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
and Confidence in thy Word and Promises Thirdly This Remembrance implies Repentance Forgetfulness and Impenitence always go together Repentance is a Calling Sin to Remembrance with a Due Sence of the Evil of it and Sorrow for it as it is done against God and how can this be where God is forgotten If there be no right Conceptions of the Nature of God His Omniscience His Holiness and Justice there can be no Repentance for Sinning against him They are frequent Remembrances fresh Views of God that work to Repentance and Self-abhorring So it did in Job Chap. 42.5 6. Mine Eye seeth Thee therefore I abhor my Self and Repent in Dust and Ashes The Clearer Manifestations a Soul hath of God the Deeper will its Humiliation for Sin be When Peter remembred the words of Christ then he went out and Wept bitterly Till we Remember and Consider God in the Purity of his Holiness the Severity of his Justice the Tenderness of his Mercy the Inevitableness of his Wrath we can never truly Repent of Sin Fourthly This Remembring of God carries Love in it Though an Object be every Way Amiable and made up of Delights yet it can never be let into the Affections so long as it is shut out of the Thoughts nor on the other hand can it be with any pleasure Remembred when it has no room in our respect God's Design and End is not so much to be Remembred by us as to be Loved by us and his bespeaking a room in our Thoughts is that he may Dwell in our Hearts The Highest Act of Honour the Creature can do to God is to trust him and love him Those that Distinguish the Order of the Angels place the Seraphims above the Cherubims because they have a more ardent Love as well as a more clearer Light a Remembrance of God without a suitable respect will neither be Profitable nor Durable for when any other Object Possesses our Affections God is soon forsaken and forgotten then a Man Remembers God aright when his Affections are suitable to his Apprehensions As it is with Sin a Man hath not the right Notion of Sin unless he feel the Weight of it and loath it Then shall ye Remember your own Evil Ways and shall Loath your Selves for your Iniquity Ezek. 36.31 Or as it is with the Word of God no Man remembers the Word aright if he do not Believe it and Love it So no one can have right Apprehensions of God who has not Choice Affection to him and his Chief Delight in him Look what that is which we Love best and we always think of that most what a Man Loves best is his Chief Good and his Chief Good is his Treasure and where the Treasure is there the Heart will be Christ says What we Love we Delight to think upon as what we hate we soon forget So it is said of Jeshurun Deut. 32.15 He forgat God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation He lightly esteemed him and therefore soon forgets him If one that is but a common Acquaintance with you be Absent you soon forget him out of Sight out of Mind but a bosom Friend a dear Friend a Friend that is as a Man 's own Soul you cannot forget such a one Love will remember him when the Eye cannot see him and makes him Present when he is Absent nay he lives in the Mind when perhaps he lies dead in the Grave therefore I Pray mind that Precept of our Lord Matth. 22. ver 37. Thou shalt Love the Lord with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind Mark ye it is not said only Thou shalt Love God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul but with all thy Mind we Love him with the Heart and Soul when we Devote our selves to him and we Love him with our Mind when we have him daily in our Thoughts and Remembrance the Desire of our Souls is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee Isa 26.8 Fifthly This Remembring of him implies Obedience Obedience to his Will the Will of God is the Rule of Obedience and his Will is made known in his Word Obedience is Knowledge digested into Affection and Practice Hence is that Counsel of David to his Son Solomon Know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect Heart and with a willing Mind 1 Chro. 28.9 Paul's first Question when touched his Heart was Who art thou Lord And then the next was What wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.5 6. to shew us that all Obedience is produced by Knowledge As Ignorance is the Cause of Sin so a Right Sence of God is the best Antidote against it for this begets Love and the more God is beloved the more readily he will be obeyed a weak Conception and a fruitless Remembrance of God Glorifies him no more than a Painter does the Person whose Picture he draws The Glory of God consists not in the lifeless Notions of him but in active Conformity to him a Natural Man may have some Pleasure in knowing the Nature of God Ay but he cares not for knowing the Ways of God Job 21.14 They say we Desire not the Knowledge of thy ways He would own him in his Mercy and Goodness but he hath no regard to his Precepts Mercy is suitable to our Wants but Obedience is repugnant to the Interest of the Flesh That Knowledge of God which doth not take root in the Heart and grow up into Obedience in the Life it is Blindness and Ignorance in God's Account whatever our Notions of it may be Those Gentiles which are said to know God Rom. 1.21 they are said ver 28. not to know God The Sons of Eli could not but know the Lord having such a good Father and being the Lord's Priests But yet because they were Loose and Vile in their Carriage and Behaviour therefore they are said not to know the Lord 1 Sam. 2.12 As there can be no Obedience where God is known so that Knowledge of God stands for nothing which is not fruitful in Obedience It is a Blessed thing so to know God and so to Remember him as not to forget his Precepts It is Moses his Counsel to that People and it is mine to you Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God Deut. 8.11 How is that The next Words tell you in not keeping his Commandments that is forgetting of God Disobedience is called a Forgetting God They forgat God their Saviour Psalm 106.21 And we are said to forget his Words when we do not Remember his Commandments to do them Psalm 103.18 And that which here in the Text is called Remembring thy Creator is in Chap. 12. Ver. 13. expressed by Fearing God and keeping his Commandments which is said to be the Whole Duty of Man If the Authority of God be cast off and we make not his Word the Rule of our Lives he is as much forgotten as if he were
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
You should therefore Chuse God betimes because you know not how soon the Day of Grace may be past These are the Reasons of the Point And now I come to the Application and I shall make but two Uses of it One by Way of Trial And The other by Way of Counsel First By Way of Trial you have heard Young Ones what your Duty is to begin with God in the first Place and make him the Object of your Choice Now the Question I would ask you is what have you done in this Matter You that are in your Youth and Prime of your Days what have you done in this Matter Now is your chusing time pray what Choice have you made It is a needful Question God help you to answer it in your own Hearts One Chuses this Imploy another that one Chuses to go to Sea another Chuses to tarry on Shore one Chuses this Calling another Chuses that but have you Chosen God to be your God Have you ever made that Choice It was David's Question to the Egyptian 1 Sam. 30.14 To whom belongest thou To whom belongest thou Young Ones to whom do you belong Pray do you belong to God Why you will say how may I know this It can't be known a Priori as we say by God's Chusing of you that is an Imminent Act and Imminent Acts cannot give Evidence they Prove nothing therefore it must be known a Posteriori by some Subsequent Act of our own There are two Ways of being the Lord's People but there is but one Way of knowing it we are made his both by his Act and our own by his Electing of us and by our Electing of him Now we cannot know that we are God's by his Act by his Chusing of us but we may know it by our Act by our Chusing of him This is the Question that I would put to you have you seriously Chosen God to be your God Did you ever make this Choice This must be before any one can lay a true Claim to him God will never be yours let me tell you without your own Choice Now have you ever Chosen God I do not mean at a Present Pinch it may be under the Checks of Conscience or in some Present Distress many will take God to be their God but this Choice seldom comes to any thing it lasts but till the Storm is over and the Distress removed but have you ever chose God in the Sence Described Have you Chosen him by a Deliberate Act of the Will Guided by Judgment and with full Purpose of Heart to cleave to God How shall I know this you will say Briefly there are divers Ways by which it may be known I will name but Two or Three It may be known First By a Self-dedication and devoting of your selves to be the Lord's Whenever the Soul truly Chuses God for his God it is always accompanied with a Self-dedication to God So it is said of those Macedonians 2 Cor. 8.5 They gave themselves to the Lord. Now what can you say to this Have you ever given up your selves to be the Lord's resolving to live in an Intire Submission to his Will Have you ever made a Solemn Covenant between God and your own Souls that God shall be your God and that you through his Grace will be his Why if so then you have Chosen God and he is your God Secondly It may be known by your Behaviour in Reference to Sin When you are Tempted to any Sin either by Satan or by your own Lusts what do you do Do you give Way to it or do you run to Christ for Strength against it Do you Comply with it or do you Resist it Do you Countenance or Curb it Is it Loved or Hated This is no hard Case to Determine every Child can tell what he Loves and what he Hates No one that Lives in the Love of any known Sin can say that ever he hath Chosen God mind it any one Lust indulged will certainly confute this claim For where Sin is Loved there it Reigns and where Sin Reigns God is Disowned And can any one Disown God and yet say he hath Chosen God It cannot be Thirdly It may be known by your Obedience He that Chuses God for his chief Good Chuses him for his only Lord and that necessarily inferrs Obedience to him in all things So says the Apostle His Servants ye are whom ye obey Rom. 6.16 Many make their Boast of God and Claim a Propriety in him but whom do you obey Pray mind that doth the Flesh bear sway Doth Pride reign Do youthful Lusts and Vanities command the Heart Why then I tell you God was never the Object of your Choice you may Profess him and Talk of God but you have never Chosen God for your God It is not Profession but Affection and Action that must warrant our Title to God David Psalm 119.94 tells God I am thine Lord I am thine Ay but how does he prove it Why says he I have sought thy Precepts Pray mind he does not only say I have kept thy Precepts I have done them but I have sought them Now to seek them is much more than barely to do them It implies Four Things First An earnest Desire to know them and that is a great Evidence of an upright Heart and a sincere Love to God to be Inquisitive into the Will of God Secondly It implies an Affection and Respect no Man seeks what he doth not Love I have Respect says David to all thy Commandments Thirdly It implies a constant Endeavour to Practice them for the end of seeking is keeping we seek to know his Will that we may do it and therefore seeking and keeping are put together Psalm 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with the whole Heart Fourthly It implies earnest Desires after higher Measures of Grace for the bettering of our Obedience this is seeking Now such a seeking is a sure Evidence of your chusing of God O therefore that I could prevail with Young Ones to come to the Trial in this Matter whether ever you have really chosen God or no! And I tell you why I urge it for Three Reasons First Because it is about the most concerning Case in the World as it is the greatest Duty in the World to seek after God so it is the greatest Priviledge in the World to know my Interest in God therefore it is a Matter worth Inquiring into What if all the World were thine If God be not thine you are undone and will you not know whether he be yours or no Secondly I urge it because of the Treachery and Deceitfulness of your Hearts The Heart is Deceitful above all things the Prophet says so in Young Ones especially and in nothing more than in this Matter How fondly and presumptuously do many Boast of their Propriety in God when alas they have no manner of Interest in him It was the very Case of Laodicea She