memory
and relics of those heavenly patrons. The walls were hung round with
symbols of the favors which they had received; eyes, and hands, and
feet, of gold and silver: and edifying pictures, which could not long
escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion, represented the
image, the attributes, and the miracles of the tutelar saint. The same
uniform original spirit of superstition might suggest, in the most
distant ages and countries, the same methods of deceiving the credulity,
and of affecting the senses of mankind: [89] but it must ingenuously
be confessed, that the ministers of the Catholic church imitated
the profane model, which they were impatient to destroy. The most
respectable bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant rustics
would more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism, if they
found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom of Christianity.
The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final
conquest of the Roman empire: but the victors themselves were insensibly
subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals. [90] [9011]

[Footnote 86: D'Aubigne (see his own Memoires, p. 156-160) frankly
offered, with the consent of the Huguenot ministers, to allow the first
400 years as the rule of faith. The Cardinal du Perron haggled for forty
years more, which were indiscreetly given. Yet neither party would have
found their account in this foolish bargain.]

[Footnote 87: The worship practised and inculcated by Tertullian,
Lactantius Arnobius, &c., is so extremely pure and spiritual, that their
declamations against the Pagan sometimes glance against the Jewish,
ceremonies.]

[Footnote 88: Faustus the Manichaean accuses the Catholics of idolatry.
Vertitis idola in martyres.... quos votis similibus colitis. M. de
Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom. ii. p. 629-700,)
a Protestant, but a philosopher, has represented, with candor and
learning, the introduction of Christian idolatry in the fourth and fifth
centuries.]

[Footnote 89: The resemblance of superstition, which could not be
imitated, might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has seized
this idea, which he distorts, by rendering it too general and absolute,
(Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126, &c.)]

[Footnote 90: The imitation of Paganism is the subject of Dr.
Middleton's agreeable letter from Rome. Warburton's animadversions
obliged him to connect (vol. iii. p. 120-132,) the his