Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/444

 i'2G THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, sense and object of these sublime predictions, which ^^' have been so unworthily apphed to the infant son of a consul, or a triumvir'': but if a more splendid, and in- deed specious interpretation of the fourth eclogue con- tributed to the conversion of the first christian emperor, Virgil may deserve to be ranked among the most suc- cessful missionaries of the gospel''. Devotion The awfiil mysteries of the christian faith and wor- and pnvi- gj^jp ^yere concealed from the eyes of strangers, and leges of ^. •', . Constan- even of catechumens, with an affected secrecy, which ^'°^* served to excite their wonder and curiosity ^ But the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted, were relaxed by the same pru- dence in favour of an imperial proselyte, whom it was so important to allure, by every gentle condescension, into the pale of the church ; and Constantine was per- mitted, at least by a tacit dispensation, to enjoy fuost of the privileges, before he had contracted an?/ of the obligations, of a christian. Instead of retiring from the congregation when the voice of the deacon dismissed the profane multitude, he prayed with the faithful, dis- puted 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^. The pride of Constantine might assume, and his services P The different claims of an elder and younger son of Pollio, of Julia, of Drusus, of JMarcellus, are found to be incompatible with chronology, his- tory, and the good sense of Virgil, 1 See Lowth de Sacra Poesi Hebrceorum, Praelect. xxi. p. 289 — 293. In the examination of the fourth eclogue, the respectable bishop of London has displayed learning, taste, ingenuity, and a temperate enthusiasm, which exalts his fancy without degrading his judgement. ■■ The distinction between the public and the secret parts of divine ser- vice, the missa catechumenorum, and the rnissa Jidelium, and the mysterious veil which piety or policy had cast over the latter, are very judiciously ex- plained by Thiers, Exposition du Saint Sacrement, 1. i. c. 8 — 12. p. 59 — 91 : but as, on this subject, the papists may reasonably be suspected, a pro- testant reader will depend with more confidence on the learned Bingham, Antiquities, 1. x. c. 5. ° See Eusebius in Vit. Const. 1. iv. c. 15 — 32, and the whole tenor of Constanline's sermon. The faitli and devotion of the emperor has furnished Baronius with a specious argument in favour of his early baptism.