which were controverted by Pelagius and his followers; and, in consequence of their being thus doctrinally sound, are actually, by the same Augustine, even in set terms, declared to be so far removed from the heretical perverseness of the Pelagians *.

Let us, however, attend to the express words of Hilary, as, on the present subject, he writes to Augustine.

I ought not to refrain from mentioning: that, THIS SINGLE MATTER EXCEPTED (Augustine's doctrine, to wit, of Election and Reprobation), they declare themselves to be, in ALL BOTH YOUR DEEDS AND YOUR WORDS, the steady admirers of your holiness +.

Let us also attend to the direct testimony of

* Nemo sibi sufficit ad incipiendum vel perficiendum quodcunque opus bonum: quod jam isti fratres, sicut vestra scripta indicant, verum esse consentiunt. August. de Prædest. et

Persever. lib. i. c. 2. Oper. vol. vii. p. 485.

A Pelagianorum porro hæretica perversitate tantum isti remoti sunt, propter quos hæc agimus, ut, licet nondum velint fateri Prædestinatos esse qui per Dei gratiam fiant obedientes atque permaneant, jam tamen fateantur, quod Eorum præveniat voluntatem quibus datur hæc gratia. Ibid. lib. ii. c. 16. p. 502. Retenta ergo ista, in quæ pervenerunt, plurimum eos a Pelagianorum errore discernunt. Ibid. lib. i. c. 1. p. 485.

+ Sed planè illud tacere non debeo, quod se dicant tuam sanctitatem, HOC EXCEPTO, in FACTIS ET DICTIS OMNIBUS admirari. Hilar. Arelat. Epist. ad August. in Oper. August. vol. vii. p. 484.

Augustine himself, as he writes to Prosper and Hilary, in reply to the two several letters which he had received from them.

Those our brethren, for whom your pious charity is solicitous, have, with the Church of Christ, attained to believe that The human race is born liable to the sin of the first man; and that No one can be liberated from that evil, save through the righteousness of the second man. They have also attained to a confession: that The will of man is prevented by the grace of God; and that No one is of himself sufficient either to begin or to perfect any good work. Holding, therefore, these doctrines, THEY ARE VERY WIDELY REMOVED FROM THE ERROR OF THE PELAGIANS. Moreover, provided they walk in such doctrines and pray to him who giveth understanding, if they differ from us on the point of Predestination, he will also reveal this to them. Meanwhile, let it be our business to bestow upon them both the affection of love and the ministry of the word, as he, whom we supplicate, shall grant: that, in these letters, we may say, what to them may be both apt and useful*.

* Pervenerunt autem isti fratres nostri, pro quibus solicita est pia charitas vestra, ut credant, cum Ecclesia Christi: Peccato primi hominis obnoxium nasci genus humanum ; nec ab isto malo, nisi per justitiam secundi hominis, aliquem liberari. Pervenerunt etiam, ut Præveniri voluntates hominum Dei gratia fateantur, atque ut Ad nullum opus bonum vel incipiendum vel

Such, according to Augustine's own description, are the persons, whom Calvin would exhibit as the interested pelagian calumniators of Augustine: such is the character, given by Hilary, of those, whom, in the unseemly capacity of conscious false accusers, the Genevan Divine would apparently hold up to the honest indignation of his unsuspicious readers.

(1.) I may remark: that the very language of Augustine, in the present passage, distinctly shews the NOVELTY of his cherished speculations.

If, like the genuine doctrines of Grace, those speculations had, invariably and notoriously, been held and taught by the Catholic Church from the beginning he would have had small need to recommend prayer, that, to the Massilian Christians, God would reveal the tenet of Predestination.

On such a supposition, the tenet itself, whether abstractedly they liked it or disliked it, must, at any rate, have been familiar to them from their very childhood. They would have received it, in the

perficiendum sibi quenquam sufficere posse consentiant. RETENTA

ERGO ISTA, IN QUÆ PERVENERUNT, PLURIMUM EOS A PELAGIANORUM ERRORE DISCERNUNT. Proinde, si in eis ambulent et orent eum qui dat intellectum, si quid de Prædestinatione aliter sapiunt, ipse illis hoc quoque revelabit. Tamen etiam nos impendamus eis dilectionis affectum ministeriumque sermonis, sicut donat ille quem rogamus: ut, in his literis, ea, quæ illis essent apta et utilia, diceremus. August. de Prædest. et Persever. lib. i. c. 1. Oper. vol. vii. p. 485.

course of their catechetical institution, from the regularly appointed Catechists of the Church: they would have perpetually encountered it, systematically embodied in the ordinary books of devotional theology: they would, again and again, have heard it enforced from the pulpit, as the very pith and marrow of the sincere Gospel: and, therefore, in the mere nature and necessity of things, however they might have subsequently disliked the doctrine, they never could have alleged against Augustine the charge of bold and unauthorised private innovation.

But they declare, that the doctrine was alike new and disagreeable to them: and, in reply, Augustine recommends prayer, that God would be pleased to reveal it to them; thus incidentally, by the the very use of the word reveal, confessing that they had never heard of it before.

The allegation of NOVELTY, if I mistake not, is itself a proof of the matter alleged: and the expressed hope of a REVELATION, if I also mistake not, is itself a virtual acknowledgment of the justice of the allegation.

(2.) I may yet further remark: that even Augustine, in his own particular case, incidentally confesses his peculiar Scheme of Doctrine to be nothing better than the pure result of his insulated private judgment.

So far from asserting, that his favourite System of Election had been professedly delivered to him from antiquity by his catechetical instructors in

Christianity: he acknowledges, that he had himself

DILIGENTLY SEARCHED IT OUT AND DISCOVERED IT; for he owns, that there was a time when he had not thus searched it out and discovered it; consequently he owns, that there was a time when he had maintained an entirely different system *.

Now clearly, this never could have happened, if, from the very first, his System had always been the familiarly recognised System of the Church Catholic.

The obvious conclusion needs not to be drawn out in mood and form.

* Non elegit Deus opera cujusquam in præscientia quæ ipse daturus est: sed fidem elegit in præscientia, ut ut, quem sibi crediturum esse præscivit, ipsum elegerit, cui Spiritum Sanctum daret, ut, bona operando, etiam æternam vitam consequeretur. Nondum diligentius quæsiveram, nec adhuc inveneram, qualis sit Electio Gratiæ. August. de Prædest. et Persever. lib. i. c. 3. Oper. vol, vii. p. 486.