we should regard ; and from him only should we seek " a recompence of reward."]
At the same time it becomes us to be equally on our guard,
II. Against superstition —
Superstitious services are scarcely less common than those which are hypocritical —
[The Heathen imagined that their gods were to be moved by long services and vain repetitions. Hence the worshippers of Baal cried to liim, " O Baal, hear us! O Baal, hear us!" and continued their cry from morning to noon, and with in- creased earnestness from noon to evening ^ And to this hour a great part of the Christian world (the Papists, I mean) con- tinue a superstition as absurd as any that can be found in the heathen world : they repeat their Ave-Marias and their Pater- nosters a great number of times; (keeping an account thereof with their beads ;) and then think that they have performed an acceptable service to the Lord, though they have not offered to him one spiritual petition. Happy were it if such super- stition were confined to them : but the same thing obtains also amongst ourselves. What is more common than for persons to attend the house of God, and to go through the service in a dull formal manner, and then to return home satisfied with having performed a duty to their God? Yet the religion of many who fancy themselves devout, consists in nothing but a repetition of such services : and if these services be repeated on the week days as well as on the Sabbath, they take credit to themselves for possessing all the piety that God requires. In some things, I confess, these persons set an example worthy the imitation of the religious world : they are always in their places at the beginning of the service ; and they shew a be- coming attention to it throughout the whole, both in their reverejit postures and their audible responses : and, if my voice could reach to every professor of religion throughout the world, I would say. Learn of them ; and as far as these things go. Imitate them. Still, however, inasmuch as the religion of these persons consists in forms only, without any suitable emotions of the heart, it is no better than the worship of the heathen : our Lord himself says, that " in vain do any persons worship him, who draw nigh to him with their lips, whilst their hearts are far from him"^."
Some who are truly enlightened, have yet the remains of this old leaven within them; and are apt to judge of their
<^ 1 Kinscs xviii. 26—20. ^ Matt. xv. 7—9.