A.D. at a time when the legal establishment of 330. Christianity, throughout the whole of the Roman dominions, was soon to be brought about.

A.D.

Constantius Chlorus died in peace at York; 306 having been created joint emperor with Galerius, about a year before. On his death his celebrated son, Constantine, was hailed emperor by the troops assembled at the spot, and soon left Britain; having received the sanction of Galerius to his ruling the northern provinces of the empire, with the title of Cæsar. But the manner in which the sovereignty of the Roman dominions was now parcelled out amongst several princes, nearly equal in power, though with some difference of title, could not be expected to prove a peaceable or durable arrangement, unless the several colleagues had been the most virtuous and just of men. Pretexts would readily occur, to any ambitious member of the imperial partnership, for quarrelling with a colleague, to obtain an increase of his own share; and they were all ambitious men. Hence arose civil wars:

and, in the course of eighteen years time, the A.D. sword and the executioner had swept away all Constantine's colleagues and rivals.

324.

Then it was, when his commands were obeyed without dispute, throughout the countries now called England, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the isles of the Mediterranean, Greece, the states of Barbary, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey, that Constantine issued his edicts for casting the heathen gods out of their temples; prohibiting idolatrous sacrifices; and proclaiming, that the Roman empire was become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, who shall reign for ever and ever.

There are, however, many circumstances in the history of Constantine, which prove him to have been far from a good man; though it had pleased GOD to make him His instrument in the great work,

of removing idolatry, and of putting the visible Church of Christ in possession of the most important of the kingdoms of the earth. We can perceive that he would, naturally, lend himself to be GOD'S willing instrument in this. His rivals were fierce persecutors of the Christians; so that it was easy for him to see the policy of gaining the affection of what was become a numerous, and so far, a powerful body of their subjects; by announcing himself, first, as the generous protector of Christians, and latterly as their fellow-believer. Probably, indeed, Constantine having early cast away his heathen pre-t judices, was mentally convinced of the truth of Christianity, by the divines whom he encouraged to approach him. But unhappily those divines. had begun to give too much attention to subtle questions. They taught their hearers to search the Scriptures in order to deduce ingenious arguments in favour of particular theories; rather than to read the word of GOD that it might effectually work in them, subduing their hearts to the obedience of Christ; and might bring them, by a deep sense of the weakness and corruption of the natural man, to covet earnestly, and seek with fervent prayers for the help of the Holy Spirit. Hence Constantine, though he became a Christian in name, and in his assent to the creed of the Church, seems never to have been taught to surrender his whole heart to GOD; and though he was allowed to become the founder of the first Christian kingdom, he was not blessed with the higher honour of becoming the reformer of the Church. It already needed reformation. The latter times, foretold by St. Paul, had already begun; some having so far departed from the faith delivered by the Apostles, as to give heed to doctrines concerning the spirits of dead saints; forbidding, also, to marry; and commanding to abstain from meats,

* 1 Tim. iv.

which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving.

The bishops of Rome, too, were beginning, about this time, to be notorious for their ambition; the income, and the respectful attention which they received from the wealthy Christians of that great city, having made their office an object of desire for bad men; who frequently obtained it by intrigues, nay, sometimes, by absolute violence. As bishops of the great metropolis of the empire, their situation, when viewed politically, must have been regarded by their brethren as a peculiarly important one. But we find in the first recorded public transaction, in which the heads of the British Church appear concerned, a decisive proof that the bishops of much less celebrated cities, though they would, doubtless, have gladly looked up to those holding the conspicuous situation of Bishops of Rome, as ensamples to the flock, were quite unconscious that they could, in the face of the Apostle Peter's express prohibition*, put in any claim to being Lords over God's heritage.

The transaction here alluded to, was the assembling of a council of divines from the provinces then under Constantine's authority, at Arles in Gaul, to deliberate on certain points of discipline, concerning which the clergy were in much perplexity. Amongst those who thus met together, were the Bishops of York, of London, and of another British town, perhaps Caerleon. Having come to a decision, they drew up certain rules and sent a copy of them to Silvester, then Bishop of Rome. But, instead of claiming to have met by his authority, or requesting his sanction to their decrees, as if he was the infallible head of the Church, they speak of themselves as collected together by the command of the emperor; and call the Bishop of Rome merely their brother,

* 1 Pet. v. 3.

BISHOPS OF ROME.

59

whose society and assistance they would gladly have had. Since, however, they understood that his occupations kept him at home, they tell him that they thought fit to signify to him what they had de creed; as wishing all persons to know what they must, in future, observe.

It has been remarked, that the elevation of the Roman Empire, was in various ways, conducive to the propagation of Christianity, and to the reception of the Gospel as a divine revelation. But the vices of a people who had been civilized, and risen to wealth and power under a system of idolatry, devised to encourage the indulgence of the passions, were a great obstacle to the formation of a virtuous population. The infamous dregs of luxurious heathen cities, and of vast disorderly camps, would but spread their contaminating pollution with the more rapidity amongst the servants of GOD; when, by their becoming nominally Christians, the boundary which had previously served to warn the believer, that he was entering the enemy's quarters, was rendered indistinct. Whilst Cain still lived, and bore about his awful mark, the sons of God would shudder to find themselves among his children; but, when that sign of the first murderer met their eyes no longer, the daughters of the wicked were fair in their sight; and they approached, and shared their sins and their destruction. To prevent the second people of his choice, the sons of Israel, from being corrupted by the like contagion, GoD issued his commands for exterminating the grossly polluted inhabitants of Canaan; as though nothing short of this could prevent the contamination of their horrid offences. And now, the same righteous Judge of nations, and watchful Guardian of his peculiar people, determined again to purge the land in which his Church abode; by destroying the arts, long degraded to serve as stimulants to wickedness; by scattering the wealth which supplied corrupting

luxuries; and by breaking up all the customs and habits of a people, whose manners, whose language, and whose abodes, were full of the infection of vice. The long state of suffering, from which the Church had but just emerged, could not fail, however, to have impressed its members with such a conviction of the hostility of the world to the doctrines of the Gospel, and to have formed them to such habits of abstinence from the pleasures of the world, as might, for some time, protect them from the mischievous influence of the great body of nominal Christians brought in amongst them by the decrees issuing from Constantine and his successors, which declared Christianity to be the religion of the state. A pause was, therefore, yet made, before God summoned the future conquerors of the empire to their appointed task. When He will effect any of His. purposes, all things are found prepared for His ends.

In the interval of which we are now speaking, the hardy nations, whose ill cultivated territories extended along the north-western confines of the empire, grew too numerous to subsist on the scanty means which they had skill to raise by agriculture, or could collect by the chase; whilst the subjects of the empire, instead of the resolute spirit required to defend their envied possessions, had sunk into abject effeminacy; the result of exchanging the vices of violence for those of idle luxury.

This interval, and the work of destruction which should follow, had alike been announced long before,

600.

as forming part of God's avowed purposes. Bef. Chr. To the prophet Daniel, it had been shewn, under two different types, that ten kingdoms should be formed out of the discordant materials which the Roman power had held together, whilst its energy remained unimpaired. To St.

Dan vii. 7. 19, 20. 23, 24.

Ib. ii. 41. 43.