say that many of their sufferings were self-inflicted,* many the just punishment of civil crimes, even those which they bore for their faith's sake gave them no right to assume this, till another question had been settled in their favour. For, without in the least seeking to justify all the means which the temporal power used, and Augustine, with the rest of the Church in Africa, sanctioned and approved, for the forcible reducing of them to unity, in this he had plainly right, when he entirely denied their claim, merely on the strength of these sufferings, to be the rightful inheritors of this blessing.† Another point had first to be proved, namely, that it was for Christ's sake, as witnesses for Christ's truth, and as the true representatives of

*Con. Gaudent. 1. 1. c. 28: Genus hominum ... crudelissimum in mortibus alienis, vilissimum in suis. See the almost incredible details of this fury of self-destruction which possessed them, in his letter to Count Boniface. (Ep. 185, c. 3.) Yet the actual facts do not altogether bear him out, when of one of them he asks (Con. Gaudent. 1. 1. c. 21,) Quam persecutionem patimini, nisi a vobis?

+ Thus Gaudentius, a Donatist, writes: Nostram caussam solæ nobis istæ persecutiones gravissimam reddunt, and proceeds to quote Matt. v. 10-12; Augustine replies (Con. Gaudent. 1. 1. c. 20): Recte ista dicerentur a vobis quærentibus martyrum gloriam, si haberetis martyrum caussam. Non enim felices ait Dominus, qui mala ista patiuntur, sed qui propter filium hominis patiuntur, qui est Christus Jesus. Vos autem non propter ipsum patimini, sed contra ipsum. And again: Non ex passione certa justitia, sed ex justitiâ passio gloriosa est. Ideoque Dominus . . ... non generaliter ait, Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur, sed addit magnam differentiam quâ vera a sacrilegio pietas secernatur. Ait enim, Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam. Cf. Con. Lit. Petil. 1. 2. c. 71; Con. Crescon. 1. 4. c. 46; Ep. 44. c. 2, 4.

N

Christ's body, that they suffered what they did. They could not, in arguing with the Catholics, who entirely denied this, bring these sufferings in proof that they, because they suffered these things, were the true body of Christ. Else by the same proofs, as he keenly retorts, the priests of Baal were martyrs, when Elijah slew them; and as regards the cross, the malefactors had that in common with the Lord.* If they found in these persecutions the evidence that they were Christ's Church, by the same right the pagans who still survived in the Roman empire might appeal to the forbidding of their worship, the closing of their temples, the pains and penalties which attended the adherence to their supersti-tion, as evidences of its truth. Once grant that sufferings of themselves constituted martyrs, and every mine would be full of them; no criminal who perished by the sword of justice but would be the rightful claimant of a crown.†

"For great is your reward in heaven." Augustine often

* Ep. 185. c. 2: Et ipse Dominus cum latronibus crucifixus est, sed quos passio jungebat, caussa separabat. Cf. Serm. 331. c. 3.

Enarr. in Ps. xxxiv. 23: Martyres non facit pœna, sed caussa. Nam si pœna martyres faceret, omnia metalla martyribus plena essent, omnes catena martyres traherent; omnes qui gladio feriuntur, coronarentur. Nemo ergo dicat, Quia patior justus sum. Quia ipse qui primo passus est, pro justitiâ passus est, ideo magnam exceptionem addidit, Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justitiam .... Nemo ergo dicat, Persecutionem patior; non ventilet pœnam, sed probet caussam. Enarr. in Ps. cxlv. 7: Quidquid jure pateris, non est injuria. Latrones multa patiuntur, sed non injuriam. Scelerati, malefici, effractores, adulteri, corruptores, omnes patiuntur multa mala, sed nulla est injuria. Cf. Con. Lit. Petil. 1. 2. c. 19.

enlarges on the sustaining power of Christian hope, and of an eye directed to this great reward.* But on this word "reward" he is very distinct, and carefully guards against all claims which, on the strength of it, the proud heart of man might make. The “reward in heaven” does, indeed, bear a relation to that which is done or suffered for Christ's sake on earth, yet is it a relation of grace, and not of debt. God has chosen, and of his own free will and unmerited bounty appointed, that there should be such a relation, and now "He is faithful that promised." The doctrine of preventing grace, legitimately carried out, must for ever exclude the notion of any claim, as of merit properly so called; not that there are not merits, or rather graces, which will hereafter be recognised, but that these merits are themselves gifts of God,† so that eternal life will be but the adding of one more, one crowning gift, to all that preceded. It will be but "grace for grace."§

* Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi. 23: Attende mercedem, si vis sustinere laborem.

† Ep. 194: Ipsa vita æterna gratia nuncupatur, nec ideo quia non meritis datur, sed quia data sunt et ipsa merita quibus datur. And again (De Grat. et Lib. Arb. c. 8): Si vita bona nostra nihil aliud est quam Dei gratia, sine dubio et vita æterna, quæ bonæ vitæ redditur, Dei gratia est; et ipsa enim gratis datur, quia gratis data est illa, cui datur.

Ep. 194: Cum Deus coronat merita nostra, nihil aliud coronat, quam munera sua. Enarr. in Ps. LXX: Tua peccata sunt, merita Dei sunt. Supplicium tibi debetur, et cum præmium venerit, sua dona coronabit, non merita tua. See too his anti-Pelagian treatises, passim.

Ep. 194: Nunc vero de plenitudine ejus accepimus non solum

Ver. 3-12.-As regards the contemplation of the heptad of beatitudes no longer singly, but as a whole, Augustine suggests, that perhaps they may stand in some relation to the sevenfold operation of the Holy Spirit of which Isaiah (ch. xi.) speaks; though it can hardly be said that he very successfully traces the relation of each to each. He notes how the eighth beatitude returns upon the first, having the same promise, "the kingdom of heaven,"* which, in the intermediate ones, has not been forsaken, for that one comprehends all the others, but has been broken up, or rather contemplated successively in its various aspects; and how this return indicates that now the perfect and complete man has on all his sides been declared. For these, as he says most truly, are not different persons that will be differently blest; it is not that one, being pure in heart, will see God; another, being

gratiam quâ nunc juste in laboribus usque ad finem vivimus, sed etiam gratiam pro hâc gratia, ut in requie postea sine fine vivamus. Augustine has here given the hint, at least, of the right explanation, which so many even now miss, of that difficult χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος, (John, i. 16,) that it means one grace heaped upon, and as a better grace coming in some sort in the room of (ávrí) a preceding; (so Theognis, avr' aviv ávías, troubles upon troubles.) It is scarcely, however, probable that St. John meant, as he implies, by the first xápis, the grace of this life, and by the second, the grace of eternal life, but, rather by the two together, the uninterrupted stream of God's gifts in Christ, which are ever succeeding, and, so to speak, replacing one another.

*De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 4; and Serm. 348.

+ De Serm. Dom. in Mon. 1. 1. c. 3: Octava tanquam ad caput redit; quia consummatum perfectumque ostendit et probat.

merciful, will obtain mercy; and a third, that, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, will be filled. But these are different sides of the same Christian character, with the capacities of blessedness which are linked to each; so that, while it is true that, because the man is "pure in heart," and not because he is "merciful," or "meek," or a "peacemaker," he will "see God;" and again, because he is "merciful," and not because he is “pure in heart,” that he will" obtain mercy," and so with the rest, yet it is the same person throughout to whom all the promises belong. Just as, were it said, "Happy are they that have feet, for they can walk; happy are they that have tongues, for they can speak;" we should not think of one man having a tongue, another feet, but only to each limb attribute its appropriate function.* It is true, indeed, that these graces, like grapes of the same cluster, may ripen some earlier than others, may be some of them finer and fuller than others, yet do they not the less all hang upon the same stalk; and the same process of ripening is going forward in them all. He might have added, perhaps, that in these separated blessings there is an implicit summons to seek to complete the Christian character in all its aspects, to polish the diamond on all its sides, that

* Serm. 53. c. 9. Sic tanquam spiritalia membra componens, docuit quid ad quid pertineat. Apta est humilitas ad habendum regnum cœlorum, apta mansuetudo ad possidendam terram, aptus luctus ad consolationem, apta fames et sitis justitiæ ad saturitatem, apta misericordia ad impetrandam misericordiam, aptum mundum cor ad videndum Deum.