XX.

emperors, who refpected the example of Con. CHA P.
ftantine, difplayed in all their military expeditions
the ftandard of the crofs; but when the degene-
rate fucceffors of Theodofius had ceafed to appear
in perfon at the head of their armies, the laba-
rum was depofited as a venerable but useless relic
in the palace of Conftantinople 37. Its honours
are still preserved on the medals of the Flavian
family. Their grateful devotion has placed the
monogram of Chrift in the midft of the enfigns
of Rome. The folemn epithets of, fafety of the
republic, glory of the army, restoration of public
happiness, are equally applied to the religious and
military trophies; and there is ftill extant a me-
dal of the emperor Conftantius, where the ftan-
dard of the labarum is accompanied with these me-
morable words, BY THIS SIGN THOU SHALT CÔN-
QUER 38.

of Con.

II. In all occafions of danger or diftrefs, it was The dream
the practice of the primitive Chriftians to fortify stantine.
their minds and bodies by the fign of the crofs,
which they ufed, in all their ecclefiaftical rites, in

dicate that it was never fhewn at the head of an army, till Constan-
tine, above ten years afterwards, declared himself the enemy of Li-
cinius, and the deliverer of the church.

37 See Cod. Theod. l. vi. tit. xxv. Sozomen, 1. i. c. 2. Theo-
phan. Chronograph. p. 11. Theophanes lived towards the end of
the eighth century, almost five hundred years after Conftantine. The
modern Greeks were not inclined to difplay in the field the standard
of the empire and of Christianity; and though they depended on every
superstitious hope of defence, the promise of victory would have appear-
ed too bold a fiction.

38 The Abbé du Voifin, p. 103, &c. alleges feveral of these medals, and quotes a particular differtation of a Jefuit, the Pere de Grainville, on this subject.

CHAP. all the daily occurrences of life, as an infallible

XX.

preservative against every species of fpiritual or temporal evil 39. The authority of the church might alone have had fufficient weight to justify the devotion of Conftantine, who, in the fameprudent and gradual progrefs, acknowledged the truth, and affumed the fymbol, of Christianity. But the testimony of a contemporary writer, who in a formal treatise has avenged the caufe of religion, bestows on the piety of the emperor a more awful and fublime character. He affirms, with the moft perfect confidence, that in the night which preceded the last battle against Maxentius, Conftantine was admonished in a dream to infcribe the fhields of his foldiers with the celeftial fign of God, the facred monogram of the name of Chrift; that he executed the commands of heaven, and that his valour and obedience were rewarded by the decifive victory of the Milvian Bridge. Some confiderations might perhaps incline a fceptical mind to fufpect the judgment or the veracity of the rhetorician, whofe pen, either from zeal or intereft, was devoted to the cause of the prevailing faction 40. He appears to have published his deaths

39 Tertullian, de Corona, c. 3. Athanafius, tom. i. p. zo1. The learned Jefuit Petavius (Dogmata Theolog. I. xv. c. 9. 10.) has collected many fimilar paffages on the virtues of the cross, which in the last age embaraffed our Proteftant difputants.

40 Cæcilius, de M. P. c. 44. It is certain, that this hiftorical declamation was compofed and published, while Licinius, fovereign of the Eaft, ftill preserved the friendship of Constantine, and of the Christians. Every reader of taste mult perceive, that the ftyle is of a very different and inferior character to that of Lactantius; and fuch indeed is the judgment of Le Clerc and Lardner (Bibliotheque

Ancienne

10

XX.

deaths of the perfecutors at Nicomedia about CHAP.
three years after the Roman victory; but the in-
terval of a thousand miles, and a thousand days,
will allow an ample latitude for the invention of
declaimers, the credulity of party, and the tacit
approbation of the emperor himfelf; who might
liften without indignation to a marvellous tale,
which exalted his fame, and promoted his de-
figns. In favour of Licinius, who ftill diffembled
his animofity to the Christians, the fame author
has provided a fimilar vifion, of a form of prayer,
which was communicated by an angel, and re-
peated by the whole army before they engaged
the legions of the tyrant Maximin. The frequent
repetition of miracles ferves to provoke, where it
does not fubdue, the reafon of mankind "; but
if the dream of Conftantine is feparately confi-
dered, it may be naturally explained either by the
policy or the enthusiasm of the emperor. Whilst
his anxiety for the approaching day, which muft
decide the fate of the empire, was fufpended by a
short and interrupted flumber, the venerable

1

Ancienne et Moderne, tom. iii. p. 438. Credibility of the Gospel,
&c. part ii. vol. vii. p. 94.). Three arguments from the title of the
book, and from the names of Donatus and Cæcilius, are produced
by the advocates for Lactantius (See the P. Leftocq, tom. ii.
p. 46-60.). Each of thefe proofs is fingly weak and defective, but
their concurrence has great weight. I have often fluctuated, and
fhall tamely follow the Colbert MS. in calling the author (whoever
he was) Cæcilius.

41 Cæcilius, de M. P. c. 46. There feems to be fome reafon in
the observation of M. de Voltaire (Oeuvres, tom. xiv. p. 307.), who
afcribes to the fuccefs of Conftantine the fuperior fame of his La-
barum above the angel of Licinius. Yet even this angel is favour-
ably entertained by Pagi, Tillemont, Fleury, &c. who are fond of
increafing their stock of miracles.

CHAP. form of Chrift, and the well-known fymbol of XX. his religion, might forcibly offer themfelves to

the active fancy of a prince who reverenced the name, and had perhaps fecretly implored the power, of the God of the Chriftians. As readily might a confummate ftatefman indulge himself in the use of one of thofe military ftratagems, one of thofe pious frauds, which Philip and Sertorius had employed with fuch art and effect. The præ ternatural origin of dreams was univerfally ad mitted by the nations of antiquity, and a confider, able part of the Gallic army was already prepared to place their confidence in the falutary fign of the Chriftian religion. The fecret vifion of Con ftantine could be difproved only by the event; and the intrepid hero who had paffed the Alps and the Appenine, might view with careless despair the confequences of a defeat under the walls of Rome. The fenate and people, exulting in their own deliverance from an odious tyrant, acknow, ledged that the victory of Conftantine furpaffed the powers of man, without daring to infinuate that it had been obtained by the protection of the Gods. The triumphal arch, which was erected

42 Befides these well-known examples, Tollius (Preface to Boilleau's tranДation of Longinus) has difcovered a vifion of Antigonus who affured his troops that he had feen a pentagon (the symbol of fafety) with these words, "In this conqner." But Tollips has moft inexcufably omitted to produce bis authority; and his own character, literary as well as moral, is not free from reproach (See Chauffepie Dictionnaire Critique, tom. iv. p. 460.). Without infifting on the filence of Diodorus, Plutarch, Juftin, &c. it may be obferved that Polyænus, who in a feparate chapter (1. iv. c. 6.) has collected nineteen military ftratagems of Antigonus, is totally ignorant of this remarkable vifion.

about

43

about three years after the event, proclaims, in eнAP.
ambiguous language, that, by the greatnefs of XX.
his own mind, and by an instinct or impulfe of the
Divinity, he had faved and avenged the Roman
republic +3, The Pagan orator, who had feized
an earlier opportunity of celebrating the virtues
of the conqueror, fuppofes that he alone enjoyed
a fecret and intimate commerce with the Supreme
Being, who delegated the care of mortals to his
fubordinate deities; and thus affigns a very plau-
fible reason why the fubjects of Constantine should
not prefume to embrace the new religion of their
sovereign **.

44

ance of a

III. The philofopher, who with calm fufpicion Appearexamines the dreams and omens, the miracles and crofs in prodigies, of profane or even of ecclefiaftical the sky. history, will probably conclude, that if the eyes of the spectators have fometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been infulted by fiction, Every event, or appearance, or accident, which feems to deviate from the ordinary courfe of nature, has been rafhly ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity; and the astonished fancy of the multitude has fometimes given fhape and colour, language and motion, to the fleeting but

43 Inftin&u Divinitatis, mentis magnitudine. The infcription on the triumphal arch of Constantine, which has been copied by Baronius, Gruter, &c. may still be perused by every curious traveller.

44 Habes profecto, aliquid cum illa mente Divinâ fecretum; quæ delegatâ noftrâ Diis Minoribus curâ uni se tibi dignatur oftendere, Panegyr, Vet. ix. 2.