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
Remembred was opened to you thy Creators for in the Original it is in the Plural Number and so it points to Father Son and Spirit It is not said Remember thy God but Remember thy Creator God is not every one's God but he is every one's Creator fallen Creatures they be his Creatures still as much as ever and this Remembring him as thy Creator is that that gives thee a Claim to him as thy God And then in the last place I opened to you the Season of this Duty now not now as intending any time of Life but now in the Days of thy Youth I insisted largely upon these things in the opening of them to you and improved them by a Particular Application And this is the sum of what I spake last Year upon these Words I now come to give you some Observations from them one is this That Youth is naturally very prone to forget God this is plainly implied For what need else of this Memento in the Text Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth Another might be this that the true and best Improvement of Youthful Days is to devote them to God to mind Religion betimes But I shall not speak to any of these my Design at present is to speak to the Words as they lye in the Original Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Choice The Word that we render Youth here the Days of thy Youth is from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Elect to Chuse and accordingly Montanus renders the Word Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Choice Now this admits of a double Sense Either Thy Choice Days or thy Chusing Days First The Days of Youth they are your Choice Days the Prime of your Time the Flower of your Age. As the Spring is the choice time of the Year so is Youth the choice time of Life Nature is then most brisk and active and full of vigor and the Spirits quick and lively the Wit sharp the Affections strong the Memory retentive and therefore there is no time to mind Religion like this choice time of Youth O where now are those Isaacs that meditate whilst they are young Where are those Jacobs that seek for the Blessing betimes Where are those Children that ask their Parents as they under the Law did What mean the Sabbaths and the Ordinances of the Lord that we may also keep them Where are the Children amongst you that sing Hosannah's to Christ as they did in the Days of his Flesh These are the Young Mens Looking Glasses and because we are led by Example more than by Precept therefore the Holy Ghost has set before you these Presidents in Scripture that you may imitate and copy them out these are choice Paterns and if you make Conscience to follow them in your Choice Days you will shew your selves to be a Chosen Generation Children that God will delight to own But Secondly For I will pass that too the Days of Youth they are your Chusing Days as they are Choice Days so the Days of your Choice Chusing What is that Why it is a deliberate Act of the Soul it is done upon Consideration and Debate when a Man upon a Judgment rightly informed and Affections thereby ingaged does cleave to God and the Ways of God that is Election and Choice The Observation then that I shall lay down from the Sence of the Words is this that it is the great Concernment and Duty of Young Ones to make God the Object of their First Choice to begin with God in their First Setting Out in the World We never enter into God's Service aright till we enter upon it by Choice for God will have it so Chuse you this Day whom you will Serve either the true God or Idols Not as if it were at their own liberty to serve which they pleased No but to convince them of the Folly of a bad Choice and to direct them to a right Choice But for the clearing of the Doctrine I will show you First What it is to chuse God Secondly I will give you the Reasons of the Concernedness of the Duty And so apply it First What is it to chuse God It implies Five Things First A due Consideration of the Object its Nature Worth and Excellency till things are duly weighed in the Ballance of a true Judgment we can never make a right Choice and here the business sticks with Young Ones In this first Work we cannot perswade them to consider they will not weigh things but they will act according to the inclination of their Lusts therefore the Apostle advises us to resolve upon trial 1 Thes 5.21 Prove all things and hold fast that which is good A Man will never hold fast that which is Good until he first prove and try it Indeed the things which are usually opposed to Religion are such poor paltry Vanities that they are not worthy to be set in competition with God or to come into a serious Debate How easie is it to resolve which is fittest to be pleased God or the Flesh Whether the Transitory Pleasures of Sin should be preferred to the Life and Salvation of an Immortal Soul A Serious Consideration on these Things would soon determine the Matter on God's side Secondly This Chusing of God implies Esteem and Preference for Election and Choice is the preferring one thing before another Our Choice of all Objects is according to our Esteem of them As far as we judge a thing needless so far we count it worthless Let a Man have but slight Thoughts of God and his Duties shall be as short as his Thoughts are slight Mean Apprehensions are ever attended with listless Devotions It is the Soul that highly esteems God that chuses and seeks him What said Caleb and Joshua when they returned from spying out the Land of Canaan and had tasted the sweet Fruits of it O say they it is a good Land let us go up and take it at once But the other Spies that undervalued it laid aside the thoughts of Possessing and are for facing about to Egypt Though God and Christ are the best Good yet there are many Competitors that stand as Rivals with them in the Soul and therefore your Choice can never be right unless these Rivals be trampled under foot It is said of the Wise Merchant that when he had found a Pearl of great Price he went and Sold all that he had and bought it Mat. 13.46 First he shews his Esteem of it as a Pearl of great Price and then he parts with all to purchase it What a high Esteem had Paul of Christ The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3.8 There is his Value of him and see how it drew his Heart after him I count all things but Loss that I may Win Christ It is not enough to approve of God and his Ways simply but we must approve of them comparatively not only as good in themselves
Wilderness or a Land of Darkness If so you have some occasion to Revolt and Forget me but if not why say ye We will come no more at thee Jer. 2.31 O what a shame is it that any one should forget God that never did him hurt but good all the Days of his Life Pray Consider that first Question in your Catechism Who made you You once were not and that which once was not could not make it self as Nothing has no Existence so it can have no Operation Nothing cannot be a Creator to every one of you You derive your Beings from God It is he that made us and not we our selves Psalm 100.3 therefore you are called the Offspring of God Acts 17.28 In him we live move and have our Being for we are his Offspring Now what a shame is it that a Creature that is made by God should forget his Maker God complains of this Isa 51.13 They forgat the Lord their Maker and should he be forgotten that gave us our Being Honour thy Father and thy Mother it is a Law written in Nature they deserve the highest Respect and Reverence because they were the Instruments of our Being Now God is much more the Author of our Being than he that Begat us or than she that Brought us forth Thou art he says David that took me out of the Womb thou art my God from my Mother's Belly Parents are but the Second Causes of our Being God is the First Cause and all Second Causes depend upon the First in their Being and Operation therefore Man is nothing in our Production if compared with God and shall this God be forgotten and sinned against He calls Heaven and Earth to witness against such Rebels Isa 1.2 Hear O Heaven and give Ear O Earth for the Lord hath said I have nourished and brought up Children and they have Rebelled against me Heaven and Earth will cry out against you if he that made us be not remembred and owned by us Secondly Consider what a Price God has put into your Hands for the good of your Souls He hath not only made you but he hath made Seasons of Grace for you Seasons for the getting the Knowledge of God in Christ Seasons for getting an Interest in Christ He has given you his Sabbaths his Word his Ordinances a Powerful Means and Ministry Nay many Young Ones have felt somewhat of the Power of these things God has been at Work with them betimes their Hearts have been touched the Spirit of God hath wrought in them some Convictions of Sin and of their lost undone State O what a Price has God put into your Hands and how can you answer the neglect of it What says Solomon Prov. 17.16 Wherefore is there a Price put into the Hand of a Fool to get Wisdom seeing he hath no heart to it He that hath a Price put into his Hands to get Wisdom and hath no Desire in his Heart to it that Man is a Fool God says so He is a Fool And as he is so now in the Judgment of others so he will be so one Day in his own It will be a Sword in his Heart to consider I might have had God for my God but I forgat him I might have had an Interest in the blessed Redeemer but I neglected it I might have been Saved but I let slip all these Opportunities that God put into my Hands I have now wofully destroyed a Precious Soul by my Impenitent continuance in my Cursed Lusts against the Calls and Counsels of God It is an awakening Passage Eccles 8.6 Because to every Purpose there is Time and Judgment therefore the Misery of Man is Great upon him Therefore Wherefore VVhy because he hath not Judgment to discern the fittest Opportunity for every Purpose Many Young Ones O how do they purpose that they will seek God hereafter How do they purpose to mind their Salvation One purposes a New Life and a Better Course and God has given every one of you time for this but they want Wisdom to know the Time and so the Opportunity is lost and gone and they are miserable for ever Because to every Purpose there is Time and Judgment therefore the Misery of Man is great Sirs Consider it Young Ones how will your fruitless Repentance begin when your Opportunities are past and gone then you will see your Folly At his Latter End he shall be a Fool He was a Fool at first but he shall see it at last at his Latter End he shall be convinced of his Folly Thirdly Young Ones you that now forget God and slight Religion and indulge to your Lusts let me tell you you are a Judgmen to the Nation a Judgment and a Plague to the Land I have formerly said it to you and I say it again the Youth of a Nation are always a great Good or a great Mischief to the Nation they are either the Hope or the Plague of the Land When Young Ones are Serious and mind God and their Souls when the Word of God is Precious to them to Awaken and Convert them to Season their Hearts with Wisdom to Know and Remember God to Seek after Christ to Honour Religion by a Sober and Holy Conversation such a Race of Youth are a Blessing in any Age they are a Blessing of God to a Land But when the Youth of a Nation cast off Religion cast off all Duty to God and Man and all Sobriety and Vertue and grow Proud Profligate Profane tainted with all manner of Wickedness even to Atheism it self What shall we say then Then I say this is a sad sign of some Judgment of God coming upon the Land and indeed we have many Young Ones in this Day such Monsters in Wickedness as hath not been known in any Age such Young Swearers that can scarce speak plain Young Sabbath-breakers Young Blasphemers Young Atheists never any Age produced the like and for accompanying with Harlots and all manner of Uncleanness that is become a Fashion Therefore I tell you and I tell you from the Word of the Lord and I beg you would Consider it there is some sore Judgment of God near at hand I tell you the truth it is near and hastens greatly a Day of Trouble and Distress a a Day of Wasting and Desolation therefore my Brethren I speak it with an Aking Heart England is now big with such a Brood as will Eat out our Bowels the Children will Destroy the Mother therefore Pray hearken to a word of Exhortation and not from me but from the Lord it is the Exhortation in the Text O Remember your Creator now in the Days of your Youth Now if ever now or never now in the Days of your Youth As ever you would have Good Times as ever you would have God own this Nation as ever you would have the Gospel continued in the midst of you O Remember your Creator First Remember how he Created you in his own Image every one
for his Portion he expresses a delight in his choice Psalm 16. v. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage This is the Language of a Soul affected with its own Felicity and the pleasure it takes in an All-sufficient Good So it was in his chusing the Precepts of God says he I have chosen thy Precepts Psalm 119.173 and in the next Verse Thy Law is my Delight A Man loves what he chuses and where there is Love in the Choice there will be Pleasure in the Service for to love there is nothing grievous Thus you see what this chusing God does imply and carry in the Nature of it and that is the First Thing Secondly Let me give you the Reasons why it is the Duty of Young Ones thus to chuse God Why One great Reason is because God commands it that is the First Pray mind that of the Apostle 2 Epistle John v. 4. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth as we have received a Commandment from the Father Pray mind these were a Ladies Children to teach us there are none too great to be good these Children were found walking in the Truth not taking a step or two making it a Business by the by as your Genteels and great Persons use to do but they persisted in it they were steady in the Ways of God and that in their Childhood against all the Tide and Stream of Youthful Lusts Now this was that God had commanded Mark ye though they were Children yet God commands this of them I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth even as we have received a Commandment from the Father But where do we find this Command that Youth should devote themselves to God You have it in the Text Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth And there is a Command older than that Psalm 78.5 6 7. He established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children What for That they might set their hope in God and not forget the Works of God but keep his Commandments Nay our Lord Jesus Christ strictly enjoins it Matt. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof First here does not only not a Preheminence first above all but it notes a Priority first before all It is very Observable that our Saviour in that Prayer he gave to his Disciples which you call the Lord's Prayer he gives but one Petition for Temporal Things and Five for Spiritual and that for Temporals is neither the First nor the Last Not the First for Hallowed be thy Name is before it Nor is it the Last for Deliver us from Evil comes after it to teach us that we must begin and end with God In Mat. 21.28 The Command of the Father to his Son is Go Work to Day in my Vineyard The command of God brooks no Delays the Promises of God have Respect to the Future but the Command looks to the Present To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts Why did God under the Law require for himself the first Sheaf of the Harvest the first ripe Fruits the Firstlings of the Herd and Flock but to teach us that our first Affections our first Strength our first Desires and first Choice and first Service should be Devoted to God For it is the command of God and that is the great Reason and Rule of all Obedience that is one Another Reason is this the Nature of your Extract and Original requires this Pray where had you your Beings Young Ones how came you into the World Who made you The Text tells you who this is in the very Notion God is mentioned in thy Creator There is a Concatenation of Reasons for the Creatures Owning and Chusing the Service of God included in this Notion of a Creator First He made us and not we our selves Psalm 100.3 The Prophet Isaiah says He spreadeth forth the Earth he gives Breath to the People upon it and Spirit to them that Walk therein Isaiah 42.5 So Elihu says Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life and is it not Reason that he that made us should b owned by us The Name of Father and Mother bespeaks all Duty and Honour from you Children If Children could begin their Duty in the Cradle and continue it a Hundred Years it could never Pay what Parents Deserve for all their Sorrow Care Pains and Cost Therefore Solomon is much in Pressing this Argument upon Children Prov. 23.22 Obey thy Father that Begat thee Mark that Begat thee he gave thee thy Being and Despise not thy Mother that brought thee Forth We are ever bound to Honour and Obey them for what they have done for us These Rational Beings do require it which they have been the Means to Derive to us and to Nourish and Nurse up This is highly Deserved at our Hands yea though they grow Old and Impotent and can serve us no longer O what then does God deserve from us who is much more the Author of our Being than our Father that Begat us or than our Mother that Bare us God is the First Cause Parents are but the Second Causes of Generation and the Second Cause depends upon the First and cannot act without it Therefore it is said of God In him we Live and Move and have our Being Therefore Man is nothing in our Production if compared with God and is it not Reason then that he made us should be owned and Honoured by us that he that is our Creator should be our Ruler We Own our Service where we Receive our Existence we are Debtors to God every one of us We Owe him our selves all we are and all we have for we are not our own we are the Lord's Propriety at his Disposal he hath the absolute Dominion over us as giving Being to us It is the Apostle's Argument Whether we Live or Die we are the Lord's de jure and it should be so de facto therefore we ought to Live to him Rom. 14.7 8. This Glory is the White at which we should aim Living and â—â—ying He is the Centre in which all the whole Circumstances of our Life should meet for he made us therefore Remember thy Creator Secondly He made us after his own Image and that is a Peculiar Priviledge of Creation beyond what other Creatures injoy There is the Print of God's Hand upon all his Creatures but there are none bear his Image but Angels and Men and this you are Stampt with in the very Womb. Not one of you but have the Image of God upon you the Youngest as well as the Oldest Though indeed the Moral Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Holiness that is Blotted out and Lost by the Fall we