covered, it does not doubt that there will be a perfect identity between what it then sees and what faith has now received and believed.* Understanding, while it is not the way to faith, shall yet be the reward of faith.

As was to be expected from one who perceived so clearly that God was not to be found out by searching, but was known to them, and to them only, unto whom he was pleased to reveal himself, Augustine speaks often of prayer as that to which alone the shut doors of Scripture mysteries would open; and in his writings there are many devoutest prayers of his own, in which he turns to God as to the one fountain of light and understanding, as to the One who alone can show him the hidden things which are contained in his law, seeking insight and illumination from Him, and desiring above all that he may neither be himself deceived therein, nor deceive others therefrom.t

Ep. 120. c. 1: Ut ergo in quibusdam rebus ad doctrinam salutarem pertinentibus quas ratione nondum percipere valeamus, sed aliquando valebimus, fides præcedat rationem, quâ cor mundetur, ut magnæ rationis capiat et perferat lucem, hoc utique rationis est. Et ideo rationabiliter dictum est per prophetam, Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis. (Isai. vii. 9.) Ubi procul dubio discrevit hæc duo, deditque consilium quo prius credamus, ut id quod credimus, intelligere valeamus. . . Si igitur rationabile est, ut ad magna quædam quæ capi nondum possunt, fides præcedat rationem, procul dubio quantulacunque ratio quæ hoc persuadet, etiam ipsa antecedit fidem.

+ This is only a fragment of one of them (Conf. 11, c. 2): Domine Deus meus, circumcide ab omni temeritate omnique mendacio interiora et exteriora labia mea. Sint castæ deliciæ meæ Scripturæ tuæ ; nec fallar in eis, nec fallam ex eis. Domine attende, et miserere, Domine Deus meus, lux cæcorum et virtus infirmorum, statimque

lux videntium et virtus fortium, attende animam meam, et audi clamantem de profundo. Largire spatium meditationibus nostris in abdita Legis tuæ, neque adversus pulsantes claudas eas. Neque enim frustra scribi voluisti tot paginarum opaca secreta.—It would, I think, help us a little to appreciate the extent to which Augustine modified and moulded the thoughts and feelings, and even the very expressions, of the most eminent Church writers who came after him, if we were to compare, on subjects of moral and theological interest, some of their chiefest utterances with his; as, for example, with some of these his sayings in regard of Scripture, a very beautiful passage on the same subject in Gregory the Great, which in every line shows the influence of his great teacher (Moral. 1. 20. c. i): Quamvis omnem scientiam atque doctrinam Scriptura sacra sine aliquâ comparatione transcendat; ut taceam quod vera prædicat, quod ad cœlestem patriam vocat, quod a terrenis desideriis ad superna amplectenda cor legentis immutat, quod dictis obscurioribus exercet fortes, et parvulis humili sermone blanditur; quod nec sic clausa est, ut pavesci debeat; nec sic patet ut vilescat; quod usu fastidium tollit, et tanto amplius diligitur quanto amplius meditatur; quod legentis animum humilibus verbis adjuvat, sublimibus sensibus levat: quod aliquo modo cum legentibus crescit: quod a rudibus lectoribus quasi recognoscitur, et tamen doctis semper nova reperitur; ut ergo de rerum pondere taceam, scientias tamen omnes atque doctrinas ipso etiam locutionis suæ more transcendit, quia uno eodemque sermone dum narrat textum prodit mysterium, et sic scit præterita dicere, ut eo ipso noverit futura prædicare, et non immutato dicendi ordine, eisdem ipsis sermonibus novit et anteacta describere, et agenda nuntiare; sicut hæc eadem beati Jobi verba sunt, qui dum sua dicit, nostra prædicit, dumque lamenta propria per sermonem indicat, sanctæ Ecclesiæ causam per intellectum sonat.

CHAPTER II.

W

WHILE Augustine does not set too high a value on external helps, on the outward furniture and accomplishment of the interpreter, but recognizes to the full that spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned, that only the Spirit can interpret what was given by the Spirit; he is as far removed as can be from that enthusiasm which would despise these helps, as though they could not do good service in their place, as though they were not also gifts of God. Nor did he sparingly or reluctantly recognize the value of those subsidiary aids, which he did not himself possess, or which he only imperfectly possessed; but attached to them their full honour and importance. In his valuable treatise De Doctriná Christianá he images forth the perfect interpreter, such as he ought to be; and gives suggestions which may help to form such, even while he confesses how far off he knows himself from fulfilling his own ideal. Thus he urges the great advantage which he may derive from recurring to the Hebrew and Greek originals, and where this is not possible, from the use of many translations, as checking, throwing light on, and completing, one another. He will have his ideal and perfect interpreter well acquainted with natural history, with music, with history and chronology, with logic, and

with philosophy;* for not one of these but will come into play; some of them will be most important for the great work which he has undertaken. If he has been in Egypt, let him come forth from it as richly furnished with its stuffs as he may, with its silver and its gold, which may afterwards be worked up for the very service of the tabernacle itself.†

Here then may very fitly be considered what was the actual extent of Augustine's own outward equipment for

* L. 2. c. 11-42; and for the sake of others who may not possess all this knowledge, he proposes (c. 19) that some one who does, should undertake a Biblical Dictionary, such as since has often been done: Ut non sit necesse Christiano in multis propter pauca laborare, sic video posse fieri, si quem eorum qui possunt, benignam sane operam fraternæ utilitati delectet impendere, ut quoscumque terrarum locos quæve animalia vel herbas atque arbores, sive lapides vel metalla incognita, speciesque quaslibet Scriptura commemorat, ea generatim digerens, sola exposita litteris mandet.

De Doctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 40: Philosophi autem qui vocantur, si qua forte vera et fidei nostræ accommodata dixerunt, maxime Platonici, non solum formidanda non sunt, sed ab eis etiam tanquam injustis possessoribus in usum nostrum vindicanda. Sicut enim Ægyptii non solum idola habebant et onera gravia, quæ populus Israël detestaretur et fugeret, sed etiam vasa atque ornamenta de auro et argento, et vestem, quæ ille populus exiens de Ægypto sibi potius tanquam ad usum meliorem clanculo vindicavit, non auctoritate propriâ, sed præcepto Dei, ipsis Ægyptiis nescienter commodantibus ea, quibus non bene utebantur, sic doctrinæ omnes Gentilium non solum simulata et superstitiosa figmenta gravesque sarcinas supervacui laboris habent, . . . sed etiam liberales disciplinas usui veritatis aptiores; quod eorum tamquam aurum et argentum, quod non ipsi instituerunt, sed de quibusdam quasi metallis divinæ providentiæ, quæ ubique infusa sunt, eruerunt, . . . . debet ab eis auferre Christianus ad usum justum prædicandi Evangelii.

everywhere proclaims his His knowledge of Punic,

the work of an interpreter. It is almost needless to observe that he possessed no knowledge whatsoever of Hebrew. Indeed there were but two of the early Fathers, Origen in the Greek Church, and he but slightly,* and Jerome in the Latin, who did so. It is, as he declares, a lingua incognita to him, and he entire unacquaintance with it. (for that he knew it we may, I think, certainly conclude,‡) would no doubt materially have helped him, had he been inclined seriously to grapple with the difficulties of the Hebrew tongue. Bochart, Gesenius, and others who have studied the few remains of this tongue which have come down to us, so express their regret at the almost entire perishing of all its monuments, and at our deprivation thus of all the helps that might have been derived from it, as to show that the resemblance between the languages could not have been slight; even as we might have concluded, a priori, that the Punic, brought as it was from

* See Huet's Origeniana, 1. 2. c. 2, for proofs how slight and inaccurate his acquaintance with Hebrew was (Judaicis litteris leviter tinctus.)

† De Doctr. Christ. 1. 2. c. 23; Conf. 1. 11. c. 3; Enarr. in Ps. cxxxvi. 7; et passim.

It seems implied in such language as this (Serm. 167. c. 3): Proverbium notum est Punicum, quod quidem Latine vobis dicam, quia Punice non omnes nostis; cf. Exp. Inchoat. in Rom. §. 13. Yet it would not seem a very common knowledge among the provincials, for he complains more than once of the difficulty of obtaining presbyters who were acquainted with the language for some churches in country districts, where no other tongue was understood by the population.