N00657:22
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of…
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard College. / By Increase Mather, president of that college. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard Colledge. / By Increase Mather, praesident of that colledge. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]
printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1697
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.
So is it true concerning a People, that they know not what Times or Changes may pass over them. Little was it thought that whilst Hoshea (who was the best of all the Nineteen Kings that had Ruled over the Ten Tribes) was Reigning, a Powerful foreign Enemy should invade the Land and make them all Slaves. Little did the Jews think that when Josiah was but Thirty nine years old, he should die before that year was out, and they never see good day more after his Death. And as men know not What their Changes and Afflictions must be, so neither When they […] come upon them. Whether it will be a long or a short time before those Changes overtake them. Mar. 13.35. You know not when the Master of the House comes, at even, or at mid-night, or at the Cock crowing, or in the morning. Thus a man knoweth not whether the sharpest Afflictions which are reserved for him, shall come upon him in his Youth, or in his middle age, or in his old age; though for the most part mens greatest Afflictions overtake them in their old age. Nor can any man know whether his Afflictions shall be soon over, or continue for a longer time. Indeed, the Lords People knew that their Captivity in Babylon should last for Seventy years and no longer; but that knowledge was by divine Revelation. As for some other Persecutions ⟨p. 13⟩they knew not how long they would continue. Psal. 74.9. There is no more a Prophet, neither is there any that knows how long. Those words seem to respect the Persecution under Antiochus, when there was no Prophet.
So is it true concerning a People, that they know not what Times or Changes may pass over them. Little was it thought that whilest Hoshea (who was the best of all the Nineteen Kings that had Ruled over the Ten Tribes) was Reigning, a Powerful forreign Enemy should invade the Land and make them all Slaves. Little did the Jews think that when Iosiah was but Thirty nine years old, he should dy before that year was out, and they never see good day more after his Death. And as men know not What their Changes and Afflictions must be, so neither When they 〈…〉 come upon them. Whether it will be a long or a short time before those Changes overtake them.