tion, moreover, thus considered, is so far from leading to the idea that it is counterbalanced by reprobation, that it evidently confirms and illustrates the doctrine so often insisted upon in Scripture, that God desires the salvation of all men, that Christ died for all, that the sinner is the sole cause of his own condemnation, and that the grace and providence of God are ever conjointly employed, in inviting not some, but all men to repentance. In the same manner, the elect, thus regarded, are not taken from, and elevated above, their fellow-creatures, like beings who are thenceforth to have no connection with them, no sympathy, no common object of pursuit, but are raised like the sons of a gracious parent, who, seeing some of his children more likely than the others to employ his favours well, chooses them from the rest; and, while he bestows the inheritance on them, charges them to watch, like guardians, over their weaker and erring brethren. But to resume our narrative. Neither the exertions of Augustine, nor those of other eminent men of the church, availed at first to stop the progress of the Pelagian errors. Zosimus, the new pope*, convinced or deceived by the reasoning of Pelagius and his companion Celestius, espoused their cause; and, in opposition to the council of Carthage, which met in the year 416, and a second time condemned them, pronounced an opinion that they had been unjustly accused. Other councils were held in Africa about the same period, and with similar results. Augustine and Jerome laboured with increasing activity in their opposition to the heretics, and, either by their presence or their letters, confirmed the African church in its zealous attachment to the orthodox and established opinions. But in the West, the contest was mixed up with considerations on the part of the pope which turned the balance in favour of Pelagius and Celestius. Zosimus was sufficient politician to perceive that, if he were recognised as arbiter in the controversy, he might considerably advance his authority and influence over the * Bassage, Hist. de l'Eglise, liv. xi. c. 10. Fleury, Hist. Ecclés liv. xxiii. 42. With this idea, distant provinces of Christendom. he took upon himself to examine Celestius, who had returned to Rome, and then summoned his accusers to appear within two months, and support their charge. As the summons was not attended to, he fully accquitted both Celestius and Pelagius; but the firm conduct of the African prelates obliged him to pause in the course he had intended to follow. Though affirming, with an appearance of confidence, that his decision in a matter of controversy ought to be regarded as final, he consented, he said, to communicate with them on the subject, and, in accordance with this conciliatory spirit, soon after summoned Celestius again to appear before him. But Celestius was aware of the change which had taken place in the pope's opinion, and, instead of obeying the citation, made a hasty retreat from Rome. Irritated at this, Zosimus confessed that he had been deceived, and without delay pronounced an anathema against the whole system of Pelagius and his associate. Both the East and the West were now in arms against the new heresy; and wherever its authors endeavoured to establish themselves a host of opponents were prepared to assail them. Pelagianism was by these means speedily deprived of the vigour which had threatened to unsettle the faith of the church. But though its opponents rejoiced, and with reason, that they had so soon gained a triumph over the innovators, and stifled their system in its birth, the controversy left long and deep traces of its effects. A modified species of Pelagianism sprang up, and the doctrines of the gospel were imperceptibly lowered by the rationalising spirit which was beginning to prevail among a numerous body of the clergy. In the conflict of two opposite sects, the extremes only of their systems are observed; and it is on these which the spirit of partisanship teaches their respective adherents to fasten with the greatest pertinacity. But it is in the extremes of systems that error chiefly abounds; and, as it is only in proportion to the U 4 quantity of truth in opinions that they can be brought into connection, that which is peculiar to the systems which have been the subject of controversy will generally be found to retain its hold on men's minds long after the dispute has apparently been brought to a close. Hence the readiness with which the opinions of the monk Cassian were received. That religionist, rejecting the opinions of Pelagius, propagated others, which embodied the most objectionable principle of the late heresy. While he denied that man could perfect the renovation of his soul by any efforts of his own, he maintained, that to himself belonged the beginning of the work. This idea was rapidly propagated in the church, and has continued through many succeeding ages to endanger the purity of its doctrines. Augustine, on the other hand, by endeavouring to unfold the mysteries of divine grace with too ardent a mind, had imbued his opinions with the warmth of his own devotion, which, when taken by others as the substance and foundation of argumentation, drew them at once into a labyrinth of contradictions. But profound humility, an anxious desire to give glory to God- to overcome every feeling of selfishness-to destroy all dependence on resolutions unassisted by divine grace- -on motives which have not their beginning in the renewal of the heart, or on hopes which centre not in the Author and Finisher of our salvation ;these were the characteristics not only of Augustine's system, but of those which at first sprung from it. Unfortunately, the deceitfulness of the human heart soon taught men to discover, that the principles which were intended to cherish the deepest spirit of holiness might furnish the most subtle arguments for the indulgence of licentiousThe Predestinarians drew consequences from Augustine's system which he himself shrunk from with horror. The crimes of the wicked, as well as the virtues of the holy, were ascribed by those sectaries to the decrees of God; and though, by his strenuous opposition to their error, it was somewhat repressed, the ness. subsequent history of religion affords many a melancholy proof that tares had been sown, which none but the great Husbandman himself could separate from the wheat. CHAP. X. REVIVAL OF THE STASIUS. - THE EUTYCHIANS UNDER THE EMPEROR ANA REIGNS OF JUSTIN, JUSTINIAN, AND THEIR DISORDERS IN THE CHURCH. GREGORY; OF BENEDICT; OF AUGUSTINE. LABOURS OF To trace THE preceding century was closed amid disputes which went near to subvert that lofty fabric of ecclesiastical power and discipline which had been reared by the united labours of emperors and churchmen. the continuation of the same troubles is still the melancholy task of the historian. Heresy opposed by heresy — faction by ambition-ignorance by dogmatism-prelatical pride by the incipient strength of papal tyranny, from the conflict of such combatants as these, Piety has little to look for, and Truth, finding herself despised, voluntarily abandons the field. But the inference which a careless reader of history would draw from the narrative of these disorders is not that to which it ought properly to lead. There is a species of idolatry which owes its invention chiefly to modern philosophy, and having derived its birth from the sophistry of acute minds is received with admiration by the weak and obtuse. Taking the pride, the hate and jealousy, the ambition and licentiousness of evil men professing Christianity, the enemies of truth have formed a kind of Juggernaut of their vices, and, audaciously declaring, that it may be looked at as an abstraction of the religion — that it may be spoken of as synonymous with the faith itself—that the wars it has excited, the bloody sacrifices it has demanded, are to be considered as its own, - turn round in triumph, and ask, whether it ought to be received and obeyed as divine? But instead of being rendered doubtful, as to the truth or holiness of Christianity, from a close survey of the errors of its professors, the attentive enquirer will rise from the examination more strongly convinced than ever of its divine origin. The most simple process of reasoning will force him to acknowledge, that no system which uniformly teaches the worth of peace, humility, and kind-heartedness, can be fairly regarded as the cause of pride and contention. A similar process will convince him, that a system which could maintain its ground through centuries of ever-varying dispute, must have had something in its nature singularly vivifying and when he comes to consider that every species of error, which was from time to time attached to it, fell off at a subsequent period, not as the husk from a ripe fruit, but as a worm which had in vain endea voured to penetrate the rind, he will conclude that error has nothing in common with the system, that they are essentially opposite in their nature, and that the reli gion which has been so often confounded with the false schemes of its professors is derived immediately from heaven. : The emperor Anastasius was zealously attached to the Eutychians, and more especially to that branch of the sect which had assumed the title of Acephali, or the headless, from their being without a leader. But on his ascending the throne, to which he was raised by his marriage with Ariadne, the widow of the late emperor, the bishop Euphemius is said to have refused to anoint him till he signed a declaration, that he would do nothing prejudicial to the Catholic faith. This declaration, with the emperor's signature in his own handwriting, was given in charge to Macedonius, who had the care of the sacred vessels; but when that ecclesiastic was promoted to the see, Ana |