I.

SER M.fign and Artifice of their Leaders; taught them to embrace, in order to please any Being, or Beings, fuperior to themselves, whom they made the Objects of their Religious regards: Every thing, I say, of this Sort, whether relating to their Faith, or to the Nature or Manner of their Worship, or to the Practice of their Lives; which was contradictory or difagreeable to the juft Notions in fuch important Matters, which were then, and ever are, and ever will be, the certain and plain Result of the Common Reason of Mankind, exercised upon fuch Subjects. This it was, that was to be their Conducter in Religious Affairs; and therefore, it is by comparing it with what their Reason ought to have led them to make their Religion, that you muft judge what it was that the Superftition of the Heathens confifted in.

And thus it was that St. Paul judged of the Superftition of the Athenians, with regard to their Worship: as is plain from his Difcourse to Them. He faw, amongst many others, an Altar dedicated to the Unknown God; and this he concluded to have been raised by their fuperftitious Fear, and blind Dread, of They knew not what: when, at the fame time, They ought to have argued, from the Works of Nature, in every Year, and Seafon, and Day, That the Supreme GOD and Governour of the World, had made Himself Suf

ficiently

ficiently known to Them, as the fole Object of s ER M. Religious Worship, by these Works of his, I. which were always before their Eyes.

2. Agreeably to this, the Superftition of Chriftians, confidered as Chriftians, the Followers of Jefus Chrift, as a Teacher sent of GOD, must confift in every Particular, which any Perfons, called Chriftians, have added, or may add, to the plain and exprefs Declarations of their Lord and Mafter himself; under the Notion of fomething neceffary to our pleafing and ferving God: whether it respect the Object of our Faith; the Object or Manner of our Worship; or the Conduct and Practice of our Lives.

The Difference, in this cafe, with regard to Heathens and Chriftians, you will fee, to be very small, in the End: because it was the Great Defign of our Lord's appearing in the World, utterly to deftroy the whole Fabric of Superftition; to restore the Dictates of Uncorrupted Reafon to their Force and Authority; and, by calling the World to believe in Him, as sent by God, to replace the only Method of pleafing Him, upon that True Foundation, upon which it ought to have been placed, whether He had appeared amongst Men, or not.

So that the Difference between True Religion, and Superftition, seems to be this; that the Former is the Argument of the Judgment and B 3 Under

I.

SER M. Understanding, collecting, from the juft Notions of a GOD, enforced upon Chriftians by the plainest Declarations of their Master, the only poffible Method of pleafing Him and the Latter is the Refult of ungoverned Paffion; either the Hope of pleafing God with fomething entirely distinct from, and contrary to, thofe Notions; or the uneafy Fear that He will not be pleased, without the Addition of fomething which has no Relation to them.

We may therefore, as we pafs, obferve that Superftition, in fome Respects, is That to Religion, which, in common Life, the Flattery of a falfe Tongue is, to the Sincerity of Converfation and Friendship. Flattery takes the Place, and often the very Aire and Mien, of fincere Profeffion. It puts itself instead of Friendship; and hopes to be taken for it. It is made up of pleafing Sounds, and Expreffions: and the Appearance is of fomething good. But then, it is founded upon a Baseness of Soul; hoping to please, or fearing to displease, without any thing within answering to those Profeffions. And, in the End, the Evil is, That, when the Mafque is, by fome Accident, taken off; the Reproaches which are due only to the Falseness of fuch Pretenfes, are caft, by such as are not able well to distinguish, upon the fincere Profeffions of Friendship itself, which it only imitated.

And,

I.

And, in the fame manner, Superftition haths E R M. thruft itself into the Place of Religion; and is become an Idol, to which the greater Part of the World hath long continued to bow down:: And, having ufurped, not only the Place, but the Garb and Language, of Religion; no great wonder that, in all Ages, both in the Heathen and Chriftian World, the Scandals, occafioned by the Former only, have been put to the Account of the Latter; and the Evils which the Madnefs of Superftition alone hath produced, have been all, in general, charged upon Religion, which in its true Nature tends to prevent them: nay, that the very Word Religion hath come to ftand for that Syftem of Superftitions, whatsoever it be, which has prevailed in any Country, or Society. But to return,

The principal thing to be regarded, under this firft Head, is, That every Particular, embraced as fomething neceffary to the pleasing of GOD, which is not plainly declared to be so, either by the Voice of Reason, or the Words of the Gospel, is the Superftition of Men, and of Chriftians; whether it relate to Faith, Worfhip, or Practice. But the next great Point is,

II. To point out the true Remedy of this immenfe and deplorable Evil: an Evil, so much the more difficult to be cured, as it is founded

B 4

SER M. founded upon the Paffions of Men; and flatters I. thofe Inclinations, which Custom and Educa

tion have made strong. This, it is plain, must be a Remedy, fuitable to the Nature, and first Principle, of the Evil. And, the Evil confisting in departing from one certain fteady Rule; the proper Remedy must confist in the reducing Men to that Rule, from which they ought not to have departed. I shall now, therefore, propose what the Gospel, as it is reprefented by Chrift and his Apoftles, profeffes and defigns to do, in order to this. And then we fhall judge whether any thing can be more reasonable in itself, more beneficial to Mankind, or, confequently, more honourable to the Gospel itself.

You may easily fee what this is, even by St. Paul's Conduct in this Chapter. At the 22d verse, he takes Notice of the Great Superftition of the Athenians; and, at the 23a and following verses, he propofeth to them, as the only Cure for it, first, the Knowledge of that One God, whom alone they ought to worfhip: Then, the Nature of that Worship which is due to fuch a Being, not confined to, or dependent upon, particular Places, or Circumstances; but suitable to the Nature of a Being, always and every where present with us: Then, the Neceffity of Repentance, that is, of altering whatsoever was bad in the Conduct of