Time

TIME, Tempus. This Term is commonly taken for the Measure of Motion, or for the Duration of any thing, as well in ours as in other Languages. It is also taken for Opportunity, or the favourable Moment for doing or omitting any thing. The Time of any one, signifies the Time of his Coming. Isaiah xiv. 1. propè est ut veniat Tempus ejus, & dies ejus non elongabuntur. Jesus Christ, speaking of his Death, says, John vii. 6, 7.that his Time was not yet come: Tempus meum nondum advenit --- Tempus meum nondum impletum est.

The Time of the Vengeance of God, is Jerem. 1. 27, 31.sometimes called the Time of the Lord, the Time of his visiting: Wo unto them, for their day is come, the Time of their Visitation. Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud, saith the Lord God of hosts; for thy day is come, the Time that I will visit thee.

To redeem the Time is mentioned in Daniel, ii. 8. I know of certainty that ye would gain the Time, or redeem the Time. And in St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians, v. 16. Redeeming the Time, because the days are evil. These Expressions may signify, to gain Time, to protract an Affair to a great Length, to wait for a more favourable Opportunity. Thus Nebuchadnezzar’s Magicians would have gained Time, requiring a Length of Time from the King to explain his Dream, hoping that his Desire of knowing might have passed away, or that the Dream might have come into his Memory. St. Paul advises the Faithful to redeem the Time, because the Days are evil; that is to say, that they would let the Time of the Anger and Rage of wicked Men pass away, and wait for more favourable Circumstances.

Acts i. 7.King Abasuerus consulted the wise Men which knew the Times.¹ That is to say, he advised with his Counsellors that understood the History, the Customs, the Laws, of the Persians. The Knowledge of History is one of the principal Qualifications for a Statesman. For how should he know the Interests of his Country, if he is ignorant of its Times, Revolutions, and remarkable Occurrences? St. Jerome has it in his Translation, He consulted the Sages that were always near his Person, according to the Custom of Kings. The Chaldee Paraphrast will have it, that he consulted the Children of Issachar, who were skilful in the Science of Times and Seasons. Moses says, that those of this Deut. xxxiii. 18, 19.Tribe should invite the People to come to the Mountain: populos vocabunt ad montem. They shall be able Astronomers, and shall know the Festival Days exactly; they shall invite their Neighbours to repair to Jerusalem, to the Holy Mountain.

Jesus Christ says to his Apostles, who asked him if he was soon to restore the Kingdom to Israel? It is not for you to know the Times or the Seasons, which the Father has put in his own power. They still thought that the Kingdom of the Messiah was a Temporal Kingdom. But afterwards they were undeceived, and the Holy Ghost, which they received at Pentecost, instructed them, that the compleat Kingdom of the Messiah, the renewing of all things, was not to take place before the End of the World. St. Peter, speaking to the Jews, calls this Acts iii. 20, 21. 1 Thess. v. 1.Time, Tempus refrigerii, and tempus restitutionis omnium. And St. Paul to the Thessalonians, makes use of almost the same Terms, in which our Saviour expressed himself to his Apostles, concerning his Last Coming. The Apostle says, De temporibus autem & momentis non indigetis ut scribamus vobis: For you know that the Day of the Lord is to come as a Thief in the Night.

Dan. xii. 7. Rev. xii. 14.A Time, Times, and half a Time, in Daniel, and in the Revelations, denotes three Years and an Half, which the Persecutions continued, against the Jews in the Time of Antiochus Epiphanes, and against the Christians in the Time of Dioclesian.

Tempus, a Year, Tempora, two Years, dimidium Temporis, Half a Year. In the Dan. iv. 13.same Prophet Daniel, septem tempora, are taken for seven Years; Donec septem tempora mutentur super eum. This denoted the seven Years that the Metamorphosis of King Nebuchadnezzar was to continue. In Ezekiel, à tempore usque ad tempus comedes; you shall cut these three hundred and ninety Loaves, in the three hundred and ninety Days, that I have appointed you. From one Time to another Time, is from the Beginning of this Term to the End of the same.

1 Macc. ix. 10.Tempus acceptabile, tempus beneplaciti, tempus placitum, tempus visitationis. The Time of the Favour, of the Goodness, and of the Mercy of God; to which is opposite, Tempus furoris, tempus correctionis, tempus malum, tempus ultionis; the Time of Anger, Vengeance, the Evil Day, &c.

Tempus nostrum, is put for the Time of Death: Si appropiavit tempus nostrum, moriamur in virtute propter fratres nostros. The Devils complained that Jesus Christ Matth. viii. 24.was come to torment them before the Time: That is to say, before the Last Judgment, at which the Devils will be thrown for ever into the Fire prepared for them. The Fulness Galat. iv. 4.of Time, stands for the Time of the Coming of the Messiah: The latter Times also denotes, sometimes the Time of the Messiah, and sometimes the Last Judgment, 2 Tim. i. 9. Tit. i. 2.and the Time of the Persecution of Antichrist: Ante tempora sæcularia, in St. Paul, stands for that Eternity which was before the Creation of the World. Before the World there was properly no Time: The Time that has elapsed from Adam to us, is the Tempora sæcularia, the Times of Ages, opposed to the Time of Eternity which preceded the Creation, and which is Psal. xxx. 16.a Time improperly so called.

We read in the Psalms, in manibus tuis sortes meæ; my Lot is within thy Hands: But the Hebrew is,a in manibus tempora mea, my time, the Duration of my Life, is in thy Hand. Several Latin Copies read it in the same manner; as the Roman Psalters, Psal. cxxxi. 4.of St. Germain des Prez, and that of St. Peter of Chartres.

David says, that he would not give any Rest, Temporibus suis, till he had found a Place fit for the Temple of the Lord. But in this Passage Tempora signifies the Temples of the Head: For he means he could not sleep in Peace, till he had built a House for the Lord.

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