the severall clauses and accordingly I shall begin with the particular exemplification and that As it is set down absolutely in those words Thou hast made my dayes as an hands bredth wherein the Psalmist layeth downe a double assertion the one concerning himselfe My dayes are as an hands bredth the other concerning God Thou hast made 1. David affirmeth his dayes to be as an hands bredth by which metaphor I conceive two things are intended 1. An hands bredth is a determinate measure The time of life is set The Vulgar Latine reads it mensurabiles dayes which may be measured that argueth Tempus finitum that this life is finite our dayes are both numerabiles and mensurabiles such as may be numbred and measured as being finite But dies palmares which is the true reading of the originall goeth further in that his dayes are said to be as an hands bredth it noteth not only Tempus finitum but definitum such a time as shall end but the end whereof is fixed so true is that of Job Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth 2. Chiefly an hands bredth is a short measure and so is the time of life St. Hierome understands it so and therefore reads it expresly breves Indeed both the words here used serve to illustrate this truth 1. The Psalmist doth not say my years or my months are as an hands bredth but my dayes which next to hours is the shortest dimension of time Those sacred Annals the Books of Chronicles are called in the Hebrew words of dayes for this reason probably to intimate the short lives of the Kings of Israel and Judah which are there recorded The truth is the singular number may serve to represent mans life which is but one day the prosperous life a Sun-shining the afflicted a rainy day the long life a summers and the short a winters day some have only a morn and breakefast others stay till noon and dine the eldest live but till evening and sup in this world all must go to bed in the grave when the night of death commeth 2. But that which is principally intended is the measure of those dayes which is not an ell or a yard or a cubit the length of an arm or an elbow no nor yet the length but only the bredth of an hand nor is this affirmed of one particular day by it selfe but of all his dayes together the whole time of his life Thus as Parrhasius when he had drawn Cyclops asleep on a little table the placeth Satyres about him measuring his thumb with a long stalk to expresse the greatnesse of his stature so here the Psalmist to set forth the shortnesse of his life brings in God as it were measuring it with an hands bredth That you may yet more fully discern the fitnesse of the resemblance it will not be amiss to observe a distinction of a double handbredth The one greater which is the whole space between the top of the thumb and the little finger when the hand is expanded it is in account near twelve inches and is called a span The other lesser which is only the bredth of the four fingers and those not distant from but closed one to the other The former of these is by the Greek called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that is the word here used by Symmachus the later is called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and that is the word used by the Seventy Indeed in some copies it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} old dayes which may admit of a good construction to this purpose as old garments are quickly worn out so are our dayes But doublesse the best reading as agreeing with the Hebrew is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the lesser hands bredth so that what Anacharsis said of Sea-men is upon this account true of all men there is but the space of four fingers between them and death Indeed this metaphor may very justly take in the whole latitude of life which men attain in this world the four fingers bredth representing the four ages of man to wit Childhood Youth Manhood Old age the life of a childe is scarce an inch of an old man but a span of the one it may be said his dayes are but a fingers bredth and of the other it can but be said his dayes are as an hands bredth 2. Having taken this view of dies palmares the measure of our dayes which is an handbredth it will be requisite to consider the Tuposuisti who it is that hath made our dayes such and the foregoing verse informeth us that it is Jehovah the Lord to whom David directeth there his prayer and here his complaint My times saith this holy man elsewhere to God are in thy hands that is at his dispose so much Abraham intended by the phrase when he saith to Sarah concerning Hagar behold thy maid is in thy hands do with her as pleaseth thee Thus were Davids times in Gods hands to appoint the continuance of them according to the pleasure of his own will yea Job speaking of man indefinitely saith his dayes are determined the number of his months are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot passe He that hath set bounds to the Sea hither to it shall go and no further hath appointed limits to mans life Thus long he shall live and no longer Our Saviour said to his Disciples the hairs of your head are numbred and surely then the dayes of our life are numbred and if the sparrow fall not to the ground much lesse doth a man without the Father by whose providence all things are ordered and consequently all mans dayes are appointed so true is this of the Psalmist Thou hast made my dayes as an hands bredth To close up this with a double meditation 1. Since God hath made our dayes as an hands bredth let us be content they should be so not murmuring at the brevity either of our own or others lives we are apt with Jonah to say we do well to be angry when like his gourd our life or the life of any of our friends quickly withereth but this holy mans practice is far better and ought to be our pattern who saith in this Psalm I was dumb and opened not my mouth because thou didst it The more to enforce this lesson of contentation in this respect upon us consider 1. It is not in thy power to make them longer no not an hairs bredth then this hands bredth which of you saith our Saviour by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature I may add or one day to his life Indeed a prudent care of prolonging our dayes is commendable as because God requireth it so because the time how long we shall live is unknown to us but an impatient anxiety in respect of life's shortnesse is foolish since it maketh our life
so much the more bitter and not at all longer 2. Besides though God be the efficient yet we are the meritorious cause of the abbreviation of our dayes God at first made our dayes of such a bredth as could not be measured nor should our life have knowne death if we had not known sin It is very observable what Hezekiah saith to this purpose I have cut off like a Weaver my life he will cut me off with pining sicknesse acknowledging it to be his own act as well as Gods yea as the order imports therefore Gods because his Had not we our selves cut short our lives God would never have cut them short and therefore let us so acknowledge our deservings as to clear divine justice and submit to his dispose 2. Since God hath made our dayes as an hands bredth let us so account them No arithmetick in numbring nor Geometry in measuring our dayes better than that which God himself teacheth But alas it is an usuall practice to make our dayes far longer in our imaginations than they are in reality It was the injustice of that Steward to his Lord who when the debt was an hundred measures of wheat bid the debtor write fourscore and when an handred measures of Oyle to write down fifty but such is our injustice to our selves that when our dayes are not fifty we write down fourscore and whereas they are but an hands bredth we fancy them to be of a far larger size Indeed as the deceitfull hour-glasse having the sand up on both sides maketh a man thinke there is a good deal of the hour to run out whereas by reason of an hollownesse in the middle it sinketh presently so do our dayes by reason of strength and health promise us to be many and on a suddain by reason of some ill humour seizing on the vitals in the middle of the body they prove to be few It is a saying in the Civil Law Praesumitur quilibet vivere centum annos Every one is presumed to live an hundred years the rise whereof is that fond opinion in the mindes of most men whereby they flatter themselves with apprehensions of long life Oh let us remember it is the property of a good man according to the Greeke Fathers phrase {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to esteem his life as a Pilgrimage of a short continuance And this especially for four ends 1. To hasten our repentance for our sins The measure of our dayes is the space of our repentance since it is narrow let this be speedy that cannot be long extended let not this be long deferred One of the dayes of thy life must be the day of repentance and if one whynot this day especially considering the measure for ought thou knowest may be at the utmost extent and this day may prove thy last It is true At what time soever a finner repents from the bottome of his heart God will do away his offence but then he must repent whilest he hath time At what time the winde serveth the Mariner he may saile to the Haven but then he must saile while the winde serveth which will not be alwayes nor long and therefore let us be so wise as to take time whilest it is afforded 2 To lessen our affections towards this world Whenas the measure of our dayes is contracted to an hands bredth why should the earthy desires of our hearts be so much enlarged Could we at our pleasure add day to day and year to year it were good policy to joyne house to house and field to field but to what purpose are many goods when with the rich fool in the Gospel we have perhaps but a few hours whilest thou livest thy dayes are but as the bredth of thy hand when thou diest thou shalt have no more ground than the length of thy body why so greedy in grasping large revenews and vast possessions 3. To lengthen our patience under the afflictions of this present life our dayes are of a narrow bredth a short length and afflictions can last no longer nor be extended broader than our dayes Why should not our patience be as large and long as our afflictions One Greek reading of this clause is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} dayes of strife and misery such were Davids at this time and many times are ours but the comfort is they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} only an hands bredth Man that is born of a woman sath Job is of few dayes and full of trouble True our dayes are full of trouble I but withall they are few the fewnesse of our days would be a trouble were it not that they are full of trouble and the fulnesse of their trouble might be a griefe were it not for their fewnesse Neither on the one hand should the pleasure of our dayes much elevate us nor on the other the sorrows of them perplex us when we consider that those though sweet are but short and these though sharp are but few very few no more than will make up as it were an hands bredth 4. To quicken us in the practice of good works They say of the Birds of Norway that they fly faster than others not because Nature hath given them more or swifter wings but because the dayes are shorter there than elsewhere they make the greater haste Oh that the consideration of the short measure of our days might accelerate us in our race to heaven so as with great speed and diligence we may learn to worke out our salvation It is said of the Devil he is come down to the Inhabitants of the earth having great wrath because he knoweth his time is but short how should we bestir our selves with great zeale in Gods service since we know our time is short Take in the whole life of man it is but as the bredth of four singers sure we had not need to lose any of them He that having but four acres to sow with corn all which is little enough to supply his family and should only sow one and let the rest overrun with weeds will he not deservedly be branded for a fool Oh why then are we so foolish to mis-spend the greatest part of our dayes in doing nothing or worse than nothing when as all our dayes are but four fingers bredth Nature or rather the God of nature hath not given us to use Seneca's expression so large a time of life as to trifle away any part of it yea he that spends it best will still have cause to say with David in the close of this Psalm O spare me that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more seen 2. You have heard the brevity of mans life exemplified in David by an absolute assertion under the metaphor of an hand bredth go we on to the comparative proposition mine age is nothing before thee The subject of this proposition is variously rendred By
reference to the whole race of mankinde every man in his best estate c. Before I enter upon these severals it will not be incongruous to observe that 1. The Psalmist thinketh it not enough to mention but ineulcateth this doctrine of the brevity of humane life nor is it only here but elsewhere to be observed yea not only in him but Job so that in severall places when those holy men fall upon this subject they set it forth with multiplied expressions both proper and metaphoricall That which we may well conceive to be hereby intimated is 1. On the one hand our dùlness and unwillingness to lay this truth to heart There is no lesson we are more untoward to learn and therefore the Schoolmaster repeats it so often among all the neiles of the Sanctuary none harder to enter into us than this and therefore the Masters of the Assemblies fasten it so strongly indeed it is but reason that what we are so prone to cast behinde our backs should be frequently set before our eyes 2. On the other hand our duty which is not once but again and again to consider it God hath spoken once saith the Psalmist and I have heard it twice It may admit this gloss what God speaketh but once we should hear with twice that attention which we give to what is spoken by men and surely if we should hear twice what God speaketh once we should hear often what he speaketh often That lesson which is so much iterated cannot be enough conn'd and what the Holy Ghost hath uttered in such multiplied words is certainly most worthy our multiplyed thoughts For both these reasons no doubt it is that the Penmen of holy writ do in their manifold expressions not only use similitudes to represent the shortness of life but such similitudes as are most obvious and familiar to us that which way soever we turn our eyes we may be put in minde of it When we are at Sea the speedy sayling of the Ship when in forreign parts the short time of our sojourning when on the Road the quick riding of the Post and when in Tents the suddain taking down and removing of them do all proclaim to us the passing away of our life the vanishing of the clouds and flight of the Eagle above us the withering of the flowers and cutting down of the grass beneath us the tales we tell in the day and dreams we have in the night finally the breath we dayly send out of our mouths and here the narrow bredth of our hands are all made use of to represent this truth unto us that whether we look upward or downward both waking and sleeping both by other creatures and by our own selves we may be admonished of our mortality 2. This good man reflecting his thoughts upon mans frailty applieth it to himselfe in that he saith my dayes and mine age thereby setting us an excellent pattern of bringing home generall truths to our own particulars We are all very backward to grant that in hypothesi which we know to be true in thesi that all men are sinners we easily acknowledge and yet who saith in good earnest I am a sinner that every man is mortal none will deny and yet who considers that himselfe is so It was St. Hierom's complaint in communi strage morientium nemo se cogitat moriturum even at such times when multitudes are taken away by death no man almost thinketh it will seize upon him So that whereas it is a joyous promise to the godly man a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand yet it to wit the plague shall not come nigh thee It is the impious practice of the wicked man though a thousand fall at his side and ten thousand at his right hand not to think death shall nay to think it shall not come nigh him But surely it is our duty and will be our wisdome to bring home both examples and doctrines to our selves that what we see verified in others and what we confess is appointed for all we also look upon as impending over our own heads They are both intended by God Oh let them be so made use of by us as glasses wherein to see our own faces Do we then see others brought to their graves what should our thoughts be but to allude to those words of St. Paul to Saphyra Behold the feet of them who have buried this my brother or sister are at the door to carry me out Do we assent to this truth death is the end of all men what should out meditation be but this death will be my end The truth is universal propositions include each particular and therefore the inference is just so that David in this verse saying every man might also well say My dayes and withall universal propositions can have little influence upon the will and affections unless every one look upon himself as included in them To what purpose is it to believe the Remission of sins and The resurrection of the flesh if I do not also believe The Remission of my sins and The Resurrection of my flesh to as little purpose is it to acknowledge that every man is vanity if I do not in particular consider that I am so Behold thou hast made my dayes c. 3. David having particularly asserted his own frailty goeth on to lay it down as a generall maxime Probably for his own comfort in that it was not his case alone It is a great alleviation of an affliction to consider that it is common with this St. Paul cheared up the Corinthians There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man and in this particular of death when Joshua and David perceived their owne death approaching they reflect on its generall extent I go the way of all the earth thereby rendering it so much the lesse terrible to themselves Certainly for others warning to make account of the like Lest any should think that though Davids dayes were but an hands bredth yet theirs may be of a longer measure he lets the whole race of mankind know that they are all concern'd so that as Christ said to his Disciples What I say unto you I say unto all David seemeth to say here What I say of my selfe I say of all It was not so in other things though David could say of himselfe in one place My Cup runneth over and in another place I am holy he could not say so of every man nay but a few men they are not many who enjoy that measure of prosperity and fewer who attain that piety which he had but there are none who are not under the law of mortality and therefore no wonder if as he saith Thou hast made my dayes so he concludes every man in his best estate c. These things being premised I shall now proceed to the distinct handling of
and a serene Skie hung with black But yet let not Oh let not her near and dear friends shed too many tears over her Grave remembring the Tu posuisti in the Text who it is that hath made her dayes as an hands bredth even He in whose hands all our times are to prolong and cut short as he pleaseth Besides why should they weep above measure since they do not grieve as without hope of that which is most truly called her best estate her aeternall welfare Her Education was Religious and her Conversation vertuous she was well instructed in and affected to the best things The silver Picture of her comely body had in it the golden Apple of a well disposed soule the golden ring of her Soul had set into it the pretious Diamond of Vertue A spotlesse innocency humble modesty and calm meekness were her choice Ornaments She was an obedient Daughter a loving Sister an affectionate Spouse a true friend and I trust a good Christian In the time of her sicknesse she gave evidence of many graces a confident reliance upon her gracious God for deliverance from all her pains a penitent bewailing her careless expence of time with serious resolves if God should prolong her dayes of more exactness in her Christian course together with her patient submission to the good will of her heavenly Father When she beheld upon her hands the marks of her disease she said These are Gods Tokens and I willingly embrace them That saying of Solomon Favour is deceitfull and beauty is vain but a woman that feareth the Lord she shall be praised which was the subject of my discourse occasioned by her Nuptials was often in her thoughts so that she was not at all troubled with any anxious fears lest the disease should spoile her beauty and though the rod were smart upon her back nay I may say her face her whole body she resolved to kisse it Some few dayes before her death a drowsiness seized upon her which continued for the most part to her last houre when one Brother tooke as it were the other by the heele death following her sleep yea her death being but a sleep and the grave to which she is now going a bed wherein she shall repose her selfe till the morne of the Resurrection when she will I hope be married to the Lamb nor shall any Funerals succeed those joyfull Nuptials Weep not then for her who is not dead but sleepeth dry your eyes and with this holy man open not your mouths or if you do let it be in Ely's language It is the Lord let him do what seemeth good in his sight And now since the Text and occasion preach to us how vaine we are how short our lives are and to what changes we are subject what remaineth but that every one of us be exhorted to prepare for changes especially our last and so to order our steps that when these dayes on earth which are as an hands bredth are ended we may passe to an aeternity of dayes without either number or measure in the highest Heavens Amen FINIS Psal. 119. 78. 〈…〉 Vers. 9. Psal. 30. 7. Psal. 62. 11. Job 9. 25. 26. 1 Pet. 1. 17. Isay 38. 19. Job 7. 9. Isay 40. 6. Psal. 90. 4. Hieron. Psal. 91. 7. Acts 5. 9. 1 Cor. 10. 13. Josh. 23. 14. 1 Kings 2. 2. Marke 13. 14. Psal. 23. 4. 86. 2. Gen. 1. Partic. 1. Vulg. Lat. Job 7. 1. Hieron. Psal. 31. 15. Gen. 16. 6. Luke 12. 25. Isa. 38. 12. 〈◊〉 Naz. Job 14. 1. Rev. 12. 12. Prov. 23. 5. Isa. 40. 15. Vers. 17 Psal. 90. 4 5. Gen. 7. 5. a Sam. 5. 4. 2 Cor. 7. 31. Gen. 2. Psal. 144. 4. Job 11. 12. Psal. 62. 9. Vers. 6. Vers. 6. Sen. Trag. Job 6. 15. Psal. 62. 9. Gen. 1. 32. Prov. 22. 8 Prov. 31. 30 1 Sam. 3. 18