not we our selves we are his People and the Sheep of his pasture I proceed to consider in the III. and Last place The Reason of the Limitation of this Duty more especially to this particular Age of our Lives Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy Youth when the evil days come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them NOW in the days of thy Youth by which Solomon plainly designs two things First To engage young persons to begin this great and necessary Work of Religion betimes and assoon as ever they are capable of taking it into consideration Remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth And the Son of Sirach much to the same purpose speaking of one that in good earnest applies his heart to Wisdom describes him in this manner Ecclus He will give his heart to resort early to the Lord that made him which is the same with the expression in the Text of remembring our Creator in the days of our Youth Secondly To engage young persons to set about this Work presently and not to defer it and put it off to the future as most are apt to do Remember NOW thy Creator in the days of thy youth Especially not to adjourn it to the most unfit and improper time of all other to the time of infirmity and old Age NOW in the days of thy Youth when the â—vil days câ—me not nâ—r the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I hâ—ve no pleasure in them While the Sun or the Light or the Moon or the Stars be not darken'd c. And how much reason there is to press both these Considerations upon young persons I shall endeavour to shew in the following Particulars First Because in this Age of our Lives we have the greatest and most sensible obligation to remember God our Creatâ—r In the days of our youth when the Blessing and benefit of Life is new and the memory of it fresh upon our minds It ought not indeed to be so but we find it true which Seneca says Nihil citiùs senescit quà m gratia Nothing sooner grows old and out of date than obligation and we are but too apt to forget what we have the greatest reason to remember In this Age of our Life when we begin to come to the free use and exercise of our Reason the first thing we are instructed in and if we were not taught it we should though perhaps more slowly discover and find it out of our selves I say the first thing we are instructed in and inquisitive about is the Author of our Beings and how we came into the World And when God first appears to our Minds and we come by degrees clearly to understand by whose â—ounty and Blessing it is that we are and have been preserved thus long without our own care principally by the Providence of God and under Him by those instruments which He hath raised and pâ—eserved for that purpose When we consider this we cannot but be strangely surprized both with the Novelty of the â—enefit and the Greatness of it And when we have well viewed our Selves and look'd about us upon the Creatures below us all of them subject to our Dominion and use And when we consider seriously in what a noble Rank and order of Creatures we are placed and how fearfully and wonderfully we are made not groveling upon the earth or bowed down to it but of a beautiful and upright shape of Body and such a Majesty of Countenance as if we were all Kings of the Creation And which is much more excellent than this that we are endued with Minds and Understandings with Reason and Speech whereby we are capable not only of conversing with and benefiting one another but also of the knowledge and friendship and enjoyment of the Best and most Perfect of Beings God himself I say when we first consider this and meditate seriously upon it can we possibly ever after forget God Shall we not naturally break out into that enquiry which Elihu thinks so proper for Man that he wonders it is not in every Man's mouth Where is God my Maker who teacheth me more than the Beasts of the Earth and maketh me wiser than the Fowls of Heaven Job 35. 10 11. So that there is a very special obligation upon us to be mindful of God in this Age of our Lives when we first come to the knowledge of Him and when the sense of his Favours is fresh and new to us and not only so but when the Blessing of Life is at the very best and in its verdure and flower when our Health is in its strength and vigor and the pleasures and enjoyments of Life have their full taste and perfect relish So Job describes the days of his youth Job 29. 2 3 4. O that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness as I was in the days of my youth c. Indeed when the evil days are once come and thou art enter'd upon the years in which thou thy self hast no pleasure there might be some sort of pretence then to forget God because then Life begins to wither and decay and not only the gloss and beauty but even the comfort and sweetness of it is gone and it becomes an insipid and tastless thing But thou art inexcusable O Man whoever thou art if thou art unmindful of God in the best Age of thy Life and when the sense of his Benefits ought upon all accounts to make the strongest and deepest impressions upon thy Mind Secondly The Reason will be yet stronger to put us upon this if we consider that notwithstanding the great obligation which lies upon us to remember our Creator in the days of our youth we are most apt at that time of all other to forget Him For that which is the great Blessing of Youth is also the great Danger of it I mean the Health and Prosperity of it and though men have then least reason yet are they most apt to forget God in the height of pleasure and in the abundance of all things Youth is extremely addicted to pleasure because it is most capable and most sensible of it and where we are most apt to be transported there we are most apt to transgress Nothing does so besot the Mind and extinguish in it all sense of Divine things as sensual Pleasures If we fall in love with them they will take off our thoughts from Religion and steal away our hearts from God For no man can serve two Mastersâ— and the carnal mind is enmity against God Besides that Youth is rash and inconsiderate because unexperienced and consequently not apt to be cautious and prudent no not as to the future concernments of this temporal Life much less of that which seems to be at so much a greater distance and for that reason
your God promised you so shall the Lord bring upon you all evil things until he have destroyed you from off this good Land which the Lord your God hath given you Chap. 23. 15. After this he calls them together a second time and gives them a brief historical account and deduction of the great Mercies of God to them and their Fathers from the days of Abraham whom he had called out from among his Idolatrous Kindred and Countreymen unto that Day From the consideration of all which he earnestly exhorts them to renew their Covenant with God and for his particular satisfaction before he left the World solemnly to promise that they would for ever serve God and forsake the service of Idols Now therefore fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and in truth And put away the Gods which your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood and in Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And then in the Text by a very elegant Scheme of Speech he does as it were once more set them at liberty and as if they had never engaged themselves to God by Covenant before he leaves them to their free choice And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom ye will serve whether the Gods whom your Fathers served on the other side of the Flood or the Gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell Not that they were at liberty whether they would serve the true God or not but to insinuate to them that Religion ought to be their free choice And likewise that the true Religion hath those real advantages on its Side that it may safely be referr'd to any considerate Man's choice If it seem evil unto you as if he had said If after all the demonstrations which God hath given of his Miraculous Presence among you and the mighty obligations which he hath laid upon you by bringing you out of the Land of Egypt and the House of Bondage by so outâ—tretched an Arm and by driving out the Nations before you and giving you their Land to possess If after all this you can think it â—it to quit the service of this God and to worship the Idols of the Nations whom you have subdued those vanquished and baffled Deities If you can think it reasonable so to do but surely you cannot then take your choice If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom ye will serve And to direct and encourage them to make a right choice he declares to them his own Resolution which he hopes will also be theirs and as he had heretofore been their Captain so now he offers himself to be their Example But whether they will follow him or not he for his part is fix'd and immovable in this Resolution But as for ME and my house we will serve the Lord. In effect he tells them I have proposed the best Religion to your choice and I cannot but think nay I cannot but hope that you will all stedfastly adhere to it It is so reasonable and wise so much your Interest and your Happiness to do it But if you should do otherwise if you should be so weak as not to discern the Truth so wilful and so wicked as not to embrace it Though you should all make another choice and run away from the true God to the worship of Idols I for my part am stedfastly resolved what to do In a case so manifest in a matter so reasonable no Number no Example shall prevail with me to the contrary I will if need be stand alone in that which is so evidently and unquestionably Right And though this whole Nation should revolt all at once from the Worship of the true God and join with the rest of the World in a false Religion and in the Worship of Idols and mine were the only Family left in all Israel nay in the whole World that continued to worship the God of Israel I would still be of the same mind I would still persist in this Resolution and act according to it As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. A Resolution truly worthy of so great a Prince and so good a Man In which he is a double Pattern to us First Of the brave Resolution of a good Man namely That if there were occasion and things were brought to that extremity he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of the true Religion As for ME I will serve the Lord. Secondly Of the pious Care of a good Father and Master of a Family to train up those under his Charge in the true Religion and Worship of God As for me and MY HOUSE we will serve the Lord. I shall at this time by God's assistance treat of the First of these namely I. Of the brave Resolution of a good Man that if there were occasion and things were brought to that extremity he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of God's true Religion Chuse you this day says Joshua whom ye will serve but as for ME I will serve the Lord. Joshua here puts the Case at the utmost extremity That not only the great Nations of the World the Egyptians and Chaldeans and all the lesser Nations round about them and in whose Land they dwelt were all long since revolted to Idolatry and pretended great Antiquity and long Prescription for the Worship of their false Gods But he supposeth yet further That the only true and visible Church of God then known in the World the People of Israel should likewise generally revolt and forsake the Worship of the true God and cleave to the Service of Idols Yet in this Case if we could suppose it to happen he declares his firm and stedfast Resolution to adhere to the Worship of the true God And though all others should fall off from it that he would stand alone in the Profession and Practice of the true Religion But as for ME I will serve the Lord. In the handling of this Argument I shall do these two things First I shall consider the matter of this Resolution and the due bounds and limits of it Secondly I shall endeavour to vindicate the reasonableness of this Resolution from the Objections to which this singular and peremptory kind of Resolution may seem liable First I shall consider the matter of this Resolution and the due bounds and limits of it 1st The matter of this Resolution Joshua here resolves that if need were and things were brought to that pass he would stand alone or with very few adhering to him in the Profession and Practice of the true Religion And this is not a mere Supposition of an impossible Case which can never happen For it may and hath really and in fact happen'd in several Ages and Places of the World There hath been a general Apostacy of some great part of God's Church from the Belief and Profession of the true Religion to Idolatry
and to damnable Errors and Heresies And some good Men have upon the matter stood alone in the open Profession of the true Religion in the midst of this general Defection from it Elijah in that general Revolt of the People of Israel when they had forsaken the Covenant of the Lord and broken down his Altars and slain his Prophets and he only as he thought was left to stand alone I say in this Case when as he verily believed he had no body to stand by him he was very zealous for the Lord God of Hosts 1 Kings 18. 18. and with an undaunted courage stood up for the Worship of the true God and reproved Ahab to his face for his defection to the Worship of Idols And those three brave Youths in the Prophecy of Daniel chap. 3. did in the like resolute and undaunted manner refuse to obey the Command of the great King Nebuchadnezzar to worship the Image which he had set up when all others Submitted and paid Honour to it Telling him plainly If it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery Furnance and He will deliver us out of thy hand If not be it known unto thee O King that we will not serve thy Gods nor worship the golden Image which thou hast set up v. 17 18. In like manner and with the same Spirit and courage Daniel withstood the Decree of Darius which forbad men to ask a Petition of any God or man for thirty days save of the King only Dan. 6. 7. and this under the pain of being cast into the Den of Lions and when all others gave obedience to it he set open the windows of his chamber towards Jerusalem and kneeled down upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks as he did afore time v. 10. In the prevalency of the Arian Heresy Athanasius almost stood alone in the profession and maintenance of the Truth And in the Reign of Antichrist the true Church of God is represented by a Woman flying into the Wilderness and living there in obscurity for a long time insomuch that the Professors of the Truth should hardly be found And yet during that Degeneracy of so great a Part of the Christian Church and the prevalency of Antichrist for so many Ages some few in every Age did appear who did resolutely own the Truth and bear Witness to it with their Blood But these did almost stand alone and by themselves like a few scattered Sheep wandring up and down in a wide Wilderness Thus in the heighth of Popery Wickliffe appear'd here in England and Hierome of Prague and John Huss in Germany and Bohemia And in the beginning of the Reformation when Popery had quite over-run these Western Parts of the World and subdued her Enemies on every side and Antichrist sate securely in the quiet possession of his Kingdom Luther arose a bold and rough Man but a fit Wedge to cleave in sunder so hard and knotty a Block and appeared stoutly against the gross Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome and for a long time stood alone and with a most invincible spirit and courage maintained his ground and resisted the united malice and force of Antichrist and his Adherents and gave him so terrible a Wound that he is not yet perfectly healed and recovered of it So that for a Man to stand alone or with a very few adhering to him and standing by him is not a mere imaginary Supposition but a Case that hath really and in fact happen'd in several Ages and Places of the World Let us then proceed to consider in the 2d place The due limits and bounds of this peremptory Resolution In all matters of Faith and Practice which are plain and evident either from Natural Reason or from Divine Revelation this Resolution seems to be very reasonable But in things doubtful a modest man and every man hath reason to be so would be very apt to be stagger'd by the judgment of a very Wise man and much more of many such and especially by the unanimous Judgment of the generality of Men the general Voice and Opinion of Mankind being next to the Voice of God himself For in matters of an indifferent nature which God hath neither commanded nor forbidden such as are many of the Circumstances and Ceremonies of God's Worship a man would not be singular much less stiff and immovable in his singularity but would be apt to yield and surrender himself to the general Vote and Opinion and to comply with the common Custom and Practice and much more with the Rules and Constitutions of Authority whether Civil or Ecclesiastical Because in things lawful and indifferent we are bound by the Rules of Decency and Civility not to thwart the general Practice and by the Commands of God we are certainly obliged to obey the lawful Commands of lawful Authority But in things plainly contrary to the evidence of Sense or Reason or to the Word of God a man would complement no Man or Number of Men nor would he pin his Faith upon any Church in the World much less upon any single Man no not the Pope no though there were never so many probable Arguments brought for the proof of his Infallibility In this Case a Man would be singular and stand alone against the whole World against the wrath and rage of a King and all the terrors of his fiery Furnace as in other matters a Man would not believe all the Learned Men in the World against the clear evidence of Sense and Reason If all the great Mathematicians of all Ages Archimedes and Euclide and Apollonius and Diophantus c. could be supposed to meet together in a General Council and should there declare in the most solemn manner and give it under their Hands and Seals that twice two did not make four but five this would not move me in the least to be of their mind nay I who am no Mathematician would maintain the contrary and would persist in it without being in the least startled by the positive Opinion of these great and learned men and should most certainly conclude that they were either all of them out of their Wits or that they were byassed by some Interest or other and swayed against the clear evidence of Truth and the full conviction of their own Reason to make such a determination as this They might indeed over-rule the Point by their Authority but in my inward judgment I should still be where I was before Just so in matters of Religion if any Church though with never so glorious and confident a pretence to Infallibility should declare for Transubstantiation that is that the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament by vertue of the Consecration of the Priest are substantially changed into the natural Body and Blood of Christ this is so notoriously contrary both to the Sense and Reason of Mankind that a Man should chuse to stand single in
Servants at home to make them capable of profiting by what they hear and may learn at Church is like an error in the first Concoction which can hardly ever be corrected afterwards So that in this first neglect the foundation of an infinite Mischief is laid because if no care be taken of persons in their younger years when they are most capable of the impressions of Religion how can it reasonably be expected that they should come to good afterwards And if they continue void of the Fear of God which there hath been no care taken to plant in them they will almost necessarily be bad in all Relations undutiful Children slothful and unfaithful Servants scandalous Members of the Church unprofitable to the Commonwealth disobedient to Governours both Ecclesiastical and Civil and in a word Burthens of the Earth and so many Plagues of Human Society And this Evil if no Remedy be applied to it will continually grow worse and diffuse and spread it self farther in every Age till Impiety and Wickedness Infidelity and Profaneness have over-run all and the World be ripe for its final Ruin Just as it was before the Destruction of the Old World when the wickedness of Man was great upon the Earth and all Flesh had corrupted their way then the Flood came and swept them all away Secondly The Consequences of this Neglect will likewise be very dismal to our Selves We shall first of all others feel the Inconvenience as we had the greatest share in the Guilt of it We can have no manner of security of the Duty and Fidelity of those of our Family to us if they have no sense of Religion no fear of God before their eyes If we have taken no care to instruct them in their Duty to God it is no-wise probable that they will make Conscience of their Duty to us So that we shall have the first ill Consequences of their Miscarriage besides the Shame and Sorrow of it And not only so but all the evil they commit ever after will be in a great measure chargeable upon us and will be put upon our score in the Judgment of the Great Day It ought to make us tremble to think with what bitterness and Rage our Children and Servants will then fly in our faces for having been the Cause of their eternal Ruin for want of due care on our part to prevent it In that Day next to God and our own Consciences our most terrible Accusers will be those of our own House nay those that came out of our own Bowels and were not only Part of our Family but even of our Selves But this also I shall have a proper Occasion to prosecute more fully in the following Discourses concerning the Education of Children to which I refer it Upon all these Considerations and many more that might be urged upon us we should take up the pious Resolution of Joshua here in the Text that We and OUR HOUSES will serve the Lord And that through God's Grace we will do all that in us lies by our future Care and Diligence to repair our former neglects in this kind I shall only add this one Consideration more to all that I have already mentioned If Children were carefully educated and Families regularly and Religiously ordered what a happy and delightful Place what a Paradise would this World be in comparison of what now it is I beseech you therefore Brethren that these things which I have with so much plainness and faithfulness laid before you may sink into your hearts before it be too late and whilst the thing may be remedied that you may not for ever lament this neglect and repent of it when the thing will be past Remedy and there will be no place for Repentance But I hope better things of you Brethren and things that accompany Salvation though I thus speak SERMON I. OF THE Education of Children PROV XXII 6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it I Have on purpose chosen this Text for the subject of a Preparatory Discourse in order to the reviving of that so shamefully neglected and yet most useful and necessary Duty of Catechising children and young persons But I shall extend it to the consideration of the Education of Children in general as a matter of the greatest consequence both to Religion and the Publick welfare For we who are the Ministers of God ought not only to instruct those who are committed to our charge in the common Duties of Christianity such as belong to all Christians but likewise in all the particular Duties which the several Relations in which they stand to one another do respectively require and call for from them And amongst all these I know none that is of greater concernment to Religion and to the good Order of the World than the careful Education of Children And there is hardly any thing that is more difficult and which requires a more prudent and diligent and constant application of our best care and endeavour It is a known Saying of Melancthon that there are three things which are extremely difficult parturire docere regere to bear and bring forth Children to instruct and bring them up to be Men and to govern them when they arrive at Man's estate The instruction and good Education of Children is none of the least difficult of these For to do it to the best advantage does not only require great sagacity to discern their particular disposition and temper but great discretion to deal with them and manage them and likewise continual care and diligent attendance to form them by degrees to Religion and Virtue It requires great wisdom and industry to advance a considerable Estate much art and contrivance and pains to raise a great and regular Building But the greatest and noblest Work in the World and an effect of the greatest prudence and care is to rear and build up a Man and to form and fashion him to Piety and Justice and Temperance and all kind of honest and worthy actions Now the Foundations of this great Work are to be carefully laid in the tender years of Children that it may rise and grow up with them according to the advice of the Wiseman here in the Text Train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it In which words are contained these two things First The Duty of Parents and Instructers of Children Train up a Child c. By Childhood here I understand the Age of Persons from their Birth but more especially from their first capacity of Instruction till they arrive at the State and Age which next succeeds Childhood and which we call Youth and which is the proper Season for Confirmation For when Children have been well Catechised and instructed in Religion then is the fittest Time for them to take upon themselves and in their own Persons to confirm that solemn Vow