after that abstracted manner And is it not as easy as 't is reasonable to reply That 't is a foolish Scrupulosity to be so careful to avoid Singularity as to run from it into a Common Destruction To refuse to be holy and happy and to choose Sin and Misery because the way to Life is narrow and unfrequented and the way to Damnation broad and full of Company Is not this a vain affectation of Conformity to the World for you to follow a Multitude to do evil tho their Ways lead to Hell and go down to the Chambers of Death to abandon your selves to the Torrent of evil Examples tho they drown you in Perdition to sacrifice your own eternal Interest in complaisance to the Custom and Humour of other Men and to walk in the Counsel of the Vngodly tho you damn your selves for Company And because some rather seem to pity or even indulge than blame many of the Follies of Youth partly from the Consideration of their Vnexperience and giddiness of Mind and of their great Propensity to carnal Pleasures partly because Custom has render'd the Vices of Youth familiar to the World and partly because many of those that are advanc'd in Years instead of reflecting on their youthful Vanities with Sorrow are yet so insensible as to look back upon them as excusable Follies or as Sins of small consequence must therefore an Opinion that has so rotten a foundation obtain Credit in the World as if it were a Maxim of undoubted Truth Does the Holy Scripture or Reason allow Youth any such Dispensation for Sin Is so great an Evil to be at any time indulg'd Is any scope in Vice allowable to the Time of Youth any more than to the Time of Old Age Is not Sin always evil and always to be avoided Can you think it deserves the very best of your Time and that your Creator is unworthy of such an Offering You have heard it sufficiently prov'd that Youth is the most proper Time of all and Old Age the most unfit for the great Business of Conversion to God that 't is the greatest proof of the Reality of our Self-denial when we restrain the vicious Inclinations of our Youth that are so eager after sensual Pleasures And that an aged Sinner is so far from being likely to be a true Penitent that the long Time he has been hardening himself in his Wickedness renders the Change of his Heart impossible without a more than ordinary effort of Grace which God is seldom pleas'd to grant to them that are grown old in Wickedness Will you say after this God whose Mercies are infinite is Gracious enough to receive us into his Vineyard at the last hour of the Day and to give us a place in Paradise if like the Thief on the Cross we begin to repent when we are ceasing to live and we may hope to die happily tho we have liv'd viciously After having so largely detected the Vanity of such Hopes as these as we have already done we need not add much more Is not this to build an imaginary Happiness on a thousand Uncertainties And what a daring presumption is it to continue in Sin that Grace may abound Because the Gracious God has given one Example in his Word of a Sinner converted at the last hour of his Life is it reasonable for every Sinner to conclude That he may expect the same extraordinary favour and so may safely defer his Repentance till he is ready to expire No this great Instance of Mercy in the crucified Malefactor was given to prevent a true tho late Penitent from despairing not to encourage any bold Sinner to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness by his presumption And how many fatal instances might be given of the Vanity of such hopes as these How few of those daring Sinners have arriv'd at the Time which they pretended to devote to religious Purposes How very few of those that have reached old Age have become sensible of their Guilt and Danger after a long Life spent in the Service of Sin Have they not generally supinely doz'd away their last Moments as they vainly spent their first without awaking till they have found themselves in everlasting Burnings Or if they have receiv'd some Convictions of their Guilt these have not always produc'd on them the Characters of a Repentance to Salvation but have sometimes fill'd their miserable Souls with Despair and Horrour and their former delusive Hopes of obtaining pardon at the last hour have only issued in a certain fearful looking for of Iudgment and fiery Indignation to devour them Learn therefore before it be too late so to number your Days as to apply your Hearts to Wisdom Will you after all that has been said still perswade your selves that 't is yet time enough for you to remember your Creator and that you may safely enough defer the securing of your Salvation yet some time longer if not quite to the evil Days of Old Age that 't is best for you first to establish your selves in the World as firmly as you can and to make provision for your temporal Interest and afterwards at your leisure to think on the Affairs of another Life These things have been also sufficiently answer'd before let me further add That as your Time is very uncertain on the one hand so your Resolutions are yet more fickle on the other For how common a thing is it for Men to assume a purpose of Repentance and presently to relinquish it again How often do they violate their Promises to God and to themselves while they are perpetually fixing a new future season of Amendment So deceitful is the Heart of Man and so desperately wicked who can know it And how preposterous is the Course you take to endeavour to provide for your Bodies before your Souls and to secure your Temporal before your Eternal Interest Hearkening rather to the deluding Suggestions of the Father of Lies who tempts you with the gilded Vanities of this perishing World than to the Counsel of him who is Wisdom it self who advises you to seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness and assures you that then the things of this World i. e. so far as may conduce to your Welfare shall be superadded Since therefore your Creator requires your present Time 't is your Prudence your Interest and your Duty without conferring with Flesh and Blood immediately to obey him to seek him while he may be found and to call upon him while he is near and while he calls upon you lest if you persist to slight and forget your Maker and his Counsel any longer he should so remember your Iniquity and visit your Sins as to pronounce on you this dreadful Sentence Because I have call'd and ye refus'd I have stretched out my Hand and no Man regarded But ye have set at nought all my
Materials that compose it or that the most curious Watch was fram'd after this odd manner that an elegant Picture may have resulted from the Accidental and unheeded mixture of Colours or an Elaborate Oration or Poem as many have observ'd from a Confus'd shuffling of the Letters of the Alphabet 'T is evident from the harmonious Combination of the several Parts of the World and the curious frame of each Species in it and particularly of Mankind that all has been dispos'd in Number Weight and Measure by the Infinite Wisdom and Power of that God who is Wonderful in Counsel and Excellent in Working And this Truth is so very clear that the Minds of the generality of the Heathens themselves have been penetrated with the Light of it And therefore the Apostle Paul cites to the Athenians one of their Celebrated Authors to prove what others of them generally confess'd that God is the Original Author of Mankind So that 't is manifest from Reason that God has form'd us And this the Sacred Historian of the Creation expresly asserts God said Let us make Man in our Image after our Likeness so God created Man in his own Image in the Image of God created he him Male and Female created he them And again The LORD God formed Man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life and Man became a living Soul 'T is God who is the Former of all things that hath made us and not we our selves He both made the Matter of which we consist and moulded it into that Form which we bear and by which our Species is distinguished from those of other Creatures 3. God is our Creator or the Author of our Being in that as he has fram'd the Species of Mankind in General so he is the Former of every Individual Humane Creature that comes into the World The Multiplication of Creatures according to their kind by Natural Propagation is a Blessing of God pronounc'd on them at their Creation But this way ordain'd by God for the Conservation and Increase of each Species is very Mysterious and Wonderful and is in the Scripture term'd Creation and attributed to God as such The Psalmist calls the Generation to come the People that shall be Created And speaking of the successive Dissolution and Propagation of Animals he says Thou takest away their Breath they die and return to their Dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit they are created and Thou renewest the face of the Earth Here the Term of Creation is used to signify the Conservation and Multiplication of Animals in the ordinary Course of Nature and that as well as the first formation of each Species is ascribed to the Spirit of God And God threatens the Ammonites by the Prophet Ezekiel to judg them in the Place where they were Created that is as he explains it in the next Words in the Land of their Nativity And God is the Creator in this respect in a sense beyond what is ordinarily imagin'd For it has in vain been attempted by Men to explain the Formation of Plants and Animals by the Natural Laws of Motion And so many insuperable Difficulties meet 'em when they would shew how their Organs are Mechanically form'd in Natural Generation that they appear impossible to be solv'd without attributing to an Almighty Power the Formation of every Individual Creature as well as of every Species and that in a way more Immediate at least more Mysterious than is commonly supposed Nor does the Conjecture of the Equivocal Generation of some Plants and Insects tho' it has generally prevailed in the World as an undoubted Truth seem well founded since that Supposition has been of late Years greatly discredited by many Experiments which render it very improbable that any Plant is rais'd without Seed by a formative Power in the Earth as many have pretended or any Animal spontaneously produc'd without Parents And these God uses only as Instrumental or Occasional Causes himself being the Efficient Cause of all Generation who in this respect as the Apostle fays in another worketh All in All and tho' he finished the Creation in Six days yet may be said to Create still or as our Saviour speaks to Work hitherto So that it appears to be a Work proper to the Creator of Man to form him in the Womb and that after a Method too mysterious to be trac'd by a humane Understanding since the Natural Laws of Motion at least so far as known by Men are not capable of producing so Curious a Piece as a humane body And as it is generally supposed that the Souls of Men are Individually form'd and infus'd into their Bodies by the hand of God since no tolerable Account can be otherwise given of their Production so it must be granted that the form of each Individual humane Body is to be attributed to the same Divine Power which operates after so unsearchable a manner that every Man may well say not only as to the Origin of Mankind in general but as to the Formation of himself in particular as Iob did Thy Hands have made me and fashioned me round about Thou hast made me as the Clay Hast thou not pour'd me out as Milk and crudled me like Cheese Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews Thou hast granted me Life c. And with the Psalmist Thou hast cover'd me in my Mother 's Womb. I will praise Thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made Marvellous are thy Works and that my Soul knoweth right well My Substance was not hid from Thee when I was made in Secret and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the Earth Thy Eyes did see my Substance yet being imperfect and in thy Book all my Members were written which in Continuance were fashion'd when as yet there was none of them 2. It hence follows that God is the Vpholder and Preserver of our Being For this is included in the term Creator When God by the Prophet addresses himself to the Israelites to encourage them to trust in him for their Preservation and to dissipate their fears of Danger he speaks to them under this Title Thus saith the Lord that created Thee O Jacob and he that formed Thee O Israel Fear not c. And to this Exhortation he adds a Promise to preserve 'em when surrounded with the greatest Difficulties to be with them in passing through the Water and through the Fire And the Psalmist makes the Relation he stood in to God as his Creature a plea for his Preservation when he says in his Prayer O LORD forsake not the Works of thy own hands And the Apostle Peter exhorts those that are persecuted to commit the keeping of their Souls to God in well doing as to a faithful Creator So that from hence 't is evident that the Relation
God bears to us as our Creator includes his Providential Care for our Preservation That God who is our Maker is also the Preserver of Men. As it was impossible that we should give Being to our felves so 't is beyond our power to continue our selves in Being And as we owe not our Existence to any Being Inferiour to God so neither does the Duration of our Being depend upon any other than him It was the Will of God that produc'd us consequently 't is the same Will that preserves us Before he actually will'd our Production we could not exist and if he should cease to will the Continuance of our Being it would immediately discontinue and be annihilated 'T is but for him to withdraw his Hand to suspend the Influence of his Power and we sink into Nothing So that we are kept by the Power of God in regard of our Natural as the Apostle affirms we are in respect of our Spiritual State And since the Divine Will is equally the Cause of our Being and of the Duration of it the term of Creator attributed to God in our Text may be fitly extended to both our Preservation being a Continuation of God's Creating Work for in this respect as well as that mention'd before of the formation of successive Generations of Men according to the words of Christ God worketh hitherto And as from him our Being is deriv'd so in him alone we Live and Move and have our Being still who upholds all things by the Word of his Power And not only We but all other Creatures lean on the Almighty Hand for their Preservation to which they all equally owe their Existence 3. The Term Creator may further include that God is the Restorer and Reformer of Man 'T is true it does not necessarily follow that because he has made and preserves us therefore after we had undone our selves by Sin and effac'd the Image of Holiness he impress'd on us in our Original Frame and Constitution he also must needs actually Reform us But it does thence follow that none but God can restore a Degenerate Creature and that all those whose Corrupt Nature is reform'd derive that Blessing from the Almighty Author of their Being The same Divine Goodness Wisdom and Power that at the Creation of the World said Let there be Light which Operative Word produc'd Light immediately is necessary to illuminate the benighted Minds of Men who are by Sin become the Children of Darkness and to call them out of that Darkness into the Marvellous Light of Divine Truth Therefore the Apostle Paul assures us that it is that God who at first commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness that shines in the Hearts of such to give the Light of the knowledg of the Glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. He alone who made all things very Good in their kind at the Creation and who then made Man upright is able to rectify the perverseness of his Will and to purify his Heart from the Pollution it has contracted To create in him a clean Heart and to renew a right Spirit within him Nothing less than our Creator's own Divine Goodness could move him to restore deprav'd Sinners nothing less than his own Divine Wisdom could contrive the Method of their Restoration and nothing less than his Divine Power could put it in Execution and accomplish it He contriv'd the Scheme of this Glorious Work He appointed and prepar'd the Means and He renders them effectual to the End designed Who but our Creator is able to restore us and reform us from Sin seeing Sin is a Privation of Sanctity a Nullity oppos'd to the Being of Holiness Nay a state of Sin is a state of Rebellion against God a State of Enmity and Opposition to the Author of our Being therefore worse than Annihilation it self because that which is not as it can do no Good so does no Evil as it is not for God so is not against Him But a sinful Creature commits his Sins against him even against Him as the Psalmist emphatically repeats it and does Evil in his sight actually opposes and disserves Him who is the supreme Being and sole Author of the whole Creation Therefore tho' the Word of God brought us out of Nullity and gave us Being nothing less than the Blood of God could avail to redeem us from that Abyss of Iniquity and Misery we were sunk into by our Apostacy from Him Who but He that establish'd the World by his Wisdom and stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion and Vnderstanding could have form'd the Method of our Restoration so as to glorify his Holiness and Iustice as well as his Grace and Mercy by it so as to make Mercy and Truth meet together and Righteousness and Peace to kiss each other as he hath done by recovering fallen Man by the Sacrifice of his only begotten Son What Depths of Wisdom appear in this Stupendous Mystery of Godliness God manifested in the Flesh That Sin should be punish'd with the utmost Severity and yet the Sinner spar'd by Infinite Mercy That our Saviour who knew no Sin should be made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him And the same Characters of Divine Wisdom that appear in the Foundation are seen also in the whole Superstructure of the Church of God and in every part of this great Work of Restoration Nothing can be more astonishing than that Infinite Mercy that appears in this Mighty Work which can have no other Author than that Infinite Being that hath created us Who but He that made us would or could have so much Mercy on us And who but he that formed us would shew us so much Favour as to rescue us from Sin and the Curses entail'd on it by so endearing a Ransom as the precious Blood of his own Son And as none but our Maker is capable of Redeeming us so the frequent use he makes of the Term Creator in his Word to encourage Men to obey him and to trust in him may well be suppos'd to intimate the Design he had fram'd to restore Sinners to his Favour For had he not revealed himself to be Willing as well as Able to be our Creator in this Sense by taking us into his Hand the second Time to reform us or create us anew there would be no room for us since we have all violated the Laws of our first Creation to hope to offer any acceptable Service to him or to expect any Favour from him There would be no Incouragement to remember him as our Creator in the first Sense exclusive of this latter because our Guilt would fill us with Terror at every due Remembrance of him who as he made us for his Glory so is able to punish us and might justly do it for the Indignities we have offer'd him by our Sins So that whenever