love and obey him are to be commended and whatsoever Reputation or Fame ye may get among men yet know this is your highest Dignity that you Know God Obey God Love God and Walk with God This Man fears God is an Encomium indeed The Second Doctrine is this There is great Reason why we should Remember our Creator in the dayes of our Youth even while we are young and before Old Age overtakes us And this I shall endeavour to make obvious in these several particulars First Because your Creator requires it Young men God calls upon you saying Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth Young men Ministers call upon you saying Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth Young men Good Company calls upon you saying Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth Angels desire it the Spirit strives Christs Invitation is Come the Gospel cries Now and what will you rather listen unto Satan will nothing prevail with you Shall God call for your Youth and will you deny it How can ye think then to prosper As therefore you would tender your own safety answer like the Eccho Lord doest thou call for my Youth O take it then and thank thee too for what is there in me that should attract God and make him accept of me My Youth is it not full of Levity Wantonness and Vanity Am I not all over corrupt from the Crown of the Head unto the sole of the Foot full of wounds bruises and putrifying Sores Am I not especially considering me in my Youth as an untamed Beast all my Actions being rash and rude and no Good in me can be found at all my Affections being strong are impatient of Reproof and Correction they will not submit their shoulders to the Yoke of God but like wild shee-Asses they snuffe up the wind and despise the Hunter Satan hath Temptations suited to every Age And the Age whereupon he works most busily and prevails most mightily is Youth The Devil he is for the prime of our Dayes and God he is for the prime of our Dayes and who hath the most right God or the Devil surely God thy Conscience will say But yet how many notwithstanding this are there that give their young and lusty years unto the Prince of the Aire the God of this World who allures them so to doe by telling them that their old withered and decrepit Age is good enough to serve God But Iniquity many times is repaired with a proportionable Plague that because they will not give their young Years unto the Lord he will not accept the service of their Old Age but cuts them away yea which is most fearfull in their sins and lets them never come to the Honour of a hoary head Will ye now Young Men hearken unto this and flee Youthfull Lusts God requires the Cream of your dayes In the Law he required unto himself the First-fruits Lev. 2. 14. Wheat beaten out of the green Ears to signifie that he will be serv'd with the First-fruits of our green and flourishing Age. Secondly Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth because too soon you cannot Remember him Nunquam sera est ad bonos more 's via The way to be Good is never too late I am sure the way to be Good is never too soon and though Divines do say a True Repentance is never too late yet a late Repentance is seldom true True Repentance without doubt cannot be too late but then late Repentance is very suspicious being seldom true Could we have served God in our Mothers Womb yet we could not serve him too soon And those who shall serve him to Eternity cannot serve him too much Hark young men hark but let it not amaze you We can never serve God too soon because he lov'd us from Eternity and we cannot serve him too much because he loves us to Eternity Never fear thy setting out too soon for the sooner the welcomer and too soon thou canst not be The consideration of this methinks should perplex the Aged that have lost their time and spur on such who are in their full vigour and strength and tempus commodum they have for God Know you who are here present and yet shall not put in practice what has been told you will have nothing to say for your selves You cannot not serve God too soon why then do you not begin run and keep on in that way Thirdly Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth because it is a Time that is most Acceptable Now is the acceptable time Now is the day of Salvation 2 Cor. 6. 4. Upon this Monosyllable Now saith one depends Eternity As there is a present Time so there is a present Truth to lay hold on The time of our Youth is the onely time to lay hold on Eternal Life and to make a surrender of our selves unto God and Jesus Christ. When we take a far Journey it is requisite that we have the Morning before us Sirs to goe from Earth to Heaven is a great Journey let us then be carefull to set out in the Spring and Morning of our Age deferre not till thou beest Old but walk while thou hast Light lest the Darkness and Night of Old Age and Death overtake thee when no man can work If therefore young Men you would ever be serviceable to God let it be while your strength lasts and before it quite fails Give not the Devil the Prime Bud Blossome Flower of your Age and the Cream of your dayes and in your Old Age when you can do nothing offer your selves to God as if he were bound to have you then and onely then when the Devil has done with you And O unreasonable Creature that hast nothing for thy Maker but the Devils Leavings viz. Old Age a Receptacle of all manner of Maladies Behold the wrinckled Face rotten Teeth stinking Breath withered with Drieness dim'd with Blindness absurded with Deafness overwhelm'd with Sickness and bowed together with Weakness having no use of any sense but the sense of Pain Therefore said the Wise-man Remember thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them And so the Wiseman goes on Allegorically describing Old Age shewing the Miseries that do attend the same a little whereof you may take notice of for the quickening you unto an Improvement of your Time while ye are young While the Sun or the Light or the Moon or the Stars be not darkened nor the Clouds return after the Rain Shewing hereby that in Old Age all the Abilities of the Mind shall be decayed The Clouds retrn after the rain As in Winter one Evil following another In the day when the Keepers of the House shall tremble The Hands and Arms prove crazy And the strong men shall bow themselves The Thighs and Leggs
shall bend under us And the Grinders cease because they are few Dentes molares Teeth cease And those that look out of the Windowes be darkened The Eyes darkened and dimm'd with Blindness And the Doors shall be shut in the streets Their Maladies so noysome that none can come to visit them And he shall rise up at the voyce of the Bird That is take little rest the chirping of a Bird or any little thing shall awake and disturb him And all the daughters of Musick shall be brought low This may be interpreted by comparing it with 2 Sam. 19. 35. Man goeth to his long home Comp. Iob 30. 23. and Isa. 26. 4. Or ever the silver Cord be loosed Some interpret it of the Marrow others of the Sinews Or the golden Bowl be broken or the Pitcher be broken at the Fountain The Liver is the Fountain of Blood the Heart of Spirits these lose their drawing and distributing Power These things considered viz. the Inconveniencies of Old Age and the Fitness of Youth for the Service of his Creator should methinks prevail with young men to live henceforth not unto themselves but unto their Creator and Redeemer The time of Youth is Seed-time The Proverb is Youth layes in and Age lives upon it The one sowes the other reaps Now is your Market-time in which if ye be wise ye may make a happy Exchange of Earth for Heaven of a Valley of Tears for a Paradise of Delights Young Men consider you are now Flowers in the bloom your Friends Delight your Countreys Hope It lyeth very much in your Sphere to be either a Crown of Rejoyceing to them or to bring down their Gray hairs with sorrow to the Grave But I dare not enlarge Fourthly Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth because if thou thinkest of deferring till Old Age it is a question whether thou mayst live so long besides the Inconveniences of Old Age which I have told you as above written The Best of us cannot promise our selves a day The present Time is onely ours the Morrow we are not sure of Take Time therefore by the Forelock and cry not Cras Cras to Morrow to Morrow Manna must be gathered in the Morning the Orient Pearl is generated by the Morning Dew Egregious folly it is to procrastinate and put off to the last At tu dum primi floret tibi temporis aetas Vtere Tib. Improve your Time while you are Young Fifthly Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth because the Day of Grace may have its Sun-set on a sudden Thou mayst live perhaps to an Old Age but the Day of Grace may not last so long Now the Gospel is preached Christ crucified set forth the assistance of the Spirit offered and the Gates of Heaven opened to entertain you O therefore Now To day if ye will hear his voyce Heb. 3. 7. If to day thou sayst thou wilt not pray to morrow thou mayst say thou canst not pray Now therefore now as you would tender the good of your own Souls work apace you have the Sun-shine of the Gospel but a Cloud will come While the Sun therefore doth shine cock your Hay shock your Corn wanton not away your Summer lest you begge in Winter The Night indeed is for sleeping but the Day especially a Sun-shine Day a clear Day is for working One being in a fit of Anger a person said unto him Domine Sol ad Occasum The Sun is going down If the Sun must not go down upon our Wrath let it not go down upon our Loytering Sixthly If you have your Life prolonged and the Means of Grace continued yet if no more gales of the Spirit be afforded what art thou the nearer When Gods Spirit blows upon us we shall go full Sail to Heaven It is good striking therefore while the Iron is hot and lanching out while Wind and Tide serve open all thy Sails to every breath and gale of Gods Spirit Welcome every Suggestion reverence every Dictate cherish every Illapse of this blessed Monitor Let every Inspiration find thee as the Seal doth the Wax or the Spark the Tinder Seventhly and lastly Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth because the Promise is made unto Early Seekers Prov. 8. 17. They that seek me Early shall find me Application Is there good Reason why we should Remember our Creator in the dayes of our Youth Then let my Message to you O Young Men this day be accepted The Reasonableness of my Message I have shewed in several Respects Did I press you to things that might tend to your hurt it were something but I am onely intreating you this day to be kind unto your Souls and make your peace with God While the dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when ye shall say I have no pleasure in them The Result of all therefore is Young men Remember your Creator by whom it is that you live move and have your Being Forget him not lest he forget you but seek him Early and ye shall find him Motives hereunto I think very convenient As First If Honour will sway you know that it is the Honourablest thing in the world to Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth Is it commendable for a Child to obey his Earthly Father how much more commendable is it then for us to Obey our Heavenly Father Shun O Young Men the Worlds Ambition and make this your Ambition with good Iosiah to set out betimes with spiritual Isaac to give your selves to Meditation while ye are young with heavenly Iacob to prize and seek the Blessing while others in the use of their vain Sports lose it with King Solomon to know the God of your Fathers with righteous Obadiah to fear the Lord from your Youth and with Ingenious Timothy to know the Scriptures from a Child And what a Cloud of young Worthies are here and are they not Honoured Renowned and made Famous and that for their soon beginning The like will be with you Young men Remember your Creator in the dayes of your Youth and he will Honour you But alas how few are the number of these young Branches How few are there of the Sons of Wisdom that being enticed by Men consent not But how Honourable is it I say for young Men like Samuel to minister and serve before the Lord while he was but a Child and how comely was the Carriage of those Children that sang Hosanna's unto Christ Contemplate often Young men these Looking-glasses imitate and copy out these patterns and Presidents Besides King Edward the Sixth that Phoenix of his time that truely Noble Prince Henry and the young Lord Harrington with many others who blossomed as the Almond-tree betimes Secondly The longer you neglect the more difficult will the setting upon your Duty be Much Sloath and Procrastination will at last take away the very Heart and
Desire of seeking God but now Youth improved will make the Performance of the Duty more facile Opportunity improv'd sayes one facilitates every Action and Employment making a work come off sweetly smoothly and with facility It is as the laying of the Knife upon the Joynt when we would divide the Bone It is Wind and Tide to the Oars of Industry Thirdly The more Wrath you will treasure up unto your selves by having more sins to answer for The sooner we begin the less we shall have to answer for but the longer we deferre the more we shall have to answer for Fourthly Young Men shall come to Iudgement as well as those of riper years You think that you have a Priviledge by your Age Youth must have its course say some they must sow their wild Oats But now the Counsel of the Spirit is otherwise In the Morning sow thy Seed and in the Evening withhold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper And David doth tie up your untamed Age to the horns of the Altar saying That even You must cleanse your wayes by taking heed thereto according to Gods Word Think not I say because you are Young you shall be excused For the dead small and great shall stand before the Lord and you that now take your pleasures know that for all that ye shall come to Judgement and your Pleasures shall have an End Methinks that Scripture in the 11 of Eccles. v. 9. should cool the Courage of such Young men who go on in their Career to Hell in the midst of their Pleasures Rejoyce O young Man in thy youth and let thy Heart cheer thee in the dayes of thy youth and walk in the wayes of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into Iudgement Fifthly You will not Repent that you have call'd God to mind so soon But thou shalt esteem Gods Grace the more for it rejoyce in the sense of it and in Comfort conclude thy Life whensoever God shall call thee hence I would fain lay down some Cautions and Exhortations unto the Young Men of this Age which if observed by them I am confident would help them much in remembring of their great Creator But should I doe this it would make this little Book swell too much which for the Poor's sake I would prevent and yet a little too I will venture First more generally have a care Young Men of laying a stress on Parentage Birth Education Civility and your Natural Endowments They are all but painted shews of Righteousness and crack'd Titles to Heaven Faith comes not by Birth Generation or Education and he who is Gifted is not alwayes Believing But Secondly more particularly I would caution you from these Vices which tend much to the Corruption of Youth First I would caution you from Love of the World If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 15. O let not the World lye so neer your Hearts as it did to the Young Man 's in the Gospel You can never Love your Creator so as to die for him if the World get root in your Heart Have a care I beseech you of preferring the Gifts of God before God himself All Creatures that the Lord made he made for Man and Man for himself But this is a fearfull Contempt of God and disestimation of his Majesty when the Creature is better lov'd than God as Evah for the love of an Apple lost the love of the Lord and Esau for a Mess of Pottage sold his Birthright and the Gadarens counted their Swine more precious than the Son of God Christ Iesus He that loveth these bodily worldly and perishing Riches cannot love the spiritual heavenly and eternal Riches Love not this World because the Devil is the God of it love not this World because it cools thy Affections to God and the things of God Love not this World because it is the Bird-lime of spiritual Punishments Love not this World because the Love of the World is Enmity towards God The Riches in this World are call'd Thick Clay Hab. 2. 6. which will sooner break the Back than lighten the Heart O that I could but disswade Young men from this peccatum peccatorum sin of Earthly-mindedness Consider O young Men what Solomon sayes of this World who knew as much as ever any did as to the sweetness of sensual pleasures Three Advantages Solomon had above others to know the Vanity of the Creature 1 In regard of his Wisdome 1 Kings 4. 29 30. 2 Riches 1 King 10. 23. 3 In that he gave himself to make trial and Experience of the Creature Yet Vanity of Vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of Vanities all is Vanity Five times Vanity 1. Vanity not vain onely but Vanity it self in the Abstract 2. Excessive Vanity Vanity of Vanities Hebraism superlative by doubling he signifies most vain imperfect uncertain transitory void of Content full of Grief 3. An heap of Vanities Vanity of Vanities an Hebraism and imports most great Vanity 4. An universal Proposition all is Vanity Fugiamus hinc ubi nihil est ubi inane est omne quod magnificum putatur Let us flye from this World wherein is nothing but Vanity Nihil siquidem a somni Vanitate differt rerum praesentium figura sive illae tristes sint sive prosperae The most excellent Shews of this Life are but Dreams which may affect for a time but do vanish so soon as the man awaketh And this is the first Caution Love not the World The Love of the World is an Obstacle that must be removed where Love to Christ and to thy Soul Young man is to be shewn Secondly I would caution you from Evil Company I know very well that we are mighty apt to follow a Multitude to do Evil I know that Youth above all is apt to keep Company especially had Company And how many have been brought to Ruine thereby Have not many at the Gallowes laid their sins at the Door of bad Company forewarning all to shun the same and take Example by them Every man is as his Company The Heathen could say Noscitur ex comite qui non cognoscitur ex se He is known by his Company that cannot be known by himself A Mans Company is as it were a Commentary on his Life A Company or Multitude and I pray Young Men do you especially take notice of it is not the Rule you should walk by as for doing Evil so for doing Good He that doth Good because a Multitude doth it will also do Evil because a Multitude doth it We must not saith Austin do a good thing because Many do it but because it is Good If others doe that which is Good saith he I will rejoyce because they doe it but I will not do it because they do it c. Keep good Company we
sense such who do not experimentally know God that he is and in measure What he is cannot properly be said to Remember him Remember your Creator that is no less than the Import of knowing and acknowledging your selves with God whereby peace may come unto you according unto that excellent counsel of Eliphaz to Iob Acquaint now thy self with God thereby Good shall come unto thee Job 22. 21. Remember your Creator That is of no less Import than the dying words of King David to his Son Solomon And thou Solomon my Son know thou the God of thy Father 1 Chron. 28. 9. Secondly To Remember our Creator implyes a reverent Fear of Him Remembring of God is fearing of God Prov. 23. 17. Be thou in the Fear of the Lord all the day long How darest thou to say that thou Remembrest God when thou fearest him not and hast but little dread of his Greatness in thy Heart Thou canst fear Afflictions Death or any Evil approaching towards thee and for the diverting whereof applyest thy self to the Means in order thereunto but how little doest thou use thy Strength and Prudence against Sin that cursed thing and which rendreth thee obnoxious to the Wrath of God which if thou fearest not here shalt hereafter to thy sorrow and eternal detriment Thou canst reverence a Person of Quality or any Earthly Monarch and when Access unto him is granted thee how great is thy Care and Diligence in demeaning thy self before him and how dost thou tremble lest by any uncomely Gesture or Action thou shouldst offend him knowing that in case of Default thou mayst not onely meet with Repulse but also Penalty And shall the Presence of Worms so awe thee and not God in whose presence the blessed Saints and Angels cover their Faces as being unworthy of Beholding him It 's no marvel why Conscience bears so little sway now adayes why Piety is so little countenanc'd why Gods Glory is so little preferr'd why one Man even becomes a Devil to another and why Young men Remember not their Creator The Reason of all lies here The Fear of God is not before their Eyes nor his Greatness studyed by them Our Creator is God over all Blessed for evermore the Lord of Hosts is his Name all the Creatures are at his Beck and Check he is the stronger side and whosoever fears the Lord need not fear any thing else Confidence and strong Confidence is in the Fear of the Lord yea a Fear-freeing Fear this Fear is Thirdly To Remember our Creator implies setting the Mind on work on the Excellencies of him Psal. 104. v. 34. My Meditation of him shall be sweet The Excellencies of God are many great and incommunicable Many and wonderfull are the Excellencies of the Creature but not to be compar'd with God's because all Creature-Excellencies are but Derivatives And what are the Streams compar'd to the Fountain the Rivers to the Ocean and the excellencies of the Creature to the Excellencies of the Creator being in him primitively and incommunicably yea the proper subject and seat of all Excellencies whatsoever God is And canst thou Ovain young man set thy Heart on these transitory Excellencies of the Creature and yet canst not look up so high as to the Creator and take a View of his glorious and transcendent Excellencies that have and do ravish the Hearts of all their Contemplators Davids Meditations of his Creators Excellencies were sweet unto him Call back O young Man all thy stragling Affections it is high time now they have been long enough seeking Rest in these terrene things and finding none Call home O vain man thy Love thy Joy Hope Grief and Fear These are to the Soul as the Souldiers to the Centurion If he said to one Go he went if to another Come he came These say some are the Messengers of the Will these say others are the Wheels the Chariots the Wings the Feet of the Soul But now if thy Love which is the first and General of all the Affections should be set not on God but the World if your Hatred should be directed not against Sin but Good men or which is worse against Goodness it self if your Zeal should not be pure Flames for Divine Glory but a burning Rage against the Truth of God if your Fear should not be a flight from Evil but an Apostasie from Christ if your Anger should be a Displeasure at anothers Eminencies and not at your own Exorbitances if your Hope should not be a well-ballanced Expectation of Happiness but a blind and venturous Presumption of Mercy and if your Grief should be a trouble that you cannot be and doe more evil Ah how vile how irregular how dangerous are Affections thus misplac'd When Love and Hatred keep to their right Centres and move towards their proper Objects to love nothing but Good to hate nothing but Evil. Fourthly To Remember our Creator implies to recollect our selves and return unto him as the Fountain of our Salvation Psal. 22. 27. All the Ends of the World shall remember and turn unto the Lord. By Sin we have Apostatiz'd from God are we yet return'd unto him is there a Conversion of the whole man unto God Are Old things past away and all things become New Hast thou a New Heart till then thou canst not remember God with any Affection Hast thou a New Will till then thou canst not do as thou oughtest Hast thou a New Eye till then thou canst not see the difference that there is between things Spiritual and Temporal Hast thou a new Appetite till then thou canst not know what is bitter or what is sweet Every Faculty is become the seat of Sin and therefore a Necessity there is of a universal Change The Understanding is dark and stands in need of Divine Illumination The Will is contumacious and needeth the Almighty Power of God to make it flexible The Memory is weak and needeth supernatural strengthening The Affections are dull and need spiritual Operation The Conscience is benumm'd and needeth the beams of God's Spirit to warm it and quicken it that it may no more mislead and be as a blind Guide And thus our whole Life is crooked and perverse hast thou gotten it made strait by a sincere Repentance and Reformation The Holy Scriptures are a Rule hast thou measured thy Life by it The Curse of the Law hangs on thee why dost thou not satisfie its Demands and Appeal to the Grace of God in Christ for freedom therefrom Thy miseries O Natural man are many great and intolerable why dost thou not endeavour to extricate thy self out of them Read this Scripture O Graceless Prodigal Psal. 9. 19. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God Recollect therefore your selves oh Old Men before your dayes are quite concluded Remember your Creator Oh Young Men while the evil dayes come not nor the years draw nigh when thou
shalt say I have no pleasure in them Is it not better to live than die turn than burn O Sirs persist not till it be too late but choose God your chiefest Good onely Good suitable Good and everlasting Good Fifthly To Remember our Creator implies a due Considering what may Please or Displease him Col. 1. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing But how few are there that make this their work studying how to please God Doth not the Course of their Lives rather tend to the contrary Who lives to please God but rather to displease him How little is Gods Favour now adayes esteemed of Most of us are ambitious of doing things that may please Persons highly dignified in this World but the pleasing of God is look'd upon as a superfluity and that which may be as well omitted as perform'd as if Gods good word would not honour us so much as a Mortals and His Favour do us more good than the Favour of Man whose breath is in his Nostrils and must suddenly perish Mans Favour is good in its place but when compar'd with Gods there is vast difference as to the Nature Property Effects and Perpetuity of it Foolish therefore is he who preferres the pleasing of Man before the pleasing of God and chooseth rather the one than the other that can remember what pleaseth the Creature but not what pleaseth the Creator This is preferring the less before the greater and the Servant before the Master How stands it therefore with us Are Gods Smiles our Heaven and his Frowns our Hell Is there nothing that we take in hand but we seriously pensitate and ponder it in our Minds saying with our selves Will this and that make for Gods Glory if so I 'le do it if not I shall forbear But Oh Christians how many are remiss in this kind of spiritual Exercise excusing themselves with Phrases that will not excuse them at the Day of Judgement This is too strict say some what need is there of it say others and Who can do so is the language of many But I wish I might have the Opportunity of telling part of my Mind to such persons Is there not a Necessity of Remembring our Creator if we would prosper but can we remember him aright if we please him not and if we please him not can we be saved Sixthly To Remember our Creator implies a remembring his Mercies and retaining a thank full sense thereof Psal. 106. 21. They forgat God their Saviour which had done great things in Egypt Doest thou often think on the Mercies of God so frequently and bountifully conferred on thee Doest thou often revish thy Soul in calling Mercies past to mind living upon Mercies present and depending upon Mercies to come Remember your Creator will surely bear this Interpretation without any wrong to the words Remember what your Creator has done for you his Mercies bestowed on you in such and such a kind at such and such a Time in such and such a Place among such and such Company It is a sign that we sincerely esteem and heartily remember a Friend when we do not forget his Kindness but do even write them down in our Memorandum Book And so it stands good in this Case also if we say we remember God and forget his Mercies we lie and the Truth is not in us it being that which cannot stand together Such who have received Mercies from the hands of God yea such Mercies without which they could not have subsisted and yet are unthankfull forgetting both God and his Benefits too surely such of all are most ungratefull Mercies above us and beneath us Mercies before us and behind us Mercies on the right hand and on the left renders us if still we are barren the most ungratefull Monsters that ever lived on Earth To be unthankfull where there is the greatest reason of being thankfull is Folly in the Abstract And where Mercy is not a Load-stone to draw to God it will be a Mill-stone to sink into Hell Vinegar you know 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Filius Vini and the sweetest Wine degenerates into the sharpest vinegar And as nothing is more cold than Lead yet nothing more scalding than that when melted so nothing is more sweet than mercy when thankfully received yet nothing more terrible than that when abused Grace abused turns to fury and Mercies forgotten turn to sore Wrath. Seventhly and lastly To Remember our Creator is to serve and obey him and this indeed is the summe of all Deut. 8. 11. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God in not keeping his Commandments and his Iudgements and his Statutes which I command thee this day Many nay more serve the Devil and their own Lusts than there do serve God God made man for himself but he hath less from him than any other Creature Man should serve God and that in the first place but instead thereof he serves himself first the Devil and his Lusts first Oh wonderfull Degeneration and the Cursedness of our lapsed Estate One would think it incredible that the Creature should not serve the Creator we may Wonder at it indeed and yet Believe it we must because that it is nothing is more certain God who is Truth it self hath said so and we by daily Experience find it so here then is a Mystery of Iniquity That Man should Renounce God who made him and Side with the Devil who hates him and will Eternally destroy him if still sided with That Man should take more Delight in Self-destruction than in Self-felicitating That Man should sell himself to sin and take more delight therein than in Obeying one reasonable Commandement Why should all this be O vain man Are the wayes of God unequal his Demands impossible his Commands intollerable Have a care of harbouring hard thoughts of God who hath said that his Yoak is easie and his burden is light Matth. 11. 29. If thou hast but a mind to be engaged in the Service of God let not the Difficulties that attend it discourage thee but know that God can by the sweet Discoveries of himself whilest thou art in his Service chear thy Heart and make that which seemed hard and difficult the very Delight of thy Soul Iacobs meeting with and enjoying of Rachel rendered his hard and long Service easie and delightfull unto him And so a feeling of Gods Spirit moving on thy Heart when thou art engaged in any Religious Exercise will make it joyous and not grievous a Delight and not a Burden a Heaven and not an Hell Besides holy Obedience is only hard and difficult to the Ignoble part of a Saint viz. the Flesh not to the Noble part of a Saint viz. the Soul All the Wayes of God though tending to the pulling out of right Eyes and cutting off of right Hands are wayes of Pleasantness to the Noble part of a Saint So far as every Christian is Renewed
of thine Affiance commandeth thy Fear and Reverence when thou hearest In the fear of God give Audience to his Word Acts 13. 16. Poor Peasants should tremble when this Prince is speaking It becomes the greatest Person to be awfull in Gods Presence more than in the presence of any other Abraham who had the honour and favour to be Gods Friend yet when God spake to him fell on his face Gen. 17. 3. Moses though high in the Heart of God yet is humble when he hears from God He bowed his Head towards the Earth and worships Exod. 34. 8. And so when thou prayest put up thy Petitions to God with a great deal of Trepidation knowing that though thou takest upon thee to speak unto the great God of Heaven and Earth yet still thou art but Dust and Ashes Luther prayed with Confidence as to a Father but with Reverence as to a God Thou art at best but a Begger and a proud heart will not suit a Beggers purse The Eastern Christians when they called on God threw themselves on the ground The Lord will give Grace and Glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal. 84. 11. God resisteth the proud but giveth Grace to the humble God sets himself in battel-array against a proud man as the Greek word emphatically signifies To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Isa. 66. 2. Again when thou approachest to the Lords Supper is another special time when God should be more than ordinarily reverenced and feared This is Mysterium tremendum a Mystery to be trembled at Read that excellent Scripture Let us have Grace whereby we may serve him acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12. 28 29. This holy Fear and Trembling it is that graceth all our performances and makes them acceptable unto God Thirdly Obeying God above all things whatsoever All Service must be denyed rather than Gods must be neglected Not that I would hereby encourage Servants unto Neglect in their Masters Employ that is not my drift that which I would have Servants and all do is serving and obeying God in a right manner And now God is obey'd and serv'd in a right manner and above all things whatsoever First When he is serv'd sincerely and without the mixtures of hypocrisie A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump 1 Cor. 5. 6. My Son give me thy Heart Prov. 23. 26. 'T is the Heart that God looks at the Heart that God requires and the Heart it is that makes the Service acceptable and shews the sincerity of him that performs it My Son give me thy heart not lend me thy Ear or afford me thy Tongue A Sacrifice unto God without the Heart is an abomination unto him I hate your Burnt-Offerings my Soul nauseates your solemn Assemblies Odi Dianos dona â—erentes Bring me no more vain Oblations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hypocrisie spoyls every Prayer soyls every Ordinance stains and discolours every Duty invenoms every Mercy If such an one Pray 't is esteemed Howling if he Mourn 't is hanging down the head like a Bulrush if he Sacrifice 't is cutting off a Dogs Neck if he Rejoyce 't is but a Blaze a crackling of Thorns under the Pot. Secondly When he is serv'd not with a servile but with a filial Fear when he is serv'd not with constraint but willingly and chearfully God loves a willing Servant Religion should be full of Alacrity Heavenly Duties and spiritual Performances are to flow freely from the Soul like those voluntary drops that come sweating from the Honey-comb of its own accord without any pressing or crushing It is onely the Dregs of Obedience that will not come forth without squeezing and wringing The better any thing is the more freely doth it diffuse it self If therefore you would serve God as you should do serve him with a chearfull Fear because Chearfulness puts a gloss and lustre upon Religion and makes it amiable even in the eyes of the world Thirdly When he is served universally in all respects in Holiness towards God in Righteousness towards man Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Psal. 119. 6. How many are there that pick and cull their Duties and so indeed serve not the will of God but their own Choyce That answer the Lord with half-Obedience like the Eccho which makes not a perfect Respondence of the Voice but of some part thereof Many make such a difference amongst the Tables as if onely one side or one part were of Gods writing The Man that like Agrippa doth but almost Believe almost Repent almost Obey that man shall be sav'd proportionably almost Fourthly When he is serv'd constantly not now and then admitting Cessations but all the dayes of our Life constantly in all Estates unto the End Col. 1. 10. I have done with Explication and so have shewed you the Import of Remembring your Creator as it lies before you in the Text and Doctrine The Second part of the Amplification will be Confirmation which shall consist of several Scripture-Reasons First Above all things whatsoever we must not forget but Remember our Creator because He hath commanded us Remember thy Creator Doth it become a Child when commanded to dispute his Fathers Command Is it not his Father that commands him and therefore he must do it Why is not God the Father of us all by Creation and are we not obliged to Obey him The Wind and Seas do obey him and shall We turn Rebels All Creatures pay Homage unto him and shall Man refuse Doth the Oxe know his Owner and the Ass his Masters Crib Isa. 1. 3. And shall not we whom God hath endowed with Reason and made capaces Religionis capable of Religion Are all the Creatures at Gods beck and ready to obey him whensoever he desireth it and yet shall we spurn against him provoking him to wrath and grieving his holy Spirit Why cannot we find in our hearts to obey our Father Creator and Lord Is he not our Sovereign and have any gone on in a course of Rebellion against him that did ever prosper Is it not a vain thing to stand it out with God or contend with the Almighty Would it not be more advantagious to lay down the Weapons and crie peccavi than to wrestle and be foyl'd fight and be kill'd Is it not better to remember our Friend that he may remember us when the proudest and most ambitious shall e're long see their need of him Secondly We must not forget but above all things Remember our Creator because it is the End of our Creation Man was made to love serve and obey his Maker and God hath made him capable though now by Sin degenerated Thirdly God who made us can destroy us our