Whatever convenience may be thought to be in falsehood and dissimulation, it is soon over; but the inconvenience of it is perpetual, because it brings a man under everlasting jealousy and suspicion, so that he is not believed when he speaks the truth, nor trusted when perhaps he means honestly.
John TillotsonWhether religion be true or false, it must be necessarily granted to be the only wise principle and safe hypothesis for a man to live and die by.
John TillotsonVirtue and vice are not arbitrary things; but there is a natural and eternal reason for goodness and virtue, and against vice and wickedness.
John TillotsonThough all afflictions are evils in themselves, yet they are good for us, because they discover to us our disease and tend to our cure.
John TillotsonSurely modesty never hurt any cause; and the confidence of man seems to me to be much like the wrath of man.
John TillotsonThe true ground of most men's prejudice against the Christian doctrine is because they have no mind to obey it.
John TillotsonIf people would but provide for eternity with the same solicitude and real care as they do for this life, they could not fail of heaven.
John TillotsonA good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence, which costs us nothing.
John TillotsonFear is that passion which hath the greatest power over us, and by which God and His laws take the surest hold of us.
John TillotsonIs not he imprudent, who, seeing the tide making haste towards him apace, will sleep till the sea overwhelms him?
John TillotsonSincerity is to speak as we think, to do as we pretend and profess, to perform and make good what we promise, and really to be what we would seem and appear to be.
John TillotsonWhen we have practiced good actions awhile, they become easy; when they are easy, we take pleasure in them; when they please us, we do them frequently; and then, by frequency of act, they grow into a habit.
John TillotsonWisdom and understanding are synonymous words; they consist of two propositions, which are not distinct in sense, but one and the same thing variously expressed.
John TillotsonMen expect that religion should cost them no pains, that happiness should drop into their laps without any design and endeavor on their part, and that, after they have done what they please while they live, God should snatch them up to heaven when they die. But though the commandments of God be not grievous, yet it is fit to let men know that they are not thus easy.
John TillotsonThe covetous man heaps up riches, not to enjoy them, but to have them; and starves himself in the midst of plenty, and most unnaturally cheats and robs himself of that which is his own; and makes a hard shift, to be as poor and miserable with a great estate, as any man can be without it.
John TillotsonThe gospel chargeth us with piety towards God, and justice and charity to men, and temperance and chastity in reference to ourselves.
John TillotsonThey who are in the highest places, and have the most power, have the least liberty, because they are the most observed.
John TillotsonThe crafty person is always in danger; and when they think they walk in the dark, all their pretenses are transparent.
John TillotsonAre we proud and passionate, malicious and revengeful? Is this to be like-minded with Christ, who was meek and lowly?
John TillotsonSincerity is like traveling on a plain, beaten road, which commonly brings a man sooner to his journey's end than by-ways, in which men often lose themselves.
John TillotsonLet no man deceive you with vain words or vain hopes or false notions of a slight and sudden repentance. As if heaven were a hospital founded on purpose to receive all sick and maimed persons that, when they can live no longer to the lusts of the flesh and the sinful pleasures of this world, can but put up a cold and formal petition to be admitted there. No, no, as sure as God is true, they shall never see the Kingdom of God who, instead of seeking it in the first place, make it their last refuge and retreat.
John TillotsonWhen a man has once forfeited the reputation of his integrity, he is set fast, and nothing will then serve his turn, neither truth nor falsehood.
John TillotsonWe have no cause to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; but the Gospel of Christ may justly be ashamed of us.
John TillotsonMany man's scruples lie almost wholly about obedience to authority and compliance with indifferent customs, but very seldom about the dangers of disobedience and unpeaceableness and rending in pieces the Church of Christ by needless separations and endless divisions.
John TillotsonIt is hard to personate and act a part long; for where Truth is not the bottom, Nature will always be endeavoring to return, and will peep and betray herself one time or other.
John TillotsonHow often might a man, after he had jumbled a set of letters in a bag, fling them out upon the ground before they would fall into an exact poem, yea, or so much as make a good discourse in prose? And may not a little book be as easily made by chance as this great volume of the world?
John TillotsonThe art of using deceit and cunning grow continually weaker and less effective to the user.
John TillotsonTo be happy is not only to be freed from the pains and diseases of the body, but from anxiety and vexation of spirit; not only to enjoy the pleasures of sense, but peace of conscience and tranquillity of mind.
John TillotsonFor the spiritual efficacy of the Sacrament doth not depend upon the nature of the thing received, supposing we received what our Lord appointed, and receive it with a right preparation and disposition of mind, but upon the supernatural blessing that goes along with it, and makes it effectual to those spiritual ends for which it was appointed.
John TillotsonThe little and short sayings of nice And excellent men are of great value, like the dust of gold, or the least sparks of diamonds.
John TillotsonNo man's body is as strong as his appetites, but Heaven has corrected the boundlessness of his voluptuous desires by stinting his strength and contracting his capacities.
John TillotsonTake away God and religion, and men live to no purpose, without proposing any worthy end of life to themselves.
John TillotsonEvery man hath greater assurance that God is good and just than he can have of any subtle speculations about predestination and the decrees of God.
John TillotsonHe who is sincere hath the easiest task in the world, for, truth being always consistent with itself, he is put to no trouble about his words and actions; it is like traveling in a plain road, which is sure to bring you to your journey's end better than byways in which many lose themselves.
John TillotsonFor a Man cannot believe a Miracle without relying upon Sense, nor Transubstantiation without renouncing it. So that never were any two things so ill coupled together as the Doctrine of Christianity and that of Transubstantiation, because they draw several ways, and are ready to strangle one another: For the main Evidence of the Christian Doctrine, which is Miracles, is resolved into the certainty of Sense, but this Evidence is clear and point blank against Transubstantiation.
John TillotsonPiety and virtue are not only delightful for the present, but they leave peace and contentment behind them.
John TillotsonEven so does he who provides for the short time of this life, but takes no care for all eternity; which is to be wise for a moment, but a fool for ever; and to act as crossly to the reason of things as can be imagined; to regard time as if it were eternity, and to neglect eternity as if it were but a short time.
John TillotsonNext to the wicked lives of men, nothing is so great a disparagement and weakening to religion as the divisions of Christians.
John Tillotson