is that of John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming unto him, “Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;” where it is
obvious, that when John called our Lord, “the Lamb of God,” he spoke of
him under a sacrificial character, and of the effect of that sacrifice
as an atonement for the sins of mankind. This was said of our Lord, even
before he entered on his public office; but if any doubt should exist
respecting the meaning of the Baptist’s expression, it is removed by
other passages, in which a similar allusion is adopted, and in which it
is specifically applied to the death of Christ, as an atonement for sin.
In the Acts of the Apostles, the following words of Isaiah are, by
Philip the evangelist, distinctly applied to Christ, and to his death:
“He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so opened he not his mouth. in his humiliation his judgment was
taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken
from the earth.” This particular part of the prophecy being applied to
our Lord’s death, the whole must relate to the same subject; for it is
undoubtedly one entire prophecy, and the other expressions in it are
still stronger: “He was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with
his stripes we are healed: the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us
all.” In the First Epistle of Peter, is also a strong and very apposite
text, in which the application of the term “lamb” to our Lord, and the
sense in which it is applied, can admit of no doubt: “Forasmuch as ye
know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot,” 1 Peter i, 18, 19. It is therefore evident that the Prophet
Isaiah, six hundred years before the birth of Jesus; that John the
Baptist, on the commencement of his ministry; and that St. Peter, his
friend, companion and Apostle, subsequent to the transaction; speak of
Christ’s death as an atonement for sin, under the figure of a lamb
sacrificed.
The passages that follow, plainly and distinctly declare the atoning
efficacy of Christ’s death: “Now once in the end of the world hath he
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” “Christ was once
offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation,” Heb. ix, 26, 28.
“This man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, for ever sat down
on the right hand of God; for by one offering he hath perfected for ever
them that are sanctified,” Heb. x, 12. It is observable, that nothing
similar is said of the death of any other person, and that no such
efficacy is imputed to any other martyrdom. “While we were yet sinners
Christ died for us; much more then, being now justified by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him: for if, when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being
reconciled, we shall be saved by his life,” Rom. v, 8–10. The words,
“reconciled to God by the death of his Son,” show that his death had an
efficacy in our reconciliation; but reconciliation is only preparatory
to salvation. “He has reconciled us to his Father in his cross, and in
the body of his flesh through death,” Col. i, 20, 22. What is said of
reconciliation in these texts, is in some others spoken of
sanctification, which is also preparatory to salvation. “We are
sanctified,”--how? “by the offering of the body of Christ once for all,”
Heb. x, 10. In the same epistle, the blood of Jesus is called “the blood
of the covenant by which we are sanctified.” In these and many other
passages that occur in different parts of the New Testament, it is
therefore asserted that the death of Christ had an efficacy in the
procuring of human salvation. Such expressions are used concerning no
other person, and the death of no other person; and it is therefore
evident, that Christ’s death included something more than a confirmation
of his preaching; something more than a pattern of a holy and patient
martyrdom; something more than a necessary antecedent to his
resurrection, by which he gave a grand and clear proof of our
resurrection from the dead. Christ’s death was all these, but it was
something more. It was an atonement for the sins of mankind; and in this
way only it became the accomplishment of our eternal redemption. See DAY
OF EXPIATION.
AUGSBURGH, or AUGUSTAN CONFESSION. In 1530, a diet of the German princes
was convened by the emperor Charles V, to meet at Augsburgh, for the
express purpose of composing the religious troubles which then
distracted Germany. On this occasion Melancthon was employed to draw up
this famous confession of faith which may be considered as the creed of
the German reformers, especially of the more temperate among them. It
consisted of twenty-one articles, including the following points:--The
Trinity, original sin, the incarnation, justification by faith, the word
and sacraments, necessity of good works, the perpetuity of the church,
infant baptism, the Lord’s Supper, repentance and confession, the proper
use of the sacraments, church order, rites and ceremonies, the
magistracy, a future judgment, free will, the worship of saints, &c. It
then proceeds to state the abuses of which the reformers chiefly
complained, as the denial of the sacramental cup to the laity, the
celibacy of the clergy, the mass, auricular confession, forced
abstinence from meats, monastic vows, and the enormous power of the
church of Rome. The confession was read at a full meeting of the diet,
and signed by the elector of Saxony, and three other princes of the
German empire.
John Faber, afterward archbishop of Vienna, and two other Catholic
divines, were employed to draw up an answer to this confession, which
was replied to by Melancthon in his “Apology for the Augsburgh
Confession” in 1531. This confession and defence; the articles of
Smalcald, drawn up by Luther; his catechisms, &c, form the symbolical
books of the Lutheran church; and it must be owned that they contain
concessions in favour of some parts of popery, particularly the real
presence, that few Protestants in this country would admit.
AUGUSTINE, or, as he is sometimes called in the court style of the
middle ages, ST. AUSTIN, one of the ancient fathers of the church, whose
writings for many centuries had almost as potent an influence on the
religious opinions of Christendom as those of Aristotle exercised over
philosophy. Indeed, it has often been mentioned as a fact, with
expressions of regret, that the writings of no man, those of the
Stagirite excepted, contributed more than those of St. Augustine to
encourage that spirit of subtle disquisition which subsequently
distinguished the era of the Schoolmen. He was born, November 13th, A.
D. 354, at Tagasta, an episcopal city of Numidia in Africa. His parents,
Patricius and Monica, were Christians of respectable rank in life, who
afforded their son all the means of instruction which his excellent
genius and wonderful aptitude for learning seemed to require. He studied
grammar and rhetoric at Madura, until he was sixteen years old; and
afterward removed to Carthage, to complete his studies. In both these
cities, in all the fervour of unregenerate youth, he entered eagerly
into the seducing scenes of dissipation and folly with which he was
surrounded, and became not only depraved but infamous in his conduct. In
this respect he was not improved by his subsequent connection with the
Manichees, whose unhallowed principles afforded an excuse for his
immorality, and threw a veil over the vilest of his actions. The
simplicity and minuteness with which he has narrated the numerous
incidents of his childhood, youth, and mature age, in his celebrated
book of “Confessions,” have afforded abundant matter of ridicule to the
profane and infidel wits of this and the last age. The reflections,
however, which accompany his narrative, are generally important and
judicious, and furnish to the moral philosopher copious materials for a
history of the varieties of the human heart, and are of superior value
to the humble Christian for the investigation and better knowledge of
his own. With a strange though not uncommon inconsistency, few books
have been more frequently quoted as authority on matters relating to
general literature and philosophy by infidels themselves, than St.
Augustine’s otherwise despised “Confessions,” and his “City of God.”
But, whatever else is taught in this remarkable piece of autobiography,
every pious reader will be delighted with the additional proofs which it
contains of the ultimate prevalence of faithful prayer, especially on
the part of Christian parents. Monica’s importunate prayers to heaven
followed the aberrations of her graceless son,--when he settled at
Carthage as a teacher of rhetoric; when he removed to Rome, and lodged
with a Manichee;--and when he finally settled at Milan as professor of
rhetoric. St. Ambrose was at that time, A. D. 384, bishop of Milan, and
to his public discourses Augustine began to pay much attention. His
heart became gradually prepared for the reception of divine truth, and
for that important change of heart and principles which constitutes
“conversion.” The circumstances attending this change, though often
related, are not unworthy of being repeated, if only to show that the
mode of the Holy Spirit’s operations was in substance the same in those
early days as they are now; and time was when some of the soundest
divines and most worthy dignitaries of the church of England were in the
habit of referring with approbation to this well attested instance of
change of heart. One of his Christian countrymen, Pontinius, who held a
high situation at court, having perceived a copy of St. Paul’s Epistles
lying on the table, entered one day into conversation with him and his
friend Alipius about the nature of faith and the happiness of those who
lived in the enjoyment of religion. Augustine was deeply affected at the
close of this visit; and when Pontinius had retired, giving vent to his
feelings he addressed Alipius in a most animated strain: “How is this?
What shall we do? Ignorant people come, and seize upon heaven; and we,
with our learning, (senseless wretches that we are!) behold we are
immersed in flesh and blood! Are we ashamed to follow them? Yet is it
not a still greater shame, not even to be able to follow them?” Full of
remorse and contrition Augustine left the house and retired to a secret
part of the garden, followed by his friend, who seemed on this occasion
to be a partaker of his grief only because he saw him grieved in spirit.
Unwilling to unman himself, as he accounted it, before Alipius, he left
him; and throwing himself down under the branches of a large fig tree he
poured out a torrent of tears which he was unable any longer to
restrain, and exclaimed in bitterness of soul, “When, O Lord, when will
thy anger cease? Why tomorrow? Why not at this time?” He instantly heard
what he considered to be the voice of a child, saying _Tolle, lege_,
“Take and read.” These two Latin words were repeated several times;
Augustine reflected upon them, checked his tears, received them as the
voice of God, and running into the house, opened, according to the
divine direction, the Epistles of St. Paul which he had left on the
table, and attentively read the first passage which he found. It was
Romans xiii, 13, 14; a passage peculiarly applicable to him, in
reference to his former habits and present state of mind: “Not in
rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife
and envying: but put ye on THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, and make not provision
for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof.” He shut up the book, and was
amazed that all his doubts and fears had vanished. Alipius was speedily
informed of this wonderful change in his feelings and views; and after
having desired to see the two verses, in the spirit of a true seeker he
pointed out to Augustine the passage which immediately follows, and
which he considered as peculiarly adapted to his own case: “Him that is
weak in the faith receive ye,” &c, Rom. xiv, 1. The two friends then ran
to acquaint Monica with these circumstances, the knowledge of which
transported her with joy.
In a frame of mind not unfamiliar to those who have themselves had “much
forgiven,” Augustine wished to retire at once from so wicked a world as
that in which he had passed the first thirty-two years of his dissolute
life. His secession, however, was only a temporary one; for he and
Alipius were, a few months afterward, received by baptism into the
Christian church. After having composed several religious treatises in
his retreat near Tagasta, especially against the errors of the
Manichees, from which he had been so recently reclaimed, he was, in the
year 392, ordained priest by Valerius, bishop of Hippo, now a part of
the Barbary States on the coast of Africa. He there held a public
disputation with Fortunatus, a celebrated priest among the Manichees,
and acquitted himself with great spirit and success, he also wrote and
preached largely and to great effect against the Donatists and
Manichees. His reputation as a divine increased; and he was, at the
close of the year 395, ordained bishop of Hippo, in which high station
he continued with great advantage to wage war against various orders of
heretics.
Augustine had hitherto directed his theological artillery principally
against the predestinarian errors of the Manichees; but he was soon
called upon to change his weapons and his mode of warfare, in attacking
a new and not less dangerous class of heretics. In the year 412 he began
to write against the injurious doctrines of Pelagias, a native of
Britain, who had resided for a considerable time at Rome, and acquired
universal esteem by the purity of his manners, his piety, and his
erudition. Alarmed at the consequences which seemed to him obviously to
result from allowing that Adam’s sin is transmitted to all his
posterity, and fortified in his sentiments on this subject by those of
Origen and Ruffinus, with the latter of whom he had associated, he
boldly denied tenets which he did not believe. In the defence of his
opinions, Pelagius, was seconded by Celestius, a man equally eminent for
his talents and his virtues. Their principles were propagated at first
rather by hints and intimations, than by open avowal and plain
declarations; but this reserve was laid aside when they perceived the
ready reception which their doctrines obtained; and Celestius began
zealously to disseminate them in Africa, while Pelagius sowed the same
tares in Palestine, whence they were speedily transplanted to almost
every corner of Christendom. If the brief notices, which have come down
to us respecting their tenets, in the writings of their adversaries, be
correct, they affirmed, “It is not _free_ will if it requires the aid of
God; because every one has it within the power of his own will to do any
thing, or not to do it. Our victory over sin and Satan proceeds not from
the help which God affords, but is owing to our own free will. The
prayers which the church offers up either for the conversion of
unbelievers and other sinners, or for the perseverance of believers, are
poured forth in vain. The unrestricted capability of men’s own free will
is amply sufficient for all these things, and therefore no necessity
exists for asking of God those things which we are able of ourselves to
obtain; the gifts of grace being only necessary to enable men to do that
more easily and completely which yet they could do themselves though
more slowly and with greater difficulty; and that they are perfectly
free creatures,” in opposition to all the current notions of
predestination and reprobation. These novel opinions were refuted by St.
Augustine and St. Jerom, as well as by Orosius a Spanish presbyter, and
they were condemned as heresies in the council of Carthage and in that
of Milevum. The discussions which then arose have been warmly agitated
in various subsequent periods of the Christian church, though little new
light has been thrown upon them from that age to the present. In his
eagerness to confute these opponents St. Augustine employed language so
strong as made it susceptible of an interpretation wholly at variance
with the accountability of man. This led to farther explanations and
modifications of his sentiments, which were multiplied when the
Semi-Pelagians arose, who thought that the truth lay between his
doctrines and those of the Pelagians. Concerning original sin, he
maintained that it was derived from our first parents; and he believed
he had ascertained in what the original sin conveyed by Adam to his
posterity consisted. In his sentiments, however, upon the latter point
he was rather inconsistent, at one time asserting that the essence of
original sin was concupiscence, and at another expressing doubts
respecting his own position. This subject was bequeathed as a legacy to
the schoolmen of a subsequent age, who exercised their subtle wits upon
all its ramifications down to the period of the council of Trent. On the
consequences of the fall of our first parents, St. Augustine taught that
by it human nature was totally corrupted, and deprived of all
inclination and ability to do good. Before the age in which he lived,
the early fathers held what, in the language of systematic theology, is
termed the synergestic system, or the needfulness of human coöperation
in the works of holiness; but though the freedom of the will was not
considered by them as excluding or rendering unnecessary the grace of
God, yet much vagueness is perceptible in the manner in which they
express themselves, because they had not examined the subject with the
same attention as the theologians by whom they were succeeded. Those
early divines generally used the language of Scripture, the fertile
invention of controversial writers, not having as yet displayed itself,
except on the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and subsidiary terms and
learned distinctions not being then required by any great differences of
opinion. But as soon as Pelagius broached his errors, the attention of
Christians was naturally turned to the investigation of the doctrine of
grace. The opinions of St. Augustine on this subject, which soon became
those of the great body of the Christian church, admitted the necessity
of divine grace, or the influence of the Holy Spirit, for our obedience
to the law of God. He ascribed the renovation of our moral constitution
wholly to this grace, denied all coöperation of man with it for
answering the end to be accomplished, and represented it as
irresistible. He farther affirmed that it was given only to a certain
portion of the human race, to those who showed the fruits of it in their
sanctification, and that it secured the perseverance of all upon whom it
was bestowed. Plaifere in his “_Appello Evangelium_” has given the
following as the substance of that opinion of the order of
predestination of which “many do say that St. Austin was the first
author: 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create mankind holy and
good. 2. That he foresaw man, being tempted by Satan, would fall into
sin, if God did not hinder it; he decreed not to hinder. 3. That out of
mankind, seen fallen into sin and misery, he chose a certain number to
raise to righteousness and to eternal life, and rejected the rest,
leaving them in their sins. 4. That for these his chosen he decreed to
send his Son to redeem them, and his Spirit to call them and sanctify
them; the rest he decreed to forsake, leaving them to Satan and
themselves, and to punish them for their sins.”
After St. Augustine had thus in a great degree new moulded the science
of theology, and had combined with it as an essential part of divine
truth, that the fate of mankind was determined by the divine decree
independently of their own efforts and conduct, and that they were thus
divided into the elect and reprobate, it became necessary, in order to
preserve consistency, to introduce into his system a limitation with
respect to baptism, and to prevent the opinions concerning it from
interfering with those which flowed from the doctrine of predestination.
He accordingly taught, that baptism brings with it the forgiveness of
sins; that it is so essential, that the omission of it will expose us to
condemnation; and that it is attended with regeneration. He also
affirmed that the virtue of baptism is not in the water; that the
ministers of Christ perform the external ceremony, but that Christ
accompanies it with invisible grace; that baptism is common to all,
whilst, grace is not so; and that the same external rite may be death to
some, and life to others. By this distinction he rids himself of the
difficulty which would have pressed upon his scheme of theology, had
pardon, regeneration, and salvation been _necessarily_ connected with
the outward ordinance of baptism; and limits its proper efficacy to
those who are comprehended, as the heirs of eternal life, in the decree
of the Almighty. Many, however, of those who strictly adhere to him in
other parts of his doctrinal system, desert him at this point. Bishop
Bedell speaks thus in disparagement of his baptismal views, in a letter
to Dr. Ward: “This I do yield to my Lord of Sarum most willingly, that
the justification, sanctification, and adoption which children have in
baptism, is not _univocè_ [univocally] the same with that which _adulti_
[adults] have. I think the emphatical speeches of Augustine against the
Pelagians, and of Prosper, are not so much to be regarded (who say the
like of the eucharist also) touching the necessity and efficacy in the
case of infants; and they are very like the speeches of Lanfranc and
Guitmund of Christ’s presence in the sacrament, opposing _veracitér_,
[truly] and _veré_ [truly] to _sacramentalitér_; [sacramentally;] which
is a false and absurd contraposition. The opinion of the Franciscans out
of Scotus and Bernard, mentioned in the council of Trent, seems to be
the true opinion; for they make the sacraments to be effectual, ‘because
God gives them _effectus regularitér concomitantes_,’ [regularly
accompanying effects,] and to contain grace no otherwise than as an
effectual sign; and that grace is received by them as an investiture by
a ring or staff, which is _obsignando_, [by signation.] Consider that if
you will aver, that baptism washes away otherwise than sacramentally,
that is, obsignatorily, original sin; yet you must allow that manner of
washing for future actual sins; and you must make two sorts of
justification, one for children, another for _adulti_; [adults;] and
(which passes all the rest) you must find some promise in God’s covenant
wherein he binds himself to wash away sin without faith or repentance.
By this doctrine, you must also maintain that children do spiritually
eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood, if they receive the
eucharist, as for ages they did, and by the analogy of the passover they
may; and sith [if] the use of this sacrament _toties quoties_ [as often
as it is used] must needs confer grace, it seems it were necessary to
let them communicate, and the oftener the better, to the intent they
might be stronger in grace: which opinion, though St. Austin and many
more of the ancients do maintain, I believe you will not easily
condescend unto, or that children dying without baptism are damned.”
These remarks are important, as proceeding from the pen of the personal
friend of Father Paul, who wrote the History of the council of Trent.