CHAP. VIII. the cruelties inflicted on the pastors, the desolation of churches, and the destruction of all churchorder which ensued, must have been peculiarly afflicting. Count Boniface, one of the greatest Roman heroes of those times, undertook the defence of Hippo against the barbarians. He had not been without convictions of divine things, and Augustine, who was intimate with him, had endeavoured to improve those convictions to salutary purposes, But, to seek human glory, and the honour which cometh from God only, at the same time, was found to be incompatible. Boniface gained a shining reputation, and followed the world. In these trying times the bishop of Hippo again endeavoured to draw him from the love of the world to God, and Boniface seems all along to have sinned reluctantly. What God might do for him at last, during the time that he lived after the mortal wound, which he received in a duel, we know not. The man, however, was brave and sincere, and had a steady regard for men of real godliness. He defended Hippo for fourteen months, which, after that time, with all Africa, fell under the power of the Vandals. come. But Augustine was taken away from the evil to While he mourned under the miseries of the times, in company with Possidonius and several should be supported, lest he should be hardened still more in iniquity. Anthony himself made restitution of the sums of which he had defrauded them; yet he prevailed afterwards on the primate of Numidia to believe him innocent, and to interest himself in his favour. The spirit of Augustine, then threescore and eight years of age, was much broken with this affair. He condemned his own imprudence, and observed, that the danger into which Anthony had cast both himself and the people, so much affected him, that he was almost resolved to relinquish the episcopal office, and bewail his error, the remainder of his days, in privacy. As it appears that Augustine still governed the church of Fussala after this, it seems that the dispute was settled to his satisfaction, and that Anthony was not restored to his See. The story deserves to be noticed, as illustrating the church discipline of the times, and the character of Augustine. V. A. D. 430. bishops, who had fled for shelter to Hippo, he told CENT. them, that he had prayed, either that God would free them from the siege, or endue his servants Death of with patience, or take him out of the world to him- Augustine, self. In the third month of the siege he was seized with a fever, which ended in his dissolution, in the year 430. He lived seventy-six years, forty of which he had been a presbyter or bishop. He used to say, that a Christian should never cease to repent, even to the hour of his death. He had David's penitential psalms inscribed on the wall, in his last sickness, and he read and wept abundantly;. and for ten days before he expired he desired to be uninterrupted, that he might give himself wholly to devotion, except at certain intervals. He had preached the word of God constantly, till his last sickness. He left no will: he had neither money nor lands to leave. He left his library to the church. Of his own relations he had taken competent care before. "In his writings," says Possidonius, "the holy man appears: but those who could have heard and seen him speak in public, and particularly in private conversation would have seen still more." Pity it is, that a man, who had known him for forty years, should have left us so imperfect an account. But the vigour of the human mind was then much declined, and superstition made men childish, though it did not destroy the spirit of piety. CHAP. IX. THE THEOLOGY OF AUGUSTINE. THE serious reader, from a consideration of the mournful condition of the African churches in regard to external things at the time of Augustine's death, will naturally be led to inquire what 2! CHAP. IX. CHAP. IX. became of them after the decease of this prelate. It is ever to be remembered, that the real prosperity of the church is not to be estimated by outward circumstances. The Roman empire was dissolving on all sides; and its fairest provinces in Africa fell into barbarous hands at the time of Augustine's death. But the light which, through his means had been kindled, was not extinct; for, as it depended not on the grandeur of the Roman empire, so neither was it extinguished by its decline. We shall have an opportunity of visiting Africa again, and at present shall close the whole narrative of Augustine, with a brief view of his theology. The subject is important, not only as tending to illustrate the revival of the Gospel in the West in his time, but also as exhibiting the views of the best and wisest Christians in Europe from that period to the days of Luther. For a thousand years and upwards, the light of divine grace, which shone here and there in individuals, during the dreary night of superstition, was nourished by his writings, which, next to the sacred Scriptures, were the guides of men who feared God; nor have we in all history an instance of so extensive utility derived to the church from the writings of men. From the review of the Pelagian controversy, the attentive reader will see, that the article of justification.* must be involved in Augustine's divinity; and doubtless it savingly flourished in his heart, and in the hearts of many of his followers; yet the precise and accurate nature of the doctrine itself seems not to have been understood by this holy man. He perpetually understands St. Paul's term to JUSTIFY, of INHERENT RIGHTEOUSNESS, as if it meant, SANCTIFICATION; still he knew what faith in the Redeemer meant; and those parts of Scripture, * I have introduced here a few sentences out of the Theological Miscellany for September 1785, taken from an Essay on Justification, which I wrote in that publication. which speak of forgiveness of sins, he understands, he feels, he loves; but St. Paul's writings concerning justification he understands not sufficiently, because the precise idea of that doctrine entered not formally into his divinity. I have given, if I mistake not, the outlines of Augustine's views in this most important Christian doctrine. It had been pitiably suffocated, as it were, in the rubbish of the growing superstition, and had been gradually sinking in the church from Justin's days to his own. And I more admire, that he was enabled to recover its constituent parts so well as he did, than that he did not arrange and adjust them perfectly. Mosheim is pleased to represent him as a contradictory writer. I suspect that this writer's prejudices warped his understanding. In truth, if our author's sentiments be understood, he will appear, from his own plan, to be one of the most consistent writers in the world; and, if we make allowance for his mistake in the point just mentioned, which yet he implicitly, though not explicitly, understands, few writers, I think, in any age, may be read with more profit. To what has been delivered from his writings on the subject of justification, little needs to be added here. Two quotations deserve to be read, on account of the solid truth which they contain. "He was made sin, as we are made righteousness, not our own, but of God; nor in ourselves, but in him, as he was made sin, not his own, but ours; nor was he appointed so in himself, but in us *." See this blessed doctrine illustrated experimentally in his exposition of the 130th Psalm, 2, 3, 4. "Behold he cries under the load of his iniquities. He looked round himself, he surveyed his life, he saw it on all sides covered with flagitiousness; whereever he looked, he found no good in himself. And he saw on all sides so great and so many sins, that * Enchirid. ad Lauren. c. 41. IX. CHAP. trembling, as it were, he cried out, If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, who shall stand? For be saw almost the whole of human life surrounded with sins, like barking dogs; all consciences to be upbraided; not a holy heart to be found that could presume on its own righteousness: which, because it cannot be found, therefore let every heart rest on the mercy of the Lord his God, and say, if thou, Lord, &c. But what is my hope? There is a propitiation with thee." So constantly, in all ages, do real good men feel alike on this subject: "The humble shall hear and be glad." The peculiar work for which Augustine was evidently raised by Providence was, to restore the doctrine of divine grace to the church. A vain philosophy had corrupted it partially under Justin, far more completely under Origen. What wonder: To trust in ourselves was the avowed boast of all the. Philosophers. An idea of providential kindness in external things floated in the minds of some but; virtue and every internal excellence they expected only from themselves*. In this they only copied the impression of that self-righteousness which is natural to all. The distinguishing glory of the Gospel is to teach humility, and to give to God his due honour; and Augustine was singularly prepared for this by a course of internal experience. He had felt human insufficiency completely, and knew, "that in himself dwelt no good thing." Hence he was admirably qualified to describe the total depravity and apostasy of human nature, and, he described what he knew to be true. Thus, in *Hear Tully, de Nat. Deor. Virtutem nemo unquam Deo acceptam retulit nimirum recte; propter virtutem enim jure laudamur, in virtute recte gloriamur, quod non contingeret, si donum a Deo, non a nobis haberemus. It is sufficient to tell the English reader, that in this sentence the same self-sufficiency of the human heart, which mere moral preaching encourages, is expressed by the Pagan philosopher, as the undoubted creed of all mankind. |