CHAPTER XLVIII

CONSTANTINE’S EDICT TO THE PEOPLE OF THE PROVINCES CONCERNING THE ERROR OF POLYTHEISM, COMMENCING WITH SOME GENERAL REMARKS ON VIRTUE AND VICE

“VICTOR CONSTANTINUS, MAXIMUS AUGUSTUS, to the people of the Eastern provinces.

“Whatever is comprehended under the sovereign laws of nature, is capable of conveying to all men an adequate idea of the forethought and intelligence which characterise the arrangements of God. Nor can any, whose minds are directed in the true path of knowledge to the attainment of that end, entertain a doubt that the just perceptions of sound reason, as well as those of the natural vision itself (the true perfection of each faculty having one and the same tendency), lead to the knowledge of God. Accordingly no wise man will ever be surprised when he sees the mass of mankind carried away by pursuits of an entirely opposite character. For the beauty of virtue would be useless and unperceived, did not vice display in contrast with it the course of perversity and folly. Hence it is that the one is crowned with reward, while the most high God is Himself the administrator of judgment to the other.

“And now I will endeavour to lay before you all, as explicitly as possible, the nature of my own hopes of future happiness.