N00657:28
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.
2. The Times of men are ordered according to the Decree of God. There is nothing comes to pass in the Earth, but what was first determined by a wise decree in Heaven. Act. 15.18. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the World. God knows what he has to do. The Apostle speaks there concerning the Conversion of the Gentiles. This did God fore-know and decree from the beginning of the World, yea from all Eternity. The like is to be said concerning every thing which happens in the World. Not a Sparrow falls to the Ground without his Providence, and therefore not without his decree, the one being an Infallible Effect of the other. He has decreed when and where every man that comes into the World shall be Born; and where he shall live, in what Country, and in what Town; yea, and in what House too. Act. 17.26. He has determined the times before appointed, & the bounds of their Habitation. He has decreed when every man shall die. Eccl. 3.2. There is a Time to be Born, and a Time to Dy. That is to say, a Time decreed and appointed by God when every man shall be born, and when he shall die. Nor shall any man live a day longer than the Time which the Lord has appointed for him. Job 14.5. ⟨p. 18⟩His days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cann•t pass. All the Circumstances attending every mans Death, the place and the manner of it, whether he shall die by Sickness, or by any other Accident, all is determined in Heaven before it comes to pass on the Earth. Now the decrees of God are Secret things until the Event or some alivine Revelation shall discover them. Deut. 29.29. Secret things belong unto the Lord our God. His divine decrees are those secret things, which Himself alone knows▪ Rom 11.34▪ For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or, who has been his Counsellor?