precise definition of the word religion, which was borrowed from the Latin. He applies the term in question not only to the external forms of worship (as Tertullian had done before him), but-though with an incorrect etymology-to the union and fellowship of men with God, which he also regards as something purely human.' Faith in revelation was required as a necessary condition."

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 cæteris 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 runaway slaves).-Augustine follows the terminology of Tertullian; he contrasts religio with 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. [Redslob, Sprachliche Abhandlungen, 1840. J. G. Müller, Bildung und Gebranch d. Wortes Religio, in Stud. u. Krit. 1835, Heft, i. Lechler, Idea of Religion, transl. from Stud. u. Krit. 1851, in Bibl. Sacra, Andover, 1852, by W. Stearns. 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, Church History, ii. p. 401.

On the necessity of faith in revelation in general, see Rufini Expos Fidei (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 credideret 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. Comp. Augustine, 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 (c. 12). 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 excitatæ animæ redire in semetipsas et respicere patriam etiam sine disputationum concertatione potuissant...... 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. Comp. Bindemann's Augustine, ii. p. 113 sq.

§ 117.

WRITINGS IN DEFENSE OF CHRISTIANITY.

In proportion as the polemical tendency of the present period prevailed over the apologetic, the proofs of the truth and divinity of Christ's religion lost originality, and most writers were satisfied with the mere repetition of former statements.' The attacks of Porphyry, Julian the Apostate, and others, however, called forth new efforts in defense of Christianity; 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 exspectatione pendentibus id potius credere, quod aliquas spes ferat, quam omnino quod nullus? 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 λóyos kaтà "Eλλŋvas, etc.; Julius Formicus Maternus, De Errore Profanarum Religionum (between 340 and 350).

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, Church History, ii. p. 89. On the apologetic writings of this period, see Gieseler, Dogmengesch. 274 sq. [The Spanish presbyter, Irosius, Historiæ adv. Paganos. The last important work in the Greck church against the heathen was Theodoretus (ElimuKõv ÕFnaπtev¬ikǹ taOnμátwv, about 440. Against

the Jews, Eusebius, Demonstr. Evang.; Chrysostom, Adv. Jud. Orat. viii.; Augustine, Tract. adv. Judaeos.]

[Baur, Dogmengesch. 156, says that Athanasius, Eusebius of Cæsarea, and Augustine elevated apologetics, by representing Christianity as the perfect religion in comparison with all others-viewing it in the light of the philosophy of religion and of the general religious history of mankind. Augustine's work, De Civitate Dei, is the grandest attempt to consider Christianity as realizing the idea of a divine plan and order for the world-as containing the immanent idea of the world and its history; even the greatness of the Roman empire is fully seen only in its relation to Christianity.]

§ 118.

MIRACLES AND PROPHECY.

[Isaac Taylor, Ancient Christianity, 4th ed. 1844, ii. 233-336, The Nicene Miracles.]

Since the Christians were constantly accustomed to appeal to miracles and prophecies in support of the truth of their religion, it became important to define more precisely 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.' 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 narrower sense than historical interpretation required. 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,' and the similar judgment with which God had visited the old Roman world, and compared these events with the triumphant spread of the gospel.* And, lastly, even Augustine takes notice of the Sibylline oracles, mentioned by Lactantius."

1

Augustine de Utilitate Cred. c. 16: Miraculum voco, quidquid arduum aut insolitum supra spem vel facultatem mirantis apparet. De Civ. Dei lib. 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 occur in the church. Respecting faith in miracles in general, Augus

tine employed a free criticism; De Civit. Dei xxi. c. 6, 7 (in reference to wonderful natural phenomena, but his language is also applicable to other miraculous stories of the age): Nec ergo volo temere credi cuncta, quæ posui, exceptis his, quæ ipse sum expertus. Cetera vero sic habeo, ut neque affirmanda, neque neganda decreverim. Comp. De Util. Cred. 1. c.; De Vera Rel. 25 (Retract. i. c. 13)... Concerning the miracles related in Scripture, it was of importance to distinguish the miracles performed by Jesus from those wrought by Apollonius of Tyana, to which Hierocles and others appealed. Augustine, therefore, directed attention to the benevolent design of Christ's miracles, by which they are distinguished from those which are merely performed for the purpose of gaining the applause of men (e. g., the attempt to fly in the presence of an assembled multitude), De Util. Cred. 1. c. Comp. Cyril Alex. Contra Jul. i. 1.: Ἐγὼ δὲ, ὅτι μὲν τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἀπηλλάγμεθα ἐμβροντησίας καὶ πολὺς ἀποτειχίζει λόγος τῶν ἐκείνων τερθρείας τὰ χριστιανῶν, φαίην ἄν· κοινωνία γὰρ οὐδεμία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ μερὶς πιστῷ μετὰ ἀπίστου.—On the view of Gregory the Great respect ing miracles, see Neander, Kirchengesch. iii. p. 294, 95.

2

Augustine gives a canon on this point, De Civit. Dei xvii. c. 16, ss., comp. xviii. 29, ss., and below, § 122, note 4.

3

Aug. De Civ. Dei iv. 34.....Et nunc quod (Judæi) per omnes fere terras gentesque dispersi sunt, illius unius veri Dei providentia est. Comp. xviii. c. 46.

• Arnob. ii. p. 44, 45: Nonne vel hæc saltem fidem vobis faciunt argumenta credendi, quod jam per omnes terras in tam brevi temporis spatio immensi nominis hujus sacramenta diffusa sunt? quod nulla jam natio est tam barbari moris et mansuetudinem nesciens, quæ non ejus amore versa molliverit asperitatem suam et in placidos sensus adsumta tranquillitate migraverit? Aug. De Civ. Dei v. 25, 26, xviii. 50....inter horrendas persecutiones et varios cruciatus ac funera Martyrum prædicatum est toto orbe evangelium, contestante Deo signis et ostentis et variis virtutibus, et Spiritus Sancti muneribus: ut populi gentium credentes in eum, qui pro eorum redemtione crucifixus est, Christiano amore venerarentur sanguinem Martyrum, quem diabolico furore fuderunt, ipsique reges, quorum legibus vastabatur Ecclesia, ei nomini salubriter subderentur, quod de terra crudeliter auferre conati sunt, et falsos deos inciperent persequi, quorum causa cultores Dei veri fuerant antea persecuti.

• Lactantius iv. 15, sq., Augustine De Civ. Dei xviii. 23. Cyril Alex. Contra Jul. i. 1. But the enemies of Christianity maintained, even in the times of Lactantius, non esse illa carmina Sybillina, sed a Christianis conficta atque composita.

§ 119.

SOURCES OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE-BIBLE AND TRADITION.

During the present period both the Bible and Tradition were regarded as the sources of Christian knowledge.' The statement of

Augustine, that he was induced by the authority of the church alone to believe in the Gospel, only proves that he considered the believer (subjectively), but not the Bible (objectively), to be dependent on that authority.' It was rather the case, that in ecclesiastical controversies and elsewhere the Bible was appealed to as the highest authority,' also in practice most urgently recommended to the people. It was constantly held in reverence as the purest source of truth, the book of books.

'Nihil aliud præcipi volumus, quam quod Evangelistarum et Apostolorum fides et traditio incorrupta servat; Gratian in Cod. Theod. l. xvi. tit. vi. 1, 2. * Adv. Man. 5: Evangelio non crederem, nisi me ecclesiæ catholicæ commoveret auctoritas. This passage is to be compared in its whole connection: see Lücke, Zeitschrift für evangel. Christen. i. 1, 4. Lücke justly rejects, ibid. p. 71, the expedient adopted by older protestant theologians, e. g., Bucer and S. Baumgarten (Untersuchung theologischer Streitigkeiten, vol. iii. p. 48), viz., to assign to the imperfect tense the signification of the pluperfect "according to the African dialect." Comp. also Neander, Hist. Dogm. (Ryland), p. 276. [Protestant theologians have been disposed to explain it as meaning, "I was first led to the Bible by the tradition of the church;" but without doubt it rather means, "The authority of the church is the witness for the divinity of the Scriptures; for how could I convince unbelievers if I were not permitted to appeal to the authority of the church? I must depend upon this to know what the canon of Holy Writ is, and its right interpretation." Yet in arguing against the Donatists, he proves the authority of the church from the Scriptures, allowing no argument to be valid which was not derived from this source.] On a similar declaration of Gregory the Great, that he reverenced the four general councils as much as the four Gospels (Lib. i. Ep. 25, and lib. iii. Ep. 10), see Lau, ubi supra, p. 330.

• Athanasius Contra Gent. i. p. 1, b.: Αὐτάρκεις μὲν γάρ εἰσιν αἱ ἁγίαι καὶ θεόπνευστοι γραφαὶ πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἀληθείας ἀπαγγελίαν. Cyrillus Hierosol. Cat. 4 et 5. Chrys. Contra Anomos xi. (Opp. i. p. 542). Augus tine Doct. Christ. i. 37: Titubabit fides, si scripturarum sacrarum vacillet auctoritas. Ibid. ii. 9; De Baptismo contra Donatistas, ii. 3, and many other passages, especially Ep. 19 ad Hieron. (comp. § 122, 2).

4

Aug. Ep. 137 (Opp. ii. p. 310): [Scriptura Sacra] omnibus [est] accessibilis, quamvis paucissimis penetrabilis. Ea, quæ aperte continet, quasi amicus familiaris sine fuco ad cor loquitur indoctorum atque doctorum.-De Doct. Christ. ii. 42: Quantum autem minor est auri, argenti vestisque copia, quam de Ægypto secum ille populus abstulit in comparatione divitiarum, quæ postea Hierosolymæ consecutus est, quæ maxime in Salomone ostenduntur, tanta fit cuncta scientia, quæ quidem est utilis, collecta de libris gentium, si divinarum scripturarum scientiæ comparetur. Nam quicquid homo extra didicerit, si noxium est, ibi damnatur, si utile est, ibi invenitur. Et cum ibi quisque invenerit omnia, quæ utiliter alibi didicit, multo abundantius ibi inveniet ea, quæ nusquam omnino alibi, sed in illarum tantummodo Scripturarum mirabili altitudine et mirabili humilitate discuntur. Comp. Theodoret.