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CHAP. the Christian mysteries ". The pride of Constantine might affume, and his fervices had deferved, fome extraordinary diftinction: an ill-timed rigour might have blafted the unripened fruits of his converfion; and if the doors of the church had been ftrictly closed against a prince who had deserted the altars of the gods, the master of the empire would have been left deftitute of any form of religious worship. In his laft vifit to Rome, he piously difclaimed and infulted the fuperftition of his ancestors, by refufing to lead the military proceffion of the equestrian order, and to offer the public vows to the Jupiter of the Capitoline Hill “. Many years before his baptifm and death, Conftantine had proclaimed to the world, that neither his person nor his image should ever more be seen within the walls of an idolatrous temple; while he diftributed through the provinces a variety of medals and pictures, which represented the emperor in an humble and suppliant posture of Christian devotion ".

Delay of

till the ap

proach of death.

66

The pride of Conftantine, who refufed the prihis baptifm vileges of a catechumen, cannot easily 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 baptism 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 festivals of Eafter and Pentecoft; and this holy term admitted a numerous band of infants and adult perfons into the bofom of the church.

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The difcretion of parents often fufpended the bap- CHAP. tifm of their children till they could understand the obligations which they contracted: the severity of ancient bishops exacted from the new converts a noviciate 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 baptism was supposed to contain a full and abfolute expiation of fin; and the foul was inftantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise 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 ineftimable 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 ftill retained in their own hands the means of a sure and eafy abfolution". The fublime theory of the gofpel had made a much fainter impreffion on the heart than on the understanding of Constantine himself. He pursued 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 abuse of his fortune. Instead of afferting his juft fuperiority above the imperfect heroism and prophane philofophy of Trajan and the Antonines, the mature age of Conftantine forfeited the reputation which he had acquired in his youth. As he gradually advan

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ced 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 remorfe of his father accepted from the minifters 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 relapse. The bishops, whom he fummoned, in his laft illness, to the palace of Nicomedia, were edified by the fervour with which he requested and received the facrament of baptifm, by the folemn protestation that the remainder of his life should be worthy of a disciple of Chrift, 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 coun tenance the delay of baptifm?. Future tyrants were encouraged to believe, that the innocent blood which they might shed in a long reign would inftantly be washed away in the waters of regeneration; and the abufe of religion dangerously undermined the foundations of moral virtue.

CHAP.

XX.

The gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues and excufed the failings of a generous Propagapatron, who feated Chriftianity on the throne of tion of the Roman world; and the Greeks, who celebrate Chriftianity. the festival of the Imperial faint, feldom mention the name of Conftantine without adding the title of equal to the Apostles ". Such a comparison, if it alludes to the character of those divine miffionaries, must be imputed to the extravagance of impious flattery. But if the parallel is confined to the extent and number of their evangelic victories, the fuccefs of Conftantine might perhaps equal that of the Apostles themselves. By the edicts of toleration, he removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progrefs of Chriftianity; and its active and numerous minifters received a free permiffion, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the falutary truths of revelation by every argument which could affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions continued but a moment; and the piercing eye of ambition and avarice foon discovered, 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, diffused conviction among the venal and obfequious crowds which ufually 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

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the East gloried in the fingular advantage, that Conftantinople was never profaned by the worship of idols". As the lower ranks of fociety are governed by imitation, the converfion of those who poffeffed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was foon followed by dependent multitudes". The falvation of the common people was purchased at an eafy rate, if it be true, that, in one year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome, befides a proportionable number of women and children; and that a white garment, with twenty pieces of gold, had been promised 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 earliest infancy, the fpirit, or at least the doctrine, of Chriftianity. War and commerce had spread 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 lately embraced by the greatest monarch and the most civilized nation of the globe". The Goths and Germans, who enlisted under the standard of Rome, revered the cross which glittered at the head of the legions, and their fierce countrymen 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 invarliaby