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
Creator is our Preserver as we had our Being from God so on him doth our Being depend The same Power that made the World upholds the World the same God that made us out of nothing can make us into nothing It concerns us therefore that all of us do see to this main thing Remember thy Creator Are we not in Gods hands as the Clay is in the hands of the Potter we are his Creatures and he may do with us what he pleaseth and who shall gainsay or oppose him in the least Let us now therefore deferre no longer but remember and call to mind our Holy Creator lest he becomes so angry as not to be pacified but to destroy us for evermore Fourthly God is a bountifull Benefactor he feeds us cloaths us and gives us House-room and therefore not to remember him is double Ingratitude God shewed Mercy unto thee before thou couldst understand it he prevented thee with Blessings before thou couldst desire them When thou wast in the Womb his Bounty embrac'd thee when thou hangedst on thy Mothers Breast he did care for thee How many years are past in which thou wast not yet God erected this House of thy Body for thee gave thee a Reasonable Soul made thee a Man and not a Stone or a Serpent And yet wilt thou not love this God take delight in this God fear this God serve and obey this God Is it not in and by him that thou livest movest and hast thy being Is not the Aire which thou breathest in his Is not the Night and Day his whose Intercourses serve for thy Labour and Rest Is not the Earth his whose Fruits do nourish thee most plentifully Yea doth not this Benefactor wonderfully form furnish and conserve all the Creatures for thy sake some whereof serve to obey thee some to nourish thee some to cloath thee some to cure thee some to chastise thee but all of them to teach and inform thee What sayest thou now wilt thou resolve to think now and then on this precious Creator of ours Muzzle not I beseech you the mouth of Conscience but give it leave to speak its mind freely Fifthly We should not forget but above all things remember our Creator because he is our Redeemer also We do not onely owe unto God our Creation Sustentation but Redemption likewise So that thou mayst say I was in the jaws of Hell but thou O God didst pluck me out by the Blood of thy Son I was the slave of Satan but thy Grace hath deliver'd me out of his power I owe unto thee more than I can perform for my Creation how then shall I do to repay thee for my Redemption The lost Sheep thou hast deliver'd out of the Claws of the infernal Wolf The fugitive Slave thou hast brought out of the Prison of Hell The lost Groat thou hast sought out with great carefulness In Adam I fell and thou hast erected me In Adam I was captivated but thou hast set me at liberty In Adam I was lost and again thou hast saved me Sixthly and lastly we must not forget but above all things what-whatsoever Remember our Creator because our chiefest Happiness and Felicity consists therein God is the summum bonum and if we would be happy it must be by resting in him setling and staying the heart on him not the Creature but the Creator is the Souls Centre The Soul is immortal and nothing can satisfie it but God who is immortal Thy Soul nothing can satiate But God who did thy Soul create The Needle of the Compass trembles till it turns to the North Pole There is in Man a Natural Pulse that beats after Happiness Noahs Dove could find no rest for the sole of her foot till she came to the Ark. Return unto thy Rest O my Soul Psal. 116. 7. There is an impossibility of finding true Rest Solace and Satisfaction of Soul any where but in God and with God alone You may as soon find Life in Death or Light in Darkness as Rest for your Souls any where but in God alone On the transitory things of this world the Soul often seeks for Rest but finds it not why Because the Soul is more worthy than all the Creatures God is the End whereunto the Soul was created For it was made after the Image of God therefore it cannot be quiet and at rest but in its End that is in God As the Soul is the Life of the Body so is God the Life of the Soul And where wilt thou go Sinner thou canst not find Rest here below in any thing at all Can Sin give rest that is the greatest Evil in the world Can that give rest that is the Cause of all the Confusions and Desolations that are in the world Can that give Rest that was the first and onely Cause and Founder of Hell Can that give rest that makes us like the Devil that restless Spirit will you have recourse to the good things of this world to Creature-comforts and Enjoyments to Friends Relations Estate and the like The Creatures sayes a worthy Divine are not good at least they are not the Souls good nothing says he but an infinite Godhead can allay your hunger after Happiness And so another The understanding Will and Affections are such a Triangle as that nothing but the Trinity can sill them Dura sunt omnia tu solus requies All things sayes Austin are full of trouble and difficulty Thou alone O God art the true Rest. All things on this side God have their Mixtures they have a dark as well as a bright side Is not our Wine mixt with Water our Honey with Gall our Sugar with Wormwood and our Roses with Prickles But now God is every way a pure and immixed Good He is all Light Love Sweetness and Holiness Deus meus Vita mea Dulcedo mea c. O my God my Life my Sweetness saith Augustine Why then should we seeke Happiness in those things that cannot give us Health or Strength or Ease or a good Nights Rest or an Hours Sleep or a good Stomach The Application of the first Doctrine It will be of great Use unto us by way of Reprchension Exhortation and Commendation First By way of Reprehension if this be so then such are to be Reproved that neither remember God or his Mercies whose Minds are fill'd with Vanity and swell therewith but God and his Mercies are out of their Thoughts Secondly By way of Exhortation we who have given God but little of our Time Strength and superior Powers let us now begin For shame let us not live longer in the world without God and Christ how comfortless and dangerous is it Some of us have liv'd a great while and yet have not made choyce of our chiefest Good but are as far from it as when we came first into the world Thirdly You who have call'd upon God betimes and do serve
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