veil, which hung down from the beam,
was curiously inwrought with the images of the reigning monarch and
his children. The summit of the pike supported a crown of gold which
enclosed the mysterious monogram, at once expressive of the figure of
the cross, and the initial letters, of the name of Christ. The safety
of the labarum was intrusted to fifty guards, of approved valor and
fidelity; their station was marked by honors and emoluments; and some
fortunate accidents soon introduced an opinion, that as long as the
guards of the labarum were engaged in the execution of their office,
they were secure and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy. In
the second civil war, Licinius felt and dreaded the power of this
consecrated banner, the sight of which, in the distress of battle,
animated the soldiers of Constantine with an invincible enthusiasm, and
scattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse legions.
The Christian emperors, who respected the example of Constantine,
displayed in all their military expeditions the standard of the cross;
but when the degenerate successors of Theodosius had ceased to appear
in person at the head of their armies, the labarum was deposited as a
venerable but useless relic in the palace of Constantinople. Its honors
are still preserved on the medals of the Flavian family. Their grateful
devotion has placed the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensigns
of Rome. The solemn epithets of, safety of the republic, glory of
the army, restoration of public happiness, are equally applied to the
religious and military trophies; and there is still extant a medal
of the emperor Constantius, where the standard of the labarum is
accompanied with these memorable words, By This Sign Thou Shalt Conquer.

II. In all occasions of danger and distress, it was the practice of the
primitive Christians to fortify their minds and bodies by the sign of
the cross, which they used, in all their ecclesiastical rites, in all
the daily occurrences of life, as an infallible preservative against
every species of spiritual or temporal evil. The authority of the
church might alone have had sufficient weight to justify the devotion of
Constantine, who in the same prudent and gradual progress acknowledged
the truth, and assumed the symbol, of Christianity. But the testimony of
a contemporary writer, who in a formal treatise has avenged the cause of
religion, bestows on the piety of the emperor a more awful a