N00499:17
Optanda. Good men described, and good things propounded. A serious consideration of two very…
Optanda. Good men described, and good things propounded. A serious consideration of two very important cases. I. What should be our spirits, and II. What should be our studies, that so all things may go well among us. / By Cotton Mather. ; In two sermons; whereof one, was preached unto the governor, and General Court, of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England; at their first session: June 9. 1692. ; Published by authority[.]Optanda. Good men described, and good things propounded. A serious consideration of two very important cases. I. What should be our spirits, and II. What should be our studies, that so all things may go well among us. / By Cotton Mather. ; In two sermons; whereof one, was preached unto the governour, and General Court, of the province of the Massachusetts-Bay, in New-England; at their first session: June 9. 1692. ; Published by authority[.]
Boston: printed by Benjamin Harris, 1692
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
If the very Title of the Proverbs in our Bibles, did not intimate, that they were Excellent Sentences, yet the Author, the Pen-Man, the Matter, and the Te••ure, would all conspire to declare their being so. It is then an Excellent Sentence which now lies before us; and an Excellent Spirit is the thing recommended in it. We are told in I King. 10 24. All the earth sought unto Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his Heart. But behold, something of that Wisdom now seeks unto a Little Part of the earth within these walls this day, that we would attend unto it.
If the very Title of the Proverbs in our Bibles, did not intimate, that they were Excellent Sentences, yet the Author, the Pen-Man, the Matter, and the Te••ure, would all conspire to declare their being so. It is then an Excellent Sentence which now lies before us; and an Excellent Spirit is the thing recommended in it. We are told in I King. 10 24. All the earth sought unto Solomon, to hear his wisedom, which God had put into his Heart. But behold, something of that Wisdome now seeks unto a Little Part of the earth within these walls this day, that we would attend unto it.
We have here a description of a Wise Man, which the only Wise GOD put into the Heart, of One that was himself such a Man. To be too Solicitous and Inquisitive after the Aspect, ⟨p. 3⟩which these words may bear unto the Context, will be to forget the Independency of the Sacred Proverbs, which rather lie together like an heap of Unstrung Pearls, in the Book of our GOD. Nevertheless, tis plain that Solomon is here commending the Taciturnity, which Wise Men usually have a kindness for; and we have this, assigned as the Reason of the Silence, that is affected by such Men as those; Particularly, when they receive great provocations from their Injurious Neighbours, and are punished, even for their Justice, or Strucken for their Equity; How come they to be Sparing of their words! Why, they are of an Excellent Spirit.