"1. Mankind, in all ages of the world, have been, and still are prone to superstition.
"2. It cannot be denied, but that a part of mankind at least, have believed, and still are believing in miracles and revelation, which are spurious.
"3. The facts on which religion is predicated are unlike every thing of which we have any positive knowledge."
Under the first article, the objector appealed to the known superstitions of the world: not only of the Pagan; but of the Jewish, Mahometan, and Christian world. He took a view of the present state of Asia, spake of the "voluntary sacrifices of human life to the great image at Hugernaught!" and of women "voluntarily climbing the funeral pile to be burned with their deceased husbands!" He took a view of the Inquisition in Old Spain; and finally of the various superstitious notions and practices among the different sects of christians in our own country.
Under the second article, he discanted largely on the pretension of Mahomet, and of their great influence and extent; and also of the particular tone given to the Christian religion by Constantine, who, holding the reigns of government, had superior means in extending his influence over the Christian world. Having made these remarks, the objector proceeds:]
"If therefore, he had happened only to have favoured the opinions of the Gnostics, we might have expected, and probably it would have been the fact, that the learned clergy of the present day would have held that Jesus was not a man in reality, but only a man in appearance; that he assumed a body that he could put on or throw off at pleasure; and that he died and was raised again in appearance only. Or otherwise, if he had been disposed to come down to the simplicity and understanding of the common people, then indeed Christ might still have been considered as the Jews' expected Messiah; yet we should have considered him a man, and nothing more than a man; though 'a man approved of God;'—'a man who hath told us the truth;'—even 'Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph;' as it seems was the opinion of Peter, John and Philip. But the former opinion had been too long treated as heresy by all the bishops to be imbibed by Constantine, while the bishops themselves, on the other hand, had been too long contaminated with the Platonic philosophy to descend to the simplicity of the latter; therefore we have a religion, compounded, partly of the simplicity of the truth, and partly of Platonism. Constantine, however, being supported by a great majority of all the bishops, in a great measure effected his purpose; though not fully to his expectation: for it seems he did not expect that any one would presume to oppose the decisions of this grand council, which he had summoned and convened at his own expense, or at the expense of the empire, but in this he was mistaken; for many, even after this, would take the liberty not only to think for themselves, but also to speak their own thoughts.
"One circumstance more I cannot avoid mentioning in this place, viz, the conversion of Constantine from heathenism to the Christian faith. Great men, if turned about at all, must be turned about by great means! But whatever might have been thought of Constantine's conversion by the people of that day, the account given of it does not argue any thing very forcibly in my mind, in favour of the truth of divine revelation. Great men, however, are not always free from superstition; and they are just as likely to be deceived respecting things which are above their comprehension as others. This is the most charitable way in which I can reconcile the following account which, as Eusebius, the contemporary and historian of Constantine, says, was stated under the solemnity of an oath. For a full account of this extraordinary story. See the 2d vol. of Dr. Priestley's Church History, per. 7, sec. 9. I shall not attempt to quote it in full, nor is it necessary, and what I do quote is from memory only, as I write abroad, my books not being with me.
"Reflecting on the ill success of his predecessors in the numerous wars in which they had been engaged, when their priests and oracles had ever promised them success, and also considering the better success of his father, Constantine concluded from these circumstances that his father prayed to, and was assisted by a different god! When he prayed, therefore, he always prayed to the God of his father. And being thus praying one evening, towards the going down of the sun, with his face toward the same, he saw the appearance of a cross in the sun, with these words over it in Greek, [Greek: tetw nika] by this conquer. Not knowing, (or else pretending not to know) what this sign should mean, he called together some of the christian priests for an explanation; who explained it as might naturally have been supposed they would, that it was a representation of the cross, on which Christ was crucified, and that there could be no doubt but that he had now interposed as God, in behalf of the christians, to deliver them from their enemies, and of course from further persecution! I do not pretend to be any thing more than substantially correct in the above account (by which you will further see how I use the word substantially, about which we have had some dispute) i. e. I may, yea undoubtedly, have differed, as to words, yet I know I am correct in the most material part, and of the use which Constantine made of this supposed miraculous, or supernatural appearance. He said also, the soldiers saw it as well as himself! Now, if we give full credit to this account, what must we think of Christianity? The meek and lowly Jesus, who was led 'like a lamb to the slaughter,' without the least resistance, and who had suffered thousands to follow him in the same way, now, by a miraculous interposition, arms a man with carnal weapons, and, Mahometan like, authorizes him to vindicate his cause, and avenge his wrongs, by shedding the blood of his enemies! Or, if we do not credit this account, what must we think of Constantine? and also of Christianity so far as it can be traced to, and made to depend on his influence? That candor and charity, however, which I ever wish to maintain, will oblige me in this, as in all other cases of a similar nature, to take the middle course. I shall therefore suppose that there was some natural appearance, perhaps a parhelion, the cause of which Constantine did not fully understand, and, from the appearance in the sky around it, his fancy, aided by superstition, painted to his imagination the supposed cross, as also the Greek words, which being pointed out to the soldiers they might easily imagine the same, or, if they did not, would not like to oppose the opinion of their general. Thus circumstanced, whether he really believed it to be any thing supernatural or not, Constantine was disposed to make the most of it he could, by turning it to the best possible account.[2]"
[Footnote 2: "Upon the whole," says Dr. Priestly, (vol. 2, p. 96) "it appears to me most probable, that Constantine and his friends saw a natural parhelion, and that all the other circumstances were either imagined, or invented; and that the story has lost nothing in passing through the hands of Eusebius." Constantine also states (which I forgot to mention above) that "Christ appeared to him in a dream, the night following, with the very same sign which he had seen in the heavens, ordering him to make a military standard like it, and assuring him that it would be his security in battles." "By this note it will be perceived that I have compared what I have written with the part of the history from whence it was taken, and that I find nothing in it materially erroneous.">[
"It appears, however, after all, that Constantine was a man of great moderation, and on the whole, a very good man: yet, that he was not wholly clear from superstition is very evident from the following circumstance. Notwithstanding his extraordinary, and what was supposed by all, miraculous conversion, together with his great pretensions; and all that he had done for christianity, yet he neglected his own baptism till he found he was very nigh his end; when he dressed himself in white, and the bed on which he lay, also all in white, in which dress he was baptised and partook of the sacrament! and thus he continued in white till he died. This was undoubtedly from a mistaken notion, that there was something really purifying in those outward ceremonies, and also from the doctrine of the Navatians, a certain sect, whose opinions it was supposed he favoured, though not very openly, i.e. if a person committed sin after having been thus purified he could not die in union with the church.