"You may perhaps object here and say, all this is to no purpose, as christianity was well established before; and had existed for nearly three centuries, and increased too, notwithstanding the many most bitter and cruel persecutions. Therefore what you say respecting Constantine only proves that christianity has been corrupted, but it is no objection against its truth. Very good. If the facts above stated are admitted, let them prove what they will, I am not the author of those facts, nor accountable for what is proved by them. The conversion of Constantine, however, if correct, bears some analogy to the conversion of St. Paul: hence, the supposition that one is not correct, brings a little doubt over the mind respecting the truth of the other: for both being by means which were supernatural; if both are supported on equal testimony, why should they not both share the same fate in our minds? Both were equally possible; it is the want of probability, therefore, arising from the want of equal evidence in its favour, which leads us to reject the truth of the circumstances attending the conversion of Constantine, rather than those attending the conversion of St. Paul. The conversion of Constantine also, if genuine, seems to have been designed for a very different object, and was attended with a very different effect. This would incline me to believe in the validity of that of the apostle's, rather than that of the emperor. Nevertheless, as it respects the facts; he who caused a light at mid-day, above the brightness of the sun, might as easily have painted the sign of the cross on his disk; and he who spake to Saul from Heaven, with an audible voice, in the Hebrew tongue, might as easily have painted letters and words in Greek, so that they might be distinctly read in the firmament!
"Leaving all ancient miracles and revelation, I will come down to those of our own times, and in our own country.—Strange to tell, there is a sect of people now among us, who sprang up less than half a century ago, whose religion is professedly founded on miracles and revelation. On miracles wrought by the first founders of the sect, as by Christ and his apostles, and on a revelation also made directly to them, and through them to the believers, as by the inspired writers of the new testament. They appear to be something similar in sentiment, as it respects the person of Christ, to the ancient Arians; with this difference only, they conceived that as Christ made his first appearance in Jesus, the son of a carpenter, so he has made his second appearance in Ann, the daughter of a blacksmith, whom they call mother; and they consider their church the New Jerusalem, that holy city which was to come down from God out of Heaven.
In the year 1808, about the same time after their first rise as it was after the days of Jesus to the writing of the new testament, they published a history of their sect, in a work entitled 'Christ's second appearance,' or the New Jerusalem Church, setting forth their rise, progress and present state; together with their principles, customs and mode of worship. This work contains an account of their mother Ann, and the first elders; and particularly an account of the miracles said to have been wrought by them. If my memory serves me, (as the book is not by me) there is an account of about forty miracles, all of which are well attested, and though they acknowledge that most of them are inferior to those wrought by Jesus and his apostles, yet they contend that they are no more inferior to those than those are to the miracles wrought by Moses. They contend that for the plagues in Egypt, the dividing the red sea, bringing water out of the rock, feeding Israel forty years in the wilderness with bread from heaven, and that there should always fall a double portion on the sixth day, but none on the seventh, that that which fell on the sixth day, should keep two days, but on all other days it would keep but one, and that afterward, some of the same bread or manna was laid up in the ark of the covenant which kept for ages, as a memorial; also the dividing the waters of the river Jordan, and the fall of the walls of Jericho; yea most or all of these, according to reason or human appearance, are as much greater than the miracles wrought by Jesus and his apostles, as those are greater than those wrought by Ann and her elders! It is true, they did not pretend to raise the dead, but either these accounts are all fabrications and lies, or else they had among them the gift of healing, and that too miraculously. A woman who had fell with her horse, by the falling of a bridge, and had broken several of her ribs, besides being otherwise very much bruised, was cured in one evening, so that she joined in the dance! A boy who had cut his foot so that a person might have laid his finger into the wound, which bled very profusely, was cured in a few hours so that nothing was to be seen of the wound excepting a white streak, about the bigness of a common thread! and many others of a like kind, too numerous to be mentioned in this place.
"You will readily perceive that I allude to the Shakers; a people who are enjoying privileges among us which no other people enjoy, except the Friends, called also Quakers: and who are debarred from no privileges excepting those from which they either religiously or superstitiously debar themselves. Thus people, in consequence of their religion, have entirely changed their manners, customs, and modes of worship. They have also endured considerable persecution; and that they have not suffered martyrdom in defence of their religion, is no fault of theirs. There can be no doubt but that there has been fanaticism enough on their part to have done it, if there had been only bigotry and cruelty enough in the people, at that time, to have put it in execution. Let the same spirit reign among the people for a short time, which reigned in Boston when the Quakers were put to death for their religion, and the Shakers also would be able to boast of their martyrs in defence of the truth of their particular sect, and of course of the miracles and revelation on which it is said to have been founded.
"And here I wish to remark a little on martyrdom, seeing it is often brought in defence of the truth of divine revelation. I am aware that great stress has been laid upon this, and it will still be considered as one of its main pillars. I apprehend, however, that more stress has been laid upon martyrdom than what it will justly bear. If this is a test of the truth of religion, there is scarcely any religion but what may be proved true. Only make death honourable, of any kind whatever, in the eyes of the people, and there are always enough who are ready and willing to die for the sake of the honour which will be in consequence attached to their names. But only let any particular kind of death be considered, in the eyes of the people, meritorious, and the sure and certain road to endless bliss, and there will not only be enough found willing to undergo this death, if they can find any to inflict it upon them, but they will absolutely court it! Instead therefore of having my faith strengthened by reading the book of martyrs, as I thought I had some reason to expect, it has produced a quite contrary effect. Notwithstanding these accounts were taken down by the friends of the martyrs, and by them have been handed down to us, who, as we may well suppose, were rather prejudiced in their favour, yet nevertheless, it is impossible to disguise the spirit and motives with which many of those infatuated people eagerly sought and met death.
"In all those accounts it is but too clearly discovered, what has been too often the fact, that the most bitterly persecuted would have become the most violent persecutors, if there had been only a chance for them so to have done, and if there had been, in their view, an equal occasion. The persecutors of people for their religion have always considered the persecuted, either heretics or infidels; who if persecuted by heathens, unless they could be brought to sacrifice to their heathen gods, or if by christians, unless they could be brought to acknowledge the particular faith embraced by the orthodoxy of the day, were considered as mere nuisances or pests to society; and therefore for the public good, it was thought necessary to take them out of the world! While on the other hand, the persecuted have always considered that, if they suffered death in defence of their religion, they were certain of being raised to great honour and dignity in another world; a privilege which they undoubtedly believed their persecutors would never enjoy! And, whatever was the opinion of Christ and his apostles on this subject, it cannot be denied but that the idea very soon become prevalent among their followers that the distinction between them and a wicked world, particularly their persecutors, would be eternal! Under these circumstances, I do not wonder at all that men have been found willing to die for their religion; yea, and even to court death by all the means of which their own consciences would approve!
"But, you may say, all this does not account for the death of the first martyrs. Very true. I admit that it does not. But it shews that, only let the work be begun, from any cause whatever, there is no difficulty in its being continued.
"Suppose then, if you please, that the first martyrs were killed by a mob, a mere rabble, without any legal process, or even form of trial; as, from which appears by the account, was the case with the death of Stephen, the first christian martyr; and, according to tradition, most of the other apostles: (and it may be remarked here, it is only by tradition that we have any account of the death of the apostles; as all authentic documents on the subject, if there ever were any, are lost:) I say, let such a circumstance as the death of Stephen take place in any country, and in any age of the world; but more especially in that age and country in which he lived; and then let the same honour, and the same supposed consequences be attached to such a death, as undoubtedly were attached to the death of Stephen; and there can be no doubt but that others would be willing to follow the example.
"Only let the blood once begin to flow, no matter how, and then only attach eternal consequences to it, and hold out inducements of an eternal nature, and persuade men to believe them (which is not so difficult a thing as some may imagine) and you will never want for victims, so long as you can find a zeal sufficiently blind and mad; as to continue the slaughter. In this way, I conceive martyrdom, of every species and kind, may be rationally accounted for.
"But it may be said all this does not disprove the miracles and revelation on which the christian religion is founded.