he virtues of the cross, which in
the last age embarrassed our Protestant disputants.]

[Footnote 39a: Manso has observed, that Gibbon ought not to have
separated the vision of Constantine from the wonderful apparition in the
sky, as the two wonders are closely connected in Eusebius. Manso, Leben
Constantine, p. 82--M.]

[Footnote 40: Caecilius de M. P. c. 44. It is certain, that this
historical declamation was composed and published while Licinius,
sovereign of the East, still preserved the friendship of Constantine and
of the Christians. Every reader of taste must perceive that the style
is of a very different and inferior character to that of Lactantius;
and such indeed is the judgment of Le Clerc and Lardner, (Bibliotheque
Ancienne et Moderne, tom. iii. p. 438. Credibility of the Gospel, &c.,
part ii. vol. vii. p. 94.) Three arguments from the title of the
book, and from the names of Donatus and Caecilius, are produced by the
advocates for Lactantius. (See the P. Lestocq, tom. ii. p. 46-60.) Each
of these proofs is singly weak and defective; but their concurrence
has great weight. I have often fluctuated, and shall tamely follow the
Colbert Ms. in calling the author (whoever he was) Caecilius.]

[Footnote 41: Caecilius de M. P. c. 46. There seems to be some reason
in the observation of M. de Voltaire, (Euvres, tom. xiv. p. 307.) who
ascribes to the success of Constantine the superior fame of his
Labarum above the angel of Licinius. Yet even this angel is favorably
entertained by Pagi, Tillemont, Fleury, &c., who are fond of increasing
their stock of miracles.]

[Footnote 42: Besides these well-known examples, Tollius (Preface to
Boileau's translation of Longinus) has discovered a vision of Antigonus,
who assured his troops that he had seen a pentagon (the symbol of
safety) with these words, "In this conquer." But Tollius has most
inexcusably omitted to produce his authority, and his own character,
literary as well as moral, is not free from reproach. (See Chauffepie,
Dictionnaire Critique, tom. iv. p. 460.) Without insisting on the
silence of Diodorus Plutarch, Justin, &c., it may be observed that
Polyaenus, who in a separate chapter (l. iv. c. 6) has collected
nineteen military stratagems of Antigonus, is totally ignorant of this
remarkable vision.]

[Footnote 43: Instinctu Divinitatis, mentis magnitudine. The inscription
on the triumphal arch of Constantine, which has been copied by Baronius,
Gruter, &c., ma