N01064:150
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.
It is Great WISDOM To Redeem the TIME. › Consideration 1: CONSIDER I.
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.
CONSIDER I.
We have lost Time enough already. The time past of our Life which has been misspent, may suffice us, 1 Pet. 4. 3. Alas! There are some among us that have lost all their time. They have done nothing to any Soul-saving purpose, since they came into the world. Are there no Unregenerate ones here before the Lord this Day? If God that sent an Angel to set a Mark on those that did mourn for the Sins of the Times, Ezek. 9. 4. should send an Angel into this Congregation, to set a Mark on the Fore-heads of all that are truly Regenerate, how many would there be found without that Mark upon them? Are there not some here that have lived Twenty Years, nay Forty Years, who are still in their Natural Unregenerate Estate? All your time has been lost. The Unregenerate man has been Sleeping all his days, and in a deal Sleep too; Eph. 5. 14. A make thou that Sleepest, and arise from the Deal, and Christ shall give thee Light. Has not that man who never did one Good work in his life, lost his time? This is true of every Unregenerate man, of every Unbeliever: He is to every Good work Reprobate, Tit. 1. 16. Is not that Time lost which ⟨p. 124⟩has been spent in the service of Sin and Satan? Yet thus it is with those that are still in their Natural Unregenerate Estate. Their whole Life-time has been spent in that woeful Service. And they that are now Regenerate, should remember what they were in Time past; how many years it was that they lived without God in the world, and the thought of that should make them now to be the more careful to improve their Time to the Glory of God, and their own Salvation, and the Good of men.