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
MATTHEW MEAD Minister of the Gospel Aetatis Suce 70. An. o Do 1699. Printed for Iohn Marshall Sold by him at the Bible in Grace-church-Street THE Young Man's REMEMBRANCER AND YOUTH's Best Choice BEING An Exhortation to Conversion in Two Anniversary Discourses from Eccl. xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them LONDON Printed in the Year MDCC THE EPISTLE TO Young Readers Looking towards the Kingdom of God Dearly Beloved in our Lord THE Hopes that there is a Harvest of Young Ones to Christ for which the Fields are Already White when Christ shall have in this sense the Dew of his Youth from the Womb of the Morning and You Free-will Offerings to Him in that Day of his Power This gives Encouragement of this Address to you in Confidence there will be many of You Readers It is Evident Young Persons are One Eminent Portion of the Lord Jesus his Love and Care and so of the Gospel Ministry and of the Servants of God in all Ages God was assured of Abraham he would Instruct his Children after Him in his Knowledge and Fear Moses took great Care of this to leave Monuments for Young Israelites growing up David the Father gave Excellent Principles to his Son Solomon And in a Holy Zeal and Love to Young Men cries out Wherewithal shall a Young Man cleanse his Way As if he should say What Spiritual Engine shall I find to raise the Hearts of Young Men to Buoy them up from the World the Raging Sea of Vanity Lust and Wickedness I should rejoice in such a One and I have found it even thy Word to which they should always give heed Solomon in this Penitential Sermon of his after some Declinings recovering the Piety of his Youth in which he stiles himself Ecclesiastes or the Preacher is much engaged in it as you will see in the Following Discourses Jesus Christ in Love to the Rising Hopes of Young Ones Blessed early even Infant Age The Beloved Apostle that lay in the Bosom of Christ says I write to you Young Men because you are strong Vigorous in Mind Body full of Spirit and Vivacity and in all of them who are Christians the Word of God abideth and as Vigorous Persons the Champions of Christ overcome the Wicked One though the Strong Man Obadiah feared God from his Youth that early Saint of the Old Testament Timothy of the New Testament Knew the Scriptures from a Child Christ remembers the Kindness of Youth the Love of First Espousals before farther Alienations from him and Prostitutions to Sin Satan the World His Soul desires the First Ripe Fruit. Oh that all this might perswade But I especially recommend the following Directions prepar'd for you given forth by some Excellent Master of Assembly whom I will not attempt to suppose who he was being not entrusted with it and whether he did not Animam in Vulnere Ponere He did not draw out his very Spirit and Life in shooting this Sharp Arrow of Christ into your Hearts that you might fall under Christ Oh therefore You in the Ascendency of Life against all Temptation flee Youthful Lusts sacrifice this Choice Part of Life to God take heed that Curse come not on you You who have in your Flock this Male of Life even Youth Oh design not to Vow to Sacrifice to God the Corrupt Thing of Old Age Grown old in Sin The Brand of a Deceiver is set on all such Know therefore in this your Day the Lord hath made for you the Day of your Visitation the Accepted Day of Salvation the Things of your Peace This is recommended to you in the following Instructions under the Blessing of the Eternal Father through the Redemption of the Eternal Son by the mighty Efficacy of the Eternal Spirit the One Eternal God the Ancient of Days the Father of Lights with whom is no variation of Age nor shadow of Turning to the West of Days to whom be Glory for Ever Amen TO THE READER IT may not be amiss to inform thee that this Piece thou hast now in thy Hand may truly he called Orphan and therefore it cannot be expected to come forth in such a Curious Dress as becomes the Child of such a Parent there being no possibility of access to his Wardrobe to adorn it Yet notwithstanding I hope there are many Witnesses to its Birth into whose Hands it may come that may give sufficient Testimony of its Legitimacy It cannot be at all questioned but you who have so often desired and have with pleasure heard its Voice but will also add this Request to your former Let me see thy Face It now with Samuel to Eli cries out Here am I for thou didst call me Say not of it as the God of Israel How shall I put thee among the Children But let this which was the Parents Benoni be thy Benjamin and the rather because as the Reverend Mr. Mead says * Preface to Four Vseful Discourses by J. Burroughs The Publishing the Labours of such Men of Worth is of Happy Tendency to promote our Communion with them in the Spirit whom it may be we never saw in the Flesh and it is to be reckoned among our Mercies when the Dead are made to speak that the Living may be perswaded to hear May the God of Heaven attend this Essay with his Blessing that its Publication may be attended with such Success as was the Author's Design in its Preaching and may'st thou by this Small Tract be Enabled to have an Eye to that Reward which now he reaps as the end of so Liberal a Seed-time here even Everlasting Joy and Felicity in the World to come Farewel THE Young Man's REMEMBRANCER I. DISCOURSE Eccles xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them THE Two great Duties of the Christian Life are to Cease to do Evil and to Learn to do Well the one is Negative Godliness the other is Positive the latter can never be without the former No Man can be Good that doth not Cease to be Evil and therefore Solomon Exhorts to the former in the Last Verse of the foregoing Chapter and he brings it in with an Illative Particle Put away Evil from thy Flesh It referrs to the Ninth Verse Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment These things that is these youthful Lusts these sensual Pleasures which by a sharp Satyr he does reprove in the former part of the Verse Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart Cheer thee in the Days of thy Youth and Walk in the Ways of thy own Heart and in the Sight of thine Eyes As if he should say if thou art resolved upon thy Lusts and bent to
but as better than all other good whatever We shall never chuse God before all till we come to Esteem him above all Thirdly This chusing of God implies a voluntary Inclination and Desire a Man is said to chuse those things which he Likes and Loves and which his Soul Inclines to So that he is carried after them not by the Force of any External Principle but by his own Propension and Inclination and this supposes Love for Desires are the Natural Issues of Love The Soul can never mount upward if the Affections tend downward and therefore when the Holy Ghost would give an advance to the Life of God in the Soul he begins first with the Affections Set your Affections on things above and then as Desires always spring from Love so they are drawn forth by a Sence of Want for what we Love and have not that becomes a Want and Sence of Want will quicken Appetite and set Desires on Work now these Desires must be fed and satisfied and that none can do but God therefore it is God that he chuses Fourthly This chusing implies a firm Purpose and a fixed Resolution of adhering to our choice We never chuse till we bring our Minds and Wills to a firm Purpose there may be many good Thoughts and Wishes in the Soul but still till we are resolved for God we do not chuse him When the Heart is Peremptory and Fixed for God that will come to something when the Soul says I see I am an undone Creature I am convinced of my State and the Necessity of my Case I must have God I must secure an Interest in Christ I must be Born again I must mind the saving of an Immortal Soul this will come to somewhat and a Profession of Religion let me tell you signifies very little till it comes to this Who is this that hath engaged his Heart to Approach to me says God Jer. 30.21 It is Resolution that ingages the Heart for God and makes our choice of him firm and unalterable especially if it be deliberate and intire First It must be deliberate from a Sence and Conscience of our Duty and Interest Resolves taken up upon Sudden Surprizes or Present Heats rarely produce any good Effect This is often the Case of you Young Professors that are like an Early Spring all Blossoms but no Fruit or like a Vapour Exhaled by the Warmth of the Sun that rises no higher than the middle Region where it is Condensed and drops down again This is that very thing that makes so many Apostates from God and his Ways they take up a Profession of Religion too soon before the Word of God has taken Root in the Heart Indeed a Soul that chuses God aright can never Profess him too soon the sooner the better but he that makes a Profession of God before he makes a choice of God before the Word is rooted in the Heart or any thing of the Power of Religion is felt within such a one takes up a Profession too soon It is said of the Seed Sown in stony Places Mat. 43. Forthwith it sprung up Above ground too soon it grows upward but not downward all Blade but no Root So says Christ Verse 21. Yet hath he not Root in himself And what follows He dureth but for a while A Mushroom Christian the Birth of a Night and the Abode of a Day Such begin too soon to hold out with God long This has caused many Scoffers at Religion to take up that Envious Proverb A young Saint and an old Devil whereas if they had said A young Hypocrite and an old Apostate it had been a Truth too too often Experienced Flashy Affections that have no Principles to maintain them within come to nothing they are like Fire in Green Wood that burns no longer than it is blown or like Water hanged over a Quick Flame that is soon Hot but when it is taken off again is as soon Cold nay Colder than it was before because the Natural Spirits are evaporated How nimbly does the Windmill Work when it blows a Brisk gale but the Wind no sooner ceases but the Mill stands So sudden and immature Resolutions come to nothing they must be managed with Judgment and Deliberation David's Practice is an excellent Pattern Psalm 119.59 I considered my ways and turned my Feet to thy Testimonies David speaks like a Man under a Dilemma as having two ways before him there is the Way of Sin and Lust and Carnal Delight this the Flesh presents and it seems an easie and a pleasant Way Ay but it leads to Destruction Then there is the Way of God's Commandments This the Word presents it is Narrow it is Troublesome but it leads to Life and that makes amends for all Now when we stand still and debate upon the Choice which of these is the better Way and consider the Loss and the Gain of either Side and the final Issue of the one Way and the other and thereupon resolve to take in with the Ways of God as promoting our truest Interest and Felicity this is a deliberate Resolution And this was the Course of that Prodigal Son when he came to himself Luke 15. v. 17. he first bethinks himself falls into a serious Debate of his Case How many Hired Servants of my Father's have Bread enough and I perish with hunger What shall I do I will arise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants Thus he debates the case with himself and thereupon takes up this resolve well I will arise and go to my Father there is his deliberate Resolution Secondly Our Resolution must be entire that is without boggling at any of God's Commands and without the reserve of any one Sin or Lust for no Man can serve two Masters the Commands of Christ and Satan are absolutely inconsistent Obedience to the one is downright Rebellion against the other we must not capitulate with Christ and think that strictness in some Duties will excuse our Indulgence to any Lust the great standing Law of Heaven is Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and him only shalt thou serve The Work of the Christian Calling is such as that it cannot be done without this we have many Enemies to oppose many Sins to conquer many Lusts to mortifie many Duties to perform therefore our Resolution must be entire and that is a Fourth Thing Fifthly This Chusing in the Text implies a complacency and delight in the Object of our choice though Election be an Act of the Will yet it is quickened by the Motions of the Affections As where the Will is bent against Sin there is always a hatred of it included so where-ever it fixes upon God it is attended with pleasure and delight When David had chosen God