duties to bee done now herein will appeare Gospell-wisedome to walke so as that in these evill dayes you may redeeme the time and Solomon hath an excellent discourse of the same subject in the eighth of Ecclesiastes in the beginning of the Chapter hee gives a high Encomium of a wise man Who is saith hee as the wise man that is no â—an can bee compared to a wise man what is hee 〈◊〉 that knowes the interpretation of a thing hee that knowes what every businesse doth truly signifie and call for that is the wise man then hee tells you this mans wisedome will gaine him courage and credit hee will bee honored and esteemed then brings it downe to manifest the excellency of this wisedome in one particular case which is the most tickle businesse in the world for men to bee imployed in and that is in attending upon the affaires of supreme Governors in doing that which the higher powers command them for they will quickly bee angry and take offence therefore doe their businesse carefully and speedily as you should and if they bee angry goe not away in a pet c. But now lest some body should say Doe you meane that a man should doe all that Kings and supreme Magistrates doe command without further enquiry or delay No saith Salomon in the fifth Verse the wise man knowes both time and judgement the wise man that hath the interpretation of a thing knowes what is to bee done what is to bee refused and when things are to bee done most fitly or opportunely therefore none like the wise man So likewise Moses in the 32. of Deuteronomy about the 19. Verse O that this people were wise that they did but understand their last end that they but rightly knew their time and in the 90. Psalme which is another prayer of Moses Lord teach us so to number our dayes to make such a compute of our times that wee might apply our hearts to wisedome I might give you many other Scriptures which show that the Lord counts this to be true wisedome nay I 'le add this further the very light of nature hath taught the Heathens to judge this to bee true wisedome the seven Counsellors of that great Emperour of Persia in the first of Ester are said to bee men that knew the times the meaning is that they were wise Counsellors and among the Romans it is a Proverbiall Adage homo omnium horarum that is hee is a wise man that is a man for all houres knowes the businesse of every time of every place whatsoever hee is called to hee understands his affaires and in truth this may well bee called wisedome for it is wisedome it is not onely a part of wisedome but it is the very Systeme and comprehension of all wisedome I know there is a particular wisedome that men may have in some affaires as a Husbandman that knowes but how to plough his ground seasonably c. that is called his wisedome and the women that did but know how to spin finely c. Men may have a kind of wisedome in this or that particular trade and yet all the world may know him to bee a foole in everything else but that that is the true and reall wisedome which properly sets a man out to goe for a wise man properly stands in the true understanding of the times in reference to mens duties For both Philosophers and Divines doe agree that wisedome is made up of these two things the one is Intelligence which is nothing but the understanding of things in their nature as they are good or evill the other is Sapience which is the same understanding applyed to particular businesses as they stand vested with all their circumstances and that man that hath the understanding of affaires as they are circumstantianted with all things that goe with them and knowes how hee may dexterously and opportunely apply himselfe to them hee is the wise man that is the first proofe that the Spirit of God every where calls this wisedome Secondly The same Spirit of God doth â—sually call the want of this folly whatsoever other excellencies meete in any man if they want this the Scripture calls them fooles yea hypocrites wicked ones in the 8. of Jeremiah the Lord speakes in the 6 7 8 9. Verses after this manner How doe you say you are wise why doe you pretend to wisedome and hee speakes not to the vulgar people but to the Scribes their learnedst men that could handle their tongues and their pens best there was no wisedome in them they were fooles Why because saith God the Storke and the Crane and the Swallow know their seasons but this people knowes not the time of my judgements and therefore the Lord would not have them pretend to any wisedome but bee contented to bee counted fooles because they were ignorant of this and our blessed Saviour in the 16. of Matthew when the Scribes and Pharisees and the learned Doctors of the Law came and desired to have some further evidence from him by some signe from heaven that hee was the Messias Christ told them they were Hypocrites they were a sinfull and an adulterous Generation meerely because they did not understand the signes of the times A wicked and an adulterous generation would have more light you can tell by the Clouds when it will bee faire weather next morning and you can guesse by the morning whether it will be rain but yee hypocrites yee fooles saith hee you cannot discerne the signes of the times what the times signifies and calls for at your hands you have no understanding of this and therefore you may goe for a company of fooles and hypocrites and so left them and departed Nay thirdly which makes it yet more cleare The want of this knowledge of the times in reference to mans dutie is that which the Spirit of God uses to render as the onely cause of a peoples ruine whensoever a people are brought to ruine if they be a people to whom God afforded meanes to save them when they come to be ruin'd the Lord layes it wholly upon this that they knew not the times of their visitation This you 'le find in the 19. of Luke and the latter end of it when Christ about the 41. Verse came to take his farefull of Jerusalem and to die there from the top of the Mountaine he looked over the Citie and fell a weeping O saith hee that thou hadst but known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but they are hid from thy eyes then hee goes on and tells them what shall become of them the enemies shall cast a banke and not leave one stone upon another levell them to the ground and their Children in them for what I pray because thou knew'st not the time of thy visitation destruction came in onely at that breach they knew not the time of their visitation and elsewhere our
tenth of Ecclesiastes Vers. 2. A wise mans heart is at his right hand but a fooles heart is at his left the meaning is this when a businesse is to be done the right season for it the wise man a gracious man hath his hand ready and his heart to joyne with his hand he is alwayes dexterous at it but a fooles i. e. a wicked mans heart when his businesse is to bee done his heart is at his left hand every finger is a Thumbe hee cannot manage it but more clearely Solomon expresseth this Prov. 17. Vers. 16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a foole to buy wisedome seeing he hath no heart to it Let a wicked man have opportunities give him wealth give him honour give him meanes of grace give him any thing that may helpe to wisedome hee hath no heart to it So also saith Daniel Dan. 12.10 speaking of understanding the times none of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall the godly shall Thus I have done with the Doctrinall part of it and by this time I hope you all grant that it is a matter of wonderfull concernement of admirable wisedome and commendation to have understanding of the times and seasons so as rightly to discharge their owne duties I now come to the Application of it wherein I shall onely insist upon two Uses the one is For Humiliation in reference to time past to seasons and opportunities which are past and lost The other shall be For Exhortation in reference to the time to come that wee may learne this excellent wisedome to know the times and seasons so as to lose no more of them For the first Is it such a singular commendation so excellent a wisedome a matter of so great moment and consequence to know the times in reference to duty O what cause of lamentations is there First In generall to us all a man might in this case fill such a booke as Ezekiels roule was wiâ—h weeping and lamentation and mourning Here is a great Assembly gathered together to mourn upon a day of mourning and if ever any Doctrine that ever I have preached might call for mourning at all your hands I am perswaded this doctrine calls for it from every one of us God bee mercifull to us wee have all been fooles we have not knowne the times of our visitation wee have knowne the times to talke of them sometimes to inveigh against them crying out they are the worst times that ever were but for this knowledge of my Text wherein true wisedome should appeare to know the times in reference to our duties I feare I may say as Paul said of the Corinthians hardly one wise man to bee found amongst us One said I know not how truely of the Helvetâ—ans that he travelled through their Country and found that there are toti pagi repleti fatuis whole Villages inhabited by none but fooles Truly beloved not onely our Country Villages but our market townes and our Cities and I pray God it prove not that our Parliament and Assemblies are all filled with fooles in this great point few or none of us know the times in reference to our duties Let mee speake freely to you God hath cast the lot of all of us in such times as have been filled with such administrations as the like could not have been in the space of these 1000 yeers and confident I am that hee that loses these times wherein we have lived would never have redeemed any time and yet notwithstanding have not wee O have not wee all usually put off to the future the duties that belong to the present time and done in the present time the things that should never have been done at all Have not most of us lived all our dayes as if God had made us for the World as Leviathan for the Sea onely to take our pleasure in it others of us to fill our shops with commodities our purses with money our houses with stuffe and provision as if there had been no better things to have been regarded when in the meane time for the admirable opportunities wee have had for the glorifying of God and the saving of our soules as if these had been nothing worth woe unto us wee have done any thing rather then make improvement of them and as rich people will give any poore people leave to goe into their Pease-fields to gather lapfulls of their Pease as being things of little worth so have wee allowed any thing to take up our time sporting and eating and prating and sleeping and such things that are of little concernment O how much of our pretious time have they devoured and wee regard it not what cause have we to tremble at the thought of it I beseech you tell me if God should come now and say to any Nobleman Gentleman Minister Citizen or other that is here I have given thee 20. yeers 40. yeers threescore yeers of time I have filled thy time with glorious opportunities as excellent as ever I gave to any the least of them worth a world give in your Bill of accompt what you have done with these what improvement you have made of them how have you walked I beseech you what accompt could you make would it not appeare that you have spent many houres and dayes in riot and wantonnesse sporting and playing in swearing and cursing in contriving and acting that which is evill and mischievous and very few minutes for your God for your soule for obtaining eternall life happinesse or doing good to your brethren God bee mercifull to us wee could not answer him one word for a thousand wee have all cause to lie in the dust and acknowledge we have been fooles and not knowne the things that belonged to our peace not regarded the time of our visitation But Honorable and beloved give me leave to bring this lesson nearer to you who have called mee this day to preach and let me make a more through enquirie after your wisedome in this particular because you are look'd upon as the wise men of the Land that know the times better then others I am confident you doe not desire to bee flattered any day but this day I hope that will bee most acceptable which in a way of God could most effectually humble and abase you and you have put a necessitie upon mee to deale freely and faithfully with your soules Have not you honored and worthy Patriots and Senators infinite cause to bemoane this that you have not knowne the times in reference to your duties First be pleased to view the times you lived while you were private Gentlemen before you were called to these publique services when you lived in your severall Countries where I know by reason of your wealth and parts and interests and states you had abundance of opportunities more then other people had to have done much service to have made the times and places
better for you Did you then thus know the times did you then walke as wise men redeeming the times did you know what God expected from you in your places and have you done it O blessed yee if you have But I beseech you will it not rather appeare upon a true search that many of you in those dayes walked in the wayes of riot in uncleannesse in drunkennesse possibly in swearing in prophaning Gods holy time in opposing and scorning Religion was it not thus it behoves you to search did you not make your owne Families the Townes and Lordships where you lived the worse for you as so many Jeroboams causing Israel to sinne did not you thereby helpe to pull downe those judgements that have beene like to devoure and destroy this whole Land and if so have you beene humbled under these things have you since repented of them or do they still stand upon your score before that God that keeps an exact accompt of all the Talents that ever hee hath put into your hands I beseech you enquire into it but let me goe further and enquire whether since the time that God hath separated you from your brethren and by a notable providence called you out to be the heads of all our Tribes have you since that time knowne the times in reference to your duties It is now above six yeers since many of you have beene called to this worke one of the greatest workes that mortall men have beene imployed in these many hundreds of yeers a work wherein you have beene assisted not onely with the prayers and teares of those that feare God throughout the Christian world but with the states and blood of many and God himselfe hath carried you in his bosome and made you the most remarkable handfull of men that I thinke this day breath upon the earth in regard of the mercies that hee hath shewed you and in this time certaine I am hath put into your hands as many golden opportunities not onely required as many duties but put as many golden opportunities into your hands to establish our wretched kingdome and to rescue a decayed lukewarme Apostatized Church as ever were put into the hands of a Parliament Now beloved have you known your times and taken your opportunities I know it well that you have wrestled with huge difficulties infinite oppositions and I know that oft-times the perversnesse of a Patient poysoning his owne disease or wounds may frustrate the care of the best Physitians and God forbid that that which is onely your misery should ever bee imputed to you as your sinne but suppose upon a diligent search any of you that are called to bee our wise men to know the times for us that at your doore it should lie in great part that our miseries are not yet healed how sad would that bee To this end I most humbly pray you inquire if upon a diligent search there should bee found among you any who at this day live in the same sinfull riotous ungodly wicked conversation that they led before God called them to this publique service that after your solemne oath with your hand lifted up to the most high God for the reformation of your wayes that you should bee found still with Zimri and Cozbi to live in those sinnes for which God is judging this Nation Were this to know the times and what Israel hath to doe Suppose further there should bee found amongst you any such as should ordinarily neglect the publique service and turne your backs upon it to attend your own private affaires after that the Kingdome hath put into your hands whatsoever under God is pretious and deare unto them were this to know the times and what Israel hath to doe Suppose there should bee found amongst you any that should seeke advantage to themselves out of publique calamities or should sinfully helpe to undoe those for whom they are called to bee Saviours were this to know the times Suppose that any of you should bee found unjust in judgement and favour an unrighteous man in his cause either for corrupt gaines or out of opposition to them you like not and so prostrate the untainted honour of the Parliament to the reproach of the adversaries the scandall of the Nation the teares and griefe of them who love you were this to know the times and what Israel hath to doe Suppose it should bee found that there should bee any that in matters of Religion should side with a partie for corrupt and sinfull ends and make Religion but an Engine to carry on some other sinfull designe were this to know the times and what Israel had to doe Suppose yet further that upon a diligent search there should be found among you any that doe retard matters of the greatest moment that the setling of Religion should bee obstructed by you that many people abroad are remisse in it because they judge you have no heart to it were this to know the time and what Israel hath to doe Suppose that the cries and teares of the oppressed I meane not the fatherlesse and widowes whom I am confident the Houses of Parliament would helpe this very day if it lay in their power but the cries of some oppressed by Committees or others in the Countrey should come up to you and seeke for succour and it should bee found that some of you should patronize the wrong-doers and keepe them off from comming to a hearing and thereby from redresse were this to know the times and what Israel had to doe Honorable and Worthy doe not mistake mee I am farre from saying it is so I onely suggest these things to your owne search and if in naming the particulars I mistake any of them God knowes it is with the same singlenesse of heart wherewith Job sanctifyed his Children sacrificed for them saying Peradventure my sonnes have sinned and cursed God in their hearts sure I am it concernes you all to search and try for if it should be so wee are all like to smart for it for as he said of the Roman Senate Ita nati est is ut bona malaque vestra ad rempub. pertineant Your condition is such that your good and your evill is the good and evill of the Commonwealth it belongs to us all and should the great God find any of you walking thus unworthy of the great trust hee hath committed to you when hee hath put as it were the fates of his Church and Kingdome in your hands under him to dispose of them hâ—s wrath would bee kindled against you these things would lie very heavy upon your score and wee and you should dearely rue it Sure I am there is not a man of us but for some or other of these things hath just cause to lay his hand upon his heart with sorrow and to put his mouth in the dust and this day to bee very deepely humbled and abased before God And this is the first Use a Use of
Humiliation that wee have not in time past so knowne the times as wee should in reference to our duties There is one more and that is A Use of Exhortation Is this so excellent and necessary a dutie to know the times in reference to our duties O that I knew how to speake somewhat in the name of the Lord that might promote this wisedome in you for time to come that in this our day wee might know the things that concerne our peace that they may not be for ever hid from our eyes O that I could say to you as Paul said to the Thessalonians Concerning the times and seasons it is superfluous for mee to write to you for you your selves know perfectly To this end I beseech you take briefly these foure Meditations to provoke you to study this wisedome in time to come First Often consider how much time how many golden opportunities thou hast lost already how oft there hath been in thy hands a price to purchase Wisdome and thou hast lost it for want of a heart and then thinke whether it bee not more then needfull that thou shouldest lose no more Secondly Consider how much doth depend upon that moment of time that yet is behinde It is an old saying Our life is but a moment but Ex hoc momento pendet aeternitas Eternity dependeth upon this moment no lesse then the glory of God and the saving of thy immortall soule and it may bee of thy family it may bee of the Church and Kingdome dependeth upon thy knowing the times Thirdly Consider thou canst not tell whether ever thou shalt enjoy after this day one opportunity more the Angel may quickly come and sweare concerning thee and mee Time shal be no more And then Fourthly Consider when Time ceases to bee any more thou must give an accompt for all the time that hath been that certainly at the barre and Tribunall of God all the Times and seasons that God hath trusted thee with stand upon thy score and will bee exacted of thee Rejoyce O young man saith Solomon in the 11 of Ecclesiastes in thy youth and let thy heart cheare thee in the dayes of thy youth and walke in the wayes of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes take thy pleasures waste thy seasons but know that for all these things thou must come to judgement Such Meditations as these would provoke your hearts to bee very carefull to lose no more time but rather to enquire what you should doe for time to come and how you might learne this Wisdome And truly it would fill a Volume to tell what every one should doe from what wee should redeeme our time and to what wee should redeeme it and by what meanes wee should doe it I dare not enter upon that discourse But there is one thing wherein I desire freedome that I might be as helpfull as I can to the Honourable Senate that hath called me to the service of this day Honourable and Beloved God hath cast your lot so that if you be rightly instructed in this one Lesson you may make our times differ as much from former times as Nebuchadnezzars Golden head did from the feet of iron and clay Golden times indeed might bee brought about if God vouchsafed but to teach you this one Lesson Your duties are many for whatsoever lies upon any other lies eminently upon you You are to doe all those things in every time that others are to doe and you are to doe many things that others cannot doe and may not doe That you may therefore know your duty give mee leave to represent before you the true face of our Times wherein wee live and shew what in these Times you have to doe and herein I will not presume to put any Prudentialls upon you we ought all to thinke that Prudentialls are better understood by you then by us but what shall I say shall God willing appeare to be matter of Conscience matters of necessity and things that may not bee left to liberty Know then our present times First in generall are such Times as I thinke never were before us in the World I may say of our times as the Prophet Joel saith in the 1 of Joel Heare O yee old men was it ever thus in your dayes or in the dayes of your forefathers I meane our times are so full of various administrations such a concurrence of all kinde of Providences and Administrations as seldome were ever knowne in so few yeares Wee have been sometimes full of hopes of recovery sometimes at the brinke of despaire sometimes dawnings of light by and by all clouded over againe with utter darknesse sometimes we see a people drawing nigh to God that hides his face from them by and by God drawing nigh to a people that run away from him such alterations such vicissitudes of all kindes of administrations that truly I may compare our times to the wind mentioned in the first of Ecclesiastes It whirles about continually now in the North and then in the South and never abides in one Point So hath it been with us for these foure or five last yeares this day of ours hath been like that day in the 14 of Zachariah neither night nor day nor light nor darknesse but a strange kinde of mixture of all these and in such various and uncertaine Times as these are what have the heads of our Tribes to doe I answer plainly all others with you and you with others are in such dayes to stand and behold the Workes of God viewing and admiring and adoring these Mosaick works these Checquer workes of God but it concernes you above all others to stand constantly upon your watch and employ all your Parts and Wisdome and Faithfulnesse lest a change of time take you upon a sudden As when a Ship is at Sea if it saile to the Westward and once get beyond the Canaries where the Sea sets constantly one way and state-winds blowing for so many Moneths together in one Point a moderate skill and care of him that guides the Helme wil carry them on with ease but in various winds and tumultuous Seas when they saile sometimes among Rocks and sometimes among Quicksands sometimes in Gulfes sometimes in the Ocean sometimes almost at the Shoare if the Pilot be not extreame skilfull and carefull himselfe his Barque and all that are with him are quickly cast away So I am assured is it now with us in these various administrations you that are our Pilots that sit at the Sterne must shew more then ordinary skill and diligence or we may quickly perish But More particularly there are seven severall Scenes of the Time if I may so call them or sorts of things that every day are acted upon our Stage and in every one of them I shal shew you what you that are the Heads of our Tribes have to doe First Our times are