This celebrated council commenced its discussions on June 19th, and ended them on August 25th of the same year, to the joy of Constantine, the defeat of Arius, and the triumph of the Athanasian party-having established, as far as human authority could do it, the unintelligible dogma of the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Eusebius of Nicomedia, and sixteen other prelates, withstood the general sense of the council, and rejected the word "consubstantial," but finding themselves in so small a minority, and that Constantine was determined to enforce respect to the decisions of the council, they all, except four, ultimately subscribed to the confession of faith. The prevailing party then proceeded to excommunicate Arius and his adherents, banishing the former from Alexandria. Letters were also written to all the churches in Egypt, Lybia, and Pentapolis, announcing the decrees, and informing them that the holy synod had condemned the opinions of Arius, and had fully determined the time for keeping Easter, exhorting them to rejoice for the good they had accomplished, having, as they said, “cut off all manner of heresy !"

When the business of the council was ended, Constantine treated the bishops with a sumptuous entertainment, filled their pockets, and sent them comfortably home, exhorting them, at parting, to cultivate peace and concord with one another, and requesting that none of them would envy another who might excel in wisdom or eloquence; that they would not carry themselves haughtily towards their inferiors, but condescend to, and bear with, the weaknesses of their brethren-a pretty clear proof that he saw into their tempers, and was no stranger to the haughtiness and pride which influenced some, and the envy and hatred which prevailed in others.

The religious zeal of Constantine increased with his years; he founded innumerable splendid edifices throughout the empire, and caused them to be decorated according to his own carnal views of what became the Christian religion which he had espoused, and had them furnished with baptisteries and every necessary apparatus. He made a journey to Jerusalem for the idle purpose of discovering, if it were possible, the sepulchre in which Christ was laid, and he caused a most magnificent place of worship to be erected at Bethlehem. He was scrupulously

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attentive to the religious rites and ceremonies which were prescribed by the Christian clergy. He fasted, observed the festivals in commemoration of the martyrs, which superstition had by this time considerably multiplied, and he devoutly watched whole nights on the vigils of the saints. Yet all this time we hear nothing of the baptism of Constantine, which is the more perplexing as at that period it was universally considered to be the door of admission into the Christian church, and an indispensable badge of discipleship. "It must needs seem extraordinary," says one of his biographers, "that the emperor, who took such an active part in the affairs of the Christians, who appeared to be convinced of the truth and divinity of their religion, and was not ignorant of any of its doctrines, should so long defer being initiated into it by the sacrament of baptism." To which the learned Dupin replies :-" Whether he thought better not to be baptized till the time of his death, with the view of washing away and atoning for all his sins at once, with the water of baptism, and being presented pure and unspotted before God, or whatever his reasons were, he never talked of baptism till his last illness." Such is the apology of this learned Catholic for Constantine's procrastination of the initiating rite, and it is probably the best that can be offered. It is manifest, however, that, admitting the fact to be as stated by Dupin, the emperor's views of the import of baptism needed greatly to be rectified, in order to bring them to the standard of the New Testament. When attacked, however, with his last illness, he summoned to the imperial palace of Nicomedia several Christian bishops, fervently requesting to receive at their hands the ordinance of baptism, and solemnly protesting his intentions of spending the remainder of his days as the disciple of Jesus Christ. He was accordingly baptized by Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and from that time he laid aside his purple and regal robes, continuing to wear a white garment till the day of his death, which, after a short illness, took place on May 22d, in the year 337, at the age of 64, or 66, having reigned three and thirty years.

Although the well-known scepticism of Mr. Gibbon should make us cautious of placing implicit reliance on all his statements where Christianity is in question; and though, in the present instance, I suspect that some abatement is due from the

height of his colouring, I will nevertheless lay before you the observations of that historian on the character of this celebrated emperor. Eusebius, as is known to most readers of ecclesiastical history, has written the life and acts of Constantine, in which he holds him up as a paragon of all that is excellent-in fact he has left us a panegyric rather than a narrative. It is only fair to hear what is said on the other side of the question, and you shall have it in Mr. Gibbon's own words. He has been commenting on the delay of Constantine's baptism, and the very condescending conduct of the clergy in relaxing the severe rules of discipline in favour of their noble convert. According to his representation of the matter, "Constantine was permitted, by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy most of the privileges before he had contracted any of the obligations of a Christian. Instead of retiring from the congregation when the voice of the deacon dismissed the multitude, he prayed with the faithful, disputed with the bishops, preached on the most sublime and intricate subjects of theology, celebrated with sacred rites the vigil of Easter, and publicly declared himself, not only a partaker, but in some measure a priest and hierophant of the Christian mysteries." This, if correctly told, sufficiently attests the complaisance of the bishops towards their imperial patron, and the little regard paid by them to the apostolic injunction to "have no respect of persons." But let us attend to our historian, who thus proceeds :— "The sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin, and the soul was instantly restored to its original purity, and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation. Among the proselytes of Christianity, there were many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary rite, which could not be repeated; to throw away an inestimable privilege, which could never be recovered. By the delay of their baptism, they could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyment of this world, while they retained in their own hands the means of a sure and easy absolution." It will not, I hope, be considered an officious intrusion, if I here interrupt our historian, while I remark that the Gospel of Christ is no way answerable for the absurd and shocking statements here made. We have only to open our bibles at Romans, chapter vi., to be furnished with a complete antidote against them. In truth, such mon

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strous inferences could spring only from the grossest ignorance of the import of Christian baptism. But to proceed—

"The Gospel had made a much fainter impression on the heart than on the understanding of Constantine himself. He pursued the great object of his ambition through the dark and bloody paths of war and policy; and, after the victory, he abandoned himself, without moderation, to the abuse of his fortune. As he gradually advanced in the knowledge of truth, he proportionably declined in the practice of virtue; and the same year of his reign in which he convened the council of Nice was polluted by the execution, or rather the murder, of Crispus his eldest son. From this time the emperor could no longer hesitate in the choice of a religion; he could no longer be ignorant that the church was possessed of an infallible remedy, though he chose to defer the application of it till the approach of death had removed the temptation and danger of a relapse. The bishops, whom he summoned in his last illness to the palace of Nicomedia, were edified by the fervour with which he requested and received the sacrament of baptism, by the solemn protestation that the remainder of his life should be worthy of a disciple of Christ, and by his humble refusal to wear the purple after he had been clothed in the white garment of a Neophyte. The example and reputation of Constantine seemed to countenance the delay of baptism. Future tyrants were encouraged to believe that the innocent blood which they might shed, in a long reign, would instantly be washed away in the waters of regeneration, and the abuse of religion dangerously undermined the foundation of moral virtue."

It is not difficult to ascer tain, from this quotation, in what point of view the conversion of Constantine was regarded by our historian. "The gratitude of the church," he tells us, " has exalted the virtues and excused the failings of a generous patron, who seated Christianity on the throne of the Roman world; and the Greeks, who celebrate the festival of the imperial saint, seldom mention the name of Constantine without adding the title of Equal to the Apostles.' Such a comparison (continues our historian, and in this I most fully agree with him) if it alludes to the character of those divine missionaries, must be imputed to the extravagance of impious flattery." Certainly-not

only are the cases dissimilar, but they form a perfect contrast. In the case of the apostles, we see a company of rude and illiterate men, destitute of every inviting quality, such as education, wealth, or knowledge of the world, power, and influence, going forth to testify a doctrine most unpalateable to the self-righteous Jew and the philosophic Greek; yet, by means of its own intrinsic evidence, carrying conviction to the minds of men, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. In the other case we contemplate a state of things in all respects the reverse ;-instead of poverty and shame, we have the influence of riches and honour, temporal grandeur and the pride of life-for reproach we have preferment ;-in short, every thing is changed: what comparison then can be instituted between them?

“If the parallel (between Constantine and the apostles) be confined to the extent and number of the converts gained," says Mr. Gibbon, "the success of the emperor might perhaps equal that of the apostles themselves. By the edicts of toleration, he removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity, and its active and numerous ministers received a free permission, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the truths of revelation by every argument that could affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions continued but a moment; and the piercing eye of ambition and avarice soon discovered that the profession of Christianity might contribute to the interest of the present, as well as of a future life. The hopes of wealth and honours, the example of an emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smiles, diffused conviction among the venal and obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace. The cities which signified a forward zeal, by the voluntary destruction of their (Pagan) temples, were distinguished by municipal privileges, and rewarded with popular donatives: and the new capital of the East gloried in the singular advantage, that Constantinople was never profaned by the worship of idols. As the lower ranks of society are governed by imitation, the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth, of power, or of riches, was soon followed by dependent multitudes. We are told that, in one year, twelve thousand men were baptized at Rome, besides a proportionable number of women and children;