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A51812 The nature and effects of superstition in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons on Saturday the fifth of November, 1692 / by Thomas Mannyngham ... Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722. 1692 (1692) Wing M493; ESTC R4396 12,601 35

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their Errors but shews them the Truth not by subtilty and human Methods but by having recourse to the Revelation of God and that testify'd by the greatest of Miracles the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead having thus enlarg'd upon this Oration of St. Paul which he made against the Superstition of the Athenians in the midst of their great Court of Judicature I shall endeavour these three Things in my following Discourse I. To lay down some Considerations that may lead us into a more distinct Knowledg of the Nature of Superstition II. To observe some of its more Barbarous Effects such as the Occasion and the History of this Day shall suggest III. To propose some Directions to preserve us from this Horrible Sin and the ill Consequences of it I. To lay down some Considerations c. Superstition in its ordinary use is made a word of Ambiguity and a common Term of Disdain which is mutually cast upon all the Differences in Religion The Epicureans counted it Superstition to acknowledge the Providence of God and to pay him any Worship besides the bare Esteem of the Mind The Heathen Writers whenever they mention the Jews or the Christians speak of them as a most wretchedly-deluded People given over to an obstinate Superstition But I think the Primitive Fathers have sufficiently manifested where Superstition was to be really charg'd by exposing their Absurd Cruel and Obscene Rites and by Baffling all the Arguments which they brought to justifie their Follies But still there are vast Bodies of People in the World who live under different Perswasions in Religion as well as under different Governments who are mightily satisfied in their own ways of Worship and commiserate all who are not of their Opinion as poor deluded Creatures blinded with Superstition Nay the Profession of Christianity it self is so fill'd up with different Imaginations Rites and Usages that almost all distinct Communions are Impeaching and Abhorring one another upon the account of Superstition They who know the World know that these are true Observations and very deplorable But sure there is some better Standard of Superstition than the opprobrious Language and Passions of Mankind and that is the thing I am now to enquire after 1. Therefore 't is well known that Plutarch has written the most celebrated Treatise on this Subject of any among the Ancient Heathen for that Book of Seneca concerning Superstition which St. Austin quotes is not come down to our Hands Now though this Grave and Ingenious Author has deliver'd many excellent Things on that Head and shew'd an extraordinary Zeal against those who painted the Divinity in a Horrid Shape that they might Worship their own ill Nature yet when he defines Superstition by an Astonishing and Dreadful Apprehension of the Deity he does not tell us the true Nature of it but only points out one Cause or one Occasion of it For though Superstition may arise from Fear yet it rises also from Ignorance or a Stupidity of the Mind from Love and Fondness as well as from Fear from almost any Passion of the Soul and any Temper of the Body for when the Natural Sence of a Deity and of the Duty that Man owes him comes to be vitiated with a mixture of Mens own Infirmities and Passions those Infirmities and Passions stand ready to commence Superstition there being nothing more requir'd but an Opinion of their being well-pleasing to God which is seldom wanting to Mens own Imaginations Besides to call a Dread of God by the Name of Superstition is somewhat a dangerous Expression to Christian Ears when we consider how the Old Testament does almost every where represent Religion by the Fear of God and that the Prophets convers'd with him under great Tremblings and Terror Plutarch was a Platonist and the Platonists were a Sect of People who were generally of a soft and Amorous Nature who plac'd their Happiness in the Speculation of Ideas and who rarely consider'd God as a Righteous Punisher of Sin but chiefly as a most amiable Being for them to contemplate they usually entertain'd very good Opinions of themselves and of their own Perfections and little thought of that Gulf which Sin had made between Man and the Divine Nature and therefore they hardly allow'd such a just Severity to the Deity as was requisite for the wise Government of the World but made his Goodness to swallow up his Justice Whereas God who knows his own Nature best has given us another Character of himself the Lord Merciful and Gracious and forgiving Iniquity but will by no means clear the Guilty visiting the Iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children Exod. 34.6 7. Superstition therefore though variable in its Original and Effects is always founded upon a false Apprehension of God and consequently upon a false Apprehension of Religion by which he is Serv'd and Worship'd And as this false Apprehension of God and Religion arises from several Causes and produces several Effects so accordingly Superstition is varied It consists both in Opinion and Practice and though Practice be most Obvious and Remarkable and that from which Opinion is usually gather'd yet it may be defin'd with a regard to both viz. That it is the Performing of a religious Service with an Opinion of its being well-pleasing to God though it be really unacceptable and unworthy to be offer'd to him So that our next Enquiry will be to know what Religious Service is well-pleasing to God and what is unacceptable to him I. Some have thought that the Manners and Customs of the Country and the Publick Laws are the only Determination in this Matter So Seneca is represented by St. Austin for concluding that those Superstitions which he could not approve of to his own Mind were yet to be observ'd because the Laws commanded them Quae omnia sapiens observabit tanquam legibus jussa non tanquam Diis grata C. D. l. 6. c. 10. And not much unlike is that which the Church of Rome Assigns when she makes her Constitutions the only measure of what is and what is not Superstition But now this is a way of confounding all Truth or of making it safe as to Temporal Interest for Men to practice the Superstitions of every Country where they are publickly allowed but this gives the Mind no Light nor enables it to make a Rational and Certain Distinction between Religion and Superstition 2. An Appeal to the Principles of Natural Religion and to the Dictates of sound Morality did go a great way among some of the wiser Heathen towards the Determination of this Thing and therefore St. Paul insisted so much upon Natural Principles in his Speech to the Athenians though he did not ultimately rest on those Gross Idolatry could not stand before the Light of Natural Reason when it was well display'd but yet there were many lesser Extravagances from which the politer Heathen could not free themselves by the strength of that Principle Thus Cicero who was a great