ST AUGUSTIN.

This illustrious father of the church was born at Tagaste, in Africa, the thirteenth of November, 354. His father, whose name was Patricius, was but a mean citizen of that place; his mother was named Monica, and remarkable for her virtue. Their son had no relish for learning, but his father put him to it against his inclination, resolving to advance him in this way, and sent him to study classical learning at Madaura. At the age of sixteen he took him from school, and sent him to study rhetoric at Carthage. St Augustin went thither towards the end of the year 371. He made a great progress in the sciences, but gave himself up to debauchery with women. He had a mind to read the holy scriptures, but the simplicity of the style disgusted him; he was yet too great an admirer of the Pagan eloquence to have a taste for the Bible. He had, in general, a great desire to discover truth; and, being in hopes of finding it in the sect of the Manicheans, he engaged in it, and maintained most of its doctrines with much fervency. Having lived some time in Carthage, he returned to Tagaste, where he taught rhetoric with so much applause, that his mother was congratulated upon having so admirable a son. This did not hinder the holy woman from being extremely afflicted on account of her son’s heresy and debauchery. He returned to Carthage in the year 380, where he taught rhetoric with a great deal of reputation. It was at this time he reformed so far as to avoid following various objects, and took a concubine, to whom he kept constant, and had by her a son

whom he named Adeodatus (the gift of God), who had very good parts. He became a little wavering in his sect, because he could meet with no satisfactory answer to the difficulties he had to propose; he, however, did not forsake their opinions, but waited for better explications. His good mother, Monica, went to him at Carthage, to endeavour to draw him from his heresy and luxury; nor did she despair, though she found that her remonstrances were then to no purpose. He wanted a new theatre for displaying his learning, and resolved to go to Rome; and, that he might not be diverted from this design, he embarked without communicating it either to his mother, or to his near relation Romanian, who had maintained him at school. He taught rhetoric at Rome with as much applause as at Carthage; so that Symmachus, prefect of that city, understanding that they wanted at Milan an able professor in rhetoric, appointed him to that employ in the year 383. St Augustin was very much esteemed at Milan; he made a visit to St Ambrose, and was kindly received by him. He went to his sermons, not so much out of a principle of piety, as that of a critical curiosity. He wanted to know if that prelate’s eloquence deserved the reputation it had obtained. It pleased God to make this the means of his conversion; St Ambrose’s sermons made such an impression upon him, that St Augustin became a Catholic in the year 384. His mother, who was come to him to Milan, advised him to marry, that he might effectually forsake his former irregularities. He consented to the proposal, and sent his concubine back into Africa; but as the wife designed for him was so very young that he was to wait two years before he could marry her, not being able to resist his natural inclinations so long, he relapsed to his usual incontinence. At length, the reading of St Paul’s Epistles, the solicitations and tears of his mother, and the good discourses of some friends, procured for him the finishing stroke of grace. He felt himself a good Christian, ready to forsake all for the Gospel; he left off teaching rhetoric, and was baptized by St Ambrose on Easter-eve, in the year 387. The following year he returned into Africa, having lost his mother at Ostia, where they were both to have embarked. He was ordained priest in the year 391, by Valerius, bishop of Hippo; four years after, he became coadjutor to that prelate, and did very considerable services to the church by his pen and his piety, until his death, which happened the 28th of August, 430. The particulars of his episcopal life and writings would be superfluous here; they may be found in Moreri, and in Du Pin; and if those gentlemen had not too lightly passed over St Augustin’s irregular life, I might wholly have dispensed with this article: but, for the better instruction of the public, it is proper to discover both the good and the bad of great men.

The approbation which councils and popes have given St Augustin, on the doctrine of grace, adds greatly to his glory; for, without that, the Jesuits, in these latter times, would have highly advanced their banner against him, and pulled down his authority. We have shown elsewhere, that all their politics could scarce keep them in decorum, and prevent their attacking him indirectly. It is certain, that the engagement which the church of Rome is under to respect St Augustin’s system, casts her into a perplexity which is very ridiculous. It is manifest to all men who examine things without prejudice, and with sufficient abilities, that his doctrine and that of Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, are one and the same; so that we cannot, without indignation, behold the court of Rome boasting to have condemned Jansenius, and yet preserved St Augustin in all his glory, the two things being altogether inconsistent. More than this, the council

of Trent, in condemning Calvin’s doctrine of free will, did necessarily condemn that of St Augustin; for no Calvinist ever denied, or can deny, the concurrence of the human will, and the liberty of the soul, in the sense which St Augustin has given to the words concurrence, co-operation, and liberty. There is not a Calvinist but acknowledges free will, and its use in conversion, if that word be understood according to St Augustin’s idea. Those condemned by the Council of Trent do not reject free will, but as it signifies a liberty of indifferency. The Thomists reject it also under that notion, and yet pass for very good Catholics. Behold another strange scene ! The physical predetermination of the Thomists, the necessity of St. Augustin, that of the Jansenists, and that of Calvin, are all one and the same thing at the bottom; and yet the Thomists disown the Jansenists, and both of them think it a calumny to accuse them of teaching the same doctrine with Calvin. If one might be suffered to judge of other persons ’ thoughts, here would be great room for saying, that doctors are, in this case, great comedians, and are only acting a part, and that they cannot but be sensible that the Council of Trent either condemned a mere chimera, which never ’ entered into the thoughts of the Calvinists, or else that it condemned, at the same time, both St Augustin and the physical determination. So that, when they boast of having St Augustin’s faith, and never to have varied in the doctrine, it is only meant to preserve decorum, and to save the system from destruction, which a sincere confession of the truth must necessarily occasion This division in the Catholic church is not much unlike that of High and Low Church in England, now usually denominated the High Church and the Evangelicals. The seventeenth article of the Church of England includes the identical dilemma of St Augustin.—Ed. ⁵⁴. It is a great happiness for some persons, that the people never trouble themselves to demand of them any account of their doctrine; they would, otherwise, oftener mutiny against doctors than against tax-gatherers. They would say to them, “ If you do not know that you deceive us, you deserve to be sent to the plough for your stupidity; and, if you do know it, you deserve to be shut up within four walls, with bread and water, for your wickedness.”

The Arminians deal very sincerely with this father of the church: they might have perplexed the world, as well as the Jesuits; but they thought it much better to give up St Augustin wholly to their adversaries, and to acknowledge him for as great a predestinarian as Calvin. Without doubt the Jesuits would have done the same, if they durst have condemned a doctor whom the popes and councils had approved.—Art.Augustin.