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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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The Wisdom of being Religious A SERMON Preached at St. PAULS By JOHN TILLOTSON Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns-Inn BATEMAN Maior Martis quinto decimo die Martii 1663. Annoque Caroli secundi Angliae c. sexto decimo IT is Ordered That Mr. Tillotson be desired to Print his Sermon lately Preached at St. Pauls Church before the Lord Maior and Aldermen of this City WELD PErlegi hanc Concionem in Ecclesiâ Sancti Pauli habitam cui Titulus The Wisdom of being Religious in quâ nihil reperio Doctrinae Disciplinaeve Ecclesiae Anglicanae aut bonis moribus contrarium Plurima tamen quae ad praecipuum religionis fundamentum tutandum Et ad Prodigiosam Atheorum hujus seculi vanitatem redar guendam egregiè sunt accommodata Quapropter dignissimam Censeo quae in Utilitatem publicam Typis mandetur Joh. Hall Rev. in Christo Pat. Humfredo Episc Lond. â sac Domest Maij. 13. 1664. LONDON Printed for SA GELLIBRAND 1664. To the Right Honourable Sir ANTHONY BATEMAN Lord Mayor of the City of London and the Honourable Court of Aldermen there Right Honourable IN obedience to your Order I here present you with a Sermon which you formerly heard I know not how acceptable Discourses of this nature may be I am sure they are very seasonable in this degenerate Age in which Atheism and Profaneness are grown so impudent and notwithstanding the restraints of Shame and Laws do appear with so bold a face in the world When men arrive to that degree of confidence as to tell the world that the Notion of a Spirit implies a contradiction that Fear and Fancy are the Parents of a Deity and Ignorance and Melancholy the true Causes of Devotion and that Religion is nothing else but the fear of an invisible power feigned by the mind or imagined from Tales publickly allowed when it shall be countted brave to defie God and every dabbler in Natural Philosophy or Mathematicks or Politicks shall set up for an Atheist sure then it is high time to resist this growing evil For this purpose I have enlarged that part of the Discourse which is more immediately levelled against Atheism beyond what the limits of time would allow me in the Preaching of it and in hope that it may do some service to that end it is now humbly offered to you by Your Honours most humble servant John Tillotson The Wisdom of being Religious JOB 28. 28. And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding IN the beginning of this Chapter Job discourseth of the knowledg of Nature and the secret and unaccountable operations of Natural Causes and of the unsearchable perfections of the Works of God And enquiring at the 12th Verse where this Wisdom is to be found he tells us that it is not to be met with in any of the Creatures It is not found in the land of the living The depth saith It is not in me and the Sea saith It is not in me c. Therefore he puts the question again ver 20. Whence then cometh Wisdom and where is the place of understanding seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living To which he returns an answer ver 23. God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof for he looketh to the ends of the earth and seeth under the whole heaven to make the weight for the wind c. The result of which discourse is That a perfect knowledg of nature is no where to be found but in the Authour of it no less wisdom and understanding then that which made the World and contrived this vast and regular frame of Nature can throughly understand the Philosophy of it and give a perfect account of all its motions and operations But there is a wisdom and knowledg which is very proper to man and lies level to a humane understanding which is suited and accommodated to the end and uses and necessities of man and that is the knowledg of God and of that duty which we owe to him the wisdom of pleasing God by doing what he commands and avoiding what he forbids This Knowledg and Wisdom may be attained by man and is sufficient to make him happy And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is understanding Which words consist of two propositions which are not distinct in sense but one and the same thing variously expressed For wisdom and understanding are Synonymous words here and though sometimes they have different notions yet in the Poetical books of Scripture they are most frequently used as words equivalent and do both of them indifferently signifie either a speculative knowledg of things or a practical skill about them according to the exigency of the matter or thing spoken of And so likewise the fear of the Lord and departure from evil are phrases of a very near sense and like importance and therefore we find them several times put together in Scripture Prov. 3. 7. Fear the Lord and depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil So that they differ onely as cause and effect which by a Metonymy usual in all sorts of Authours are frequently put for one another Now To fear the Lord and to depart from evil are phrases which the Scripture useth in a very great latitude to express to us the sum of Religion and the whole of our duty And because the large acceptation of these phrases is to be the foundation of my subsequent discourse I shall for the further clearing of this matter endeavour to shew these two things 1. That it is very usual in the language of Scripture to express the whole of Religion by these and such like phrases 2. The particular fitness of these two phrases to describe Religion by I. It is very usual in the language of Scripture to express the Whole of Religion by some eminent Principle or part of Religion The great Principles of Religion are Knowledg Faith Remembrance Love and Fear by all which the Scripture useth to express the Whole duty of man In the Old Testament by the Knowledg Remembrance and Fear of God Religion is called The knowledg of the holy Prov. 30. 3. And wicked men are described to be such as know not God So likewise by the fear of the Lord frequently in this book of Job and in the Psalms and Proverbs And Mal. 3. 16. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another And Eccles 12. 13. the fear of God is expresly said to be the sum of Religion Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole of man And on the contrary the wicked are described to be such as have not the fear of God before their eyes Psal 36. 1. And so likewise by the remembrance of God Eccles 12. 1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy