A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

¹First, God hath punctually and exactly determined the time of our Death to a very moment. The great God, in whose hands our Lives, our Breath, and all our Ways are, he turns up our Glass, and puts such a measure of Sand into it, and no more; it is he that prefixes it to run to such a length of Time, and then determines it shall run no longer: It is he who is Lord of all Time, that writes our Names upon so many Days and Hours as we shall live, as upon so many Leaves of his Book; and it is impossible for us to live one Day or Hour that hath not our Name written upon it by him from all Eternity. It is God that sets every one the Bounds of their living, as well as the Bounds of their habitations; ²beyond which they shall not be able to pass. The Embryo that dies before ⟨p. 29⟩ever it sees the Light, fills up its appointed time by God, as well as he that lives to decrepit old Age. And therefore, though the Scripture and we use to say, Such or such an one is taken away in the midst of his days; yet simply in it self considered, that is impossible; the whole Tale of days that God hath appointed to every one, must be fulfilled, and that to a very moment, according as the number of them is set down by God from all eternity. Such Expressions as these denote no more, than either that God cuts them off in the full strength and vigour of their years, when yet they might, according to the course of Nature, and humane probability, have lived longer; or else comparing the shortness of their Lives with the length of others, God seems to break it off in the very midst, before he had finished his Work. I shall not enter into a Dispute whether the Term of Life be fixed or moveable. Methinks Job hath fully stated and determined the Question. ³Is there not, says he, an appointed time to Man upon Earth? Are not his days also like the days of an Hireling? Now an Hireling hath a time of Service prefixed, which ⟨p. 30⟩when it is expired, he is discharged from his Labour. God hath sent all Men into the World as so many Hirelings, and as soon as these days are expired, he takes them from their labour to their reward. Are not my days as the days of an Hireling? So Job speaks also in another Chapter, concerning Man; His days are determined,