spend thy Youthful Days in thy sensual Delights why then go on and take thy Course but consider were this will end and what follows there is a Reckoning Day a coming thy pleasant Way will have a doleful End though the Beginning may be Sweet the Conclusion will be Bitter for thou must Die e're long nor canst thou say how soon and then thou must answer to God for all thy sinful Courses and sensual Vanities for Know that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment and therefore Put away Evil from thy Flesh And then he proceeds to Exhort to the Positive Part of Godliness and that in the Words of the Text Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth He tells you in the Last Words of the former Verse Childhood and Youth are Vanity and the Vanity of it appears in nothing more than in indulging to Sense and Flesh and forgetting God therefore these Words of the Text are the wise Man's Memento to young Ones wherein he gives this seasonable Counsel for the Cure of their Vanities Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth whilst the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them In which Words you have an Exhortation to a very concerning Duty and it is backed with a threefold Argument in the Six following Verses In the Duty exhorted to you have Three Things First The Act Remember Secondly The Object to be Remembred Thy Creator Thirdly The Time when he must be Remembred Now. Remember now thy Creator But lest you should think that this now takes in the whole Time of this Life therefore he Excludes the latter Part of Life and Limits this now to the former Part Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth And then you have a Threefold Argument or Motive upon which the Duty is urged Old Age with its Infirmities Hastening Mortality Approaching And Judgment Ensuing First The Approaching of old Age with the Infirmities that accompany it that we have in those Words While the evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them and what these Days and Years are he tells you in the various Allegories in the following Verses While the Sun or the Light or the Moon or the Stars be not Darkned nor the Clouds Return after Rain in the Day when the Keepers of the House shall Tremble and the strong Men Bow themselves and the Grinders Cease and they faâ— that Look out at the Windows c. Secondly You have an Argument from Death and Mortality approaching Verse 15. Man goeth to his Long Home Verse 7. Then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was Then when When the Sun and the Light c. is Darkned when the Keepers of the House Tremble when the strong Men Bow themselves and and the Grinders Cease then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was Thirdly You have the Judgment ensuing Verse 7. The Spirit shall return to God who gave it it is the Soul that is here intended which is frequently called a Spirit because of its Spiritual and Immaterial Nature as the Body of every one Returns to the Dust so does every Soul Return to God not to God as a Chief Good but to God as a Great Judge not to his Blissful Presence but to his Judicial Presence All Souls do not Return to God to Enjoy him for that is the Portion but of a few but all Return to God to be Judged by him both Good and Bad Saint and Sinner So says the wise Man in the Third Chapter of this Book Verse 17. God shall judge the Righteous and the Wicked for there is a Time there for every Purpose and for every Work so that there is such a Returning of the Soul to God as sets it before his aweful Tribunal where it must be Sentenced to its Everlasting State either to Enjoy God for Ever or to be Everlastingly Shut out of his Presence and Favour so that these are the Arguments to Inforce the Duty in the Text. Old Age is Hastening Death follows it And then comes the Judgment In old Age you will have no list to Remember God in Death you cannot Remember God and in Judgment you must be called to an account for not Remembring God and therefore since it is thus Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth I shall open the Words and then apply them First I will begin with the Act Remember this is applied sometimes to God he is said to Remember God Remembred Noah Gen. 8.1 He Remembred Abraham Gen. 19.29 He Remembred his Holy Covenant Luke 1.72 But there is to speak properly no such thing in God as Remembring for he that can never Forget cannot be said to Remember But it is properly applied to Man and so to Remember is either To call to Mind some Past or To keep a thing in Mind for the Time to come Sometimes it is to call to Mind something past thus it is said that Peter Remembred the Words of Christ Mat. 26.75 and as it Imports keeping in Mind for the Time to come so it is said Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy Exod. 20.8 To Remember is put here in a double Opposition First It is opposed to a Forgetfulness of the Duty mentioned And Secondly It is opposed to a slight Performance of it Both which are Sin It is a Sin to forget God and it is a Sin to have slight Thoughts of God the Act should be some way answerable to the Object the Great God is thy Maker and he should not be put off with slightly Respects Remember thy Creator The manner in which the Duty is Inforced is such as does import that it ought to be our chief Business God does not use in his Word to put his Memento's upon slight and indifferent Matters but upon such Duties as are Necessary and of the greatest Importance As First To press us to Repentance Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent Ezek. 16.61 Thou shalt Remember thy Ways and be Ashamed Secondly To mind us of our latter End Eccle. 11.8 If a Man Live many Years and Rejoice in them all yet let him Remember the Days of Darkness for they shall be many Thirdly To press upon us the Duty of Sabbath Holiness Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy Exod. 20.8 Fourthly To keep in our Hearts the great Works of Providence Psalm 105.5 Remember the Marvellous Works that he hath done and Mat. 16.9 says Christ Remember the Five Loaves that fed Five Thousand and how many Baskets full he took up Fifthly It is used to incite to a full and compleat Obedience Num. 15.39 Remember all the Commandments of the Lord to do them Sixthly To stir us up to be mindful of himself and therefore this Duty of all the rest is charged both Negatively and Positively Negatively Deut.
for his Portion he expresses a delight in his choice Psalm 16. v. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage This is the Language of a Soul affected with its own Felicity and the pleasure it takes in an All-sufficient Good So it was in his chusing the Precepts of God says he I have chosen thy Precepts Psalm 119.173 and in the next Verse Thy Law is my Delight A Man loves what he chuses and where there is Love in the Choice there will be Pleasure in the Service for to love there is nothing grievous Thus you see what this chusing God does imply and carry in the Nature of it and that is the First Thing Secondly Let me give you the Reasons why it is the Duty of Young Ones thus to chuse God Why One great Reason is because God commands it that is the First Pray mind that of the Apostle 2 Epistle John v. 4. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth as we have received a Commandment from the Father Pray mind these were a Ladies Children to teach us there are none too great to be good these Children were found walking in the Truth not taking a step or two making it a Business by the by as your Genteels and great Persons use to do but they persisted in it they were steady in the Ways of God and that in their Childhood against all the Tide and Stream of Youthful Lusts Now this was that God had commanded Mark ye though they were Children yet God commands this of them I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth even as we have received a Commandment from the Father But where do we find this Command that Youth should devote themselves to God You have it in the Text Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth And there is a Command older than that Psalm 78.5 6 7. He established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children What for That they might set their hope in God and not forget the Works of God but keep his Commandments Nay our Lord Jesus Christ strictly enjoins it Matt. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof First here does not only not a Preheminence first above all but it notes a Priority first before all It is very Observable that our Saviour in that Prayer he gave to his Disciples which you call the Lord's Prayer he gives but one Petition for Temporal Things and Five for Spiritual and that for Temporals is neither the First nor the Last Not the First for Hallowed be thy Name is before it Nor is it the Last for Deliver us from Evil comes after it to teach us that we must begin and end with God In Mat. 21.28 The Command of the Father to his Son is Go Work to Day in my Vineyard The command of God brooks no Delays the Promises of God have Respect to the Future but the Command looks to the Present To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts Why did God under the Law require for himself the first Sheaf of the Harvest the first ripe Fruits the Firstlings of the Herd and Flock but to teach us that our first Affections our first Strength our first Desires and first Choice and first Service should be Devoted to God For it is the command of God and that is the great Reason and Rule of all Obedience that is one Another Reason is this the Nature of your Extract and Original requires this Pray where had you your Beings Young Ones how came you into the World Who made you The Text tells you who this is in the very Notion God is mentioned in thy Creator There is a Concatenation of Reasons for the Creatures Owning and Chusing the Service of God included in this Notion of a Creator First He made us and not we our selves Psalm 100.3 The Prophet Isaiah says He spreadeth forth the Earth he gives Breath to the People upon it and Spirit to them that Walk therein Isaiah 42.5 So Elihu says Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life and is it not Reason that he that made us should b owned by us The Name of Father and Mother bespeaks all Duty and Honour from you Children If Children could begin their Duty in the Cradle and continue it a Hundred Years it could never Pay what Parents Deserve for all their Sorrow Care Pains and Cost Therefore Solomon is much in Pressing this Argument upon Children Prov. 23.22 Obey thy Father that Begat thee Mark that Begat thee he gave thee thy Being and Despise not thy Mother that brought thee Forth We are ever bound to Honour and Obey them for what they have done for us These Rational Beings do require it which they have been the Means to Derive to us and to Nourish and Nurse up This is highly Deserved at our Hands yea though they grow Old and Impotent and can serve us no longer O what then does God deserve from us who is much more the Author of our Being than our Father that Begat us or than our Mother that Bare us God is the First Cause Parents are but the Second Causes of Generation and the Second Cause depends upon the First and cannot act without it Therefore it is said of God In him we Live and Move and have our Being Therefore Man is nothing in our Production if compared with God and is it not Reason then that he made us should be owned and Honoured by us that he that is our Creator should be our Ruler We Own our Service where we Receive our Existence we are Debtors to God every one of us We Owe him our selves all we are and all we have for we are not our own we are the Lord's Propriety at his Disposal he hath the absolute Dominion over us as giving Being to us It is the Apostle's Argument Whether we Live or Die we are the Lord's de jure and it should be so de facto therefore we ought to Live to him Rom. 14.7 8. This Glory is the White at which we should aim Living and â—â—ying He is the Centre in which all the whole Circumstances of our Life should meet for he made us therefore Remember thy Creator Secondly He made us after his own Image and that is a Peculiar Priviledge of Creation beyond what other Creatures injoy There is the Print of God's Hand upon all his Creatures but there are none bear his Image but Angels and Men and this you are Stampt with in the very Womb. Not one of you but have the Image of God upon you the Youngest as well as the Oldest Though indeed the Moral Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Holiness that is Blotted out and Lost by the Fall we
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