214 Of Godlinefs. SERM. attention to the things of religion, and VIII. endeavour to excite and confirm good af- L"v feftions in themfelves, which may contribute to their defence againft the returning tempta- tions of the world. Thus I have endeavoured briefly to explain godlinefs, to new you what are the affeaions and difpofitions of mind, wherein it confifts, and likewife that it does import the proper fruits of thofe inward principles in external ads of homage to God. I will not enter on the confideration of the particular modes of worfhip, or thofe external actions whereby our refped to the Deity is or ought to be expreffed. Religion, in its effence unchangeable as the objet of it is, has even by divine appointment varied its forms, as we fee by the fcripture account of the patriarchal, the mofaic, and chr /ian fchemes ; only we may obferve in general that confidering how vain the imaginations of men have appeared to be in this important affair ; what a ridiculous, extravagant and abfurd pageantry of religious fervice they have deviled, and how difficult it would Rill be to bring all men of very different fentiments and unequal underftandings into one method of woríhrp, if they were left to their own in-
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