“Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, ‘Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.’
Acts 17:22
“…when the accusers stood up, they… had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.”
Acts 25:18-19
“…why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances (touch not; taste not; handle not; which all are to perish with the using) after the commandments and doctrines of men?”
Col. 2:20-22
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Order of Contents
Articles 3
Book 1
Quote 1
Latin 3
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Articles
1600’s
Gillespie, George – pt. 3, ch. 1, ‘That the Ceremonies are Unlawful Because Superstitious, which is Particularly Instanced in Holy Days & Ministering the Sacraments in Private Places’ in English-Popish Ceremonies (1637)
Cawdrey, Daniel
‘Of Superstition’ in Diatribe triplex, or, A Threefold Exercitation concerning 1. Superstition, 2. Will-Worship, 3. Christmas Festival, with the Reverend & Learned Dr. Hammond (London: Wright, 1654)
Exercitation 1, ‘Of Superstition’ in The Account Audited & Discounted: or, a Vindication of the Threefold Diatribe, of: 1. Superstition, 2. Will-Worship, 3. Christmas Festival, Against Dr. Hammond’s Manifold Para-Diatribes Buy (London, 1658), pp. 62-143
Cawdrey was a Westminster divine.
Baxter, Richard – Direction 58, ‘Take heed of Superstition, and observe well the circular course of zealous superstition…’ in The Cure of Church Divisions… (London, 1670), pt. 1, pp. 278-95
“But especially take heed of that which is true superstition indeed, by which here I mean the making of any new parts of religion to ourselves and fathering them upon God, who never made them. Of this there are two sorts, positive and negative: When we falsely say, ‘This is a duty commanded by God,’ or when we falsely say, ‘This is a sin forbidden by God.’
Take heed of both. I do not speak here of doing or not doing the same things upon any other account (as human duties, or mere conveniences or the like), but as they are falsely pretended to be divine.” – p. 282
“Fifthly, it is not superstition to do the same material thing which another does superstitiously; if we have not the same superstitious conceit of it as he has. If a Papist should anoint the sick as a sacrament, and a protestant do it as a medicine, the former is superstition and not the latter. And so in other things.
Sixthly, whether that indifferent thing remain indifferent to our use which others use to superstition is a case which a judicious collation of circumstances must determine. His superstitious use does not make it simply a sin in any other who has none of his false conceits and ends (else some superstitious persons so abusing meat and drink and clothes and all things in the world might make all things become unlawful to us: or at least deprive us of all our liberty in things indifferent).
Seventhly, if we avoid another’s superstition as to the form or intention which makes it superstition, and this as a sin, we do well: If we avoid the matter itself which he uses superstitiously, because it is by him made scandalous, we do our duty, when it is scandalous indeed, and no contrary greater accident maketh it our duty. But if we take it to be simply superstition or sin to do materially the same action which a superstitious person does, we are superstitious in avoiding his superstitious act.” – pp. 285-86
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1700’s
De Moor, Bernard – Section 17, ‘Things Opposed to True Religion in General: Impiety & Superstition’ in A Continuous Commentary on John Marck’s Compendium of Didactic & Elenctic Christian Theology, vol. 1 Buy (Leiden, 1761-71), ch. 3, ‘On Religion’
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Book
1600’s
Crompton, William – A Remedy Against Superstition: or a Pastor’s Farewell to a Beloved Flock, in Some Preservatives Against Creature-Worship (1667) 175 pp. no ToC
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Quote
Daniel Cawdry
Diatribe triplex… (London: Wright, 1654), ‘Of Superstition,’ p. 6
“There may be therefore two heads of superstition.
§5. 1. Negative, when men abstain from some things under a notion of religion, or worship of God, which are not forbidden by God, but left free and indifferent: either not forbidden, or, if once they were, now [they are] antiquated, or outdated… And of this sort was that, Col. 2:21, ‘Touch not, taste not, handle not;’ which was superstitious negative will-worship.
§6. 2. Positive, when men of their own hearts and heads set up ways of religion, to worship God by, which He never commanded; and this (as was said) may be committed against any of the four first Commandments… Now this positive superstition may be exemplified in many particulars…”
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Latin
1600’s
Velthuysen, Lambert – A Tract on Idolatry & Superstition no ToC in All the Works of Lambert Velthuysen… part 1 (Rotterdam: Leers, 1680), pp. 371-524
van Mastricht, Peter – ch. 13,‘Of the Instituted Worship of God, & of Superstition’ in The Idea of Moral Theology, bk. 2, ‘Of Religion’, pp. 1238-40
vol. 3
9. Superstition 91
10. Some Addenda [to Superstition] 126
11. Historical Appendix: Theology of Sneezing [sometimes it was considered to be an omen] 132
12. Genuflection at the Name of Jesus & unto the Table, or Altar 139
13. Part 2 163
14. Part 3 179
15. Part 4 201
16. Part 5 214
37. Appendix to the Disputations on Superstition & Idolatry 532-39
vol. 4, 50. ‘A Syllabus of Questions on the Decalogue’, ‘On the 1st Commandment’
‘Of its [worship’s] opposites in defect: irreligiousness, impiety, profanity & atheism’, p. 778
‘Of superstition strictly speaking: of every vain observance’, p. 779
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Related Pages
Expositions of the 2nd Commandment