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A62648 The wisdom of being religious a sermon preached at St. Pauls / by John Tillotson ... Tillotson, John, 1630-1694. 1664 (1664) Wing T1272; ESTC R4633 37,624 58

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things the knowledg of the Principles of it and a suitable life and practice the first of which being speculative may more properly be called knowledg and the latter because 't is practical may be called wisdom or prudence therefore I shall endeavour distinctly to prove these two things 1. That Religion is the best Knowledg 2. That it is the truest Wisdom 1. First That it is the best knowledg The knowledg of Religion commends its self to us upon these two accounts 1. 'T is the knowledg of those things which are in themselves most excellent 2. Of those things which are most useful and necessary for us to know First It is the best knowledg because it is the knowledg of those things which are in themselves most excellent and desireable to be known and those are God and our duty God is the sum and comprehension of all perfection It is delightful to know the Creatures because they are some shadows of the divine perfections There are particular excellencies scattered and disperst among the Creatures which 't is very pleasant to contemplate But in God all perfections in their highest degree and exaltation meet together and are united how much more delightful then must it needs be to fix our minds upon such an object in which there is nothing but beauty and brightness what is amiable and what is excellent what will ravish our affections and raise our wonder please us and astonish us at once And that the finite measure and capacity of our understandings is not able to take in and comprehend the infinite excellencies and perfections of God this indeed shews the excellency of the object but doth not at all detract from the delightfulness of the knowledg for it is a greater pleasure for a finite understanding to be lost in the contemplation of its object and to view unlimited excellencies which have no shore nor bounds then to look upon those perfections of which we can see the end and utmost as 't is more pleasant to the eye to have an endless prospect then to be terminated for this is that which properly causeth admiration when we discover a great deal in an object which we understand to be excellent and yet we see we know not how much more beyond that which our understandings cannot fully reach and comprehend And as the knowledg of God in his nature and perfections is excellent and desireable so likewise to know him in those glorious manifestations of himself in the works of Creation and Providence and above all though it be little spoken of by the Saints of the Old Testament by reason of the obscure degree of its discovery in those times the knowledg of God in his Son Jesus Christ in that stupendious manifestation of his wisdom and mercy in the contrivance of our Recovery which is such a mystery and so excellent a piece of knowledg that the Angels desire to pry into it 1 Pet. 1. 12. And as the knowledg of God is excellent so likewise of our Duty which is nothing else but vertue and goodness and holiness which are the Image of God a conformity to the nature and will of God and an imitation of the Divine excellencies and perfections so far as we are capable For to know our duty is to know what it is to be like God in Goodness and Pity and Patience and Clemency in pardoning injuries and passing by provocations in justice and righteousness in truth and faithfulness and in a hatred and detestation of the contrary of these In a word it is to know what is the good and acceptable will of God what it is that he loves and delights in and is pleased withal and would have us to do in order to our perfection and our happiness It is deservedly accounted a piece of excellent knowledg to know the Laws of the Land and the Customs of the Country we live in and the Will of the Prince we live under How much more to know the Statutes of Heaven and the Laws of Eternity those immutable and eternal Laws of Justice and Righteousness to know the will and pleasure of the great Monarch and Universal King of the World and the Customs of that Country where we must live for ever This made David to admire the Law of God at that strange rate he doth in the 119th Psalm and to advance the knowledg of it above all other knowledg I have seen an end of all perfection but thy Commandment is exceeding broad Secondly 'T is the knowledg of those things which are most useful and necessary for us to know The goodness of every thing is measured by its end and use and that 's the best thing which serves the best end and purpose and the more necessary any thing is to an end the better it is So that the best knowledg is that which is of greatest use and necessity to us in order to our great end which is Eternal happiness and the Salvation of our Souls Curious speculations and the contemplation of things that are impertinent to us and do not concern us nor serve to promote our happiness are but a more specious and ingenious sort of idleness a more pardonable and creditable kind of Ignorance That man that doth not know those things which are of use and necessity for him to know is but an ignorant man whatever he may know besides Now the knowledg of God and of Christ and of our duty is of the greatest usefulness and necessity to us in order to our happiness It 's of absolute necessity that we should know God and Christ in order to our being happy Joh. 17. 3. This is life eternal that is the onely way to it to know thee the only true God and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ It is necessary also in order to our happiness to know our Duty because 't is necessary for us to do it and it is impossible to do it except we know it So that whatever other knowledg a man may be endued withal he is but an ignorant person who doth not know God the Authour of his being the Preserver and Protector of his life his Soveraign and his Judg the giver of every good and perfect gift his surest refuge in trouble his best friend or worst enemy the present support of his life his hopes in death his future happiness and his portion for ever Who does not know his relation to God the duty that he owes him and the way to please him who can make him happy or miserable for ever Who does not know the things of his peace and the way how to get his sins pardoned and himself reconciled to an offended God Who doth not know the Lord Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life So that if a man by a vast and imperious mind and a heart large as the sand upon the Sea shore as it is said of Solomon could command all the knowledg of Nature and Art of words
a good Trades-man but a bad Christian for Christianity is more our proper Calling and profession then the very Trades we live upon and just such is every Sinner who is wise to do evil but to do good hath no understanding Is he wise who neglects and disobliges him who is his best friend and can be his shrewdest Enemy who with one weak Troop goes out to meet him that comes against him with thousands of thousands who she s a small danger and runs upon a greater Just so does every wicked man who neglects and contemns God who can save or destroy him who strives with his Maker and provoketh the Lord to jealousie and with the small and inconsiderable Forces of a Man takes the Field against the mighty God the Lord of Hosts who fears them that can kill the body but after that have no more that they can do but fears not him who after he hath kill'd can destroy both body and soul in Hell and just such is he who for fear of any thing in this world ventures to grieve God for in so doing he runs away from men and falls into the hands of the living God he flies from a temporal danger and leaps into Hell Is he wise who in matters of greatest moment and concernment neglects opportunities never to be retriv'd who standing upon the Shore and seeing the Tide making haste towards him apace and that he hath but a few minutes to save himself yet will lay himself to sleep there till the cruel Sea rush in upon him and overwhelm him Just so does he who trifles away this day of Gods grace and patience and foolishly adjourns the work of Repentance the business of Religion to a dying hour And to put an end to these Questions Is he wise who hopes to attain the end without the means nay by means that are quite contrary to the end Just such is every wicked man who hopes for Blessedness hereafter without Holiness here to gain the favour of God by offending him and to come to the sight of him by sinning against him and to be happy that is to find a pleasure in the enjoyment of God and in the company of holy Spirits by rendring himself as unsuitable and unlike to them as he can Use II. The second Use is to perswade men to be throughly and seriously Religious as ever they would acquit themselves to be truly knowing and wise Knowledg and Wisdom are confessed Excellencies among men Eccl. 2. 13. Wisdom excels Folly as much as light doth darkness There are some Vertues and perfections that gain affection from men as Truth and Meekness and Kindness but there are others that cause admiration and raise wonder among these are Knowledg and Wisdom which if they be in any eminent degree will cast a great lustre and glory upon a man Eccl. 8. 1. The Wisdom of a man maketh his face to shine Now even the shadows of these latter sort of Excellencies hit the vain-glorious nature of man more then the realities of the former because proud Man had rather be admir'd then lov'd And that Knowledg and Wisdom are generally acknowledged to be great Excellencies appears in that men do so generally affect the reputation of Knowledg and are so ambitious to be accounted Wise There is not any thing that men value themselves more upon then their Knowledg and Discretion and on the contrary Ignorance and Folly are reckoned among the greatest defects of humane nature so that they are accounted generally a greater reproach and disgrace to a man then Vice and Wickedness and they have got so ill a report in the world that there are not many but had rather be accounted Knaves then Fools hence it is that men generally pretend to these Excellencies of Knowledg and Wisdom even such as are most destitute of them and rather then want these Perfections they will call even their Vices and Imperfections by this name Craft and Silence and Secrecy and Reservedness and Formality and affected Gravity all these put in for the Title of Wisdom so ambitious is the nature of man of the reputation of this Excellency Job 11. 12. Vain man would be wise though he be born like a wild asses colt Now this very thing that men are so forward to counterfeit these perfections is an Argument of the Excellency of real Knowledg and Wisdom for as I said before to counterfeit is nothing else but to put on the appearance of some real Excellency common and ordinary things are not counterfeited but onely things of price and value as Gold and Silver and precious Stones And that men are so tenacious of these Excellencies so loth to be stripp'd even of the shadow and appearance of them is an argument that men highly esteem them So that it seems that these Excellencies are in great dearness among men because we hold them so fast that when we cannot possess the reality of them yet we love to enjoy the opinion of them and rather then be wholly disseised of them will hold them by that sleight and fantastick tenure of Imagination Now if we account them such excellencies we should labour to be possest of them in truth and reality and not take up with any counterfeits of them but use such a care and niceness about them as men do about Jewels and precious stones which because they are of great value all mistakes about them are shameful and intollerable I have shewed that Religion is the truest knowledg and most real wisdom therefore every man that values his understanding and stands upon the reputation of his prudence and discretion ought to be Religious Deut. 4. 6. Keep therefore my Statutes for this is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of the nations Those who understand and know how to manage the petty interests of this world we account them shrewd and cunning and designing men but if we would speak truly and wisely of things the Religious man is the notable man he that contrives to be everlastingly happy and lays designs for all Eternity he is a man of the deepest reach he that takes care of his Soul and secures his Eternal interest he is a shrewd man That man who by the assistance of Gods grace can over-reach his own deceitful heart and defeat all the arts and wiles of the Devil and escape those pollutions that are in the world and save himself from the sins and snares and temptations of an untoward Generation he is a cunning man indeed Wouldst thou then be truly knowing labour to know God and thy self thy interest and thy end and thy happiness and the way of attaining it Wouldst thou be truly wise be wise for thy self wise for thy Soul wise for Eternity Resolve upon a Religious course of life Fear God and depart from evil look beyond things present and sensible unto things which are not seen and are eternal labour to secure the great interests of another world and refer all the actions of this short and dying life to that state which will shortly begin but never have an end and this will approve it self to be Wisdom at the last what-ever the world judge of it now for not that which is approved of men now but what shall finally be approved by God is true wisdom that which is esteemed so by him who is the fountain and original of all wisdom the first rule and measure of it the best and most competent Judge of it I deny not but many that are wicked and neglect Religion may think themselves wise and may enjoy this their delusion for a while but there is a time a coming when the most profane and Atheistical who now account it a piece of gallantry and an argument of a great spirit and of a more then common wit and understanding to slight God and baffle Religion and to level all the discourses of another world with the Poetical descriptions of the Fairy Land I say there is a day a coming when all these witty fools shall be unhappily undeceived and not being able to enjoy their delusion any longer shall call themselves fools for ever But why do I use arguments to perswade men to that which is so excellent so useful and so necessary The thing it self I am pressing you to hath allurements in it beyond all arguments For if Religion be the best knowledg and wisdom I cannot offer any thing beyond this to your understandings to raise your esteem of it I can present nothing beyond this to your Affections that may be attractive of your love and desire All that can be done is to set the thing before men and to offer it to their choice and if mens natural desire of wisdom and knowledg and happiness will not perswade them to be Religious 't is in vain to use Arguments if the sight of these Beauties will not charm mens Affections 't is to no purpose to go about to compel a liking and to urge and push forward a a match to the making whereof consent is necessary Religion is matter of our freest choise and if men will obstinately and wilfully set themselves against it there is no remedy Pertinatiae nullum remedium posuit Deus If men will choose to befools and to be miserable all that can be said is this God will leave such persons to in herit their own choice to enjoy the portion of sinners FINIS * Leviathan part 3. c. 34. * Leviathan part 1. c. 6.