Augustine next employed himself about his last work in the Pelagian controversies, in opposition to Julian, which he was never able to complete. He wrote on this work in the midst of violent political storms, which brought desolation and ruin over the flourishing portion of the world in which he lived. He had the pain to see accomplished the downfall of a man, who had once been very dear to him. The leader (Comes) Boniface, one of the most distinguished and successful commanders of the declining Roman empire, had been induced by the advice of Augustine himself, to abandon his intention of withdrawing into monastic life, and to devote his powers to the defence of oppressed Romish Christendom against the raging incursions of the barbarous nations. But he was afterwards prevailed upon, in consequence of the intrigues of the commandant Aëtius, bis rival in military renown, to rebel against the imperial government. In order to sustain himself in this contest, he called in the Vandals from Spain to his aid. Augustine employed a favourable moment to speak to the conscience of Boniface, in a letter written with genuine christian dignity and great wisdom,a true model for such complicated, relations. Boniface had to learn by bitter experience, the truth of what his old friend had predicted to him. He was led on farther than he himself first intended, and when he wished to retrace his steps, it was too late. The Vandals looked upon those flourishing regions as their own, and from being the allies of Boniface, became his enemies. Augustine's episcopal residence, the city Hippo, was besieged by them. In the midst of these sufferings, and in the prospect of new dangers impending, it was Augustine's common prayer, that God would deliver the town from the enemy; or that he would grant his servants power to endure every thing which his will should impose upon them; or that God would take him out of the world. The latter event took place. On the third month of the siege, which lasted fourteen months, Augustine died, 76 years old, A. D. 429.107 107 of the latter years of Pelagius nothing is known with certainty. He is generally said to have passed them in the seclusion of monastic life, at Jerusalem; and one account relates that he died there A. D. 420, at the age of 90 years.-ED. ART. IV.-HINTS RESPECTING COMMENTARIES UPON SCRIPTURES. By M. Stuart, Prof. of Sac. Lit. in the Theol. Sem. at Andover. THE It is impossible for any one who reads and venerates the Scriptures, not take an interest in the present signs of the times respecting them. The period now past is not very remote, when the whole world called Christian, with the exception of priests, monks, and a few literati, were entirely, or almost entirely, excluded from the reading or consultation of the word of God. To us who live in a land where every kind of publication has the most free and wide range that is possible, and where no authority of man can prevent the reading of any book which one chooses to read, it seems scarcely credible that such a state of things should ever have existed. And were we not most forcibly reminded of it by facts that are continually occurring in the midst of us, even at the present time, among some called Christians, and who regard as a crime the dissemination of the Holy Scriptures among the people at large, we should almost be tempted to suppose, that the history of the past had received some touches from the hand of exaggeration. In some particulars this may have been so; but that the facts on record, with regard to the prohibition of the Holy Scriptures as a book for use among the common people, are substantially true, is beyond all contradiction. Indeed, no attempt is made by those who are principally concerned in such probibitory measures to conceal this fact. The Lord Jesus told the unbelieving Jews to "search the Scriptures," John 5: 39. The sacred historian of early christian times says, that the Bereans "were more noble than those of Thessalonica, inasmuch as they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so," Acts 17: 11. Paul gives special charge. to the Thessalonians, that "his epistle be read to ALL the holy brethren," 1 Thess. 5: 7; and the same apostle exhorts the Ephesian church, without distinction or exception, "to take to themselves the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God," Eph. 6: 17. The ancient legislator of the Jews, in times of great ignorance among the community over which he presided, gave express direction, that "the words which he commanded should be in their heart; that they should teach them diligently to their children, and talk of them when they should sit in the house, or walk by the way, or lie down, or rise up; that they should bind them for a sign upon the hand, and they should be as frontlets between their eyes; that they should write them upon the posts of their house, and upon their gates," Deut. 6: 6-9; the holy Psalmist describes the pious man, as being one whose "delight is in the law of the Lord [the Scriptures], and in his law doth he meditate day and night;" and a great multitude of passages, of the like tenor, might easily be added to these. Yet the church of Rome, even after the light of the Reformation had burst upon the world, and the subject of disseminating the Scriptures had been amply discussed, did prohibit the reading of Scripture by the common people, in the famous council of Trent, and make it penal for booksellers to deal in Bibles.* The only exception to a general prohibition with regard to the common people is, that upon the recommendation of a priest or confessor, the bishop may give license to particular individuals, to read the Bible as translated into their own vernacular language, when such translation is made by catholic authors; a privilege, as we know from the history of the past, rarely asked for, and still more rarely granted, because the odium of suspected heresy was attached to making such a request. Inquiry implied doubt, as these directors of the consciences of men supposed; and doubt, with the reading of the Bible, might easily lead men to think and act for themselves in matters of religion, instead of submitting implicitly to the dictates of the See at Rome. That the zeal and the infatuation which dictated such measures at Rome, in regard to the dissemination of the Scriptures, have nothing abated in recent times, is sufficiently evident, if we consult documents which lie before the public. In the Circular Letter of the Pope, in A. D. 1824, which respects the recent efforts of Bible Societies, and is addressed to all the patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops of the catholic church, he exhorts them diligently to occupy themselves, by all means, to turn away their flocks from these deadly pastures (lethiferis hisce pascuis), meaning the Scriptures circulated by Bible Societies, which, in another passage of the same Epistle, he styles the gospel of the Devil (evangelium Diaboli). And in conformity to these requisitions, the poor catholics of our great cities are * Conc. Trid. Sess. 4. Decret. de Canone Script. obliged by their priests, on pain of excommunication, to give up Bibles or any other religious books, which they may have received from protestants, and the reading of which might shake their faith in the decretals of the Council of Trent. How different the general spirit which pervades our country and that land from which we came ! Bibles without limitation, and almost without number, are printed and circulated; and instead of any prohibition being laid upon the dissemination of them, it is regarded as an imperious duty of societies and of individuals, to circulate them to the greatest possible extent. Already, in a great part of our country, has every family been supplied with a copy of the Holy Scriptures, who was willing to receive one. The spirit of inquiry respecting the contents of the Scriptures, is one that we should naturally expect to follow on, in the train of events like these. Accordingly it has made its appearance, and is becoming diffused rapidly, and in a manner surpassing all expectation. It would hardly be possible to calculate, without great pains and much expense of time, how many commentaries on the Bible have been printed and circulated in the protestant religious community, since the operations of the British and Foreign Bible Society first commenced. In the interesting accounts of these operations, and those of other kindred societies in this country and elsewhere, but little notice has yet been bestowed on this unexpected result of their efforts. It is an honour due to them, to point out this important fruit of their labours; and to shew, that while they are diffusing the Scriptures themselves among the people at large, they are of course waking up the spirit of inquiry, not only among the mass of men, but in a particular manner among those whose business it is to be the teachers of religion. Comparing the state of things not many years since, in this country and in Great Britain, one can scarcely give credit to facts respecting the circulation of large and expensive commentaries on the Scriptures among the mass of the community. That such voluminous works as those of Scott and Henry, for example, should not only meet with a ready sale in one or two extensive editions, but that these editions should be frequently repeated, and the sale become still more and more extensive, is a palpable evidence that new times have come upon the church, and that new developements are about to be made, in regard to the subject of religion and of the Bible, which must be looked for with the deepest interest by all who are concerned in things of this nature. It is not to my purpose further to pursue historical notices relative to this great subject. I have said thus much in order to show that there never was a time, when information respecting the Holy Scriptures was so extensively sought after as at present; and consequently there never was a time, in which all good men had so deep an interest in the character of books, whose object it is to explain the contents of the Bible. The activity of the enemies of this blessed book has been greater, I believe, during the last fifty or sixty years, than ever before, in lands called christian. The enemy have indeed "come in like a flood;" but "the Spirit of the Lord has raised up a standard against them." Infidelity, after a while, begins to grow weary of its toil; and this very naturally; for what is the reward which it can hope for, on account of the labours which it bestows upon the objects that it has in view? A few men attain, perhaps, to wealth and notoriety, by their efforts and their writings. But the mass of their fellow labourers sink down into insignificance, the victims of selfish passions and carnal appetites. But not so with Christians. They have a great and glorious object before them; no less than the diffusion of the light of salvation over the world, and the regeneration of our degraded and unhappy race. Their immediate reward is the pleasure of doing good; and their ultimate and highest one, is the final approbation of God, and the glories of the heavenly world. All things considered, it would seem quite probable, that the circulation of the Scriptures, and of books which may serve to explain them, will become more and more extensive. I do hope and trust that Christians, who have begun thus to scatter light over this benighted world, will feel such pleasure in doing this, and cherish so deep a sense of the duty of thus doing, that the work will not stop, but go on and increase, until "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea." The highly interesting nature of this undertaking, renders every step of its means and its process an object worthy of the most attentive and serious examination. No one individual can even hope to do the principal part of such a task. The united and the successive efforts of many minds will be required, in order to complete what is to be done in the way of canvassing and settling the question: What are the means best adapted to promote |