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
no Heart to it Wretch that I was that I could find Time for every thing else but no Time for Eternity I had Time to Eat and Drink and Sleep and to mind the Work of my Calling but no Time to Work out my Salvation I had Time for my Mirth and my Games and my Sports and Pleasures and Youthful Vanities but I could find no Time for God and my own Soul To Remember upon what easie Terms they might have Escaped Wrath and Misery and have been Happy for ever will not this wound and torment I was not put upon what was Impossible Christ told me his Yoke was Easie and his Burden Light that his Commands were not grievous it was but forsaking my Lusts and Cordially accepting of Christ for my Saviour and Lord and I had been Happy for ever and how reasonable was this If he had bid me do some great Matter should I not have done it How much more then when he laid upon me no other Conditions but these Believe and be Saved Seek my Face and Live Remember thy Creator now in the Days of thy Youth O how bereft of Judgment was I when I thought my self too Young for this Work when I called God a Hard Master and his Service Bonds and Bondage when I Censured the Holy Ways of God as needless Preciseness and cast off his Holy Laws as too Severe and Strict O Cursed Wretch that I was and am not to be Perswaded to Own and Imbrace them To Remember what it was that they Chose in lieu of Blessedness and what they parted with Heaven and Glory for this will Amaze and Confound a few Short-lived Pleasures and Carnal Delights a little Sensual Satisfaction of the Flesh a few Pleasant Cups or Sweet Morsels a Heap of Gold or a Puff of Honour this is all I had for my Immortal Soul and Eternal Salvation and for a God who is the Chief Good and in whose Favour is Life so that you see God is Remembred in Hell Nay let me say it he is in some Sence Remembred more there than he is here for here the Ruin is so Distracted with divers Lusts and Sensual Vanities that they divert the Thoughts from their Proper Object but in Hell there is nothing to flatter the Sences no Objects to divert them God is perpetually Remembred there not as a Duty but as a Punishment not as a Comfort but as a Torment And let me tell you it will be one of the greatest Torments of Sinners in Hell to Remember what a God they have lost what a Heaven they have missed what precious Souls they have undone But this Momento here in the Text is a very Comprehensive Duty in this Place it takes in the Whole of Religion it comprehends the Whole Duty of Man It is usual with the Spirit of God in Scripture to include all the Operations of the Soul in the mention of one single Act and to denominate the Whole of Religion by some one Chief Part of it which is a Principle Productive of all the rest sometimes we are Commanded to love God sometimes to fear God sometimes to seek God and here in the Text to remember God and in any one of these all the rest are included so that this Injunction to Remember thy Creator points us to a five-fold Duty without which it is not done as a Duty First This Remembring implies and supposes Knowledge you can never Remember your Creator unless you Know who he is the Memory is the Store-House of the Soul where known Truths are Treasured up Christ says of the Scribe instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven that he brings out of his Treasury Things New and Old Knowledge is the first Step to Salvation he will have all Men to be Saved and come to the Knowledge of the Truth 1 Tim. 2.4 and therefore the great Design of the Devil is to blot out the Knowledge of God from the Mind his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Darkness and he rules in the Darkness of this World for he can lead the Blind which Way he will and therefore he that doth not know God cannot remember him and he cannot be rightly known but in Jesus Christ If one had a Knowledge of God as clear as that of the Angels who never sinned yet he cannot be rightly known by us but in Jesus Christ without the Knowledge of Christ we shall be miserable with all our Knowledge Though the Knowledge of Christ be not simply necessary to the Angels that never sinned and therefore needed not a Mediator yet it was necessary for us who are by Sin Obnoxious to God's Wrath and so need a Reconciler because of our Enmity and a Redeemer because of our Slavery a Refiner because of our Filthiness and a Mediator because of our Distance that he may bring us to God and therefore the Knowledge of Christ is as necessary to Happiness as the Knowledge of God both are joined together as a needful Means of Salvation This is Life Eternal to know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 If we do not know God we cannot know what is our Duty to him and if we do not know Christ we cannot know the way of Performing that Duty the more we come to understand the Nature of God and the Offices of Christ the more we shall know of our Duty and how to do it There can be no Right Knowledge of God but in and by Christ He is the True Light that lightens every Man that comes into the World John 1.9 Every One that partakes of this Light hath it from Christ Natural Light is from Christ and Spiritual Light much more No Man hath seen God at any time the only Begotten Son who is in the Bosom of the Father he hath Declared him John 1.18 And therefore this Remembring thy Creator includes in it the Saving Knowledge of God in Christ Secondly This Remembring includes Faith he cannot be said to Remember God who doth not Depend upon God and Trust in him therefore David Expresseth his Faith in God by Remembring of him Psalm 20.7 Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God that is we will trust in his Name others trust in Creatures but we will trust in the Creator others rely on an Arm of Flesh but we will rely upon the Name of the Lord then God is Remembred aright when the Remembrance of him is accompanied with Faith and Trusting Faith in God is the best the truest way of Remembring of God It is said of Israel Psalm 78.32 They believed not for his Wondrous Works but when he slew them then they sought him and they remembred that God was their Rock and the High God their Redeemer that is then they believed So Isaiah 26.8 The Desire of our Souls is to thy Name and to the Rememberance of thee that is to keep up the Glory of thy Name by Acting Faith
of you was made in the Image of God every one though the Moral Image of God is blotted out by the Fall that Image that consisted in Righteousness and Holiness that is lost yet there is a Natural Image of God which is seated in the Intellective and Elective Powers of the Soul and this every one of you hath this Image every one brings into the World with him it cannot be lost it shall be carried to Heaven and Life and to Hell too It will be the Comfort of Saints in Heaven and the Torment of Sinners in Hell to lye there with this Image of God there their Mind Understanding Memory to Consider and Remember how they Sinned against this God in their Lives Now why has God stamped every one with his Image but to make him capable of Knowing God and Chusing God and Loving God and Closing with God and Desiring God and Serving God and Injoying Communion with God This is the End why he put his Natural Image into every Soul otherwise Man might have Served God as Brute Creatures do but he could never have known him never have had Communion with him Now shall we bear this Image of God and shall we not labour to know the Lord Secondly Remember him so as to make it the Chief Business of your Lives to seek him and to Seek him while he may be found It is the Counsel of the Holy Ghost Seek the Lord while he may be found VVhen is that He tells you Prov. 8.17 They that seek me early shall find me Now he seeks God early that makes it his first Work therefore says our Lord Seek first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof and all these things shall be added to you Mat. 6.33 Seek the Kingdom of God as the End and his Righteousness as the Means for Grace is the way to Glory Holiness to Happiness Without Righteousness there is no Heaven to be had but with it comes both Heaven and Earth too for Godliness hath the Promise of both Lives both that which is now and that which is to come But this Kingdom must be first sought First seek the Kingdom of God first before every thing and first above any thing else Our Interest in God is lost by the Fall it may be recovered and there is nothing so useful to be sought and secured as that Is not the Life more than Meat and the Body than Raiment Says Christ So say is not Heaven more than Earth Is not God better than the VVorldi and Spiritual Blessings better than Temporal O therefore let not the Lean Kine devour the Fat nor the things of the VVorld shut God and Christ out of our Hearts and Thoughts The Spiritual Blessings are the best therefore God Promises them first He will give Grace and Glory Psal 84.11 There be Spiritual Blessings and he will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly there follow Temporals God suits his Mercies to our Necessity therefore he gives them first that we need most This should direct our Duties and teach us what to Beg and what to Seek Seek God in the the first place God in Christ and and if Spiritual Mercies be secured Temporal Mercies so far as is for your good shall never be denied Therefore let it be your VVork to seek God before all above all and more than all for he is all in all But be sure to seek him in Christ or I tell you you will never find him nor find acceptance with him Since the Fall God is not to be found but only by a Mediator He that finds me saith Christ findeth Life and shall obtain favour of the Lord Prov. 8.33 O get an Interest in Christ of all things Young Ones get an Interest in Christ a hearty Closing with Christ a Saving Faith in Christ this is the right way of Remembring your Creator Remember him so as to Obey him and Live to him that is the Sence of the Apostle's Counsel 1 Pet. 4.19 Commit your Souls to him in well-doing as to a faithful Creator it must be in well-doing He hath promised Eternal Life to them who seek him by Patient continuance in well-doing Rom. 2.7 And therefore let me add this as you must Remember him first so you must Remember him to the Last Pray take that and I will have done As you must remember God first so you must remember him to the last You must begin with God and you must end with him O take heed of beginning in the Spirit and ending in the Flesh You Read in the 20th of Matthew that the Labourers came to VVork in the Vineyard at very different Hours Some came Early in the Morning some at the Third Hour some at the Sixth some at the Ninth Hour and some at the Eleventh Some came in Earlier and some Later they did not all come in in the Morning Ay but they all tarried till the Evening they all Laboured till the Evening It is the VVise Man's Counsel and O that God would help you to take it In the Morning Sow thy Seed and in the Evening hold not back thine Hand Eccles 11.6 My Brethren God must have the Duty of the whole Day of your Life Christ says so I must work the Work of him that sent me while it is Day Christ never spent one Hour of his Day Idlely The Lord Pity Young Ones How do they Idle away their Time God must have the Duty of the whole Day for as we are here in the Text called to seek him Early so we are commanded to seek him continually 1 Chron. 28.7 God is Alpha and Omega the beginning and the Ending therefore as we are to begin with him first so we are to hold on with him to the last For he that indures to the end shall be saved Be thou faithful to the Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 Now I might urge this Duty upon you which is so great by many Arguments From what God is to us our Creator From the Command laid upon thee to Remember him as such From what he deserves of us For of him and through him and to him are all things therefore Glory should be to him for ever Rom. 11.32 But I shall urge but this one Motive and I have done The Present Time is only thine thou hast a great Work to do a God to remember a Christ to seek Sin to kill Grace to get a Heaven to mind a Hell to avoid a Soul to save a strict Day of Judgment to pass through O what work have we to do And all the Time we have to do it in is but Now The Present Season is only thine thy Days are here limited and bounded in the Text to a Present now Now in the Days of thy Youth What Fools are Young Ones now to say by the Grace of God I intend to Repent hereafter and I will seek after God hereafter I am too Young now when God