5.— On the Law of God.
"Do not think that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."—Matthew v. 17.
[St. Augustine, the perfect model of penitents, was born, a.d. 354, at Agaste, a small town of Numidia, in Africa. Patrick, his father, after having been for many years an idolater, embraced Christianity and received baptism. As to St. Monica, his mother, every one knows that she was a model to all Christian mothers. Through the prayers of his saintly mother, he was converted when he was thirty-two. At the age of forty-two, he was consecrated Bishop of Hippo.
St Augustine has ever been regarded, and justly, as the most learned of the bishops of his age, and the doctor of all the churches. He expired, tranquilly, on the 28th of August 430, aged seventy-six years, nigh forty of which had been spent in the labours of the apostolic ministry.]
The difference between the two Testaments may be explained in two words — love and fear. The one appertains to the old man, the other to the new.
This is the principal difference. For the new law is that which God promises to impress upon the mind, to engrave on the heart, and that which is written on in giving us the Holy Ghost, which diffuses the requisite charity to make us love truth and justice.
So that this new law induces us to love all that it commands, while the laws engraven on a stone, only show the obligations of creatures, and threats in default of obedience. It is this difference which the Apostle wished to
