V. But however inconclusive his arguments may have been deemed, the great authority of his opinions, especially in the western churches, must have checked the progi ess of any doctrine which he was known so decid

was original, I subjoin an entire chapter from his great work, The City of God.

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"And in the first place we should ascertain why the Church has refused "to allow people to dispute in favor of a purification and release of the "devil himself, after very great and lasting punishments: It was not that so many holy men, so well instructed in the Old and New Testaments, "grudged any of the angels a purification, and the bliss of heaven after so great torments; but it was because they saw it impossible to annul or "weaken that divine sentence which the Lord declared he would pro"nounce in the judgment, Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, "prepared for the devil and his angels, (Matt. xxv. 41.) For thus it is shown "that the devil and his angels are to burn in eternal fire. As it is written "in the Apocalypse: The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of "fire and brimstone, where are the beast and the false prophet; and they shall "be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Rev. xx. 10.) What is called in "the other passage eternal, is here expressed by forever and ever: by which "words the divine scripture is wont to mean nothing but what is endless in "duration. And there is no other reason, nor can one more just and man"ifest be found, why we should hold it fixed and inìmutable in the sincerest "piety, that the devil and his angels are never to return to righteousness and "the life of the holy, than that the scripture, which deceives no one, says "that God spared them not (2 Pet. ii. 4,) but delivered them up to be kept "in prisons of infernal darkness, in order to be punished at the last judgment, when they shall be sent into eternal fire, where they shall be tor"mented forever and ever. This being the case, how can all, or any of mankind, after a certain period, be restored from the eternity of this pun"ishment, and not immediately weaken that faith by which we believe the "torments of the demons will be endless? For if all or any of those to "whom it shall be said, Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire, "prepared for the devil and his angels, shall not always remain there, what reason have we to believe that the devil and his angels will always re"main there? Will the sentence of God which is pronounced both against "the evil angels and men, be true with respect to the angels, and false with "respect to men? Thus it will plainly be, if not what God said, but what 66 Imen suspect, avail the most. But because that cannot be the case, they "who would shun eternal torments, ought, while there is time, to yield to "the divine precept, instead of arguing against God. And again: how can "we suppose eternal torment to be only a fire of long duration, and yet "eternal life to be without end, when in the very same passage, and in one "and the same sentence, Christ said with reference to both, These shall go 66 away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life? "(Matt. xxv. 46.) As both are eternal, both certainly ought to be under"stood either as of long duration but with an end, or else as perpetual, with no end. For they are connected together: on the one hand, eternal pun"ishment; on the other eternal life. And it is very absurd to say, in this one

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edly to oppose. Already were his talents, his virtues, and his unremitted faithfulness repaid with a general homage, such as had been enjoyed by none of the christian doctors, since the time of the more vigorous and enterprizing, but less amiable Athanasius. His decisions were received in the West, with almost universal deference; and in the East, his name was regarded with great, though perhaps, not equal veneration. A long and intimate familiarity with the holy scriptures, a com‐

"and the same sense, that eternal life will be without end, and eternal punish"ment will have an end. Whence, as the eternal life of the saints will be with"out end, so also the eternal punishment of those who shall suffer it, will, "without any doubt, have no end." De Civitate Dei Lib. xxi. cap. 23. This remains, even to the present day, the most popular, and perhaps the most plausible argument used against the doctrine of Universal Salvation; and yet it is founded on one of the most palpable blunders into which the church has fallen that of applying to eternity what Christ declared should be accomplished in his own generation. Compare Matt. xxv. 31—, with its immediate connexion, Matt. xxiv. 30-34; and also with Matt. x. 23—xvi. 27, 28.-Mark viii. 38, ix. 1.—Luke ix. 26, 27.

Another chapter of the same work, furnishes us with the original, I believe, whence has been derived one of the popular methods of justifying the "infliction of endless torments: "But to human notions eternal punishment

seems hard and unjust, because that in the weakness of our mortal senses "we are destitute of that most exalted and pure wisdom by which we could "realize how great was the wickedness committed in the first transgression. "For in proportion as man enjoyed God, was the magnitude of his impie"ty in forsaking God; and he was worthy of eternal evil, who destroyed in himself that good which might have been eternal. And the whole "mass of the human race was therefore condemned, because that he who "first introduced sin, was punished together with his posterity which had "its root in him; so that none could be released from this just and merited "penalty, but by mercy and unmerited grace. And thus mankind are so "situated that in some of them the power of merciful grace may be exhibit ed; and in the rest, the power of vindictive justice. For both could not "be manifested upon all; because if all should remain in the sufferings of their "just damnation, in none would appear the merciful grace of redemption, " and if all should be translated from darkness into light, in none would appear the severity of vengeance. Of the latter class there are many more than of the former; that thus might be shown what was due to all "And if it had been inflicted upon all, none could, with propriety, have "called in question the justice of the vengeance; and the release of so Imany as are saved therefrom, should be an occasion of the greatest thanksgiving for the gift of redemption." De Civitate Dei Lib. xxi. cap. 12.

N. B. This was written about A. D. 420, or 426.

petent share of learning, and a large fund of general information, which had been rather hastily collected, supplied his strong capacious mind with subjects for reflection, and provided his argumentative genius with the weapons of controversy. These, however, he gener ally managed with moderation, In addition to the numerous avocations of a bishop, his remaining works, in ten folio volumes, demonstrate his incessant and laborious industry; but they, at the same time, show that, like most of the ancient fathers, he was a hasty writer, and that it was not uncommon for him to venture upon subjects the most important, without the precaution of understanding himself, at least, of defining his views in his own mind. The credulity and spirit of religious romance which then prevailed, frequently seduced his better judgment; and his imagination was sometimes suffered to roam, though with a cautious step, into the fashionable regions of whim and extravagance. But even in his vagaries, he may be distinguished among his cotemporaries, for an air of reflection; and he frequently evinces a degree of sound common sense, to which they were strangers. His fame and influence never rendered him assuming; and his humility always appears natural and unaffected. Warm and devotional in his piety, pure in his morals, even to austerity, he enjoyed a serene and benignant temper, which was seldom ruffled or embittered by his perpetual controversies. In general, he treated his very opponents with an indulgence to which they were unaccustomed, and which would appear with advantage in the theological warfare of a later and more refined age. That he sometimes

dissembled for truth's sake, and that he countenanced the legal persecution of schismatics, when he could not persuade them to re-enter the catholic church, may in justice be imputed to the pernicious but approved maxims of his times. Such was Augustine, a great and a good man. Yet he was the father of the present orthodox system of total depravity, irresistible grace, and sovereign, partial election.

VI. By introducing this system of doctrine into the church, he unknowingly laid upon the cause of Universalism a remote, but eventually, a more fatal check than even the decisions of a council would have imposed. Hitherto, none of the catholic christians had gone farther, in their very lowest descents into orthodoxy, than to represent that from the fall of Adam all his posterity inherited a mortal constitution, an unhappy weakness of soul, and such a degree of depravity as caused a propensity to sin; and that the supernatural influences of God's spirit were necessary to aid, not strictly to create, human resolutions, and to render them effectual. But this divine agency they had ever held, was always received or rejected, cherished, or suppressed, yielded to or resisted, entirely by the free will of the creature: and they had never disputed that all had competent power, both natural and moral, to avail themselves of its assistance. It was proffered sincerely to all, for the single purpose of preserving in holiness such as were already pure, and of reclaiming the sinful; for it was unequivocally the will of God that all should be saved, There may, indeed, have been some who entertained a vague notion that the devil and his angels, when they

apostatized, sunk below the reach of divine mercy, and that impenitent sinners, when they die, pass the irremeable line; but that God had sought to prevent the fatal catastrophe appears to have been doubted by none, and that his decrees were concerned in procuring it, was a thought from which every one would have shrunk with horror.

So long as it was the invariable opinion that God sincerely aimed at the repentance and salvation of all his erring creatures, it is easy to discover that a silent but strong influence was constantly bearing the more reflecting minds towards Universalism; as it was unnatural to suppose that the will of an immutable Deity could ever totally abandon its aim, or that Omnipotence would be forever frustrated in its objects by the impotence of man. Resulting from this view there was also a favorable, though often indefinite, persuasion of the general goodness of God, which tended to suggest doubts of the eternal infliction of a torment as fruitless as it was unmerciful. But when christians became accustomed to consider it the arbitrary determination of the Almighty Sovereign to save a part, and a part only, and at the same time to abandon the rest to certain and complete ruin, the doctrine of endless misery stood on its own proper and substantial foundation, the divine counsel; for it was not likely that the neglected and helpless wretches would be saved, when their recovery was not actually desired by God ".

■ I do not forget, what may at first seem to contradict this reasoning, that the high Calvinism of Whitfield and his school, was the immediate occasion of the rise of the present sect of Universalists. But, then, the leading preachers of Whitfield's connexion did not