380 MISCELLANEOUS THOUGHTS. a proficient in this divine school, as to learn some net* lesson daily. Train me up among thy visible works and thy word, O my heavenly Father, by the condescending methods of thy grace and providence, till I am loosened and weaned from all things below God ; and then give me a glorious dismission into that in- tellectual and blissful world, where in a more immediate manner I shall see God, and where Ged himself is the sensible acknow- ledged life of souls. XLV. Formality and Superstition. It is a melancholy thing to consider how great a part of man- kind, even in christian countries, deceive themselves in the sacred and important affairs of God and religion. They cheat their consciences with the empty forms of worship, and hope to secure themselves from eternal evils, and to obtain every bless- ing of the upper and lower world, by mere bodily service, and the outward shapes of devotion. The Papist sprinkles himself with holy water, and believes that the devil dares not assault him ; he has signed his forehead with a cross, and got some relics of a saint about him, and now he imagines himself so well guarded, that he defies the powers of hell. lIe says his prayers in Latin, in full tale and number, for he counts Isis string of beads to secure his memory and his honesty, and expects God should hear and bless him for it ; though he himself does not know what he prayed for, in so many hard words and syllables. Ritillo professes the protestant faith, keeps his church, cons over his prayer book, bows at the name of Jesus, and makes all the responses in proper time; he observes every festival, honours the saints, receives the sacrament at Christmas and Easter, and grows up merely in the power of these forms to a full assurance of salvation ; yet Ritillo knows not what you mean by convic- tion of sin, he scarce ever thought himself to want repentance, or saw and felt his real need of grace and forgiveness. Nor is this dangerous piece of self - flattery confined only to those parties of christians that deal much in ceremony. Amor- phus divides himself from the national church, that he may enjoy and practise purer worship, without the inventions of men; he carries his scruples to a considerable length in this way ; he dares not be present at a common funeral, lest he should appear to join in some exceptionable'forms ; he attends the best of preach- ers in their separate meetings, and that with an air of zeal and devotion ; he lays his bible every night under his pillow, and reads three chapters every morning ; lie endures perhaps many a scoff for his precise practices and punctilios ; yet he neglects the great duties of repentance and charity, and puts the vain fancy of preeiseness and separation in the room of faith, and love, and inward holiness.
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