably to the Sentiments of the Church, acknowleging _the Son to have been from the Beginning in the Father; to be the Image of the Father; to have been begotten by him from all Eternity; to be the Wisdom of God; to be God, though not the Source and Origin of the Divinity, as the Father, whom on that Account he styles_ Autotheos; _to be above all Creatures; to have the same Power as the Father, and to deserve the same Honour and Worship_. But elsewhere he uses Expressions that can no-way bear an orthodox Sense, _viz._ that _the_ Word _is an Hypostasis different from the Father_; meaning by the Word _Hypostasis_, Nature and Substance; _that the Father and Son are One by Concord and Union; that the Son is not properly God, but called God, because he is the Image of the Divinity; that the Word and the Holy Ghost were made by the Father; that the Father is greater than the Son; that the Son is inferior to the Father, though far above all Creatures, as the Ray of the Sun is inferior to the Sun_; and lastly, _that the Son is the Minister of the