N00657:41
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.
Inf. 3. If men know not their Time, then they are concerned to make a good […] of the present Time. How does it concern us to spend our Time well? And Now whilst we have Time, to do all the Service for God, and for Jesus Christ that possibly we can! we know not how soon our Opportunities for Service may be gone. Either Death or Sickness, or some other Providence may deprive us of them. We should therefore imitate the good Angel in Thyatira, unto whom the Lord Jesus Christ said, I know thy Service and thy works, and that the last be more than the first. Rev. 2.19. That thought will be a comfort to a man whatever Times or Changes may come upon him. It was so to Hezekiah, when he was ⟨p. 26⟩Sick, and in his own apprehension a dying man. Isa. 38.3. Remember war, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which was good in thy sight. If a man can say, as for the time past of my life, I have (through the grace of Christ) spent it w•ll, & this Sickness, this Death finds me walking with God, that's comfortable. And because we know not our Time, we should do all the good we can for men: And that in every respect wherein we are capable of doing good. If God has blessed any of us with Estates, let's do good with them. Eccl 11.2. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight, for thou knowest n•t what Evil shall be upon the Earth. Such Evil Times may come as you shall loose your Estates. Therefore be liberal and charitable. If a man has lost his Estate, and can then say, when I had an Estate, I did good with it▪ I honoured God with my Substance, and was bountiful to his poor according to my ability; he may then be sure, that his Estate is taken from him, not in Judgment but in Mercy. But if his Conscience shall say to him, thou didst with hold more than is meet, and therefore Poverty is now come upon thee▪ that will be a sad thought. And because we know not our Time, we should be alway doing good. We should never be idle. When some would have […] Calvin, because of his Bodily Infirmities to have ceased from his accustomed Studies, ⟨p. 27⟩