state of public opinion or feeling when he wrote, which could impart any local preference or authority to either side of the controversy in question, except as an important topic of historical interest. As such, the views which Neander has given are now presented to the readers of this work, in the hope and confidence that they will be found, if not satisfactory, yet at least impartial and deeply interesting.-My young friend who has executed the translation, is admirably fitted by his previous studies and experience to do it well; and he has succeeded accordingly.

EDITOR.

AUGUSTINE AND PELAGIUS.

PELAGIUS was a monk of Great Britain; and both of these circumstances, his education in Great Britain and in the monastic life, exerted an important influence upon his development as a theologian. As the British Church was derived from the Oriental, it is probable that a connexion was in various ways still kept up between them. Pelagius was very conversant with the teachers of the Eastern Church; and he found the manner in which they exhibited Christian Anthropology peculiarly accordant with his own personal experience. He had from the first

1 [An outline of the leading views of Neander respecting the history of Christian Anthropology during the whole period preceding the Pelagian controversies, will illustrate this remark and others occurring in the following sketch.

Anthropology receives its peculiar Christian import from the doctrine of redemption, the great central doctrine of revealed religion. By announcing this doctrine, Christianity furnished a new point of view for contemplating human nature, and came out in implied opposition to the conceptions previously entertained respecting it. So far as the doctrine of redemption proposes to renovate and restore a corrupt nature, to impart to it a new divine life, raising it to an elevation above the reach of its own powers, it appeals to a sense of imperfection and need in man, and stands opposed to the Stoical doctrine of selfsufficiency. So far as it proffers pardon, it presupposes a sense of guilt; and consequently the existence of free agency by which alone guilt is possible; and thus it stands opposed to the idea prevailing throughout the heathen world, that man acts according to mechanical laws, or a blind destiny, and that evil is the result of his natural organization, Thus are the two points of man's weakness and inability,

lived a life of earnest moral effort; and had proceeded tranquilly in the course of improvement. It was not by some great crisis in his inward life, nor through any violent conflict, that he had

in opposition to his being sufficient of himself to attain his high destination, and of his freedom and power, in opposition to his being bound by a natural necessity, clearly seen in the light reflected from the doctrine of redemption. And a sense both of weakness and of power, of the kind here described, is implied in the full and unperverted Christian consciousness of human nature. But from various causes, either of these points may become prominent for a time, to the entire exclusion, or at least the comparative shading and obscuring of the other.

In the Oriental church, and especially in the school at Alexandria, the opposition of the early teachers to the Gnostic doctrines deriving evil from a necessity of nature, led them to insist upon the free, self-determining power of man. And although they did not exclude the doctrine of man's depravity and dependence on grace, they gave it a subordinate place. This tendency was principally represented by Clement and Origen. And it is in general found more congenial to those persons who have grown up under Christian instruction, and upon whom its influence has been more gradual, mingling insensibly with their own voluntary exertions in the business of moral culture.

In the Western church, on the other hand, and especially in that of North Africa, man's depravity, and his need of redemption thence resulting, and his dependence on grace to renovate and restore his corrupt nature, were made prominent. It was the case however here, as in the Eastern Church, that the predominant conception was not at first exclusive of the other. From many passages in the writings of Tertullian, by whom this tendency was principally represented in this period, it is plain, that he did not infringe upon the free, moral power of man, as has been since done by those who have carried this tendency to an extreme. This view of human nature would be likely to accord with the experience of persons who had passed more suddenly, and through a violent crisis of being, from unbelief to faith, and from a depraved to a holy life.

Such briefly are the views of Neander respecting the history of this doctrine before the Pelagian controversies. Comp. his Church Hist. Bd. I. Abth. iii. p. 1041-1060; and Bd. II. Abth. iii, p. 1185 sq. He finds the germ of these controversies in the diverging tendencies above pointed out between the East and West; though these divergencies were so slight, as to produce no clashing of sentiment, until farther unfolded by Augustine and Pelagius.

The Translator has retained the word Anthropology, which constantly occurs in the original of this sketch, and in all the German theological writers, to denote the doctrine respecting man. It is hardly

attained to faith, and been brought to decide upon leading a life consecrated to God. But, without his being conscious of any resistance to its influence, Christianity had acted upon the development of his moral powers and character. He had not to contend against a wild and ardent natural temperament, nor against desires and passions which were peculiarly inordinate.3 Nor had he been thrown into those storms of active life, which summon one to a more resolute conflict with himself; for he led a tranquil life in study, and in the ascetic discipline adopted by the monks.

The effort which the discipline of the monks excited among them, to bring their own internal life into conformity with the ideal moral excellence set up before them, produced different effects upon different characters. Some it led to deeper self-examination and self-knowledge. And struck with the sense of the contrast between their own actual state, and those ideal models by which they were inspired, they looked to the God revealed in Christ, to remove this contrast and to satisfy their deep-felt need. Others, on the contrary, by contemplating these ideal models, which seemed to them to set forth the essential excellencies of their own moral nature, by the success attending their ascetic endeavours, and by the consciousness of a power in the will to overcome the allurements of sense, came to a feeling of their own moral strength, and imbibed a spirit of self-confidence. It naturally became a prominent thought with them, how far man could advance by actively unfolding the germs of good lying in his own moral nature, by the energetic power of the will, and by self-discipline. It was natural, too, in the monastic life, that the outward asceticism, and the subduing of the lower

sanctioned by good English authority; but it is so convenient a designation of this doctrine, as to lead us to wish for its adoption, while there can be no objection to it either on the ground of euphony or analogy.-TR.

2 Augustine, the zealous, but candid opponent of Pelagius, is certainly the most credible witness for the fact, that the latter, by his strict monastic life, had acquired universal veneration. He thus speaks respecting him in his work De peccat. merit. et remis. III. 3, "Istum, sicut eum qui noverunt loquuntur, bonum ac praedicandum virum.-Ille tam egregie Christianus." Again he writes respecting him, Ep. 186, "Non solum dileximus, verum etiam diligimus eum.”

3 We cannot indeed bring any historical vouchers for the truth of this description, since so little is known respecting the life of Pelagius; but we derive this picture of him, from his doctrines and his writings.

propensities, should have led to a forgetfulness of the true nature of inward holiness, as a disposition having its root in love. It was natural, that in doing so much to repress the particular visible outbreakings of evil, they should have neglected to search out its secret springs; thus disregarding the word of the Lord contained in Matt. 12: 29. In this way, they might come to believe, that by the exertion of human powers, great results had been produced; while yet, for all this, the radical evil may have been any thing but cured.

As to Pelagius, this latter effect cannot be said to have been produced upon him, certainly not in all its extent. On the contrary, he exhibited, in this respect, the better moral spirit of monasticism. His letter to Demetrias, a virgin who had consecrated herself as a nun, shows how important he felt it, to warn others against the aberrations of an ascetic spirit which might become infected, even unconsciously, with hypocrisy, concealing spiritual pride under the mask of humility; and how dangerous he thought that disposition to be, which should suppose that after resisting one particular evil, it might abandon itself the more unreservedly to another. He well knew how to distinguish that false humility, which only conceals spiritual pride, from the true humility recommended by Christ. And in this respect he says with truth of his contemporaries, "Many follow after the shadow of this virtue, few after its true substance;" and he then undertakes a description, drawn doubtless from the very life, of that pretended holiness, which makes a show of humility: "It is very easy to wear a poor garment, to salute another in lowly guise ;—with the head bowed down, and the eyes demiss, to put on the appearance of humility and gentleness; it is easy to speak one's words but half out, with a low and scarcely audible voice, often to sigh, and with every word to

4 Written A. D. 415, while he was in Palestine, and with reference to the disputed questions, which were then agitated there; although they are not expressly mentioned.

5 See, e. g. p. 67. ed. Semler. "Nos (proh pudor!) quadam dilectione peccati cum in quibusdam ostendimus quandam vim naturae nostrae, in aliis omuino torpescimus." On p. 69, he says, that with many, abstinentia and jejunium were nothing else than umbracula vitiorum. On p. 74, he says respecting humility, "Praecipue tamen fictam humilitatem fugiens, illam sectare quae vera est, quam Christus docuit humilitatem, in qua non sit superbia inclusa."

call one's self a sinner and a wretch."6 In such an hypocritical form, and in this false caricature, did the sense of sin, which is an essential element of Christian consciousness, often probably pass under the notice of Pelagius. And it is easy to see, how his disgust at the hypocritical form in which this Christian sense of guilt frequently appeared, might have led him to overlook the deep truth lying at its basis.

Still Pelagius was not free from those perversions of the monastic Ethics, by which their moral doctrine was severed from its internal connexion with the doctrines of faith. He was ensnared by that idea, so common among the monastic orders, that man can advance farther in Christian perfection than the law requires, by the practice of the so called consilia evangelica;that theory by which a false contrast between laity and clergy was introduced; by which the obligation universally binding upon men during their whole life, and in all their relations, to attain to a holy Christian standard, was obscured and let down; and by which, on the contrary, human power, considered merely as human, was set very much too high. The great thing with Pelagius was sincere moral effort,-a practical Christianity, exemplifying the ideal moral standard contained in the commands and counsels of Christ; but not taken in connexion with the fundamental nature of the whole doctrine of the Gospel.

Connected with this serious, conscientious cast of character, Pelagius had, so far as we can judge from his writings, that turn of mind, which led him to take clear and intelligible views on every subject before him. He was not one of those who feel themselves impelled to dive into the depths of the soul and spirit, and to bring their secret things to light. Where others found myste

6 "Perfacile est enim, aliquam vestem habere contemptam, salutare submissius, inclinato in terram capite oculisque dijectis humilitatem ac mansuetudinem polliceri, lenta voce tenuique sermones infringere, suspirare crebrius, et ad omne verbum peccatorem et miserum se clamare."

7 Ep. ad Demetriad. c. XI. "Supra legem facere, amore perfectionis supra mandata conscindere.”

8 [Klare verständige Richtung,-a phrase depending upon the distinction made in German philosophy between Verstand (understanding) and Vernunft (reason), and incapable of being rendered into English, except by a somewhat copious paraphrase. The immediate succeeding context will show the correctness of the paraphrase which is here given.—TR.