your Sins The Presence of his Power to support your Persons The Presence of his Omniscience to know your Wants And the Presence of his Goodness to supply them He is your God your own God as David calls him God even our own God shall bless us A Man can never be happy that has nothing of his own and a Man can call nothing his own but God All things else may be lost but he that has made sure of God his Right can never be invaded nor his Propriety lost Mary hath chosen that good part which shall never be taken from her And is not this a Benefit Secondly Is it not a great Benefit to have the Heart fixt and stedfast in the Ways of God The Cause of all Halting in Religion is the Want of a Choice and Purpose resolutely set The Apostle says James 1.8 A Double-minded Man is Vnstable in all his Ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Two-Soul'd Man one that has a Heart and a Heart one for this way another for that one for God and another for the World Such a one must needs be unstable and of an inconstant Soul being as ready to depart from God as to close with him But he that owns God and his Ways by choice will suit his Conversation to his Election If he be sincere in his choice of God that will make him faithful in all his carriage to God And therefore Joshua when he would ingage the People to continue faithful with God he draws them on to a choice and then lays that upon their Conscience to bind them Joshua 24.22 Ye are witnesses against your selves that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him and they said we are witnesses It greatly strengthens a Bond when a Man freely binds himself Thirdly This resolute choice of God is of great advantage in carrying on the Work of the Heavenly Calling with the more ease and delight because a choice is nothing else but an inclination of the Soul guided by Judgment strengthened by Resolution and actuated by Love Now as Judgment justifies our choice and Resolution makes it entire so Love makes it easie and sweet and so our delight in obeying God answers to the sincerity of our chusing of him Fourthly This chusing God gives great peace and comfort in the Ways of God this is as natural as for the Fire to produce Heat The Fruit of Righteousness is Peace As Sin causes a Sting in the Conscience and a Wound in the Soul so every good Action done in Sincerity hath the approbation of the Conscience and that gives peace and the witness of the Spirit that brings joy and comfort This is intended in that of the Apostle Rom. 14.7 The Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Here is a double Benefit mentioned Peace and Joy There is a difference between them Peace is a tranquility of Mind springing from the rectitude of our Actions Joy is from the Impression of the comforting Spirit Peace is an acquittance from Conscience but Joy in the Holy Ghost is an acquittance from God himself who is our Supream Judge is the beginning of that Endless Joy that he has prepared for them that love him Fifthly This intitles you to a future and a fuller reward for in chusing God you chuse him for the future as well as for the present in chusing the ways of God you chuse all that is intailed upon them and that is Life and Blessedness So says Wisdom Whoso findeth me findeth Life The Word sets before every one of us Life and Death as Moses did to that People of old Deut. 30.15 Now many chuse Death rather than Life for they chuse to please their Lusts and to gratifie their carnal Appetite and therein they chuse Death as Christ says All they that hate me love Death But he that chuses God and the Ways of God chuses Life and he shall have it he chuses Endless Felicity in another World and he shall never be disappointed O the benefit of chusing God and his Ways That is a Third Thing Fourthly The Chusing God and his Ways in our Youth is the only Means to Prevent or Cure the many Mischiefs that flow from our Neglect of it Days of Youth are Days of Folly now the Way to correct the Follies of Youth is to be Wise toward God Childhood and Youth are Vanity Now the Way to Cure this Vanity is to be Serious and Earnest about Eternity Youth is most apt to be carried away by the Power of Lust hence is that Counsel of the Apostle Flee Youthful Lusts and the proper Way to flee from them is to flee to God in Christ for Help and Strength against them Youth has a great Advantage against Sin had they but Wisdom to Improve this now in the Text. Now Sin is but Budding and therefore may the easier be Nipt now Corruptions are but Twigs and therefore may sooner be Lopt off now Lust is but Conceiving and therefore may more easily be Stifled in the Birth A green Wound is soon Cured but if it be let alone long it may turn to a Gangreen that may prove Incurable O my Brethren there is no Age so fit so suitable to the Nature of Religion as Youth is Religion is the Christian Race now who Chuses an old Man to run a Race It is called a Wrestling and who will call an old Man into the Ring that is ready to have his Heels tript up by his own Age It is called a Warfare and under the Law the Aged were Discharged from War to shew that it is the proper Work of Youth Religion is a Calling a High a Holy a Heavenly Calling Now Youth is the fittest Season for Chusing any Calling and therefore the Text bids us to Chuse the Heavenly Calling by Chusing God in the Days of our Choice The Chusing of worldly Things first shuts God out of our Thoughts and Sensual Objects quickly draw the Heart from God therefore you should Chuse God first that is the Fourth Thing Fifthly To name no more No Man knows how soon his Day of Grace may be past therefore he ought to Chuse God betimes The Seasons of your Closing with God are Arbitrary Salvation is not to be had when you will but when God will and God's Will is that you should seek after it now in your Youth God hath his set Time of finding Seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 55.6 And let me tell you if God's Time be once past though you seek him you will never find him They shall seek me Early but they shall not find me Prov. 1.28 I say this is the very thing that most perish upon their slighting of God's Time Esau he would have had the Blessing but alas he came too late he missed the Season Heb. 12.6 The Foolish Virgins would fain have entred in but when they should have entred their Oil was to Get and when they would have entred the Door was Shut
MATTHEW MEAD Minister of the Gospel Aetatis Suce 70. An. o Do 1699. Printed for Iohn Marshall Sold by him at the Bible in Grace-church-Street THE Young Man's REMEMBRANCER AND YOUTH's Best Choice BEING An Exhortation to Conversion in Two Anniversary Discourses from Eccl. xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them LONDON Printed in the Year MDCC THE EPISTLE TO Young Readers Looking towards the Kingdom of God Dearly Beloved in our Lord THE Hopes that there is a Harvest of Young Ones to Christ for which the Fields are Already White when Christ shall have in this sense the Dew of his Youth from the Womb of the Morning and You Free-will Offerings to Him in that Day of his Power This gives Encouragement of this Address to you in Confidence there will be many of You Readers It is Evident Young Persons are One Eminent Portion of the Lord Jesus his Love and Care and so of the Gospel Ministry and of the Servants of God in all Ages God was assured of Abraham he would Instruct his Children after Him in his Knowledge and Fear Moses took great Care of this to leave Monuments for Young Israelites growing up David the Father gave Excellent Principles to his Son Solomon And in a Holy Zeal and Love to Young Men cries out Wherewithal shall a Young Man cleanse his Way As if he should say What Spiritual Engine shall I find to raise the Hearts of Young Men to Buoy them up from the World the Raging Sea of Vanity Lust and Wickedness I should rejoice in such a One and I have found it even thy Word to which they should always give heed Solomon in this Penitential Sermon of his after some Declinings recovering the Piety of his Youth in which he stiles himself Ecclesiastes or the Preacher is much engaged in it as you will see in the Following Discourses Jesus Christ in Love to the Rising Hopes of Young Ones Blessed early even Infant Age The Beloved Apostle that lay in the Bosom of Christ says I write to you Young Men because you are strong Vigorous in Mind Body full of Spirit and Vivacity and in all of them who are Christians the Word of God abideth and as Vigorous Persons the Champions of Christ overcome the Wicked One though the Strong Man Obadiah feared God from his Youth that early Saint of the Old Testament Timothy of the New Testament Knew the Scriptures from a Child Christ remembers the Kindness of Youth the Love of First Espousals before farther Alienations from him and Prostitutions to Sin Satan the World His Soul desires the First Ripe Fruit. Oh that all this might perswade But I especially recommend the following Directions prepar'd for you given forth by some Excellent Master of Assembly whom I will not attempt to suppose who he was being not entrusted with it and whether he did not Animam in Vulnere Ponere He did not draw out his very Spirit and Life in shooting this Sharp Arrow of Christ into your Hearts that you might fall under Christ Oh therefore You in the Ascendency of Life against all Temptation flee Youthful Lusts sacrifice this Choice Part of Life to God take heed that Curse come not on you You who have in your Flock this Male of Life even Youth Oh design not to Vow to Sacrifice to God the Corrupt Thing of Old Age Grown old in Sin The Brand of a Deceiver is set on all such Know therefore in this your Day the Lord hath made for you the Day of your Visitation the Accepted Day of Salvation the Things of your Peace This is recommended to you in the following Instructions under the Blessing of the Eternal Father through the Redemption of the Eternal Son by the mighty Efficacy of the Eternal Spirit the One Eternal God the Ancient of Days the Father of Lights with whom is no variation of Age nor shadow of Turning to the West of Days to whom be Glory for Ever Amen TO THE READER IT may not be amiss to inform thee that this Piece thou hast now in thy Hand may truly he called Orphan and therefore it cannot be expected to come forth in such a Curious Dress as becomes the Child of such a Parent there being no possibility of access to his Wardrobe to adorn it Yet notwithstanding I hope there are many Witnesses to its Birth into whose Hands it may come that may give sufficient Testimony of its Legitimacy It cannot be at all questioned but you who have so often desired and have with pleasure heard its Voice but will also add this Request to your former Let me see thy Face It now with Samuel to Eli cries out Here am I for thou didst call me Say not of it as the God of Israel How shall I put thee among the Children But let this which was the Parents Benoni be thy Benjamin and the rather because as the Reverend Mr. Mead says * Preface to Four Vseful Discourses by J. Burroughs The Publishing the Labours of such Men of Worth is of Happy Tendency to promote our Communion with them in the Spirit whom it may be we never saw in the Flesh and it is to be reckoned among our Mercies when the Dead are made to speak that the Living may be perswaded to hear May the God of Heaven attend this Essay with his Blessing that its Publication may be attended with such Success as was the Author's Design in its Preaching and may'st thou by this Small Tract be Enabled to have an Eye to that Reward which now he reaps as the end of so Liberal a Seed-time here even Everlasting Joy and Felicity in the World to come Farewel THE Young Man's REMEMBRANCER I. DISCOURSE Eccles xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them THE Two great Duties of the Christian Life are to Cease to do Evil and to Learn to do Well the one is Negative Godliness the other is Positive the latter can never be without the former No Man can be Good that doth not Cease to be Evil and therefore Solomon Exhorts to the former in the Last Verse of the foregoing Chapter and he brings it in with an Illative Particle Put away Evil from thy Flesh It referrs to the Ninth Verse Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment These things that is these youthful Lusts these sensual Pleasures which by a sharp Satyr he does reprove in the former part of the Verse Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart Cheer thee in the Days of thy Youth and Walk in the Ways of thy own Heart and in the Sight of thine Eyes As if he should say if thou art resolved upon thy Lusts and bent to
8.11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God And Positively as in the Words of the Text Remember now thy Creator But why doth God put a Memento upon this Duty here Why there is a Fivefold Reason for it First To Intimate to us the Opposition of our corrupt Hearts to this great Duty naturally Man cannot endure the Yoak of Obedience to God He is without God in the World God is not in all his Thoughts therefore he calls us to Remember him Secondly The Sum of all Religion lies in the Observation of this one Command there can be no such thing as Religion where God is forgotten Jacob gave a severe Charge to his Sons concerning Benjamin because he lay nearest his Heart the Honor of God lies nearest his Heart of any thing and no Man can Honor him that doth not Remember him therefore he gives such a strict Charge about it It is this that frames our Spirits for all other Duties and makes them fit for every good Work Sin never prevails more upon our Hearts than when God is shut out of our Thoughts the Children of Israel did Evil and forgat the Lord therefore Remember thy Creator Thirdly It implies that no Age is so prone to forget God as that of Youth Youthful Pleasures and youthful Lusts and Vanities do frequently turn the Heart away from God therefore Solomon says Childhood and Youth are Vanity in the Words before the Text. It is Vanity both In a Natural and In a Moral Respect It is Vanity in a Natural Respect as being Frail and Mortal Though by the Course of Nature Young Ones may think to Live long yet by reason of the Frailty of Nature they may Die before the Eldest many Younger than you lye yonder Rotting in their Graves Now thou hast the Seeds of Death in thee and thou hast Sin the Cause of Death cleaving to thee and the Sentence lies against thee and therefore tho' thou mayest please thy self with the Thoughts of Living many Years like the Fool in the Gospel yet thou mayest Dye before to Morrow as he did Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee And as Youth is Vanity in a Natural Sense so it is in a Moral Sense for it is Tainted and Defiled with Lust and Corruption all over Thou art a Child of Wrath from the Womb under a Damning Guilt before ever thou didst commit one actual Sin For by the Offence of one Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation Rom. 5.18 But alas How much Guilt hast thou Contracted by thy Actual Sin thy Lying thy Swearing thy Drunkenness thy Gluttonny thy Pride and Envy thy Lewdness and Uncleanness thy sinful Mirth and Levity thy Slothfulness and Vanity thy Stubbornness and Obstinacy These are the common Sins of Youth And no wonder that that Soul is prone to forget God where these Lusts reign therefore Remember thy Creator Fourthly It is a Duty of the Greatest Equity not only from the Will of him that Commands it but from the Reason of the Command it self which Consults Man's Good as well as God's Glory and is it not Equal that we should Remember that God that never forgets us and that we should mind his Glory who is mindful of our Good Besides how Equal is it that God who is the First Cause the Chief Good and Last End should be first owned best loved and most served And is it not Equal that Time being so rare a Jewel so great a Betrustment so Rich a Talent should be employed for him who gave it and who can either continue it or cut it short as we either lay it out upon God or profusely lavish it upon our Lusts Therefore Remember thy Creator Fifthly God gives us this Memento to mind us of that strict Account we must e're long give to him for all our Time Youth is to Account to God for a few Years as well as Old Age is for many more and therefore the Wise Man warns Young Ones of a Judgment Day for them as well as for those of more Years Eccles 11.9 Rejoice O Young Man in thy Youth But know that for all those things God will bring thee to Judgment If we do not Remember to keep this Precept God will Remember to punish the breach of it If we forget our Obedience to God he will not forget to punish our Disobedience and therefore God puts a Memento upon this Command that so we may be Awakened to our Duty from the Sense of an Approaching Judgment Remember thy Creator But it is not barely an Act of the Mind that is here called for it is not enough meerly for you to Remember or Think of God for that is done in Hell they all Remember God there the Memory of the Damned shall then be more quick and strong than ever and shall bring all your Sins into an Eternal view Now the Sins of Youth are committed and forgotten by us and we are apt to think God forgets them too and that they shall never be remembred more they say Tush the Lord seeth us not Ezek. 8.12 But mark what God says Psalm 50. ver 21. These things hast thou done speaking of their Sins before These things hast thou done and I kept Silence But I will Reprove thee and set them in Order before thine Eyes Every Sin shall be set in Order and come into Remembrance in that Day Son says Abraham to the Rich Man Son Remember Luke 16.25 pointing him back to his Lusts If Sinners could but forget in Hell it would be a Comparative Happiness A Loss though never so great yet when it is forgotten the trouble of it ceases It would be an ease to Sinners in Hell if they could never think of God more and if they could raze out the Remembrance of Christ and the Gospel out of their Minds and forget that ever they heard of a Redeemer to Remember what a God what a Creator what a Redeemer what a Heaven what a Happiness they had tendered to them and therefore might have secured but would not to Remember what Calls they were once under to Convert and Turn to God and Close with Christ and Live O how will this wound and afflict in that Day I had once the Means of Grace I heard the Preacher often Calling and Wooing me to leave my Lusts and come to Christ I have many times felt the Convictions and Strivings of the Spirit in me under the Word to bring it about and had I had Wisdom to Consider and a Heart to Comply O how Happy had I been I might have been one amongst the Blessed Saints in Heaven who are here Tormented amongst Damned Spirits O how often have I had Life and Death set before me and therefore this Misery is the Fruit of my own Choice To Remember Lost and Past Opportunities O how will this Torment Fool that I was to have such a Price put into my Hands to get Wisdom as once I had and yet to have
no Heart to it Wretch that I was that I could find Time for every thing else but no Time for Eternity I had Time to Eat and Drink and Sleep and to mind the Work of my Calling but no Time to Work out my Salvation I had Time for my Mirth and my Games and my Sports and Pleasures and Youthful Vanities but I could find no Time for God and my own Soul To Remember upon what easie Terms they might have Escaped Wrath and Misery and have been Happy for ever will not this wound and torment I was not put upon what was Impossible Christ told me his Yoke was Easie and his Burden Light that his Commands were not grievous it was but forsaking my Lusts and Cordially accepting of Christ for my Saviour and Lord and I had been Happy for ever and how reasonable was this If he had bid me do some great Matter should I not have done it How much more then when he laid upon me no other Conditions but these Believe and be Saved Seek my Face and Live Remember thy Creator now in the Days of thy Youth O how bereft of Judgment was I when I thought my self too Young for this Work when I called God a Hard Master and his Service Bonds and Bondage when I Censured the Holy Ways of God as needless Preciseness and cast off his Holy Laws as too Severe and Strict O Cursed Wretch that I was and am not to be Perswaded to Own and Imbrace them To Remember what it was that they Chose in lieu of Blessedness and what they parted with Heaven and Glory for this will Amaze and Confound a few Short-lived Pleasures and Carnal Delights a little Sensual Satisfaction of the Flesh a few Pleasant Cups or Sweet Morsels a Heap of Gold or a Puff of Honour this is all I had for my Immortal Soul and Eternal Salvation and for a God who is the Chief Good and in whose Favour is Life so that you see God is Remembred in Hell Nay let me say it he is in some Sence Remembred more there than he is here for here the Ruin is so Distracted with divers Lusts and Sensual Vanities that they divert the Thoughts from their Proper Object but in Hell there is nothing to flatter the Sences no Objects to divert them God is perpetually Remembred there not as a Duty but as a Punishment not as a Comfort but as a Torment And let me tell you it will be one of the greatest Torments of Sinners in Hell to Remember what a God they have lost what a Heaven they have missed what precious Souls they have undone But this Momento here in the Text is a very Comprehensive Duty in this Place it takes in the Whole of Religion it comprehends the Whole Duty of Man It is usual with the Spirit of God in Scripture to include all the Operations of the Soul in the mention of one single Act and to denominate the Whole of Religion by some one Chief Part of it which is a Principle Productive of all the rest sometimes we are Commanded to love God sometimes to fear God sometimes to seek God and here in the Text to remember God and in any one of these all the rest are included so that this Injunction to Remember thy Creator points us to a five-fold Duty without which it is not done as a Duty First This Remembring implies and supposes Knowledge you can never Remember your Creator unless you Know who he is the Memory is the Store-House of the Soul where known Truths are Treasured up Christ says of the Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven that he brings out of his Treasury Things New and Old Knowledge is the first Step to Salvation he will have all Men to be Saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 and therefore the great Design of the Devil is to blot out the Knowledge of God from the Mind his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Darkness and he rules in the Darkness of this World for he can lead the Blind which Way he will and therefore he that doth not know God cannot remember him and he cannot be rightly known but in Jesus Christ If one had a Knowledge of God as clear as that of the Angels who never sinned yet he cannot be rightly known by us but in Jesus Christ without the Knowledge of Christ we shall be miserable with all our Knowledge Though the Knowledge of Christ be not simply necessary to the Angels that never sinned and therefore needed not a Mediator yet it was necessary for us who are by Sin Obnoxious to God's Wrath and so need a Reconciler because of our Enmity and a Redeemer because of our Slavery a Refiner because of our Filthiness and a Mediator because of our Distance that he may bring us to God and therefore the Knowledge of Christ is as necessary to Happiness as the Knowledge of God both are joined together as a needful Means of Salvation This is Life Eternal to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 If we do not know God we cannot know what is our Duty to him and if we do not know Christ we cannot know the way of Performing that Duty the more we come to understand the Nature of God and the Offices of Christ the more we shall know of our Duty and how to do it There can be no Right Knowledge of God but in and by Christ He is the True Light that lightens every Man that comes into the World John 1.9 Every One that partakes of this Light hath it from Christ Natural Light is from Christ and Spiritual Light much more No Man hath seen God at any time the only Begotten Son who is in the Bosom of the Father he hath Declared him John 1.18 And therefore this Remembring thy Creator includes in it the Saving Knowledge of God in Christ Secondly This Remembring includes Faith he cannot be said to Remember God who doth not Depend upon God and Trust in him therefore David Expresseth his Faith in God by Remembring of him Psalm 20.7 Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God that is we will trust in his Name others trust in Creatures but we will trust in the Creator others rely on an Arm of Flesh but we will rely upon the Name of the Lord then God is Remembred aright when the Remembrance of him is accompanied with Faith and Trusting Faith in God is the best the truest way of Remembring of God It is said of Israel Psalm 78.32 They believed not for his Wondrous Works but when he slew them then they sought him and they remembred that God was their Rock and the High God their Redeemer that is then they believed So Isaiah 26.8 The Desire of our Souls is to thy Name and to the Rememberance of thee that is to keep up the Glory of thy Name by Acting Faith
have Sinned it away yet there is the Natural Image of God and that remains in all of you for what is Natural Light Knowledge Understanding What is Skill to Discern and Wisdom to Chuse What are all the Intellective and Elective Powers of the Soul but the Image of God in Man And what is this Image for but in order to Recover that which is Lost It is to Capacitate us to Know God to Seek him to Chuse him to Live to him here that so we may for ever Enjoy him and if we do not make this our chief Work we are made in Vain and Degenerate into Brutes being wholly acted by Sence and the Design of this Image is Lost for by partaking of his Likeness we become bound to his Laws Thirdly That Power that created us at First does create us every Day You are made of God every Day for Preservation is a Continued Creation As he gives Life so he holds our Souls in Life if God withdraw from us but a Moment we shall Die Thou takest away their Breath and they Die and return to their Dust And do we receive our Preservation and Support from him and shall we not pay Respect to him This violates the very Law of Nature and fills Heaven and Earth with Wonder therefore God does Summons Heaven and Earth to hear his Complaint against such Rebels Isa 1.2 Hear O Heaven and give Ear O Earth says God But why does he Summons these Why First To Rebuke and Shame the Stupidity of his People that the Senceless Creatures were more like to hear God speak than they Secondly To shew that these Creatures by which God had done them much good might well bear Witness on his behalf against their Ingratitude Thirdly To Convince them how Stupendious a thing it was that God Complains of against them even such as the Senceless Creatures might stand amazed to hear were they capable of that Sence And what is the Complaint that God makes here It is Twofold The one is Horrid Ingratitude The other is Transcendent Brutishness First Horrid Ingratitude Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth What must they hear Why what God hath to say against this People The Lord hath said I have nourished and brought up Children and they have Rebelled against me For any of us Parents to bring forth and breed up Children and after all our Trouble Cost and Care when they are come to Years of Knowledge not to own us Nay when they are grown to be Men to turn to be Rebels to violate such Bonds and break such strong Ties Heaven and Earth may well cry out against them Why this is my Case says God I made these Children I maintained them I brought them up at my Cost and yet after all they will not Know me they will not Own me Instead of Chusing me they turn their Back upon me and turn Rebels against me they have not a bit of Bread to Eat but as I feed them nor a Rag to Wear but as I cloath them It is my Wooll and my Flax yet I am forgotten and the very Law of Nature broken Thus God Complains of their base Ingratitude Secondly He Complains of their Transcendent Brutishness which was such that it outdid the most Brutish amongst Brutes The Ox and the Ass are reckoned amongst the Dullest and most Stupid Creatures yet says God they are worse than these for the Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know me My People doth not consider These Beasts as Stupid as they are yet they after their Kind own them that Feed them and are ready at all Times to submit to and serve them yet says God they will not own me Nay says God they will not so much as consider what I have done for them that thereby they might be brought to own and serve me My People doth not consider Fourthly He that made us can unmake us he that gave us our Being can turn us into nothing he that created us can destroy us he who breathed thy Soul into thy Body can take it away and throw it into Hell And this is the very Argument our Lord Christ makes use of Mat. 10.28 Fear him who is able to cast Body and Soul into Hell All these Arguments do result from the Relation we stand in to God as he is our Creator He made us He made us after his own Image He makes us continually by preserving us And he that made us can destroy us and will you forget your Maker This will provoke him when they that are made by him seek not after him None says Where is God my Maker Job 35. v. 10. All Worship and Respect and Obedience is a just due to God as your Maker You had your Being from God therefore you should always seek after God It is natural for every thing to make to the place of its Original Solomon shews it you in divers Instances so does the Sun It arises and goeth down and hastneth to the place whence it arose Eccles 1. v. 5. So doth the Wind It whirls about continually and returneth again to its circuits v. 6. So does the Rivers Vnto the place from whence they came thither they do return again v. 7. And should not Man that is made by God and comes from God seek after God and take up his rest in God Nature teacheth this A Circle is the most perfect Figure because it ends where it began the last point meets in the first from whence it came it is the Perfection of the Rational Creature that had its Being from God to seek after him and terminate it self in him that is the second Reason Thirdly To chuse God betimes as it is a Duty of great concernment so it is a Duty of great advantage and benefit Religion however it is mistaken in the World is the most advantageous course any Man can take it affords the greatest Promises the richest Comforts and the surest Rewards And therefore the Holy Ghost tells us That Godliness is profitable for all things 1 Tim. 4.8 and where lies the profit It tells you in the next Words It hath the promise of the Life that now is that includes all good here and of the Life that is to come that includes all good hereafter But to be a little particular in shewing you the advantages of Religion First If you have chosen God he is yours for ever for he becomes yours by your own choice and you may lay claim to him as yours and may say as Thomas did My Lord and my God Or with David This God is our God for ever and ever Psalm 48. v. 14. And is not this a great advantage and benefit Nay you have not only a Propriety in God but you have the special Presence of God However it may be as to that Presence of God that is Arbitrary yet you have always his Presence in a Fourfold Sense The Presence of his Mercy to pardon