[2.] Such acquaintance with the seasons of providence as to kuow
' Tiie Hebrew word translated " wisdom" stands alone in the text, without "man;" n^'.i'in, derived from n-i-^or c-;; Sanscrit, as; Pers., ess; Latin, eese, tsscntia, opes, — substance. See Fiirst's Concordance Ed.
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the duty of the people of God in them, 1 Chron. xii. 32, " The children of Issachar, men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do." This it is indeed to be a man of understanding, — to know in any season the duty of Israel, that they may walk up to acceptation with God in the performance thereof; — a thing which is neither prescribed in the rules nor followed in the practice of men wise only with that cursed policy which God abhors. To have a mind suited unto all seasons and tempers, so as to compass their own selfish ends, is the utmost of their aim.
Now, in both these did this gift of God shine in this deceased saint.
1st, He ever counted it Ms wisdom to look after the name of God, and the testification of his will, in every dispensation of providence wherein he was called to serve. For this were his wakings, watch- ings, inquiries. When that was made out, he counted not his busi- ness half done, but even accomplished, and that the issue was ready at the door: not, What saith this man? or, What saith that man? — but, What saith the Lord ? — that being evident. He consulted not with flesh and blood, and the wisdom of it; whereof, perhaps, would he have leaned to it, he was as little destitute as any in his generation, • — I mean, the whole wisdom of a man. The name of God was as land in every storm ; — in the discovery whereof he had as happy an eye, at the greatest seeming distance, when the clouds were blackest and the waves highest, as any.
2d, Neither did he rest here. " What Israel ought to do" in every season, was also his inquiry. Some men have a wisdom to know things, but not seasons, in any measure. Surely a thing in season is no less beautiful than a word in season ; — " as apples of gold in pictures of silver." There are few things that belong to civil affairs but are alterable upon the incomprehensible variety of circumstances. These alter and change the very nature of them, and make them good or bad ; that is, useful or destructive. He that will have the garment that was made for him one year serve and fit him the next, must be sure that he neither increase nor wane. Importune insisting on the most useful things, without respect to alterations of seasons, is a sad sign of a narrow heart. He of whom we speak was wise to " discern the seasons," and performed things when both themselves and the ways of carrying them on were excellently suited unto all coincidences of their season. And, indeed, what is most wisely pro- posed in one season may be most foolishly pursued in another. It had been wisdom in Joshua not to have made any compact, but to have slain all the Gibeonites; but it was a folly sorely revenged in Saul, who attempted to do the same. He who thinks the most righ- teous and suitable proposals or principles that ever were in the world (setting aside general rules of unchangeable righteousness and equity,
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compassing all times, places, ways, and forms of government), must be performed, as desirable, because once they were so, is certainly a stranger to the affairs of human kind.
Some things are universally unchangeable and indispensable amongst men, supposing them to live answerable to the general principles of their kind : — as, that a government must be ; without which every one is the enemy of every one, and all tend to mutual destruction, which are appointed of God for mutual preservation ; — that in government some do rule, and some be in subjection ; — that all rule be for the good of them that are ruled ; and the like principles, that flow necessarily from the very nature of political society.
Some things, again, are alterable and dispensable merely upon the account of preserving the former principles, or the like. If any of them are out of course, it is a vacuum in nature ■politic, for which all particular elements instantly dislodge and transpose themselves to supply. And such are all forms of governments amongst men ; which, if either they so degenerate of themselves that they become directly opposite, or are so shattered by providential revolutions as to become useless, to their proper end, may and ought to be changed, and not upon other accounts. But now for other things in government, — as the particular way whereby persons shall be designed unto it, — the con- tinuance of the same persons in it for a less or greater proportion of time, — the exercise of more or less power by some sorts, or the whole body of them that are ruled, — the uniting of men for some particular end by bonds and engagements, and the like occasional emergencies, — the universal disposal of them is rolled on prudence to act accord- ing to present circumstances.