was at the same time everywhere active and reposing in the bosom of the Father. The necessity of the incarnation to salvation follows from the fact, that the corruption had entered into human natm-e itself, and thus must be overcome within that natui*e. An external redemption, as by preaching God, could profit nothing. " For this reason the Saviour assumed humanity, that man, united with life, might not remain mortal and in death, but imbibing immortality might by the resurrection be immortal. The out- ward preaching of redemption would have to be continually re- peated, and yet death would abide in man." ' The object of the incarnation is, negatively, the annihilation of sin and death ; ' De incam. c. 44 (Opera, ed. Bened. i. p. 86). 84: THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. positively, the communication of righteousness and life and the deification of man.' The miracles of Christ are the proof of his original dominion over nature, and lead men from nature- worship to the worship of God. The death of Jesus was neces- sary to the blotting out of sin and to the demonstration of his life-power in the resurrection, whereby also the death of be- lievers is now no longer punishment, but a transition to resur- rection and glory. — This speculative analysis of the incarna- tion Athanasius supports by referring to the continuous moral effects of Christianity, which is doing great things every day, calling man from idolatry, magic, and sorceries to the worship of the true God, obliterating sinful and irrational lusts, taming the wild manners of barbarians, inciting to a ho}y'walk, turn- ing the natural fear of death into rejoicing, and lifting the eye of man from earth to heaven, from mortality to resurrection and eternal glory. The benefits of the incarnation are incal- culable, like the waves of the sea pursuing one another in constant succession, (2) Under the sons of Constantino, between the years 343 and 350, JuLros FiRancus Mateenus, an author otherwise un- known to us,'' wrote against heathenism with large knowledge of antiquity, but with fanatical zeal, regarding it, now on the prin- ciple of Euhemerus, as a deification of mortal men and natural elements, now as a distortion of the biblical history.^ At the close, quite mistaking the gentle spirit of the New Testa- ment, he urges the sons of Constantino to exterminate heathen- ism by force, as God commanded the children of Israel to pro- ceed against the Canaanites ; and openly counsels them boldly to pillage the temples and to enrich themselves and the church with the stolen goods. TJiis sort of apology fully cor- * 'O A6y.os ivav^p(inrrj(Tiv, 'Iva rifi€7s ^eoTroi7i^ii/j.€i/. ' It is uncertain whetlier he was the author of a mathematical and astrological work written some years earlier and published at Basel in 1551, which treats of the influence of the stars upon men, but conjures its readers not to divulge these Egyptian and Babylonian mysteries, as astrology was forbidden at the time. If