life is written by fome one of his difciples, and dedicated to Felician, a bishop, who was the fucceffor of Fulgentius. The review of it and of his own works will give us a fpecimen of the power of divine grace victoriously struggling under all the disadvantages of monaftic fuperftition and the childish ignorance of a barbarous age. Fulgentius was defcended from a noble family in Carthage, where his father was a fenator. His grandfather Gordian, flying from the arms of Huneric, retired into Italy. After his decease, two of his fons, returning into Africa now fettled under the Vandal government, found their family-mansion poffeffed by the Arian clergy. By royal authority however they received part of their patrimony, and retired to Conftantinople. In that part of the world, at Tellepte, Fulgentius was born, being the son of Claudius one of the brothers, and of Marriana, a Christian lady, who being foon left a widow gave her fon a very liberal education, for which Conftantinople afforded at that time peculiar advantages; and thus his mind became ftored with Greek and Roman learning. As he increased in religious seriousness, he inclined more and more to a monaftic life, for which he gradually prepared himself by fucceffive aufterities in Africa, the country of his father, to which he returned with his mother. He was received into the monaftery of Fauftus, a bishop whom the Arian perfecution had banished from his diocefe to a place contiguous to it, where he erected his monaftery. The fpirit and fashion of the times fo tranfported him, that, at first, he refused even to fee his own mother who came to vifit him, though he afterwards behaved to her with the greatest filial duty. He underwent fevere bodily fufferings from the renewal of the Arian perfecution. He was beaten with clubs fo cruelly, that he confeffed afterwards he fcarce found himself ca pable pable of enduring the pain any longer, and was glad to induce his tormentors by fome converfation to allow an interval to his afflictions. For he seems to have been of a weak and delicate conftitution, and the foftness of his early education rendered him unfit to bear much hardship. His mind, however, appears to have been ferene and faithful to his Saviour, whom, in real humility and fincerity, though tarnished with the fashionable fuperftition, he ferved according to the fundamentals of the gospel. The Arian bishop of Carthage, who had known Fulgentius, and esteemed his character, highly difapproved of this treatment, which he had received from a prefbyter of his own religion and diocese, and told the injured youth, that, if he would make a formal complaint before him, he would avenge his cause. Many advifing him to do fo, "it is not lawful, says Fulgentius, for a Chriftian to feek revenge. The Lord knows how to defend his fervants. Should the prefbyter through me be punished, I fhall lofe the reward of my patience with God, and the more fo, as it would give an occafion of ftumbling to the weak, to see an Arian punished by a Monk." By and by he retired into the more interior parts of Africa. Sometime after he failed to Syracufe, and then vifited Rome, and faw there king Theodoric in the midst of a magnificent affembly. If men in this life, feeking vanity, attain fuch dignity, what will be the glory of faints who seek true honour in the new Jerufalem?-this was the reflection-Rufpæ in Africa was the place to which Fulgentius, much against his will, was at length elected bishop. But this exaltation leffened not the feverity of his way of life and by the Arian perfecution he was banished into Sardinia in company with other faithful witneffes of orthodoxy. Upwards of fixty bishops were with him in exile. Thrafamond fent more ftill into Sardinia, in all 220, exerted himself mightily in overcoming the conftancy of the orthodox, and delighted to enfnare them with captious queftions. Fulgentius was fent for by him to Carthage, and by his skill in argument, and his readiness in anfwering questions, excited the king's admirationtill through the advice of his Arian clergy, who looked on the presence of Fulgentius as dangerous at Carthage, he was remanded to Sardinia. Soon after, Hilderic, the fucceffor of Thrasamond, in the year 523, favouring the orthodox, put a total end to 523 the perfecution, and Rufpæ once more beheld her bishop. A.D. He lived among his flock from this time to his death, eminent in piety, humility, and charity. For near seventy days he fuffered extreme pains in his last sickness-" Lord, give patience here and reft hereafter," was his conftant prayer-and he died at length, as he had lived, an edifying example of every Chriftian virtue. I feel almoft afhamed to have written fo barren a life of a man undoubtedly excellent in godlinefs. But the reader must be content, as well as myself, with the poverty of materials. In an age of learning and genius the life of Fulgentius would have fhone abundantly. In his trea tife to Morinus on predeftination he observés *, "The internal master, from whom we have received the supply of celeftial doctrine, not only opens to us, enquiring the fecrets of his words, but does alfo himfelf infpire the grace to make enquiry. For we cannot so much as hunger after the bread which comes down from heaven, unless an appetite be given to perfons before faftidious by him, who deigns alfo to give himself to fatisfy the hungry. From him it is, that thirsting we run to the fountain, who affords to us himself that we may drink." He afterwards expreffes * Book I. Ch. I. preffes himself with great energy "on the internal and fweeter doctrine of divine infpiration, where truth fpeaks the fweeter, as it is the more fecret." I fhall not expect of any man, but one who is truly taught of God, to give a candid interpretation of this. "I pray to be taught many more things which I do not know, by him, from whom I have received the little which I do know. I beg by his preventing and following grace to be inftructed," &c. In what follows he fhews how ferioufly he had made the fentiments of Auguftine his own, in difcuffing points exceeding intricate, with that author's modefty and dexterity, and particularly in refolving all fin into pride. In a fubject fo arduous as Predeftination, it is very easy to push men into difficulties. Our author obferves, that fome Frenchmen had objected to Auguftine, that he had defcribed men as predeftinated not only to judgment but alfo to fin: on which account the learned and holy Profper defended the fentiments of the African prelate, whofe death prevented any anfwer from himfelf. Profper fays, the unbelief of men is not generated from predeftination; for God is the author of good, not of evil. Infidelity is not to be referred to the divine conftitution, but only to the divine prefcience. With equal dexterity he defends the faith of the Trinity in a book addreffed to king Thrafamond. Let it fuffice to mention one argument for the divinity of the Holy Ghoft toward the close." If he can quicken who is not God; if he can fanctify who is not God; if he can dwell in believers who is not God; if he can give grace who is not God, then the Holy Ghost may be denied to be God. If any creature can do thofe things, which are spoken of the Holy Ghoft, then let the Holy Ghoft be called a crea • Ch. IV. + Ch. XVII. 1 Ch. XXX. a creature." In a treatise on the incarnation and grace of Jefus Chrift* he anfwers the trite objection against divine election drawn from the words, "God would have all men to be faved," by fhewing that upon the views of those who see no mystery in the fubject, but refolve the diftinction into the merits or demerits of men, Almighty God ceases to be incomprehenfible, as the fcripture describes him to be. He allows the great truth, that God would have all men to be faved, and yet that there is a depth not to be fathomed by man in the deftruction of fo many finners. Much more might be quoted from this author on fubjects effentially connected with the gofpel of Chrift. But the diffusiveness of the quotations from Auguftine may fuperfede the neceffity of enlarging on the views of one, who so closely followed his fteps, and who wrote and lived with a fimilar fpirit. Befides feveral doctrinal treatifes we have alfo a few epiftles of this faint. The fourth to Proba concerning prayer deferves to be carefully studied. It is an excellent fample of the humble piety of the African school. He inftructs the lady in his favourite doctrine of grace connected with humility, and juftly infers, that if a man as yet innocent could not remain fo by his natural power, much less can this be expected from him now that he is in a state of fo great depravity. He defcribes, in a pathetic manner, the fnares arifing from the craft of Satan, and the corrupt workings of the heart, declaring that though the Lord from time to time attend with aids during the fharp war, left his people faint, yet our mortal nature is fuffered to be overloaded with the burden of corruption, that we may feel our helpleffness, and have fpeedy recourfe to divine grace, • Ch. VII. |