having propitiated his deities with the sacrifices which he thought requisite, then inquired what was to be the issue to him of the war; and they unanimously replied that he was undoubtedly to prove the strongest in the contest, and be victorious; and that in long and elegant songs the oracles everywhere promised. The interpreters also announced that success was indicated by the flight of birds, and the priests asserted that similar things were denoted by the motion of the entrails. Elated by these deceitful promises, he advanced to the camp with great confidence, and arranged his troops, as far as he was able, for the battle. And when he was about to begin the contest, he summoned the most trusty and honored of his attendants and friends to one of the places which they regard as sacred, a consecrated grove, spacious and irrigated, in which were erected all kinds of sculptured statues of those whom he esteemed gods, and having lighted wax tapers, and offered the accustomed victims to them, he is said to have uttered the following address.

"Friends and fellow-warriors, these are the gods of our fathers, whom, received from our earliest ancestors as objects of worship, we honor; but he who commands the army that is drawn up against us, having adopted an atheistic opinion, violates the customs of the fathers, venerating a god from abroad, I know not whence, and disgraces his troops with his ignominious standard, trusting in which he arms not so much against us as against the gods whom he offends. This occasion therefore will show which of us errs in his belief, and decide between the gods who are honored by us and by the other party: for either by showing us victors, it will show our gods are most justly regarded as auxiliaries and saviours; or if the God of Constantine, come from I know not where, shall prevail over ours, who are many, let no one thereafter doubt what God ought to be worshipped, but go to the strongest and present to him the reward of the victory. If the foreign God, whom we now deride, should appear the mightiest, we must acknowledge and honor him, and bid adieu to those to whom we have vainly lit wax tapers. But if ours prevail, which is not to be doubted, then after the victory we must proceed to a war against the atheists.'"

The victory was accordingly regarded by Constantine, the church, and the people at large, as the victory of the true God over the false, of Christianity over idolatry. "When the whole was by the power of God the Saviour subjected to him, he made known to all the giver of his prosperity, and testified that God,

1 Eusebii de Vita Const. lib. ii. c. 3, 4, 5,

not he, was the author of his victories." And on the release of the confessors from the mines and prisons by the edict of Galerius and Maximin, "All the unbelieving were struck with astonishment and admiration at the extraordinary change, and exclaimed, 'Great and alone true is the God of the Christians.' "

III. The legal recognition of the Christian religion by Constantine, and patronage of its teachers and professors, inspired a general persuasion that the happy period denoted by the kingdom of God, and triumphant reign of Christ on earth, was at hand.

"On the fall of Licinius, the great conqueror Constantine and his son Crispus the Cæsar received the east as theirs, established one government as formerly over the Romans, and swayed the whole in peace from east to west, and from north to south. The people therefore being freed from all fear of the court with which they had before been overwhelmed, held festal days with great splendor. There were everywhere illuminations. They who were before dejected, looked on one another with joyful aspects and smiles, and with choirs and hymns through the cities and country, gave honor first to God the supreme ruler of all as they were taught, and then to the pious emperor and his children. The miseries and impiety of the past were forgotten; joy and exultation prevailed at the blessings now promised, and happy anticipations of the future. Philanthropic edicts were everywhere published by the emperor, and laws that displayed his munificence and piety."3

Lactantius also: "Let us celebrate the triumph of God with gladness; let us commemorate his victory with praise; let us make mention in our prayers day and night of the peace, which after ten years of persecution, he has conferred on his people."4

IV. The voice uttered from heaven the scene of the victory, "Now is the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Anointed," had a signal counterpart in the congratulations and exultation of the church at that period.

Eusebius represents the victors at the precipitation of Maxentius and his attendants into the Tyber, as saying like Moses at the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, "Let us sing to the Lord, for he is signally glorified. Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord my helper and defender was

1 Eusebii de Vita Const. lib. ii. c. 23. Constantini Orat. ad Sanct. Cœt. c. 22. Eusebii Orat. de laud. Const. c. 6, 7, 9.

* Eusebii Hist. Eccl. lib. ix. c. 1. Orat. de laud. Const. c. 9, pp. 518, 519. Eusebii Hist. Eccl. lib. x. c. 9. De Vita Const. lib. ii. c. 19.

Lactantii de Mort. Persecut. c. 52.

991

with me unto salvation. Who, O Lord, is like to thee among gods? Who is like to thee, glorified by the holy, admirable in praise, doing wonders? Constantine entered Rome in triumph, hymning these and similar passages to God the author of the victory. And on the fall of Licinius, he represents the church as uniting in thanksgiving for the deliverance, and congratulations at the overthrow of idolatry, and establishment of Christ's kingdom; and devotes the tenth book of his history to the edicts of the emperor by which the church was nationalized and endowed, and to the restoration of the temples, and the public rejoicings at their dedication. "Let thanks be given by all to the Almighty Ruler of the universe, and to Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer, through whom we pray that peace from external foes may be uninterruptedly preserved to us, and tranquillity of mind." "Let us sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done wonderful things. His right hand has saved him, and his holy arm. The Lord has made known his salvation; he has revealed his righteousness in the presence of the nations. We may now appropriately respond to the inspired command to sing a new song, inasmuch as after such direful spectacles and narrations, we now have the happiness to see and celebrate, what many holy men before us and the martyrs for God, desired to see on earth, and did not see, and to hear and have not heard. But advancing more rapidly, they attained far superior gifts in heaven, being caught up to the paradise of celestial joy; while we acknowledge the gifts we enjoy are greater than we deserve, and contemplate with wonder the largeness of the divine bounty. Admiring and adoring with all our souls, we testify to the truth of the prophet's words, 'Come and see the works of the Lord, what wonders he has wrought in the earth, abolishing wars to the ends of the world. The bow he has broken, he has dashed the arms, the shield he has burned in the fire.' Rejoicing at the manifest fulfilment of these predictions to us, we go on with our history." He goes on accordingly to represent the whole population, freed from the domination of the tyrants, and relieved from oppression, as acknowledging the only true God and protector of the pious, and those especially who had placed their hope in Christ, as filled with inexpressible joy; the ministers everywhere delivering commemorative addresses, and the whole multitude offering praises and thanksgiving to God."

V. The predictions of a woe to the land and the sea from the overthrow of the idolatrous party, had a signal fulfilment in the 2 Ibid. lib. x. c. 1, 2, 3.

Eusebii Hist. Eccl. lib. ix. c. 9.

exasperation and violence of the pagan chiefs towards their subjects generally, as well as the church, from the defeat of Maxentius to the final fall of paganism. Maximin, the emperor of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, suspended the persecution on the fall of Maxentius, and the grant of toleration to the church by Constantine and Licinius, but soon renewed it with far greater violence, and an avowed purpose of exterminating the church from his dominions. Persons of distinction were appointed to the pagan priesthood in all the cities, the rites renewed with pomp and zeal, and the magistrates and people given to understand that they could do nothing more acceptable to the prince, than to assail and slaughter the Christians. They accordingly plotted against them in extraordinary ways, suborning the most profligate accusers, and traducing them by the most infamous imputations, by which the magistrates of all the provinces were induced to assail and persecute them with greater fury than at any former period.1

Licinius, who succeeded him in the empire of the east, in 319 renewed the war on them, and continued it with the utmost virulence till his fall in 323. He began by encouraging false accusations against the bishops; then enacted arbitrary laws prohibiting them from assembling in synods, entering each other's churches, or communicating with one another, in order that he might generate pretexts for putting them to death. He banished all who held the Christian faith from the palace, and from his retinue, and drove them into exile; and threatened death to all who should thereafter profess Christianity. He prohibited men from assembling with women in churches for worship, and the bishops from giving religious instruction to any but their own sex, ordered that their assemblies should be held only without the gates of the cities, and in the open air; and forbade their supplying those with food who were imprisoned, and left without any provision by the magistrates and at length proceeded to open and direct war on the ministers and members of the churches, subjecting them to the most horrible tortures, slaughtering them in great numbers, and endeavoring to exterminate them from his dominions. Multitudes fled from the cities to the country, to deserts, and to mountains. Some escaped to the western empire, and the whole would have soon shrunk from sight, or been devoured, had not Constantine interposed and extricated them from his power.3

Eusebii Hist. Eccl. lib. ix. c. 4, 5, 6. Pagi Crit. in Baron. an. 314, no. vi.-L. 2 Eusebii de Vita Const. lib. i. c. 51-56. Ibid. lib. ii. c. 1, 2.

Mr. Brightman, Mr. Daubuz, Mr. Elliott, and others, regard the war symbolized by the strife of the angels, as the war between Constantine and Maxentius, Maximin and Licinius for political power. But that is against analogy. It is to make the symbolic act, and that which it represents, of the same species. As all the subordinates of Michael were good angels, it assumes that all the subordinates of Constantine were Christians and witnesses for God, which is notoriously unauthorized. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that his army was essentially less heathen, than was that of Maxentius, Maximin, or Licinius. His attempts at a subsequent period to christianize his soldiers, show that they were at least generally idolaters.1

The supposition that it was a struggle for political power, is inconsistent with the means by which the triumph was gained, the blood of the Lamb, and their testimony, and with the nature of the victory, which was not an elevation of the conqueror to political power, but the dejection of the vanquished, and preclusion from a further accusation of the witnesses. Exemption from persecution, and freedom of faith and worship, were the blessings which believers attained, and which were the ground of their expectation, that the gospel would thereafter prevail without obstruction, and the reign of Christ soon commence, when the whole world should become subject to his dominion.

Dean Woodhouse regards the war as a strife in heaven between good and evil angels, at the period of Satan's expulsion from his primeval seat. But that is to disregard the symbolic nature of the vision, and treat it as history, instead of prophecy. If the prophetic meaning may be excluded from this passage, what reason can be given that it may not from every other?

Vitringa regards Michael as symbolizing Christ. But that is against the law of analogy, no creature, however exalted, having any adequacy to represent him. It is in contradiction also to the representation, that the victors overcame their enemies by the blood of the Lamb. How can Christ be said to overcome in the same manner as the witnesses through faith in his blood? The supposition of Cocceius that Michael is Christ himself, is equally obnoxious to this objection.

Mr. Faber regards the war as a strife between the teachers of the Latin church, and pure and Protestant teachers, during the twelve hundred and sixty years. But that interpretation is founded on the assumption that heaven, in which the symbol war was exhibited, denotes the visible church, which is not only without

Eusebii de Vita Const. lib. iv. c. 19, 20, 21.