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CHAP. in the Weft, he had feen the different effects of

XX.

A.D. 313.
March.
Edi&t of
Milan.

severity and indulgence; and as the former was rendered still 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 The fon of Conftantius immediately fufpended or repealed the edicts of perfecution, and granted the free exercise of their religious ceremonies to all those who had already profeffed themselves members of the church.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 Christ, and for the God of the Christians 4

About five months after the conqueft of Italy, the emperor made a folemn and authentic declaration of his fentiments, by the celebrated edic of Milan, which restored peace to the Catholic church. In the perfonal interview of the two western 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 East, the edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world ". The

original; and the aged emperor might recollect the perfecution of Diocletian with a more lively abhorrence than he had actually felt in the days of his youth and Paganism.

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1. i. c. 16, 17.

Perfecut. c. 25.

Lactant. Divin. Inftitut. i. 1.

and in Vit. Conit.

Cæcilius de Mort.

15 Cæcilius (de Mort. Perfecut. c. 48.) has preferved the Latin original; and Eufebius (Hiß. Ecclef. 1. x. c. 5.) has given a Greek

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XX.

The wisdom of the emperors provided for the CHA P.
restitution of all the civil and religious rights, of
which the Christians 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 in-
junction was accompanied with a gracious pro-
mife, that if
any of the purchafers had paid a fair
and adequate price, they fhould be indemnified
from the Imperial treafury. The falutary regu-
lations 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 ad-
vantageous and honourable diftinction. The two
emperors proclaim to the world, that they have
granted a free and abfolute power to the Chrif
tians, and to all others, of following the religion
which each dividual thinks proper to prefer, to
which he has addicted his mind, and which he
may deem the best adapted to his own ufe. They
arefully 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 secure, without any limitation, the
claims of religious liberty. They condefcend
to affign two weighty reafons which have induced
them to allow this univerfal toleration: the hu-
mane intention of confulting the peace and hap-

tranflation of this perpetual edit, which refers to fome previsional
regulations.

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piness

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XX.

CHAP. piness 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 trust that the fame Providence will for ever continue to protect the profperity of the prince and people. From thefe vague and indefinite expreffions of piety, three fuppofitions may be deduced, of a different, but not of an incompatible, nature. The mind of Constantine might fluctuate between the Pagan and the Christian religions. According to the loofe and complying notions of Polytheifm, he might acknowledge the God of the Chriftians as one of the many deities who composed the hierarchy of heaven. Or perhaps he might embrace the philofophic and pleafing idea, that, notwithstanding the variety of names, of rites, and of opinions, all the fects and all the nations of mankind are united in the worfhip of the common Father and Creator of the universe 16.

Ufe and beauty of the Chrift.

ian mo. rality.

But the councils of princes are more frequently influenced by views of temporal advantage, than by confiderations of abstract and fpeculative truth. The partial and increafing favour of Constantine

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16 A panegyric of Conftantine, pronounced seven or eight months after the edict of Milan (fee Gothofred. Chronolog. Legum, p. 7. and Tillemont, Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 246.), uses the following remarkable expreffion; Summe rerum fator, cujus tot "nomina funt, quot linguas gentium effe voluifti, quem enim te "ipfe dici velis, fcire non poffumus." Panegyr. Vet. ix. 26. In explaining Conftantine's progrefs in the faith, Mofheim (p. 971, &c.) is ingenious, fubtle, prolix.

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XX.

may naturally be referred to the esteem which he CHAP.
entertained for the moral character of the Chrift-
ians; and to a perfuafion, that the propagation
of the golpel would inculcate the practice of pri-
vate and public virtue. . Whatever latitude an
abfolute monarch may affume in his own conduct,
whatever indulgence he may claim for his own
paffions, it is undoubtedly his interest that all his
fubjects fhould refpect the natural and civil obliga-
tions of fociety. But the operation of the wifest
laws is imperfect and precarious. They feldom
inspire virtue, they cannot always reftrain vice.
Their power is infufficient to prohibit all that
they condemn, nor can they always punish the ac-
tions which they prohibit. The legiflators of anti-
quity had fummoned to their aid the powers of edu
cation and of opinion. But every principle which
had once maintained the vigour and purity of
Rome and Sparta, was long fince extinguished in
a declining and defpotic empire. Philosophy still
exercised her temperate sway over the human
mind, but the caufe of virtue derived very feeble
fupport from the influence of the Pagan fuperfti-
tion. Under thefe difcouraging circumftances, a
prudent magiftrate might obferve with pleasure
the progrefs of a religion, which diffused among
the people a pure, benevolent, and univerfal fyf-
tem of ethics, adapted to every duty and every
condition of life; recommended as. the will and
reason of the Supreme Deity, and enforced by the
'fanction of eternal rewards or punishments. The
experience of Greek and Roman history could not
inform the world how far the system of national

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CHA P. manners might be reformed and improved by the

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precepts of a divine revelation; and Conftantine might liften with fome confidence to the flattering and indeed reasonable, affurances of Lactantius. The eloquent apologist feemed firmly to expect, and almost ventured to promife, that the establishment of Christianity would restore the innocence and felicity of the primitive age; that the worship of the true God would extinguish war and diffenfion among thofe who mutually confidered themselves as the children of a common parent; that every impure defire, every angry or selfish paffion, would be restrained by the knowledge of the gofpel; and that the magiftrates might fheath the fword of justice among a people who would be univerfally actuated by the fentiments of truth and piety, of equity and moderation, of harmony and univerfal love "7.

The paffive and unrefifting obedience, which and prac. bows under the yoke of authority, or even of opfive obedi. preffion, muft have appeared, in the eyes of an

tic of paf

ence.

abfolute monarch, the most confpicuous and useful of the evangelic virtues 18. The primitive Christians derived the inftitution of civil government, not from the confent of the people, but from the decrees of heaven. The reigning emperor, though he had ufurped the fceptre by trea

17 See the elegant defcription of Lactantius (Divin. Inftitut. v. 8.) who is much more perfpicuous and politive than it becomes a difcreet prophet.

18 The political fyftem of the Chriftians is explained by Grotius, de Jure Belli et Pacis, I. j. c. 3, 4. Grotius was a republican and an exile; but the mildness of his temper inclined him to support the eftablished powers.

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