178 "He means that Baptism, which is the sacrament of initiation, was not so profitable without the Lord's Supper, which ancients called the sacrament of perfection or consummation."-W. W. Compare also sec. 24, note, and p. 140, note 3, above.

179 See sec. 20, note, and sec. 21, note, above.

180 Gen. i. 20.

181 Gen. ii. 7.

182 John iii. 5.

183 John iv. 48.

184 1 Cor. xiv. 22.

185 "Fundasti super aquas," which is the Old Ver. of Ps. cxxxvi. 6. Augustin sometimes uses a version with "firmavit terram," which corresponds to the LXX., but the Authorized Version renders the Hebrew more accurately by "stretched out." In his comment on this place he applies this text to baptism as being the entrance into the Church, and in this he is followed by many mediaeval writers.

186 Ps. xxiii. 5. Many of the Fathers interpret this text of the Lord's Supper, as Augustin does above. The fish taken out of the deep, which is fed upon, means Christ, in accordance with the well-known acrostic of IlQUS "If," he says in his De Civ. Dei, xviii. 23, "you join the initial letters of these five Greek words, Ihsou=j Xristoj qeou= Uio/j Swt'hr, which mean, `Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour, 0' they will make the word ixquj,,-that is, `fish, 0' in which word Christ is mystically understood, because He was able to live, that is, to exist without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters." So likewise we find Tertullian saying in his De Bapt. chap. i.: "Nos pisciculi, secundum IXQUN nostrum Jesum Christum in aqua nascimur; nec aliter quam in aqua permanendo salvi sumus." See Bishop Kaye's Tertullian, pp. 43, 44; and sec. 34, below.

187 1 Tim. v. 6.

188 Gen. iii. 8.

189 Ps. lxix. 32.

190 Rom. xii. 2.

191 1Tim. vi. 20. See p. 153, note 7, above.

192 Jer. ii. 13. See p. 133, note 2, and p. 129, note 8, above.

193 Rom. xii. 2.

194 1 Cor. xi. 1.

195 See p. 71, note 3, above.

196 Gal. iv. 12.

197 Ecclus. iii. 17, etc.

198 1 Cor. viii. 8.

199 Matt. x. 16.

200 Rom. i. 20.

201 In his De Gen. con. Manich. i. 20, he interprets the dominion given to man over the beasts of his keeping in subjection the passions of the soul, so as to attain true happiness.

202 As Origen has it: "The good man is he who truly exists." See p. 190, note 6, above; and compare the use made of the idea in Archbishop Thomson's Bampton Lectures, lect. i.

203 Rom. xii. 2.

204 Gen. i. 26.

205 1 Cor. iv. 15.

206 1 Thess. ii. 7.

207 Rom. xii. 2.

208 Jer. xxxi. 34.

209 Gen. i. 27.

210 Col. iii. 10.

211 1 Cor. ii. 15.

212 1Cor. ii. 14.

213 Ps. xlix. 20.

214 Eph. ii. 10.

215 Gen. i. 27.

216 Gal. iii. 28.

217 In his De Civ. Dei, xi. 3, he defines very distinctly (as he does in other of his writings) the knowledge received "by sight"-that is, by experience, as distinguished from that which is received "by faith"-that is, by revelation (2 Cor. v. 7). He, in common with all the Fathers who had knowledge of the Pagan philosophy, would feel how utterly that philosophy had failed to "find out" (Job xi. 7) with certitude anything as to God and His character,-the Creation of the world,-the Atonement wrought by Christ,-the doctrine of the Resurrection, as distinguished from the Immortality of the Soul,-our Immortal Destiny after death, or "the Restitution of all things." As to the knowledge of God, see Justin Martyr's experience in the schools of philosophy, Dialogue with Trypho, ch. ii.; and on the doctrine of Creation, See p. 165, note 4. On the "Restitution of all things," etc., reference may be made to Mansel's Gnostics, who points out (Introd. p. 3) that "in the Greek philosophical systems the idea of evil holds a very subordinate and insignificant place, and that the idea of redemption seems not to be recognised at all." He shows further (ibid. p. 4), that "there is no idea of the delivery of the creature from the bondage of corruption. The great year of the Stoics, the commencement of the new cycle which takes its place after the destruction of the old world, is but a repetition of the old evil." See also p. 164, note 2, above.

218 Jas. iv. 11.

219 Matt. viii. 20.

220 1 Cor. v. 12.

221 See sec. 29, note.

222 Gen. i. 28.

223 See p. 92, note 1, above.

224 See p. 189, note 2, above.

225 See p. 199, note 3, above.

226 See sec. 21, and note, above.

227 Rom. iii. 4, and Ps. cxvi. 11.

228 John viii. 44.

229 Gen. i. 29.

230 Ibid. ver. 30.

231 2 Tim. i. 16.

232 2 Cor. xi. 9.

233 2 Tim. iv. 16.

234 "Rationalem. An old epithet to most of the holy things. So, reasonable service, Rom. xii. 1, logiko'n ga/la; 1 Pet. ii. 2, sincere milk. Clem. Alex. calls Baptism so, Pedag. i. 6. And in Constitut. Apost. vi. 23, the Eucharist is styled, a reasonable Sacrifice. The word was used to distinguish Christian mysteries from Jewish. Rationale est spirituale."-W. W.

235 Ps. xix. 4.

236 Phil. iii. 19.

237 Rom. xvi. 18.

238 Phil. iv. 18.

239 Ibid. ver. 10.

240 Ibid. vers. 11-13.

241 Phil. iv. 14.

242 Compare p. 160, note 2, above.

243 Ps. iv. 1.

244 Compare his De Bono Conjug. ch. xxi., where he points out that while any may suffer need and abound, to know how to suffer belongs only to great souls, and to know how to abound to those whom abundance does not corrupt.

245 Phil. iv. 15, 16.

246 Ibid. ver. 17.

247 Matt. x. 41, 42.

248 1 Kings xvii. See p. 133, note 2, above.

249 We have already referred (p. 69, note 5, above) to the cessation of miracles. Augustin has a beautiful passage in Serm. ccxliv. 8, on the evidence which we have in the spread of Christianity-it doing for us what miracles did for the early Church. Compare also De Civ. Dei, xxii. 8. And he frequently alludes, as, for example, in Ps. cxxx., to "charity" being more desirable than the power of working miracles.


This document (last modified February 03, 1998) from Believerscafe.com
Home | Bible versions | Bible Dictionary | Christian Classics | Christian Articles | Daily Devotions

Sister Projects: Wikichristian | WikiMD

BelieversCafe is a large collection of christian articles with over 40,000 pages


Our sponsors:   sleep and weight loss center W8MD sleep and weight loss center