[ 999] How it is that wicked men are said to hasten death.
BErnardinus Senensis,* 1.1 a devout man, tells of a stripling in Catalonia, being eigh∣teen years of age, that having been disobedient to his parents, fell to robbing; and being hanged on the Tree, and there remaining, for a spectacle to disobedient children; on the next morning, a formall beard and gray hairs appeared on him, as if he had been much struck in years; which the people hearing of, and won∣dering at the suddennesse of the change,* 1.2 urging how young he was at his death: A grave reverend Father of the Church being then present, said, That he should have lived to have been so old,* 1.3 as he then appeared, had he not been dis∣obedient. The devout man (it's probable) may be out in the story, but the other was in at the application: For, Stat sua cuique dies, every mans daies are determined, the number of his months is with God,* 1.4 he hath appointed him his bounds, that he cannot passe;* 1.5 there is a measure of his daies, in respect of Gods prescience and pro∣vidence: But in respect of the course of nature, the thread of life which might have been lengthned,* 1.6 is cut off by Gods command for sin, as in the Family of Eli, and the People of the Amorites,* 1.7 not living half their daies, Psal. 55. 23.