John Calvin on Superstition

“It is easy to see how superstition, with its false glosses, mocks God, while it tries to please him.”

“In doing practically only the things which He testifies He cares nothing about, superstition neglects those which He has ordained and said are pleasing to Him or even openly rejects them. Therefore those who (in order to worship God) establish religions which have their source in their own minds, only worship their own dreams.”

“The true wisdom of man consists in the knowledge of God the Creator and Redeemer. This knowledge is naturally implanted in us, and the end of it ought to be the worship of God rightly performed, or reverence for the Deity accompanied by fear and love. But this seed is corrupted by ignorance, whence arises superstitious worship.”

“To seek God’s truth, wretched people do no rise above their nature, as would be fitting, but they measure His greatness according to the weakness of their senses. They do not understand Him at all as He has given Himself to be known, but imagine Him as they have made Him by their presumption. In doing this they open a deep gulf in which, once opened, no matter which way they turn they must always fall to damnation. For no matter what they try to do after that to serve God, they cannot hold Him in their debt since they do not honor Him but, in His place, they honor what they have imagined in their heart. This way the vain pretext which many are accustomed to claim to excuse their superstition is struck down. For they think that every feeling of religion—of whatever kind, even when it is all mixed up—is sufficient; but they do not reflect that the true religion ought to be conformed to what is pleasing to God according to His everlasting rule, and further, that God remains ever like Himself and is not an imaginary thing which changes according to the wishes of each person.”