V.

CHAP. Sarah and Agar, and illustrates the spirit and genius of the two sects by the cases of Cain and Abel. He confutes those who would make the lives of the Antediluvians of shorter duration than that assigned them in Scripture. His reflections on the Ark and the Deluge are just, though to us they contain little that is new; and in the last chapter he shows that the literal and allegorical sense of Scripture ought both to be supported, without depreciating either.

Book 16th.

The sixteenth book carries on the history of the city of God from Noah to David, and contains important instruction throughout, especially to those who have not read the same things in modern authors.

Book 17th. The seventeenth book may be called the prophetic history. He shows a double sense must necessarily be affixed to the words of the prophets, in which sometimes the literal, sometimes the spiritual, and sometimes both senses are applicable. He justly observes, therefore, that the Scriptures are to be understood in a tripartite sense. And he gives an admirable instance of his views in Hannah's song in the first book of Samuel, in which a king is prophesied of, at a time when no king was in Israel. His comments on the Psalms are excellent also to the same purpose. These views are so remote from the usual mode of reasoning in our times, that they will not easily find credit in the world. But I will venture to affirm, that the more men study the Scriptures, the more they will see the justness of Augustine's remarks, and the necessity of admitting them.

Book 18th.

In the eighteenth book he displays much learning in describing the times of the world coeval with those of the church of God, prior to the birth of Christ. He proves the superior antiquity of prophetic authority to that of any philosophers. The remarkable harmony of the sacred writers, in the

promotion of one system, and the endless discordancies of philosophers, are ably contrasted. Yet he proves from the earliest times, that the citizens of the new. Jerusalem were not confined absolutely to Jewry.

In speaking of the times of Christ and the propagation of the Gospel, he observes, "In this malignant world, in these evil days, whilst the church is procuring future dignity by present humility, and is disciplined by the incentives of fear, the torments of pain, the fatigue of labours, and the dangers of temptations, rejoicing only in hope, when her joy is sound, many reprobates are mixed with the good; both are collected into the Gospel-net, and both, included in this world as in a sea, swim promiscuously till they reach the shore, where the bad shall be severed from the good, and in the good, as in his temple, God shall be all in all."-Christ chose disciples meanly born, obscure and illiterate, that whatever great things they should do, he might be in them, and do all. One he had among them, whose evil he turned to good, by making it an instrument of his passion, and affording an example to his church of enduring evil. His holy church being planted, so far as his bodily presence required, he suffered, died, rose again, showing by his passion what we ought to sustain for truth, by his resurrection what to hope for in eternity; and this is an additional lesson to the great mystery of redemption, by which his blood was shed for the remission of our sins. He. proves that the faith of the Gospel is strengthened by the dissensions of heretics; and after some observations on Antichrist, as just as might be expected in his time, he concludes with a remark on a Pagan prophecy, which affirmed that the Christian religion would only continue three hundred and sixty-five years.. "What may be doing, says he, at the end of this period in other parts of the Chap. xlix.

CENT,

V.

V.

CHAP. world, it may be needless to inquire. I will mention what I know; in the renowned city of Carthage, the imperial officers, in the year following the predicted extinction of Christianity, overturned the temples of the idols, and brake the images. And for the space of thirty years since that time, the falsity of the pagan divination being notorious, occasion hath been given to render the progress of the Gospel still more triumphant."

Book 19th.

Book 20th.

Former of

the two last books.

The four last books describe the issues of the two states. The nineteenth deserves the studious attention of every scholar, who would accurately distinguish between theology and philosophy. He contrasts the ideas of happiness exhibited by both with great clearness, and, while he does justice to all the good that is found in secular systems, he points out their fundamental errors. The principles of evangelical virtue are stated; the miseries of life are described, and both the true relief against them which the Gospel proposes is exhibited, and the false consolations of philosophy are justly exposed. In fine (for my limits admit not a longer detail) the reader will find here the mass of secular philosophy reduced to order, its errors detected, and the very picture of the Christian state and genius delineated.

The twentieth book undertakes to describe the last judgment. But as the vigorous and discursive genius of the author led him to handle a multitude of intricate questions, and to undertake the exposition of some of the most difficult prophecies in the Scripture, for which the early times in which he lived were unequal, through want of the evidence of their accomplishment, almost the whole is very uninteresting.

In the two last books he gives his ideas of the punishment of the wicked, and of the happiness of the righteous in a future state. The former, though it has a mixture of curious questions, more

subtil than important, will from the eleventh chapter to the end deserve a careful perusal. I have not seen in so small a compass, a sounder answer to the objections of men against the Divine justice in punishing sin eternally, than is to be found in the eleventh and twelfth chapters. It appears that the Lord's Prayer was daily used by the church* in his time, and though he seems to give an unsound interpretation of our Lord's words, of making FRIENDS OF THE MAMMON OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, yet he confesses his interpretation would be dangerous in practice; and he protests against the ideas of those who imagine they can atone for their sins by alms. He refutes various presumptions of men who expect to escape the damnation of hell without a sound conversion.

In the last book, which describes the eternal rest Last Book. of the city of God, he dwells a little on the external evidences of Christianity, and in speaking of miracles, he describes some which were wrought in his own time. One of them, the healing of a disorder, seems peculiarly striking, because it was in answer to prayer. I have again to regret the scholastic and subtil taste of his times interwoven with most important matter. The twenty-second chapter gives as striking a proof, drawn from facts, of human apostasy as I have seen. The reflections in the two next chapters are also admirable. And he closed with a delightful view of the eternal felicity of the church of God.

Should the very imperfect scetch I have given of this work, one of the greatest efforts of genius and learning in any age, induce any classical scholars to peruse it with candour and attention, and, by the blessing of God, to imbibe some portion of the heavenly spirit of the author, I shall have cause to rejoice. One caution I must however give in reading it, which, indeed, is generally necessary in reading the * Chap. last.

V.

Fathers, and it is that which I would keep steadily in view throughout this history. We must forget our own times, spirit, taste, and manner. We must transplant ourselves into those of the author, and make allowances for his modes both of thinking and speaking, which are extremely different from our own. Without this reasonable degree of candour, to which, however, few minds are sufficiently inclined, it is impossible to make a just estimate of the works which pass under our examination.

VI.

CHAP. VI.

AUGUSTINE'S CONDUCT TOWARD THE

DONATISTS.

CHAP. THE active spirit of the bishop of Hippo found sufficient employment in his long course of private and public labours against the Pelagians, the Manichees, and the Donatists, besides the general care of the African churches, and the peculiar inspection of his own diocese. The two former sects he in a manner eradicated: his own experience in religion fitted him for the work. The last sect he opposed with much success. Vital godliness, it is true, is not so much interested in this opposition, nor does his conduct here merit in all respects that praise in regard to them, which it does in regard to the others.

Let us distinguish the Donatists as they ought to be. Some of them were, comparatively speaking, a mild and peaceable people; others, called the CIRCUMCELLIONES, were a mere banditti, sons of violence and bloodshed, who neither valued their own lives, nor those of their neighbours, and frequently were remarkable for committing suicide in a fit of frenzy. They had a peculiar malice against