vindication. It is, as we have shown, deformed throughout by that most fatal of fallacies, irrelevant conclusion,-IGNORATIO ELENCHI.

ART. III.-Sancti Aurelii Augustini Hipponensis Episcopi Opera Omnia; Tomis XI. comprehensa; a Theologis Lovaniensibus, Opera Manuscriptorum Codicum ab innumeris mendis expurgata, et eruditis ubique Censuris illustrata. Lugduni: Sumptibus Joannis Rudisson. Cum permissu Superiorum. MDCLXIV.

ness.

FROM the latter part of the third century to the former part of the fifth, there was a gradual but manifest decay of vital godliAnd although, during this period, God had tried his church both by judgments and mercies-first, in the terrible fires of the Diocletian persecution, and secondly, by the happy revolution under Constantine-still, the growing evil had not been effectually cured, or scarcely arrested. The declension continued and increased; dead forms and unprofitable disputes were substituted for piety and godliness; and it became painfully evident that true spiritual religion must ere long disappear, unless God should interpose by his Spirit, and revive his work. But at this critical juncture, God did graciously interpose, his work was revived, and spiritual religion again flourished, at least in one part of the Roman empire. The principal instrument in this precious awakening-the results of which continue even to our own times-was the celebrated Augustine, Bishop of Hippo. Let us pause for an hour, and consider the life, character, works, and end of this great and good man.*

Augustine, bishop of Hippo, (now Bona, in Northern Africa,) was born at Tagasta, a city of Numidia, A. D. 354. His father, Patricius, though nominally a catechumen, was no better than a heathen, until near the close of life. His mother,

* A brief sketch of the Life of Augustine was written soon after his death, by Possidonius, Bishop of Calama. A more extended biography was written by Cornelius Lancillatus Belga, an Augustinian eremite. Both these memoirs are contained in the first volume of the works before us.

Monica, was an eminently devoted Christian, and exerted a strong and saving influence over both her husband and her son. Of the course of life which she pursued with her husband, Augustine has informed us in his Confessions. "After her marriage with my father Patricius, she endeavoured to win him. over to thy service, by the amiableness of her manners; and patiently bore the injuries of his unfaithfulness. His temper was passionate, but his spirit was benevolent. She knew how to bear with him when angry, by a perfect silence and composure; and when she saw him cool, would meekly expostulate with him. She bore him on her heart in continual and earnest prayer. At length, in the extremity of life, she gained her husband unto thee, and he died in the faith of Christ." Patricius died in middle life, and left his son, at the age of seventeen, to the care of his mother. And most watchfully and faithfully did she care for him. Wherever he went, whether as a scholar or a teacher, she was sure to be near him; he was the object of much entreaty and of many prayers; and after a sore trial of some sixteen years from the death of his father, the blessing came. When she saw her son a decided Christian, she felt that the main object of her life was gained. She was now ready to depart, and in a few weeks she was summoned home. In all Christian antiquity, we have not a more eminent instance than is here presented of conjugal and maternal faithfulness. The great Augustine is to be classed with the large number of eminent Christians, who have owed, not their usefulness only, but their salvation, to the influence of a pious mother.

While Augustine was yet a child, he was dangerously ill, and through fear of death, implored that he might be baptized. His parents had hitherto neglected this duty, under the impression that, as sins committed after baptism were next to unpardonable, it was more prudent to delay. But now, when they saw their son apparently dying, they were in haste to have the ordinance administered. But his disorder taking a more favourable turn, his baptism, for the same reason, was again deferred. In his Confessions, Augustine refers to this circumstance, and expresses his opinion in regard to the then prevailing practice of delay. "Was the delay of my baptism for my

benefit? What is the cause that we hear every where such language as this: Let him do what he will, he is not yet baptized. How much better it had been for me, had I, in early life, been initiated into the fold of Christ?" By deferring baptism until late in life, under the impression that it washed away all previous sin, a license was given to the unbaptized to prac tise every kind of wickedness.

Although the parents of Augustine were in but moderate circumstances, they spared no expense in affording him the best means of education. The rudiments of grammar he studied at Tagasta; after which he was sent to school at Madaura, where he remained several years. He disliked Greek, and the exact sciences, but was fond of the poets, of literature, and oratory. At the age of sixteen he was taken from Madaura, and spent a year in idleness at Tagasta. Here, his lively, social disposition exposed him to many temptations, and he fell into some of the grosser forms of vice. At the age of seventeen, he was sent to Carthage to study rhetoric, where he remained two years. It was during his stay at Carthage that his father died.

At this period, he received benefit from the study of Cicero's Hortensius. It broke in upon his course of vicious indulgence, and inspired him with the love of wisdom. He felt that he was degrading himself, by living as a mere sensualist. He must rise above such base, grovelling practices, and become a philosopher, a wise man. Under this impression, he looked into the Holy Scriptures, but did not relish them, and was easily led into the mazes of Manicheism. The advocates of this error put forth the most lofty pretensions to wisdom, and claimed to be the greatest lovers of truth. "They were always talking," says Augustine, "of the truth, the truth, and yet formed the most absurd opinions of the works of nature, on which subjects the heathen philosophers far excelled them. They seduced me, partly by their subtle and captious questions as to the ori gin of evil, and partly by their blasphemies against the Old Testament saints."

At the age of nineteen, Augustine left Carthage and came to Tagasta, where he taught grammar and rhetoric, and frequented the courts. He remained here some five or six years. "All

this while," says he, "my mother was praying for me, being more solicitous on account of the death and ruin of my soul, than other parents are for the death of the body. About this time, she was favoured with a dream, by which she was much comforted. She appeared to herself to be standing on a plank, surrounded by dark waters, when a friendly looking person came to her, and asked her the cause of her afflictions. She told him that they were chiefly on my account; when he told her to be of good cheer, saying, Ere long your son will be standing on the same plank with you."

At the age of twenty-five, Augustine returned to Carthage, where he taught rhetoric with much applause for several years. It was during the latter part of his residence here, that he became disgusted with Manicheism; and the means which God employed to deliver him from the error, were very remarkable. A celebrated Manichee, by the name of Faustus, was coming to Carthage, who was expected to clear up all doubts, and do much for the advancement of the doctrine. "On his arrival," says Augustine, "I found him an agreeable speaker, who could deliver his fancies in a persuasive manner. But by this time I had learned that style and manner, however desirable, were no substitute for truth. On conversing with Faustus, he acknowledged his ignorance of all philosophy. Grammar alone, with some Ciceronian and classic furniture, made up his stock of knowledge, and supplied him with that copiousness and elegance of diction for which he was distinguished. My hope of discovering truth was now at an end. I remained still, by profession, a Manichee, because I despaired of succeeding better in any other way. That same Faustus, who had been the snare of death to so many, was the first, under God, to relax my fetters, though contrary to his own intention."

Augustine was now in his twenty-ninth year, and owing to some ill-treatment which he had received from his scholars, he resolved to exchange Carthage for Rome. The plan was disapproved of by his mother; but he contrived to steal away from her, and made his voyage into Italy. Arrived at Rome, he was attacked with fever, and brought near to death; but he recovered from it, through the influence chiefly, as he after

wards thought, of his mother's prayers. He opened a school at Rome, and had many scholars; but as they refused to make him the compensation they had promised, he sent them away.

Just at this time, a request came to Rome for a teacher of rhetoric to be sent to Milan. Through the influence of his Manichean friends, Augustine was recommended, and repaired to that city-at that time the residence of the Emperor. The celebrated Ambrose was Bishop of Milan, and Augustine called on him. "He received me," says Augustine, "like a father; and I conceived an affection for him, not as a teacher of the truth, which I had no thought of discovering in the church, but as a kind and agreeable friend. I studiously attended his Lectures, but only to criticise his rhetoric, and see whether fame had done justice to him as an orator. As I had now despaired of finding my way to God, I concerned not myself about the sentiments of Ambrose, but only with his manner and language.

"Still, the ideas which I strove to neglect, forced themselves upon my mind, and I was gradually brought to listen to the bishop's doctrine. I found reason to rebuke myself for the hasty conclusions I had formed as to the perfectly indefensible claims of the law and the prophets. A number of difficulties which the Manichees had started in respect to them, found an easy solution in the expositions of Ambrose. The possibility of finding truth in the church of Christ was forced upon me, and I began to consider by what arguments I might convict Manicheism of falsehood."

It should have been enough to convince a thoughtful man, like Augustine, of the falsehood of Manicheism, that it exerted no favourable influence upon the character. He still lived, as he had done for years, in the practice of some of the grossest sins, and still fancied himself, as to his higher nature, perfectly pure; charging the entire blame of the evils he perpetrated upon a lower nature which sinned in him. His pride, he tells us, was highly gratified with this conception.

The difficulties which rose at this time in the mind of Augustine, and stood in the way of his conversion were the following:

1. The low estimation which he had been led to entertain of