A50162:226
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated…
Small offers towards the service of the tabernacle in the wilderness four discourses accommodated unto the designs of practical godliness : preached partly at Boston, partly at Charleston / by Cotton Mather ; published by a gentleman lately restored from threatening sickness as a humble essay to serve the interest of religion, in gratitude unto God for his recovery.
Boston: printed by R. Pierce, 1689
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Prop. II.
It is no small part of Wisdom for men to discern and improve the Time which God affordeth unto them. When the Gales of Opportunity blow in the Sails of Time, every man should see and watch his own Opportunity. To Discern the Time, is to mind the time, and to use the time, for the performance of our Duty. Now tis a wise man that will so discern the Time. Sapience or Wisdom is a Virtue of the Understanding, whereby a man perceives the Dependence of things; the Connection of things, and the Consequence of things being understood, therein Wisdom is discovered. To discern the time is an instance of this. Tis Wisdom for a man to lay his Time and his Work together. Tis Wisdom for a man to fore-see what will be the Issue of such a Work at such a Time. But besides the Nature of Wisdom evidently appearing in this thing, we have a two fold further witness to the Wisdom of it.
It is no small part of Wisdom for men to discern and improve the Time which God affordeth unto them. When the Gales of Opportunity blow in the Sails of Time, every man should see and watch his own Opportunity. To Discern the Time, is to mind the time, and to use the time, for the performance of our Duty. Now tis a wise man that will so discern the Time. Sapience or Wisdom is a Vertue of the Vnderstanding, whereby a man perceives the Dependence of things; the Co•nexion of things, and the Consequence of things being understood, therein Wisdom is discovered. To discern the time is an instance of this. Tis Wisdom for a man to lay his Time and his Work together. Tis Wisdom for a man to fore-see what will be the Issue of such a Work at such a Time. But besides the Nature of Wisdom evidently appearing in this thing, we have a two fold further witness to the Wisdom of it.
First, The Testimony of Scripture there about, shows, that it is Wisdom for men to discern and improve their time. What the all-wise, the only-wise GOD calleth Wisdom, is unquestionably to be esteemed so. The Redeeming of Time is great Wisdom in the Language and the Account of God. Twas said in