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    formerly , * fc e prostitution of woipen was , a religious > rite ; common , ' .. jail nations ; and that this practice ; obtained , from a real persuasion : of its being an acceptable offering to the gods .

    It would occupy too much time , otherwise it would be a pleasant thing to endeavour to trace the changes which were effected in the popular superstitions by the introduction of Christianity . Were the doctrines and precepts of this religion thoroughly understood , every bind of superstition

    would vanish before it ; and , indeed , the very imperfect knowledge which has been attained of this divine system , has had the effect , in every country in which it has openly been professed , of promoting the civilization of , man ; of removing all cruel and obscene ceremonies from his religion ; and of rendering even his very superstitions more

    innocuous . The Emperor Constantiue , although he retained the belief of many absurdities , was so influenced by the religion of Christ , as to be induced to declare ,

    whea writing to bis Pagan ' subjects to persuade them to be converted , that those who could not conform , might still freely enjoy their temples and their fancied gods . *

    Acacius , the Christian Bishop of Amid a , in Mesopotamia , in the beginning of the fifth century , boldly declaring that vases of gold and silver are useless to a God who neither eats n 6 r drinks , actually sold the gold and silver plate belonging to his church ,

    for the redemption of seven thousand Persian captives ; he also supplied their wants with affectionate liberality , and dismissed them to their native country , to inform their king of the true spirit of the religion which he had persecuted , t ;

    For many centuries , that absurd practice , the trial by battle , was prevalent throughout Europe , until the Christian Church found the means of abolishing it . Spelman does , indeed , expressly assert , that this barbarous custom has been condemned by the Christian Church in all ages . The pld barons of the western

    king-* Gibbon ' s History of the Decline and Fall , 0 vo . III . 405 . f Ibid . V , 427 .

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    doius of Europe were so tyrannical atid ferocious , that , for a ty *» g tiiae , nothing could restrain the ^ r violence ; for , whenever they were not engaged in general wars , they were perpetually making war upon one another . The church , however , at length contrived

    to check these deplorable scenes , by the following stratagem : A truce of God , as it was called , was proclaimed , enjoining , all persons , uncjer the terrors of excommunication , not to fight from Wednesday evening till Monday morning , out of reverence to the mysteries

    of religion , which were enumerated in this curious document ; viz . from a regard to the ascension of our Saviour , which happened on a Thursday ; the crucifixion on Friday y the descent into hell on Saturday ; and the resurrection on Sunday .

    Notwithstanding the Christian Church , by a variety of means , had succeeded in extirpating obscenity and cruelty from the offices of devotion , the general corruption of the doctrines of this amiable religion had produced such false notions of the character of

    the Deity , that superstitions of various kinds soon became universally disseminated . So alarming , indeed , were these innovations , that great pains were at first taken to check their progress . For this purpose , one of the first Christian councils decreed , that those who should be found addicted to

    superstition , should be made to fast for a month in solitary confinement . Even so early as the beginning of the fifth century arose that most ridiculous of all rejigious orders , denominated the Stylites , who betook

    themselves to the tops of lofty pillars , where they yrere perpetually exposed , for the purpose of doing penance for their ^ ins , and of obtaining the favour of the Almighty , to all the changes and inclemency of the seasons for the remainder of their lives . The first

    of these devotees was one Simeon , a Syrian , who , at the age of thirteen * mounted a column six cubits high , afterwards one of twelve cubits , a third of twenty-two cubits , a fourth of thirty-six , and theft one of forty cubits or sixty feet 5 where he spent thirty-seven years , exposed to the heats of summer and the co ! c | of winter , and there expired , without once descending from his column , which was so narrow at the extremity * « 3

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    # 12 On the general Prevalence of Superstition .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1818, page 312, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2476/page/24/