John Tillotson Quotes
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They who are in the highest places, and have the most power, have the least liberty, because they are the most observed.
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Men 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.
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The 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.
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With what reason canst thou expect that thy children should follow thy good instructions, when thou thyself givest them an ill example? Thou dost but as it were beckon to them with thy head, and shew them the way to heaven by thy good counsel, but thou takest them by the hand and leadest them in the way to hell by thy contrary example.
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When men live as if there were no God, it becomes expedient for them that there should be none.
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How 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?
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The angriest person in a controversy is the one most liable to be in the wrong.
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Is not he imprudent, who, seeing the tide making haste towards him apace, will sleep till the sea overwhelms him?
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And as for Pleasure, there is little in this World that is true and sincere, besides the Pleasure of doing our Duty, and of doing good.
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To be able to bear provocation is an argument of great reason, and to forgive it of a great mind.
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In our pursuit of the things of this world, we usually prevent enjoyment, by expectation; we anticipate our own happiness, and eat out the heart and sweetness of worldly pleasures, by delightful forethoughts of them; so that when we come to possess them, they do not answer the expectation, nor satisfy the desires which were raised about them, and they vanish into nothing.
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It 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.
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When 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.
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Are we proud and passionate, malicious and revengeful? Is this to be like-minded with Christ, who was meek and lowly?
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Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy; but he that can moderate these affections will find ease in his mind.
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Every 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.
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Next to the wicked lives of men, nothing is so great a disparagement and weakening to religion as the divisions of Christians.
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There is one way whereby we may secure our riches, and make sure friends to ourselves of them,--by laying them out in charity.
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Wealth and riches, that is, an estate above what sufficeth our real occasions and necessities, is in no other sense a 'blessing' than as it is an opportunity put into our hands, by the providence of God, of doing more good.
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Of some calamity we can have no relief but from God alone; and what would men do, in such a case if it were not for God?
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If the show of any thing be good for any thing, I am sure sincerity is better; for why does any man dissemble, or seem to be that which he is not, but because he thinks it good to have such a quality as he pretends to?
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Let 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.
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Was ever any wicked man free from the stings of a guilty conscience?
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If they be principles evident of themselves, they need nothing to evidence them.