foreknew his transgression (Aug. de civ. Dei xii. 21.) Later theologians extended predestination even to Adam, and thus completed the doctrine of predestination in a speculative point of view The Reformation finished the work which Augustine left incomplete; the Lutherans, by developing the doctrine of faith and justification, the Calvinists, by developing that of absolute predestination. On the other hand, the Roman catholic church either placed itself in opposition to its own Father (the council of Trent and the Jesuits), or did not go beyond the doctrine propounded by him (the Jansenists.)

SECOND CLASS.

ECCLESIASTICAL DOCTRINES WHICH HAVE EITHER NO CONNECTION, OR BUT A REMOTE ONE, WITH

THE HERESIES OF THE AGE.

§ 115.

THE opinions respecting fundamental doctrines which had been matured by controversy, exerted more or less influence upon the developement of others. Thus the further theological definitions respecting the nature and attributes of God, creation, etc., are moulded by the views on the Trinity; those which relate to the atonement of Christ, and the significance of the Lord's Supper, stand in connection with the notions concerning the nature of Christ; those respecting baptism and the sacraments as means of grace, are connected with anthropolological definitions; and, lastly, the developement of eschatology is influenced by all the other doctrines together. Even the more general definitions concerning the nature of Christianity, the Canon and its relation to tradition, etc., are in some way or other connected with certain fundamental principles.

Nevertheless we are justified in treating of these doctrines separately, inasmuch as in some respects at least, they are not

affected by the contests, and present themselves rather as a continuation of former definitions.

§ 116.

THE IDEA OF RELIGION AND REVELATION.

Though the theologians of the present period did not believe in the possibility of an abstract religion, as distinct from its positive manifestation, yet we meet in the writings of Lactantius with a more precise definition of the word, religion, which was borrowed from the Latin. He applies the term in question not only to the external form of worship (as Tertullian had done before him), but to the union and fellowship of men with God, which he regards as an affair purely human.(1) Faith in revelation was required as a necessary condition.(2)

(1) Lact. Inst. iv. 28: Hac enim conditione gignimur, ut generanti nos Deo justa et debita obsequia præbeamus, hunc solum noverimus, hunc sequamur. Hoc vinculo pietatis obstricti Deo et religati sumus, unde ipsa religio nomen accepit, non, ut Cicero interpretatus est, a relegendo. Comp. iii. 10: Summum igitur bonum hominis in sola religione est; nam cætera, etiam quæ putantur esse homini propria, in ceteris quoque animalibus reperiuntur. 11; Constat igitur totius humani generis consensu, religionem suscipi oportere. He compared it with sapientia (iv. 4,) from which it is not to be separated. By sapientia he understands the knowledge, by religio the worship of God. God is the source of both. The one without the other leads to such errors, as paganism represents on the one hand in the unbelieving philosophers (the apostate and disinherited sons), and, on the other, in the superstitious multitudes (the run away slaves.)-Augustine follows the terminology of Tertullian; he opposes religion to fides or pietas, de pecc. mer. et rem. ii. 2. see Baumgarten-Crusius, ii. p. 751, and comp. Nitzsch, über den Religionsbegriff der Alten, theologische Studien und Kritiken, i. 3, 4.—Concerning the nature of religion, and the question whether it principally consists in knowledge, or in the form of worship? or whether it consists in spiritual fellowship with

God, see the controversy between Eunomius and his opponents in § 125, and Neander, Kirchengeschichte, ii. 2, p. 857.

(2) On the necessity of faith in revelation in general, see Rufini expos. fide (in Fell's edition of Cypr.) p. 18: Ut ergo intelligentiæ tibi aditus patescat, recte primo omnium te credere profiteris; quia nec navem quis ingreditur et liquido ac profundo vitam committit elemento, nisi se prius credat posse salvari, nec agricola semina sulcis obruit et fruges spargit in terram, nisi crediderit venturos imbres, affuturum quoque solis teporem, quibus terra confota segetem multiplicata fruge producat ac ventis spirantibus nutriat. Nihil denique est, quod in vita geri possit, si non credulitas ante præcesserit. Quid ergo mirum si accedentes ad Deum credere nos primo omnium profitemur, cum sine hoc nec ipsa exigi possit vita communis? Hoc autem idcirco in principiis præmisimus, quia pagani nobis objicere solent, quod religio nostra, quia quasi rationibus deficit, in sola credendi persuasione consistat. cf. Aug. de utilitate credendi, c. 13: Recte igitur catholicæ disciplinæ majestate institutum est, ut accedentibus ad religionem fides persuadeatur ante omnia. He too shows, that without faith there can be no friendship even among men (c. 10), no filial love and piety. Augustine knows of no other religion than positive Christianity, and insists that reason should submit to it; for faith precedes the knowledge of reason, 1. c. c. 14; Deinde fateor, me jam Christo credidisse et in animum induxisse, id esse verum quod ille dixerit, etiamsi nulla ratione fulciatur. Reason would never have saved man from darkness and misery, nisi summus Deus populari quadam clementia divini intellectus auctoritatem usque ad ipsum corpus humanum declinaret atque submitteret, cujus non solum præceptis, sed etiam factis excitate animæ redire in semetipsas et respicere patriam etiam sine disputationum concertatione potuissent......Mihi autem certum est, nusquam prorsus a Christi auctoritate discedere, non enim reperio valentiorem, contra Academ. 1. iii. c. 19. 20. Comp. de vera rel. c. 5; de moribus eccles. cath. c. 7: Quare deinceps nemo ex me quærat sententiam meam, sed potius audiamus oracula nostrasque ratiunculas divinis submittamus affatibus. (We cannot but acknowledge that Augustine was the most ingenious and eloquent advocate of Supranaturalism in its opposition to Rationalism.)

APOLOGETICAL WRITINGS IN DEFENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 337

1. Prolegomena.

§ 117.

APOLOGETICAL WRITINGS IN DEFENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

In proportion as the polemical tendency of the present period prevailed over the apologetical, the proofs for the truth and divinity of Christ's religion lost originality, and most writers were satisfied with the mere repetition of former statements. (1) The attacks of Porphyry, Julian the Apostate, and others, however, called forth new efforts in defence of Christianity ;(2) the accusations of the heathen, when Christianity was established as the religion of the world upon the ruins of the Western empire, induced Augustine to compose his apologetical treatise de civitate Dei.

(1) Among the apologists previous to the apostasy of Julian, Arnobius (adversus gentes) deserves to be noticed. His argument a tuto, ii. 4. is as follows:......nonne purior ratio est, ex duobus incertis et in ambigua expectatione pendentibus id potius credere, quod aliquas spes ferat, quam omnino quod nullas? In illo enim periculi nihil est, si quod dicitur imminere cassum fiat et vacuum: in hoc damnum est maximum, i. e. salutis amissio, si cum tempus advenerit aperiatur, non fuisse mendacium. Eusebius of Cæsarea likewise defended Christianity in his præpar. and demonstr. evang. (§ 82, note 1): Athanasius in his λόγος κατὰ Ελληνας, etc.

(2) Eusebius, 1. c., Theodoret, Augustine, and others combated Porphyry: Eusebius also opposed Hierocles in a separate treatise. Cyril of Alexandria wrote 10 books against the Emperor Julian, who charged Christianity with contradictions.-The dialogue entitled Philopatris formerly ascribed to Lucian, may have been composed under the same emperor, see Neander, Kirchengesch. ii. 1. p. 191.

§ 118.

MIRACLES AND PROPHECY.

Since the Christians were accustomed to appeal to miracles and prophecies in support of the truth of their religion, it was of importance more precisely to define the idea of a miracle. Augustine did this by defining miracles as events which deviate not so much from the order of nature in general, as from that particular order of nature which is known to us.(1) With regard to prophecies, many passages of the Old Test. were still applied to the Messiah, which had no reference to him, and the truly Messianic passages were taken in a less comprehensive sense than historical interpretation required.(2) The apologists also appealed to Christ's prophecy respecting the destruction of Jerusalem, which had long since received its accomplishment, to the fate of the Jewish nation,(3) and the similar judgment with which God had visited the Roman empire, and compared these events with the triumphant spread of the gospel.(4) And, lastly, even Augustine takes notice of the Sibylline oracles, mentioned by Lactantius.(5)

(1) Aug. de utilitate cred. c. 16: Miraculum voco, quidquid arduum aut insolitum supra spem vel facultatem mirantis apparet.-de civ. D. 1. xxi. c. 8: Omnia portenta contra naturam dicimus esse, sed non sunt. Quomodo est enim contra naturam quod Dei fit voluntate, quum voluntas tanti utique conditoris conditæ rei cujusque natura sit? Portentum ergo fit non contra naturam, sed contra quam est nota natura...quamvis et ipsa quæ in rerum natura omnibus nota sunt non minus mira sint, essentque stupenda considerantibus cunctis, si solerent homines mirari nisi rara.-The nearer the Canon of the Bible was brought to a conclusion, the more necessary it became to make a distinction between the miracles related in Scripture, as historically authenticated facts, and those miracles which were generally believed still to take place in the church. Respecting faith in