4 o3 AUGUSTINE. it is to have reafonahle principles, without which the beft- natured man is capable of doing the worlKnatured actions. Upon many occ-iiions he interceded for the mitigation of the penalties againft pagans, heretics, and khifmatics. ev-rn when they diTerved punifhment fur their feditions, riots, depreda- tion?, and murders. In this refpett he was mild even to an exci T -, for as men fhould not be ptrfecuted ami opprtfied for 1'pecuhtive opinions, fo they who under the mafkof religion, fix DiflVrf. or through mere wickednefs, rob, plunder, maim, wound, "'and aiiallinatc, Ihould never go unpunithed, and fhould be n. futijefh, . r c Dr. Jor- made examples for the iccunty or the government, and the good of civil focitty. *' He fell into his predeftinarian no- " tior.s," as Le Clerc obferves, " firft by retaining fome of his
- ' Mr.nichasifm ; leccndly, by medicating upon (he Epiflles
" of St. Paul, which he underftood not, having only a flen- " der knowledge of the Greek tongue and of the ancient " fathers; and thirdly, by a fpecial grace and illumination, c which he fancied to hate been conferred upon himfelf.
- This do&or of grace had another notion, which is pro-
- dutflive of many bad confequenccs, namely, that heretics
- ' have no ri<rht to their own goods and chattels. See Bar-
" bcyrac, Mor. des Peres, 297. According to Du Pin, he ' had a fine genius, and much vivacity and penetration, and " was a ikilful difputant. From general principles he drew < l a vaft variety of confcquences, and formed a fyllem which " is tolerably well connected in all its parts. He often <c qu'ttcd the fcntiments of" thofe who had been before him, ' and ftruck out new methods and interpretations. He was, " as Cicero (aid of himftlf, rr.agnus opinator, a great ad- " vancer ofTentiments which were only conjectures and pro-
- ' babilities. He had lefs learning than genius, was not
" (killed in the languages, and had read little of the an- " cients. His ftyle was fluent, but not polite and elegant, " nor free from barbarifms. He was full of repetitions, and
- { eternally dwelling t.pon the fame fubjetts. He hath dif-
- ' cuffed all forts of points and queftions; and from his writ-
- ings was formed that body of theology, which was adopted
- by the T,atin fathers who ro(e after him, and in a great
" meafure by the fcholaftic divines." The belt edition of his works is that publifhed at Paris by the Benediclines of Sr. Maur: ic is divided into ten volumes folio, and was printed between the years 1679 and 1690. AUGUSTUS Cfl-SAR. See OCTAVIUS. AVJCENNA,
