ch he necessarily deduced the corollary doctrines of
election and reprobation; and, finally, he supported against
Pelagius, not only these opinions, but also the doctrine of the
perseverance of the saints," (_Ch. En._, Aug.) Besides introducing a
new theological system, Augustine put his imprimatur upon the
burning of heretics. When the magistrate Dulcitius had some
compunctions about executing a decree of Honorius, Augustine wrote
to him and said, "It is much better that some should perish by their
own fires, than that the whole body should perish in the everlasting
fires of Gehenna, through the desert of the impious dissension"
(_Ch. En._, Aug.) Calvin therefore could not only claim the
authority of Augustine for his dogmas, but he might have claimed him
also as justifying the burning of Servetus. But this by the way.

With the voice of the Fathers against him, and, as we think,
unwarranted by the light of philosophy and the true interpretation
of Scripture, how came it about, it may be asked, that Augustine
adopted the system which should be called by his name? The true
answer to this will be found, we apprehend, in a variety of
considerations. His early dissipated life, his nine years connection
with Manichaeism, the extreme statements of Pelagius, his own
strange conversion by hearing, when weeping and moaning under a fig
-tree, a young voice saying quickly, "_Tolle lege, tolle lege_" (take
and read, take and read), and which he took as a Divine admonition;
these, combined with the commotion of the times, would lend their
influence to the position he came to occupy. His system, whilst it
accords glory to God, is one-sided, by ignoring the function man has
to perform in applying the remedial scheme.

Although Pelagius had got many to espouse his opinions, yet his
tenets were again and again condemned by the councils of the Church.
The controversy, however, very soon diverged from strictly Pelagian
lines, and entered upon a new track--viz., that of Semi-pelagianism,
to which is closely allied the principles advocated by the
Evangelical Union of Scotland. From extremes there is generally a
recoil, and this was the case as regards Augustinianism. Certain
monks at Adrumetum drew conclusions from the system which, whether
they are admitted or not, are its logical outcome. They said, "Of
what use are all doctrines and precepts? Human efforts can avail
nothing, it is God that worketh in us to will and to do. Nor is it
r