ull of hope, which is (saith
[6350]Austin) _vita vitae mortalis_, the life of this our mortal life, hope
of immortality, the sole comfort of our misery: otherwise, as Paul saith,
we of all others were most wretched, but this makes us happy,
counterpoising our hearts in all miseries; superstition torments, and is
from the devil, the author of lies; but this is from God himself, as
Lucian, that Antiochian priest, made his divine confession in
[6351]Eusebius, _Auctor nobis de Deo Deus est_, God is the author of our
religion himself, his word is our rule, a lantern to us, dictated by the
Holy Ghost, he plays upon our hearts as many harpstrings, and we are his
temples, he dwelleth in us, and we in him.

The part affected of superstition, is the brain, heart, will,
understanding, soul itself, and all the faculties of it, _totum
compositum_, all is mad and dotes: now for the extent, as I say, the world
itself is the subject of it, (to omit that grand sin of atheism,) all times
have been misaffected, past, present, "there is not one that doth good, no
not one, from the prophet to the priest," &c. A lamentable thing it is to
consider, how many myriads of men this idolatry and superstition (for that
comprehends all) hath infatuated in all ages, besotted by this blind zeal,
which is religion's ape, religion's bastard, religion's shadow, false
glass. For where God hath a temple, the devil will have a chapel: where God
hath sacrifices, the devil will have his oblations: where God hath
ceremonies, the devil will have his traditions: where there is any
religion, the devil will plant superstition; and 'tis a pitiful sight to
behold and read, what tortures, miseries, it hath procured, what slaughter
of souls it hath made, how it rageth amongst those old Persians, Syrians,
Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Tuscans, Gauls, Germans, Britons, &c. _Britannia
jam hodie celebrat tam attonite_, saith [6352]Pliny, _tantis ceremoniis_
(speaking of superstition) _ut dedisse Persis videri possit._ The Britons
are so stupendly superstitious in their ceremonies, that they go beyond
those Persians. He that shall but read in Pausanias alone, those gods,
temples, altars, idols, statues, so curiously made with such infinite cost
and charge, amongst those old Greeks, such multitudes of them and frequent
varieties, as [6353]Gerbelius truly observes, may stand amazed, and never
enough wonder at it; and thank God withal, that by the light of the Gospel,
we are so ha