Indeed, that
real Christians could have been found in the army in this century is
impossible, for the military oath, which was full of idolatry, and the
adoration of the standards, and the performance of sacrifice, still
continued as services[14] not to be dispensed with by the soldiery. No
one, therefore, can believe, that men in the full practice of Pagan
idolatry, as every legionary soldier must then have been, were real
Christians, merely because it is recorded in history, that men, calling
themselves Christians, were found in the army in those times. On the
other hand, if any soldiers professed Christianity at this period, or
are related by authors to have professed it, and yet to have remained
soldiers, it may be directly pronounced, that they could only have been
nominal or corrupted Christians.

[Footnote 14: The military oath was not altered for Christians till the
next century, when they were allowed to swear "by God, by Christ, and by
the Holy Spirit, and by the majesty of the emperor, which, next to God,
is to be loved and honoured by mankind."]

That Christianity was more degenerate in the fourth than in the third
century (which is the next position) we have indubitable proof. One of
the first facts, that strikes us, is an extraordinary one related by
Lactantius, in his "Death of the persecuted," that there were Christians
at this time, who, having probably a superstitious belief, that the sign
of the Cross would be a preventive of pollution, were present, and even
assisted at some of the Heathen sacrifices. But it is not necessary to
detail these or other particulars. Almost every body knows, that more
evils sprang up to the church in this century, than in any other, some
of which remain at the present day. Indeed, the corruption of
Christianity was fixed as it were by law in the age now mentioned.
Constantine, on his conversion, introduced many of the Pagan ceremonies
and, superstitions, in which he had been brought up, into the Christian
religion. The Christians, rejoiced at seeing an emperor of their own
persuasion, under whom they had hopes of restoration to equal privileges
with others, and of freedom from persecution, submitted, in order to
please or flatter him, to his idolatrous customs and opinions, thus
sacrificing their consciences to their ease and safety. Many, on the
other hand, who had always been Heathens, professed themselves
Christians at once out of compliment to their emperor, and wit