AU(iUSTINE
544
AUGUSTINE
to introduce into his system a limitation with respect to baptism, and to preserve the opinions concerning it from interfering with those which flowed from the doctrine of predestination. He accordingly taught that baptism brings with it the forgiveness of sins; that it iiii.il that the omission of it will expose us to condemnation; and that it is attended with regenera- tion, lie also affirmed that the virtue of baptism is not in the water; that the ministers of Christ perform the external ceremony, but that Christ accompanies it with invisible grace; that baptism is common to all, while grace is not so; and that the same external rite may be death to some and life to others. By this dis- tinction he rids himself of the difficult}'- which would have pressed upon his scheme of theology, had par- don, regeneration, and salvation been necessarily con- nected with the outward ordinance of baptism, and limits its proper efficacy to those who are comprehend- ed, as the heirs of eternal life, in the decree of the Al- mighty. Many, however, of those who strictly ad- here to him in other parts of his doctrinal system de- sert him at this point. See Pelagianism. His hon- est anxiety for the honor of the grace of God led him to overlook the human side of the question, and to make the operation of grace more like physical neces- sity than moral influence. The traces of his Mani- chsean habit of thought appear plainly here. " Here," says Kling, in his excellent article on Augustine in Herzog's Ri'al-Encyklipadie (i, 623), "is a weak side in Augustine's system. In the attempt of his fiery and impulsive intellect to give fixity and stability to the doctrine of Christian anthropology, and to leave no room in his system for self-righteousness, he fell into the labyrinth of unconditional predestination, im- plying a dualism in the Divine will which has never gained the mind of the Christian Church as a correct interpretation of Scripture as a whole. In fact, the system has been a stumbling-block in the church from Augustine's time till now. As for the better part of Augustine's doctrine, which is, in fact, its true essence, viz. that the entire glory of the renewal of human na- ture is due to divine grace, and is due in no respect whatever to mere human ability, because the conse- quences of the fall have left that nature incapable of renewal except by a divine power of renovation, this doctrine has penetrated the heart and intellect of the church, and has found expression in her creeds and confessions in all ages." See Augustinism.
The Donalist controversy was one of the bitterest wag td by Augustine, and was, perhaps, on the whole, the least honorable to him. Before this controversy, and even during the earlier period of it, lie had always treated heretics with mildness and charity, and op- posed Hi" passage of several laws against "the Dona- tists. '• But at a later period, after the Donatists had made alarming progress among the African churches, tin- urgent representations of his colleagues caused a radical change of his views. He became the most ar- ofthe compulsory suppression of every I '! I he In.- 1 i his shocking theory on the pas- l.uke xiv, where the master of a house, after the invited guests have declined to come, orders the servants to l„ing in the poor, the maimed, the halt, the blind, from the streets and lanes of the city, and, when tier- was yel t n, to 'go out into the high- id led--, and ,„,„/>,/ them to n.-me in.1 This interpretation by a church father s<> profoundly re- i, in all following centuries, the source of incalculable mischief. It is one of the principal with which ecclesiastical and royal despots iiy the murder of millions on tie- charge of heresy. Even men like Bossuet were induced, by the weight of Augustine's authority, to • compulsory measures against heretics" (Ne- ander. Church History, iii, 197 217; Flottes, Eludes sur Saint Augustin, Pari-, 1862).
St. Augustine;, works have been printed in a col-
lected form repeatedly : at Paris, in 10 vols, folio, 1532; by Erasmus, from Frobenius's press, 10 vols, folio, 1540-13; by the divines of Louvain, 10 vols, folio, Lugd. 158G ; and by the Benedictines of the con- gregation of St. Maur, 10 vols, folio, Paris, 1679-1700, 12 vols, folio, 1C88-1703, and 12 vols, folio, Antwerp, 1700-1703; reprinted, Paris, 183G-39, 11 vols. 4to. The latest edition (not the best) is that of the Bene- dictines, edited by Migne (Paris, 1842, 15 vols. imp. 8vo). A review of his literary activity is given by Busch, Librarian August ni recensus (Dorpat. 1826). Of his separate works many editions have been pub- lished. The Benedictine edition gives a copious Life of Augustine; and the 13th vol. of Tillemont's Mi- moires pour servlr it V Histoire EccUsiastique is a 4to of 1075 pages devoted entirely to his biography. Dupin (Eccles. Writers') gives a copious and minute analysis of all of Augustine's works. English versions of the Confessions, and of the Expositions of the Gospels and Psalms, may be found in the Library if the Fathers (Oxf. 1839-1855). A translation of the Confessions, with an introduction by Prof. Shedd, has also been published at Andover (18G0). M. Poujoulat, the au-