OF THE

NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS

OF

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

EDITED BY

PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D.,

PROFESSOR IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK,

IN CONNECTION WITH A NUMBER OF PATRISTIC SCHOLARS of EUROPE AND AMERICA.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY: ST. AUGUSTIN AS AN EXEGETE.
BY THE REV. DAVID SCHLEY SCHAFF.

PAGE

V

vii

1-63

BOOK I.

BOOK II.

TRANSLATED BY THE REV. WILLIAM FINDLAY.

REVISED AND ANNOTATED BY THE REV. D. S. SCHAFF.

EXPLANATION OF THE First part oF THE SERMON DELIVERED BY OUR LORD ON

THE MOUNT, AS CONTAINED IN THE FIFTH CHAPTER OF MATTHEW

ON THE LATTER PART OF OUR LORD'S SERMON ON THE MOUNT, CONTAINED IN

THE SIXTH AND SEVENTH CHAPTERS OF MATTHEW

3

34

BOOK I. THE treatise opENS WITH A SHORT STATEMENT ON THE SUBJECT OF THE AUTHOR-

ITY OF THE Evangelists, tHEIR NUMBER, their order, AND THE DIFFERENT

PLANS OF THEIR NARRATIVES. AUGUSTIN THEN PREPARES FOR THE DISCUSSION

OF THE QUESTIONS RELATING TO THEIR HARMONY, BY JOINING ISSUE IN THIS

BOOK WITH THOSE WHO RAISE A DIFFICULTY IN THE CIRCUMSTANCE THAT

CHRIST HAS LEFT NO WRITING OF HIS OWN, OR WHO FALSELY ALLEGE THAT

CERTAIN BOOKS WERE COMPOSED BY HIM ON THE ARTS OF MAGIC.

HE ALSO

MEETS THE OBJECTIONS OF THOSE WHO, IN OPPOSITION TO THE EVANGELICAL

TEACHING, ASSERT THAT THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST AT ONCE ASCRIBED MORE

TO THEIR MASTER THAN HE REALLY WAS, WHEN THEY AFFIRMED that He was

GOD, AND INCULCATED WHAT THEY HAD NOT BEEN INSTRUCTED IN BY HIM, WHEN

THEY INTERDICTED THE WORSHIP OF THE GODS. AGAINST THESE ANTAGONISTS

HE VINDICATES THE TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES, BY APPEALING TO THE UTTER-

ANCES OF THE PROPHETS, AND BY SHOWING THAT THE GOD OF ISRAEL WAS TO

BE THE SOLE OBJECT OF WORSHIP, WHO ALSO, ALthough He was the only Deity

гO WHOM ACCEPTANCE WAS DENIED IN FORMER TIMES BY THE ROMANS, AND

THAT FOR THE VERY REASON THAT HE PROHIBITED THEM FROM WORSHIPPING

OTHER GODS ALONG WITH HIMSELF, HAS NOW IN THE end made the EMPIRE

OF ROME SUBJECT TO HIS NAME, AND AMONG ALL NATIONS HAS BROKEN THEIR

IDOLS IN PIECES THROUGH THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL, AS HE HAD PROMISED

BY HIS PROPHETS THAT THE EVENT SHOULD BE

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