ky, which was the sign of the cross lively figured in
the air, with this inscription on it: 'In hoc vince;' that is, 'By this
overcome.'" This is the story as related by Eusebius (Life of
Constantine, lib. 1, ch. xxii.), but it must be remembered that Eusebius
acknowledged that he told falsehoods. That night Christ appeared unto
Constantine in his dream, and commanded him to make the figure of the
cross which he had seen, and to wear it in his _banner_ when he went to
battle with his enemies. (See Eusebius' Life of Constantine, lib. 1, ch.
xxiii. See also, Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. 1, ch. ii.)

[445:3] Dupuis, p. 405.

[445:4] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 373. The Fathers, who censured this
criminal delay, could not deny the certain and victorious efficacy even
of a death-bed baptism. The ingenious rhetoric of Chrysostom (A. D.
347-407) could find only three arguments against these prudent
Christians. 1. "That we should love and pursue virtue for her own sake,
and not merely for the reward. 2. That we may be surprised by death
without an opportunity of baptism. 3. That although we shall be placed
in heaven, we shall only twinkle like little stars, when compared to the
suns of righteousness who have run their appointed course with labor,
with success, and with glory." (Chrysostom in Epist. ad Hebraeos. Homil.
xiii. Quoted in Gibbon's "Rome," ii. 272.)

[446:1] Lib. 4, chs. lxi. and lxii., and Socrates: Eccl. Hist., lib. 2,
ch. xxvi.

[446:2] Eusebius: Life of Constantine, lib. 2, ch. xliii.

[446:3] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxii.

[446:4] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxiii.

[446:5] Ibid. lib. 3, ch. lxiv.

[446:6] Ibid. lib. 4, ch. xv.

[446:7] Ibid. ch. lxiii.

Plato places the ferocious tyrants in the Tartarus, such as Ardiacus of
Pamphylia, who had slain his own father, a venerable old man, also an
elder brother, and was stained with a great many other crimes.
Constantine, covered with similar crimes, was better treated by the
Christians, who have sent him to heaven, and _sainted_ him besides.

[447:1] Gibbon's Rome, vol. ii. p. 274.

[447:2] "Theodosius, though a professor of the orthodox Christian faith,
was not baptized till 380, and his behavior after that period stamps him
as one of the most cruel and vindictive persecutors who ever wore the
purple. His arbitrary establishment of the Nicene faith over the whole
empire, the deprivation of civil rites of all apostates from
Christianity and of the Eunomians, the sente