recollect how fit an Object of Trust and Praise and of all Worship he is so as to engage our Souls to confide in him to offer him the Sacrifice of Praise and all the Adoration and Service that we are capable of rendering In a word to remember our Creator is to remember his Omniscience Power and Justice so as to reverence and fear him to remember his Goodness Mercy and Veracity so as to love and praise him and to remember his Holiness and Purity so as to imitate and obey him 'T is so attentively and seriously to meditate on his Nature and on his Works that while we are musing the Fire may burn as the Psalmist speaks that our Thoughts may kindle a holy Flame of Love in our Hearts towards him which will break out in becoming Acts of Service and Obedience to his Glory 'T is to serve him both with our Understanding Will and Affections to devote our selves entirely to him And as our whole Man is to be dedicated to the Service of our Creator so he also deserves the whole of our Time and we ought to begin as early as possible to remember him For this our Text shews II. In prescribing the special Time for engaging in this Duty which now falls under our Consideration 1. 'T is prescrib'd in express Terms in the days of thy Youth 2. By an opposite Circumlocution containing a Description of Old Age while the evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them that is before the approach of Old Age As is evident both in that these Evil Days c. are opposed to the Days of Youth and in that many elegant Characters are used to decypher the Infirmities and Miseries of Old Age in the sequel of this Chapter immediately after the Text. And in this Description of Old Age we have 1. The Time it self expressed by Days and Years 2. The Character of that Time of Life those Days are Evil and those Years such as we shall confess that we have no pleasure in them 1. For the Time it self it may be call'd Days and Years 1. Either emphatically to signify one and the same thing it being an usual Elegancy in the Hebrew Dialect to express the same thing in various synonymous Terms in two Sentences immediately succeeding one another which serve partly for Illustration and partly to inculcate Truth in the Mind Of which we have Instances in almost every Verse of the 51st Psalm as well as in many other places of Scripture as 't is easy to observe Or else 2. By Days to signify the Brevity and Great Vncertainty of the Continuance of that Time which is soon swallow'd up by Death as the fleeting Days of Youth are soon lost in Old Age and by Years the tedious passing of this short Time by reason of the many Afflictions and Infirmities a Man then labours under Tho' the Time is very short in it self 't is made very long by Misery and Pain which seem greatly to extend it For as the Soul when fill'd with Pleasure and Ioy during her easy posture forgets the Time as it were and suffers it to slide from her with little Notice which makes it appear extremely short So when she is fill'd with Sentiments of Pain and Sorrow her uneasy Situation and impatient desire of Change do so constantly apply her Thoughts to the consideration of that Time which is the Continuance of her Misery that it seems very long and irksome to her So that the Duration of her Sorrow seems always to increase proportionably to the Degree of it and a Man imagines himself to have been much longer under an acute than under a slight Pain when in reality the Time of their Continuance is equal Thus every Moment of Time becomes an heavy Burden to one in Misery who as Moses says the Israelites should do when under punishment for their Sins cries out in the Morning Would to God it were Evening and in the Evening Would to God it were Morning And 't is well known that this is the Language of Old Age. And therefore 2. 'T is express'd by the Character of Evil Days and Years wherein no pleasure is to be had which may be thus explain'd 1. By Evil Days may be understood the Decays and Diseases of Old Age And by the Years wherein there is no Pleasure may be signified the Unhappiness and Misery that those Distempers and Infirmities give the Mind these being a great Occasion of her Sorrow which is then especially aggravated when the Guilt of the Soul conspires with the Distempers of the Body to make the Man compleatly miserable so that he shall say that is he shall confess or complain that he has no Pleasure in those evil Days that he has no Sanctuary of Ease to fly to no Reflection to make that can allay the Trouble of his Mind no Medicine to use that can remove the Distempers of his Body For this is often the Condition of those who forgetting the LORD their Maker in their Youth grow Old in the service of Sin Or 2. By Evil Days which is a positive Character the Time of Old Age may be represented as attended with many positive Afflictions and Pains and by the Privation of Pleasure at that Time which is a Negative Character may be signified the incapacity of relishing the Joys and Pleasures of this Life that accompanies those unpleasant Years wherein the Organs of Sense are very much enfeebled especially when Old Age has been hastned by the Intemeperance of Youth And now since it appears that God as our Creator in the comprehensive Sense wherein we have explain'd that Title requires us to remember him so as to devote our selves to his Fear and Service and that in the Time of our Youth before Old Age with its many Afflictions and Sorrows overtakes us if one makes but a transient Reflection on these things 't is easy to observe that the Wise Man in this Exhortation intimates III. The Reasons of the Duty enjoin'd 1. In representing God the Object of it to us under the August Character of our Creator which evidently entitles him to the Service of our Youth And 2. In setting Old Age before us as a Scene of Misery and Horror as a Time made up of few and evil Days And in opposing them to the better Days of Youth thereby to insinuate that as Old Age brings with it many great Disadvantages and Impediments to obstruct our Conversion to God so Youth is attended with many favourable Circumstances that render it the best and fittest Season to initiate one's self in the ways of Righteousness The strength of these Reasons I shall consider at large hereafter And shall content my self at present with making some few brief Remarks 1. On the Terms used to prescribe the special Time of the Duty enjoin'd in the Text. 2. On the Terms whereby both the Object and Act of this Duty are
God is pleas'd to press or encourage us to our Duty in his Word by stiling Himself our Creator we are to consider that Title as tacitely including his being our Redeemer too that the God that made us is also the Rock of our Salvation And we find the great Work of the Holy Spirit in Renewing and Regenerating a Sinner is frequently term'd Creation in Holy Writ both to signify the Greatness of the Work and the Resemblance this New Creation in several respects bears to the first and also to denote that both those mighty Works are to be ascrib'd to the same Author and that God may be term'd our Creator not only in that he gave us a Being but also in that he often makes Sinners become New Creatures by Renewing them in knowledg after his own Image and by Creating them in Righteousness and true Holiness Who are therefore call'd his Workmanship Created in Christ Iesus to good Works c. And 't is worth remarking that this Word Creator in our Text is of the Plural Number in the Original Thy Creators as if design'd to express the great Obligations Men are under to each Person of the Blessed Trinity for Making Redeeming and Sanctifying them the former of which is eminently ascribed to the Father the Second to the Son and the last to the Holy Spirit tho' all concur in each of those mighty Works and to signify that all these Works may be fitly express'd by this common Name of Creation 4. As God is our Creator he is the Soveraign Arbiter and Disposer of our Being He is the Soveraign Judg of the World inflicting Punishments and dispensing Favours as he pleases He that has made us and preserves us has power to render us Happy or Miserable He has the Issues of Life and Death in his Hand He that hath created us knows all the Capacity we have of Joy or Sorrow Pleasure or Pain and has power to affect us with either of them as he pleases He can make his Arrows of Terror stick fast in the Conscience or fill the Soul with unspeakable Ioy. He can punish or chear the Mind with his immediate Frowns or Smiles or he can convey Anguish or Joy into the Soul by the Occasion of different Impressions on the Tabernacle of Flesh and Blood wherein she dwells He can dispense Punishments or Pleasures by his own Hand immediately or mediately by any of his Creatures And when he giveth Quietness who then can make Trouble And when he hideth his Face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a Man only 'T is the Lord as Hannah speaks that killeth and maketh alive He bringeth down to the Grave and bringeth up The Lord maketh Poor and maketh Rich he bringeth low and lifteth up Which this Holy Prophetess proves by this Argument For the Pillars of the Earth are the Lord's and he hath set the World upon them where his Soveraign Power over Men to dispose of their State as he pleases is infer'd from his Relation to them as their Creator And when the Angel in the Revelation protests there should be Time no longer He swears by him that created Heaven and Earth and Sea and the things therein to shew that God as Creator of the World is the Soveraign Arbiter of it and that the Consummation of Time and of Temporal Things belongs to him under that Character So that 't is our Maker that both shews the Path of Life and holds in his Hand the Keys of Hell and Death And as he has made all things So he does whatsoever he pleses in Heaven and in Earth in the Sea and all deep places And Who can deliver out of his hand Seeing he doth according to his Will in the Army of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth and none can stay his Hand or say unto him What dost Thou Thus have we endeavoured to shew what is comprehended in God's Title of Creator on which we have taken the greater Liberty to expatiate because hereby a solid Foundation is laid for some of those Reasons which we are hereafter to insist on to enforce the Duty in our Text in the Division of which we have observ'd that in the Terms of the Duty Remember thy Creator the Reasons of that Duty are in part insinuated Having given some Account of the Object of this Duty viz. God under the Title of our Creator We shall now Secondly Briefly explain the Act it self of Remembring him and shew what that imports The Memory is that Faculty of the Soul whereby she is capable of recalling the Ideas of things which have before been present to her But here to Remember does not only signify the exercising of the Understanding on our Creator by reflecting on what our Senses Reason and Divine Revelation may have suggested to our Minds concerning God under that Character It does not here barely import to meditate on him and bear him in mind but because the Understanding directs the Will and Affections and Men move and act very much according to their Conceptions of things their Desires following the Conduct of their Thoughts this Term is applied both to the one and to the other Sometimes it signifies to Esteem and Respect as Psal. 20. 3. The Lord Remember all thy Offerings and accept thy burnt Sacrifice Sometimes to Trust as Psal. 20. 7. Some Trust in Horses and some in Chariots but we will Remember the Name of the Lord our God Sometimes to Worship and Praise as 1 Chron. 16. 12. where after David had exhorted to sing to God to glory in him and seek him because of his mighty Works he adds to the same purpose Remember the marvellous Works that he hath done c. q. d. Adore and praise him for them And this may be further illustrated by the use of the opposite Term of Forgetting which sometimes signifies to disesteem and slight as Ier. 2. 32. Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my People have forgotten me days without Number Sometimes to Distrust as Psal. 78. 7. That they might set their Hope in God and nor forget the Works of God And sometimes to neglect to praise and worship God as Psal. 106. 12 13. They sang his Praise they soon forgot his Works they waited not for his Counsel Or to forsake the Service of God as Deut. 6. 12. Beware lest thou forget the Lord that is by going after other Gods as it is explain'd in ver 14. So that to Remember God does not only import to think or meditate often on him but to think worthily and becomingly of him and to pay him a Respect in some measure sutable to the Idea we have of him To remember his glorious Perfections so as to esteem and respect him deliberately to call to mind the Number and Quality of his Favours and to
to be a Continuation of the Irony and if taken in a proper Sense to speak the Language of those Libertines who notwithstanding what he had before said would still devote themselves to the Pleasures of Sin As if he should say Cast away as you resolve to do all serious Thoughts Fly the Occasions of Trouble and Sorrow as much as possible avoid whatever is ungrateful to Flesh and Blood for Time is fleeting Childhood and Youth those Opportunities of Delight and Pleasure will soon vanish therefore the Sweets they afford must be reap'd in their Season For thus do some Sensualists argue for the present and earnest pursuit of Worldly Pleasures from their Vanity in respect of the shortness of their Continuance which ought rather when their Eternal Ill Consequences are consider'd to take off the edg of the Appetite toward ' em So the Prophet and after him the Apostle introduces them arguing Let us eat and drink for to morrow we shall die But it seems not so likely that the Irony should be reiterated after so express and serious a warning of Judgment as that in the former Verse especially seeing this is join'd to it by a Therefore as a Conclusion founded thereupon Therefore remove Sorrow from thy Heart c. I should rather therefore give the Words such a Turn as this viz. Seeing God will bring thee to Iudgment therefore Remove Sorrow c. q. d. Mix Innocency with thy Joy be Merry and Wise Reform thy Life and a good Conscience shall be to thee a continual Feast The Evil of Sorrow need not possess thy Heart if the Evil of Sin be extirpated from thy Flesh Govern thy Body with Temperance and Chastity and Joy shall reign in thy Soul Or as others will have it Remove Anger from thy Heart for so the Word here translated Sorrow properly signifies q. d. Be not angry with them that advise thee well or be not displeas'd with God for the strictness of his Precepts which I recommend to thee or for the Severity of his Iudgments of which I warn thee Or else the Passion of Anger because it so violently agitates the Soul may be put for all the vitious Affections of the Mind and then the meaning of the Words is Remove all sinful Passions from thy Mind And put away Evil from thy Flesh q. d. Give not the Members of thy Body to the Service of Sin Which Exhortation is urg'd by this Reason For Childhood and Youth are Vanity q. d. These Pleasures thou art so hotly in chase of now will vanish and disappear together with thy Youth which is a Flower that soon fades and why shouldst thou for short-liv'd Joys expose thy Soul to the Hazard of Eternal Misery Or else the Sense of the Wife Man may be to this purpose I have reason to admonish those that are Young of the Evil and Danger of a Sensual Life because none are so prone to be insnar'd by its Charms as they whose Imaginations Words and Actions are generally so vain that they may be fitly term'd Vanity it self Vanity in the Abstract For Childhood and Youth are Vanity Upon which he adds a sutable Exhortation to such in the Words of our Text which are connected to those above with a Particle which in our Translation is render'd Now but is no Adverb of Time but commonly signifies And and so may be join'd to what he had advis'd before viz Put away Evil from thy Flesh and Remember thy Creator putting this Sentence For Childhood and Youth are Vanity in a Parenthesis between those two Instructions Or else it may be render'd Then or Therefore and so is an Inference from the Premises q. d. If there is a Time of Iudgment to be expected and Childhood and Youth are Vanity then it concerns such to Remember their Creator c. In which Words we have Three Things to consider First A Duty enjoin'd or exhorted to Secondly The special Time of engaging in the performance of this Duty prescrib'd Thirdly The Reasons of it intimated I. The Duty exhorted to is Remember thy Creator II. The special Time of engaging in this Duty is signify'd 1. In express Terms In the Days of thy Youth 2. By an opposite Periphrasis which contains a Description of Old Age while the Evil Days come not not the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them i. e. before the approach of Old Age. III. The Reasons hereof are couch'd and insinuated 1. In the Terms of the Duty set before us where the Relation we stand in to God as he is our Creator implies the Obligation we are under to Remember him and that in our Youth 2. In the Terms us'd to signify the proper Time of this Duty where the fitness of the Season of Youth for entering one's Self into the Service of God and the Disadvantage of deferring it to Old Age are suggested Of these we shall treat severally in their Order I. To explain the Duty to which we are exhorted we shall consider First The Object of it namely our Creator and we shall endeavour to shew what is included in that Title here attributed to God Secondly The Act it self of Remembering what it imports First We are first to enquire what is included in this Title of Creator here attributed to God 1. It plainly and expresly declares that God is the Author and Original of the Being of Man And may also include 2. That he is the Vpholder and Preserver of our Being 3. That he is the Restorer and Reformer of Man 4. That he is the Sovereign Arbiter and Disposer of our Being 1. God is our Creator as he is the Original and Author of our Being For 1. He created the Matter of which we are compos'd as well as that of all the other Parts of the Universe All Beings of which the World consists all that we have any Notices of either from Reason or Scripture are either Spiritual or Corporeal and all these are the Works of God Now Man is a Creature compounded of both these kinds of Being his Soul is a Spirit and his Body is a Material Substance And both these Constituent Parts of Mankind were created by God the Author of the whole Universe And here we consider the Term Create in its strictest Sense namely the giving a Being to that which had none before the producing of Something out of Nothing i. e. without any preexistent Matter to work upon Now it must be granted that the Soul and Body of Man either are from Eternity or else had a Beginning in Time and if they had a Beginning that it must be either from themselves or from some other Being inferiour to God or from God himself I shall therefore briefly prove both from Reason and Scripture that they are not Eternal but had a Beginning and this not of themselves nor of any other Being but God himself as our Text does import by stiling him our Creator 1st
the Earth and made it he hath established it he created it not in vain he formed it to be inhabited I am the L O R D and there is none else All which serves to shew how properly this Title of Creator is used in our Text to direct the Minds of Youth to the true Object of Love and Adoration who are ready to make as many Gods as there are pleasing Objects in the World and to sacrifice themselves and all they have to those inchanting Idols that strike their Senses with any agreeable Impression And 3. This is a Relative Title denoting the Natural Relation God bears to the World For the Terms Creator and Creature mutually suppose one another And not only his Relation to the World in General but to Mankind nay to every Individual Humane Creature in particular in the Word Thy Creator is propos'd as the ground of that Service every one that comes into the World is oblig'd to pay to the Almighty whose Title of Creator includes our entire dependance on him So that the Wise Man prudently makes choice of a Term expressing every Man's Relation to God as his Creature because 't is the First and most Evident Principle on which to found our Duty of Obedience to him and most apt to affect the Soul For as when I think on God as Creator of the World in General it raises in my Mind a great Idea of his Majesty and Soveraignty So when I confider him as MY Creator that Relative Character gives an endearing force to the reasonable Obligation I find my self under to serve and worship him because I then look upon him not only as the living God but also as the God of MY Life We may also observe 2. The Propriety of the Term Remember to express the Respect and Service those that are Young owe to their Maker 1. To remember c. signifying the Exercise of the Thoughts on God is fitly urg'd on the Young because as the most early Impressions are the most deep and lasting so a habit of Holy Meditation is soonest acquir'd in Youth when the Mind is most at leisure and not embarrass'd with that multitude of Thoughts and Projects about the Affairs of the World which riper Years are usually incumber'd with What fitter Term could be chosen by which to urge the duty of Young Persons to their Maker than that of Remembring him seeing the Memory is a Faculty that Young People commonly excel in and in which they often glory a Faculty that grows ripe betimes and easily retains that Tincture with which it is early and thoroughly imbued 'T is as if Solomon had said You that are Young ought to season your Memories with the best Impressions betimes when they are most capable both of receiving 'em and retaining 'em and to fill your Minds with the thoughts of God and of the Service you owe him before they are crowded with the Concerns and Business of a perplexing World 2. A Caution seems to be wisely insinuated in this Term against forgetting the Worship and Service of God which heedless Youth too much devoted to Sensual Pleasure is often guilty of for tho' the Young have the most capable Memories yet they are very prone to forget their Duty to their Maker And how aptly so ever they remember other things they often live as if God were not in any of their Thoughts For they commonly divert and dissipate their Minds so much with the amusing Pleasures of this present World that they don't allow themselves time enough either to look backward to remember that God who created 'em and to whom they owe their Preservation nor forward to consider that 't is only in his power to renew and reform them from their Vices and Errors and that he will one day judg them who as he is their Creator has the Soveraign disposal of their Being and has Power either to save or to destroy In whose Favour is Life and whose Displeasure is more terrible than Death THE Reasonableness Advantages OF AN Early Conversion to God DEMONSTRATED SERMON II. ECCLES xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them HAVING before explain'd the Exhortation in the Text which the Wise Man addresses to those that are Young viz. To Remember their Creator in the Days of their Youth or to devote themselves early to the Worship and Service of God We are now to consider the Reasons whereby this Duty is enforc'd which are plainly enough insinuated in the Text as we have before observ'd in the Division of it First In the Terms of the Duty where our Relation to God as our Creator implies the Obligations we have to adore and serve him Secondly In the words used to signify the proper Time of engaging in this Duty viz. In the Days of Youth before the Evil Days of Old Age come c. Where the fitness of the time of Youth to enter one's self into the Service of God and the Disadvantage of deferring it to Old Age are intimated First Then we shall take a view of the Reasons that oblige us to devote our selves to the Service of God in Youth which arise from the Relation that is between him and us as he is our Creator and we are his Creatures And this in that large and comprehensive sense we have given of the Term Creator by which we have laid the Ground-work of our present Reasoning 1. As God is our Creator and Preserver we derive from him our Being and the whole Duration of it that is the whole of our Time Therefore 1. He has an equitable Claim to us as long as we have a Being and to our Youth by consequence 'T is but just that what we receive from his hand should be again offer'd to him that since we live by his Good Will we should live to his Glory Can we assign any portion of our Time which we do not equally derive from our Creator with the rest of it Why then should any of those Moments that are allotted us by his mere Favour be injuriously substracted from his Service and abus'd to his Dishonour The great God whose chief End in all he does is his own Glory because that is the best and most excellent End of all made us and continues our Being for his own Pleasure and Glory Therefore to alienate any part of our Time from him is to oppose his Designs and as much as in us lies to endeavour to frustrate his End and sacrilegiously to rob him of his Honour Nor do we only withhold Divine Honour from him to whom it is due when we neglect to employ any part of our Time in the Service of our Creator for Man being a Creature that can never be altogether idle and unactive that part of our Lives or portion of our Time which we divert from the proper end for which
expres'd To shew how fitly they are adapted to the State and Circumstances of those that are Young who are the Persons to whom this Exhortation is address'd With which I shall conclude this Discourse 1. From the Terms used to shew the Time of remembring our Creator it may be observ'd 1. That this double Timing of the Duty first by expresly prescribing it in Youth and then before Old Age with its Miseries come on gives the Words a certain Force and Energy proper to inculcate so important an Admonition 'T is a giving Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line as the Prophet Isaiah speaks which he commends as the proper Course to instruct the Young or to use his own Words to teach them Knowledg and to make them understand Doctrine who are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the Breasts to gain the Attention of giddy and unthinking Youth many of whom tho' God condescends to speak once yea twice as he doth here are yet so dull of hearing as not to perceive the Reasonableness of their Duty or at least not sufficiently to consider it and the Danger to which the neglect of it exposes ' em And 2. We may further observe that this Obligation of Remembring our Creator extends it self equally with the Capacity we have of Reflecting on God as our Maker and increases proportionably to the knowledg we may obtain of him So that none are entirely exempt from it who are capable of exercising their Thoughts on God and therefore those may not pretend to be dispens'd with who have not arriv'd to the full maturity of Youth if they are in any degree capable of knowing their Creator As far as they are able to take notice of his Nature and of his Will so far are they oblig'd to worship and obey him And this is further cleared by the Opposition the Wise Man seems to make betwixt the Duty in our Text and the Vanity of Childhood and Youth mentioned just before So that if we take Vanity here in a Moral Sense the Exhortation extends it self to Persons that fall under either of those Denominations that are either in the state of Childhood or Youth And if by Vanity Natural Frailty and Mortality be intended the words are not less extensive for then the frailty of Childhood and Youth is used as a Consideration to prepare the way for this Admonition and Children as well as Young Men are therefore excited to give themselves to the Service of their Creator Because neither are exempt from the danger of Sickness and of Death And this may be further collected from the charge given to Youth in the Text to remember their Creator not only before the Evil Days of Old Age are come but before those Years draw nigh while Old Age is yet at a distance Which shews that none that are capable of reflecting on their relation to God as Creator may excuse themselves as too Young to be concern'd in his Service For as his being our Creator is the foundation of this Duty of remembering him So 't is evident that our Obligation to it is to be measured by the Capacity we have of knowing him as such Therefore he may well require that the tender Buds of Childhood as well as the maturer Blossoms of Youth be consecrated to him who sometimes perfects his Praise out of the mouths of such who in comparison of those of riper Years are but Babes and Sucklings and therefore by the Psalmist calls upon Young Men and Maidens and Children as well as Old Men to praise and worship him 2. That the Terms of Remembring their Creator are wisely adapted to the state of Youth to engage them early in the Service of God will appear by the following Remarks on each of those Terms 1. God under the Title of Creator is fitly recommended to the Young as the Object of their Worship and Obedience 1. Because 't is a Term that easily excites in the Mind a strong and clear Idea of God's infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness And the Wise Man having to do with Youth whose unexperience for want of Years and whose unattention for want of a habit of steady thinking renders them less capable of arriving at the knoledg of the Deep things of God than those who to the advantage of a long observation of things have added that of addicting themselves to frequent Thoughtfulness and Meditation he makes use of that Title of God which might most familiarly suggest a proper Notion of him to their Minds He exposes to them the Alphabet of the Creation out of which even Children may easily learn to spell the Being of a Deity The Ignorant and the Young even those that run as the Prophet speaks the heedless and unattentive may read the Characters of the Divine Attributes which are plainly engraven on the Pillars even of this Material World And as the Apostle observes may clearly discern the Eternal Power and Godhead of the Creator who is Invisible by the curious Fabrick of this Visible Creation so as to render them altogether inexcusable if they neglect to glorisy God according to those sensible notices of him which they may so easily and constantly receive For as the sight of a Magnificent Palace induces us to consider the Skill and Ability of the Architect that built it So when we take a serious prospect of the Structure and Frame of the World or of any part of it it familiarly raises our Thoughts to its Great Author and Cause For as every House is built by some Man so 't is natural to conclude with the Apostle that he that built all things is God And therefore 2. This of Creator is a Title which God is usually pleas'd to assume in Scripture to distinguish himself as the True and Living God from the Idols of the Heathen and to convince their Ignorant Votaries that He is the only proper Object of Religious Worship The LORD is the True God saith the Prophet Ieremiah he is the Living God and an everlasting King The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens Then speaking again of the True God he says He hath made the Earth by his Power he hath established the World by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion And then having spoken of the Vanity of Idols he adds The Portion of Jacob is not like them for he is the Former of all things And the Prophet Isaiah introduces the God of Israel proving himself to be the True God under the same Character I have made the Earth and created Man upon it I even my Hands have stretched out the Heavens and all their Host have I commanded And a little after the Prophet insults over the makers of Idols and then adds Thus saith the LORD that Created the Heavens God himself that formed