Soldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged…Souldiers counselled and comforted a discourse delivered unto some part of the forces engaged…

The first Condition of this kind, is, that of All Men: Accordingly our Observation is,

1. Men have their Lives brought into their their Hands, in point of Mortality. Our Lives are come out from our Hearts unto our Hands; and they are in a sort ready to shake Hands with us. Our Lives do as it were take us by our Hands, and say, Well, I am going, Fare you well.

Our Lives are come into our Hands for the Brevity of them. Once indeed there was a Longevity in Fallen Man that seemed almos• Emulous of that Immortality, which Upright man should have had experience of. The Antediluvian Patriarchs might have broke up Company, with probable Agreements to have met again in the same Place and Form an Hundred Years afterwards. But that LONG LIFE, i• ⟨p. 7⟩by our Vice, and Gods Curse, now terribly Abbreviated. Our own Corruption has Enfeebled the principles of Life in our Successive Generations, and Gods just Malediction has confirmed that Feebleness, whereby we Die before our Time, for being wicked overmuch. The Sacred Law of God has now Abridged our Lives into Seventy Years, and the Common Law of Man, into Seven. Our Lives are now IN our Hands, and we have not an Handful thereof. The psalmist could say, in Psal. 39.5. Behold, Thou hast made my Days as an Hands Breadth. In an Hands Breadth may be grasped the whole of the Lives which we have in our Hands.

Our Lives are come into our Hands for the Brevity of them. Once indeed there was a Longevity in Fallen Man that seem'd almos• Aemulous of that Immortality, which Uprigh man should have had experience of. The Antediluvian Patriarchs might have broke up Company, with probable Agreements to have met again in the same Place and Form an Hundred Years afterwards. But that LONG LIFE, i