N00657:23
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of…
A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard College. / By Increase Mather, president of that college. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]A discourse concerning the uncertainty of the times of men, and the necessity of being prepared for sudden changes & death. Delivered in a sermon preached at Cambridge in New England. Decemb. 6. 1696. On occasion of the sudden death of two scholars belonging to Harvard Colledge. / By Increase Mather, praesident of that colledge. ; [Two lines from I Samuel]
printed by B. Green for Samuel Phillips, 1697
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. A man knows not the Time of his Death: Often it is so, that when Death falls upon a man, he thinks no more of it, than the Fishes think of the Net before they are Caught in it; or then the Birds think of the Snare before they are taken in it, as Solomon here speaks. It useth to be said, (and it is a plain, weighty known Truth) that nothing is more certain then that every man shall Die, and nothing more uncertain than the Time when. Old Isaac said▪ Gen. 27.2. Behold, I know not the day of my Death. Though he Lived above twenty years after he spoke those words, he did not know that he should Live a day longer. A man cannot know how long himself or another shall live. It is true that Hezekiah was ascertained that he should not die before fifteen years were expired. And the Prophet Jeremiah knew that Hananiah should not live a year to an end. Jer. 28.16. This year thou shalt Die, because thou hast Taught Rebellion against the Lord. But these were extraordinary cases. It is not a usual thing for a man to know before-hand how many months or years he shall live in this World: Nor may he desire to know it, but he ought to leave that with God. Although David ⟨p. 14⟩prayed, saying, Lord make me to know my End, and the numbe• of my Days, what it is. Psal. 39.4. Hi• meaning is, not that he might know just how many days he should live, but that he might be made duly sensible of his own frailty and mortality, and lead his life accordingly. Oftentimes Death is nearest to men when they least think of it; especially it is so with ungodly men: we have an instance of it in Agag. He came before Samuel, delicately, and said, surely the bitterness of death is past. 1 Sam. 15.32. Little did he think, that within a few hours, he should be cut in pieces. When Haman boasted of his being the chief Favourite at Court, and that the Queen had invited no one but the King & himself to a Banquet, he little thought of the destruction which was then preparing for him. When Belshazzar was in the beginning of the night drinking and making merry with his profane Companions, he little thought that he should be a dead man before morning; but that night was Belshazzar slain.