verfally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Confiantine; and the Pagans might reasonably expect, that the infulted god would purfue, with unrelenting vengeance, the impiety of his ungrateful favourite.

As long as Confantine exercised a limited fovereignty over the provinces of Gaul, his Chriftian fubjects were protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince, who wifely left to the gods, the care of vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the affertion of Conftantine himself, he had been an indignant fpectator of the favage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Roman foldiers, on thofe citizens whofe religion was their only crime. In the Eaft and in the Weft, he had feen the different effects of severity and indulgence; and as the former was rendered ftill more odious by the example of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was recommended to his imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. The fon of Conftantius immediately fufpended or repealed the edicts of perfecution, and granted the free exercife of their religious ceremonies to all thofe, who had already profeffed themfelves members of the church. They were foon encouraged to depend on the favour as well as on the justice of their fovereign, who had imbibed a fecret and fincere reverence for the name of Chrift, and for the God of the Chriftians.

About five months after the conquest of Italy, the Emperor made a folemn and authentic declaration of his fentiments, by the celebrated edict of Milan, which reflored peace to the Catholic church. In the perfonal interview of the two weitern princes, Conftantine, by the afcendant of genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague Licinius; the union of their names and authority difarmed the fury of Maximin; and, after the death of the tyrant of the Eat, the edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world. The wifdom of the Emperors provided for the reftitution of all the civil and religious rights of which the Chrif tians had been fo unjustly deprived. It was enacted, that the places of worship, and public lands, which had been confifcated, fhould be restored to the church, without difpute, without delay, and without expence and this fevere injunction was accompanied with a gracious promife, that if any of the purchafers had paid a fair and adequate price, they fhould be indemnified from the Imperial treafury. The falutary regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the faithful, are framed on the principles of enlarged and equal toleration and fuch an equality must have been interpreted by a recent fect, as an advantageous and honourable distinction. The two Emperors proclaim to the world, that they have granted a free and absolute power to the Chriftians, and to all others, of following the religion which each individual thinks proper to prefer, to which he has addicted his mind, and which he may deem the best adapted to his own use. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove every exception, and exact from the Governors of the provinces a strict obedience to the true and fimple meaning of an edict, which was defigned to establish and fecure, without any limitation, the claims of religious liberty. They condefcend to affign two weighty reasons which have induced them to

allow

allow this univerfal toleration: the humane intention of confulting the peace and happiness of their people; and the pious hope, that, by fuch a conduct, they fhall appeafe and propitiate the Deity, whofe feat is in heaven. They gratefully acknowledge the many fignal proofs which they have received of the divine favour; and they truft, that the fame Providence will for ever continue to protect the profperity of the prince and people. From these vague and indefinite expreffions of piety, three fuppofitions may be deduced, of a different, but not of an incompatible, nature. The mind of Conftantine might fluctuate between the Pagan and the Chriftian religions. According to the loose and complying notions of Polytheism, he might acknowledge the God of the Chriftians as one of the many deities who compofed the hierarchy of heaven. Or, perhaps, he might embrace the philofophic and pleafing idea, that, notwithstanding the varie.y of names, of rites, and of opinions, all the feds and all the nations of mankind, are united in the worthip of the common Father and Creator of the universe.'

In the further profecution of his fubje&t, Mr. Gibbon observes, that the Chriftian religion contains a pure, benevolent, and univerfal fyftem of ethics, adapted to every duty and every condition of life. Such an acknowledgment, and from fuch a writer too, will, we hope, have due weight with a certain clafs of readers, and of Authors likewife, and lead them seriously to confider, how far it is confiftent with the character of good citizens, to endeavour, by fly infinuations, oblique hints, indecent fneer and ridicule, to weaken the influence of fo pure and benevolent a fyftem of as that of Chriftianity, acknowledged to be admirably calculated for promoting the happiness of individuals, and the welfare of fociety. But to return.

In this chapter, Mr. Gibbon enables his readers to form a juft estimate of the famous vifion of Conftantine, by a diftinct confideration of the Standard, the dream, and the celestial fign; by feparating the hiftorical, the natural, and the marvellous parts of this extraordinary ftory, which, in the compofition of a specious argument, have been artfully confounded, he says, in one fplendid and brittle mass.

The whole of this chapter is curious and interesting, but we muft content ourfelves with laying before our Readers the following extract:

The pride of Conftantine, fays Mr. Gibbon, who refufed the privileges of a catechumen, cannot eafily be explained or excufed; but the delay of his baptifm may be juftified by the maxims and the practice of ecclefiaftical antiquity. The facrament of baptifm was regularly administered by the Bishop himself, with his affiftant clergy, in the cathedral church of the diocefe, during the fifty days between the folemn feftivals of Easter and Pentecoft; and this holy term admitted a numerous band of infants and adult perfons into the bosom of the church. The difcretion of parents often fufpended the baptifm of their children till they could understand the obligations which

they

they contracted: the feverity of ancient Bishops exacted from the new converts a noviciare of two or three years; and the catechumens themselves, from different motives of a temporal or a fpiritual nature, were feldom impatient to affume the character of perfect and initiated Chriftians. The facrament of baptifm was fuppofed to contain a full and abfolute expiation of fin; and the foul was inftantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promife of eternal falvation. Among the profelytes of Chriftianity, there were many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a falutary rite, which could not be repeated; to throw away an ineflimable privilege, which could never be recovered. By the delay of their baptifm, they could venture freely to indulge their paffions in the enjoyment of this world, while they still retained in their own hands the means of a fure and easy abfolution. The fublime theory of the gospel had made a much fainter impreffion on the heart than on the understanding of Conftantine himself. He purfued the great object of his ambition through the dark and bloody paths of war and policy; and after the victory, he abandoned himself, without moderation, to the abufe of his fortune. Instead of afferting his juft fuperiority above the imperfect heroifm and profane philofophy of Trajan and the Antonines, the mature age of Conftantine forfeited the reputation which he had acquired in his youth. As he gradually advanced in the knowledge of truth, he proportionably declined in the practice of virtue; and the fame year of his reign in which he convened the council of Nice, was polluted by the execution, or rather murder, of his eldest fon. This date is alone fufficient to refute the ignorant and malicious fuggeftions of Zofimus, who affirms, that, after the death of Crifpus, the remorse of his father accepted from the ministers of Christianity the expiation which he had vainly folicited from the Pagan pontiffs. At the time of the death of Crifpus, the Emperor could no longer hefitate in the choice of a religion; he could no longer be ignorant that the church was poffeffed of an infallible remedy, though he chofe to defer the application of it, till the approach of death had removed the temptation and danger of a relapie. The Bishops, whom he fummoned, in his last illaefs, to the palace of Nicomedia, were edified by the fervour with which he requested and received the facrament of baptifm, by the folemn proteftation that the remainder of his life fhould be worthy of a difciple of Christ, and by his humble refufal to wear the Imperial purple after he had been clothed in the white garment of a Neophyte. The example and reputation of Conftantine feemed to countenance the delay of baptifm. Future tyrants were encouraged to believe, that the innocent blood which they might fhed in a long reign, would inftantly be wathed away in the waters of regeneration and the abuse of religion dangerously undermined the foundations of

moral virtue.

The gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues and excused the failings of a generous patron, who feated Chriftianity on the throne of the Roman world; and the Greeks, who celebrate the fef tival of the Imperial faint, feldom mention the name of Conftantine without adding equal to the Apostles. Such a comparifon, if it alludes to the character of thofe divine miffionaries, muft be imputed to the extravagance of impious flattery. But if the parallel is confined to

the

the extent and number of their evangelic victories, the fuccefs of Conftantine might perhaps equal that of the Apoftles themfelves. By the edicts of toleration, he removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progrefs of Chriftianity; and its active and numerous miniflers received a free permiffion, a liberal encourage. ment, to recommend the falutary truths of revelation by every argument which could affect the reafon or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions continued but a moment; and the piercing eye of ambition and avarice foon difcovered, that the profeffion of Chriftianity might contribute to the intereft of the prefent, as well as of a future, life. The hopes of wealth and honours, the example of an Emperor, his exhortations, his irrefiftible fmiles, diffufed conviction among the venal and obfequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace. The cities which fignalized a forward zeal, by the voluntary deftruction of their temples, were diftinguished by municipal privileges, and rewarded with popular donatives; and the new capital of the Eaft gloried in the fingular advantage, that Conftantinople was never profaned by the worthip of idols. As the lower ranks of fociety are governed by imitation, the converfion of thofe who poffeffed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was foon followed by dependent multitudes. The falvation of the common people was purchafed at an eafy rate, if it be true, that, in one year, twelve thoufand men were baptized at Rome, befides à proportionable number of women and children; and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promifed by the Emperor to every convert. The powerful influence of Conftantine was not circumfcribed by the narrow limits of his life, or of his dominions. The education which he bestowed on his fons and nephews, fecured to the empire a race of princes, whofe faith was ftill more lively and fincere, as they imbibed, in their earlieft infancy, the fpirit, or at leaft the doctrine, of Chriftianity. War and commerce had fpread the knowledge of the gospel beyond the confines of the Roman provinces; and the Barbarians, who had difdained an humble and profcribed fect, foon learned to esteem a religion which had been fo fately embraced by the greatest monarch and the most civilized nation of the globe. The Goths and Germans, who enlined under the fandard of Rome, revered the crofs which glittered at the head of the legions, and their fierce country men received at the fame time, the leffons of faith and of humanity. The Kings of Iberia and Armenia worshipped the God of their protector; and their fubjects, who have invariably preferved the name of Chriftians, foon formed a facred and perpetual connection with their Roman brethren. The Chriftians of Perfia were fufpected, in time of war, of preferring their religion to their country; but as long as peace fubfilled between the two empires, the perfecuting fpirit of the Magi was effectually reftrained by the interpofition of Conflantine. The rays of the gospel illuminated the coaft of India. The colonies of Jews, who had penetrated into Arabia and Ethiopia, oppofed the progrefs of Chriftianity; but the labour of the miffionaries was in fome measure facilitated by a previous knowledge of the Mofaic revelation; and Abyffinia ftill reveres the memory of Frumentius, who, in the time of Conflantine, devoted his life to the converfion of thofe fequeftered regions.

Under

Under the reign of his fon Conflantius, Theophilus, who was himself of Indian extraction, was invefted with the double character of Ambafiador and Bishop. He embarked on the Red Sea with two hundred horfes of the pureft breed of Cappadocia, which were fent by the Emperor to the Prince of the Sabeans, or Homerites. Theophilus was entrusted with many other useful or curious prefents, which might raife the admiration, and conciliate the friendship, of the Barbarians; and he fuccefsfully employed feveral years in a paftoral vifit to the churches of the torrid zone.

The irrefiftible power of the Roman Emperors was displayed in the important and dangerous change of the national religion. The terrors of a military force filenced the faint and unfupported murmurs of the Pagans, and there was reason to expect, that the cheerful submiffion of the Chriftian clergy, as well as people, would be the refult of confcience and gratitude. It was long fince eltablished, as a fundamental maxim of the Roman conftitution, that every rank of citizens were alike fubject to the laws, and that the care of religion was the right, as well as duty of the civil magiftrate. Conftantine and his fucceffors could not easily perfuade themselves that they had forfeited, by their converfion, any branch of the Imperial prerogatives, or that they were incapable of giving laws to a religion which they had protected and embraced. The Emperors ftill continued to exercife à fupreme jurifdiction over the ecclefiaftical order; and the fixteenth book of the Theodofian code, reprefents, under a variety of titles, the authority which they affumed in the government of the Catholic church.

But the diftinction of the fpiritual and temporal powers, which had never been imposed on the free spirit of Greece and Rome, was introduced and confirmed by the legal establishment of Chriftianity. The office of Supreme Pontiff, which, from the time of Numa to that of Auguftus, had always been exercifed by one of the most eminent of the fenators, was at length united to the Imperial dignity. The first magiftrate of the ftate, as often as he was prompted by fuperftition or policy, performed with his own hands the facerdotal functions; nor was there any order of priests, either at Rome or in the provinces, who claimed a more facred character among men, or a more intimate communication with the Gods. But in the Chriftian church, which entrusts the fervice of the altar to a perpetual fucceffion of confecrated minifters, the monarch, whofe fpiritual rank is lefs honourable than that of the meanest deacon, was seated below the rails of the fanctuary, and confounded with the rest of the faithful multitude. The Emperor might be ialuted as the father of his people, but he owed a filial duty and reverence to the fathers of the church; and the fame marks of refpect, which Conftantine had paid to the perfons of faints and confeffors, were foon exacted by the pride of the episcopal order. A fecret conflict between the civil and ecclefiaftical jurifdictions embarraffed the operations of the Roman government; and a pious Emperor was alarmed by the guilt and danger of touching with a profane hand the ark of the covenant. The feparation of men into the two orders of the clergy and of the laity was, indeed, familiar to many nations of antiquity; and the priests of India, of Perfia, of Affyria, of Judea, of Æthiopia, of Egypt, and of Gaul,

derived