onstantine must be allowed in a much more vague and
qualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the
slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared
himself the protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church.
It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his
education, to acknowledge the divine power of Christ, and to understand
that the truth of his revelation was incompatible with the worship of
the gods. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own
mind, instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of
a national religion; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, as
far as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During the
whole course of his reign, the stream of Christianity flowed with
a gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general direction
was sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by the accidental
circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or possibly by the
caprice, of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify the
intentions of their master in the various language which was best
adapted to their respective principles; and he artfully balanced the
hopes and fears of his subjects, by publishing in the same year two
edicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday,
and the second directed the regular consultation of the Aruspices. While
this important revolution yet remained in suspense, the Christians and
the Pagans watched the conduct of their sovereign with the same anxiety,
but with very opposite sentiments. The former were prompted by every
motive of zeal, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the marks of his
favor, and the evidences of his faith. The latter, till their just
apprehensions were changed into despair and resentment, attempted to
conceal from the world, and from themselves, that the gods of Rome could
no longer reckon the emperor in the number of their votaries. The same
passions and prejudices have engaged the partial writers of the times to
connect the public profession of Christianity with the most glorious or
the most ignominious aera of the reign of Constantine.

Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might transpire in the discourses
or actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near forty years
of age in the practice of the established religion; and the same conduct
which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear, c