N01064:132
A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the…
A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, June 16. and in Connecticut-Colony [sic], June 22. 1705. : Also, two sermons, showing, that sin is the greatest evil; and, that to redeem time is the greatest wisdom. / By Increase Mather.A discourse concerning earthquakes. Occasioned by the earthquakes which were in New-England, in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, June 16. and in Conecticot-Colony [sic], June 22. 1705. : Also, two sermons, shewing, that sin is the greatest evil; and, that to redeem time is the greatest wisdom. / By Increase Mather.
Boston: printed by Timothy Green for Benjamin Eliot, 1706
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.
1. All the things which this world can afford, are worth nothing when once Time is gone. The world passeth away and the lusts thereof. The things of the world all of them, the Lust of the Flesh, the Lust of the Eye, and the Pride of Life, Earthly Pleasures, Profits, Honours, they all End with Time. The things which we see signify nothing to men, when their Time is swallowed up with an Endless Eternity. The things which are Seen are Temporal; they do not out-last Time: As for the things which are Eternal, they are Invisible, they are things not Seen, 2 Cor. 4. 18. If then a man should gain as much of this world as ever any one did; yea, if he should gain the whole world, (which is more than ever any one man since Adam had the sole possession of) what would it signify to him, when his Time is gone? Christ said, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own Soul? So what will the World profit a man when his Time is Ended, and his Soul gone into Eternity? What will the World be to him tho' he has gained never ⟨p. 100⟩so much of it, when God shall take away his Soul? Then Time is Precious.
2. We may judge of the worth of Time by the Price which they whose Eyes have been opened to see the worth of it, have set upon it. As to in•••nce in Dying Persons. When Death comes to shut the Eyes of the Body, it opens the Eyes of the Soul. It is often with a Dying man as it was with Balaam. He is the man whose Eyes are […]; he forth things which before he did not see. Mens […]. He can see the worth of Time then. A great Person on a Death-bed Cried out, I would give a world of Wealth for an inch of Time. I have heard of another being at the point of Death, uttered such words as these, If I had ten Thousand Worlds, I would give them all on condition might live but One Day longer in this world. And most certainly it is so with Millions in Hell. They would give worlds, if they had them to give, for one of those Days of which they have misspent many thousands. But will Time be Precious then, and is not so now? It is therefore great Wisdom now to Redeem it. That's the First Demonstration of the Truth before us.