The Wisdom of Being Religious, Title page – Dedication
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. Anno que 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 *Leviathan. part. 3. c. 34.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 *Leviathan. part. 1. c. 6.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.