enough of it three years hence By little conquests way must be made for greater and he that overcomes his little peevishnesses for some time prepares for overcoming bigger affronts and injuries We read of no Ex tempore Saints and those who have arrived to qualifications which have made them fit for the bliss of another world have spent many years to bring themselves to a spiritual relish of the power of godliness Heaven is not to be gained by a single vertue but there must be adding unto our faith vertue unto vertue knowledge unto knowledge temperance unto temperance godliness unto godliness patience unto patience brotherly kindness and unto brotherly kindness charity 2 Pet. 1.4 5. He is no Christian that knows not what it is to grow in grace and when we are to labour after perfection it 's evident that we must begin betimes So that if a man doth not begin this practical remembrance of his Creator in the days of his youth he hath not time enough to become master of this art or to commence Graduate in this piece of Philosophy 3. This early remembrance of the Great Creator invites the early manifestations of Gods love and is the Key to the choisest comforts and consolations Of all the Apostles St. John alone is called the Disciple whom Jesus loved He loved them all but this with greater tenderness than ordinary because as most Divines observe he was the youngest and in the days of his youth remembred his Masters will and his own duty When Israel was a child i. e. when in his tender age he followed me with all his heart studied my Laws and walked with God I loved him that is with a higher love of complacency than others faith God Hos 11.1 The youthful David when in the wilderness he liv'd retired from the world contemplated things celestial and sublime made the Creator of all things the darling of his Soul and found no such delight any where as in meditating of Gods testimonies felt what the kinder influences of Gods Spirit were and what was the exceeding greatness of his power whereof that extraordinary assistance he speaks of to King Saul was a signal testimony Thy servant kept his fathers sheep and there came a Lion and a Bear and took a Lamb out of the flock and I went out after him and delivered it out of his mouth and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard and smote him and slew him 1 Sam. 17.34 35. When Joseph's innocence and tender years led him to the fear of God and made him have that aversion from sin in himself and others that he told his Father of his brethrens faults God favour'd him with more than ordinary tokens of his love which appear'd afterward more visibly by his making him Vice-Roy of Egypt Early Fruit is ever most acceptable and an early remembrance of our Creator comes before him as Incense smells sweets as the morning Sacrifice and vies with the morning Rose for fragrancy Practical Inferences First Though we allow not of the Platonick notion that all our knowledge is nothing but reminiscence yet Religion may justly be called a Remembrance of things we knew and heard of before The lines of good and evil are engraven upon our hearts The Finger of God hath written them upon our Souls and education together with the various Sermons we hear make these Characters much brighter So that if at any time we are to abhor that which is evil or to cleave to that which is good if we are tempted to actions doubtful and uncertain whether they be agreeable or disagreeable to the will of God it 's but remembering what an Almighty hand hath imprinted on our hearts or what formerly we have treasured up there and thus we may by the Grace of God resist and overcome the temptation Nay if we remember how at such time our Consciences checkt us for such actions and what reluctancies we felt when prompted to the commission If we remember how at another time our pious Neighbour reproved us for such a fault told us it was as affront offered to God and a snare to ruine our immortal Souls If we remember how vehemently the Minister of the Ordinances of God declaimed against such a sin what Arguments he alleadg'd against it what disswasives he produced what obtestations and entreaties he used to discourage us from the Offence all this will signally help to restraine us from yielding to the evil motion For this we need no extraordinary memories we make use of in our civil affairs when we remember what we did or what hapned such a year will serve to put us in mind of our duty It 's love to a thing that makes us remember what may contribute to the promoting of it And if our love to Religion were but as strong as it is to our Riches we should very easily remember the arguments that God and his Ministers have given us to disswade us from the sins we are inclined to Were we truly concerned for our Souls we should soon remember what we have heard out of the Word of God and which makes for the practice of the vertues necessary to salvation When we are tempted to Pride or Anger if we did but remember how we have hated these sins in others and how odious they have appeared to us when we have seen our Neighbours fall into them it would be a sufficient discouragement from the commission That we have no memories in this case is not so much a defect of nature as our will We are wilfully forgetful of our duty and that makes us excuse the neglect of it we will not remember our sins and that tempts us to impenitence Thus we cheat our Souls and that 's but an ill preparative for the tremendous audit at the Bar of Gods Justice The day will come when we shall remember our offences and neglects whether we will or no. There is not a sinner now who willingly forgets what he hath been going against God and his own Soul but will be forced to remember it to his cost and sorrow when an angry God shall look him in the face And is it not our greatest interest then to remember now in this our day the things which belong unto our peace to remember our Errours that we may turn from them to remember our duties to God and man that we may conscienciously discharge them to remember what our Creator our Father our greatest Benefactors requires of us to remember the Exhortations the Entreaties the Expostulations the Adjurations of a merciful God that the Great Jehovah may remember us in that day when he makes up his Jewels and spare us as a man would spare his Son that serves him Secondly There is hardly any place of Scripture that is more vulgarly known than this I have discoursed of our very Children learn it almost as soon as they can speak and imbibe it with the ordinary questions Who made you Who redeem'd
Chapter where he tells us that God shall bring every work into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil Tophet is ordain'd of old saith the Prophet Isai. 30.33 And when God provided Mansions sweet and pleasant for his Favourites it was but necessary to create and make a Goal too where the despisers of his grace might to eternal Ages bewail the loss of infinite and eternal mercy Mercy which now entreats and courts them and comes to them in all the soft dresses of comfort and sues to them in the still voice of a tender Father offers them Crowns and Empires and an endless Felicity lies weeping at their feet runs after them pulls them by the sleeve and beseeches them not to neglect so great Salvation He that seriously thinks of this surely cannot run into the Devils arms nor be in love with the broad way where so many thousands post into Perdition These thoughts must needs be great motives to prevent the accomplishment of Gods threatnings who will not let that Prison he hath created stand empty when so many do deserve it and in despight of all his endeavours to the contrary run into it and make haste to be miserable The Creator of all things beholding every thing that he had made saw that all was very good and therefore you 'll say surely he did not create a Hell for that cannot be reconciled to the Standard of goodness But it 's one thing what Sufferers or Malefactors and another what Magistrates and Wise men do say There is scarce a Prisoner but finds fault with his confinement But doth any wise man therefore judge that Prisons are not for the common good or that they are needless in a Common-wealth If God were to take advice of men that make themselves Vessels of his wrath not one but would condemn him for making or ordaining a place of torment but his Justice requires other things and that 's a good Attribute as well as his Mercy and punishment makes for his Honour and Glory as well as his gentleness and compassion He that remembers God as his Creator must view the everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels as well as the house made without hands eternal in the Heavens and if he do both he is in the greatest probability of entring into invincible resolutions to shake off the yoak of Ungodliness and worldly Lusts that he may be capable of entring into his Masters joy But then these resolutions if they shall be to any purpose must be made in the days of his youthful vigour which leads me to the last particular Thirdly Why the strict observance of these two Lessons is particularly necessary in the days of our youth 1. Because sin is more easily mortified when these motives are applied early in the days of our youth The load that hinders us from entring in at the strait Gate may then be thrown off with greater facility than afterward The tenderer the Branch is the sooner it is bowed and the softer the Rust is the more easily it is scoured away Sin in the youthful age is but in its bud as it were and therefore more easily nipt and Corruption not being come to any great hardness yet is the sooner dispersed and discountenanced The Devil doth but then begin to act his part in the Soul and therefore is more easily dislodged and though one or two evil Spirits may have already taken up their habitation there yet the number not being advanced to a Legion yet they may be crushed with greater ease But sin being by age as it were caked and baked together mocks the Fullers-earth and the help of Soap and Snow-water The blackness becomes purely Ethiopian and the spots turn into tokens of the Leopard which makes the change more difficult if not impossible It 's true some that have streamed out their golden days in voluptuousness and luxury have yet at last proved eminent Saints but as this is an argument of the extraordinary Grace of God so no consequence can be drawn from it that what God doth for special reasons for some he will do for all Some few grow rich after fifty but that gives but small encouragement to men that do not thrive in the world before and whatever lucky hits some may have that makes but few expect the like The sooner the Antidote is applied the greater hopes there is that the power of the Poison will be weakned and the longer it lies in the bowels the more difficult grows the cure This stands to reason when sins are young the children of Edom may soon be dash'd against the stones but being become men of War they defie all opposition Habits become a second nature and when follies are become natural and mingle with the complexion and Spirits they are over look'd as harmless or men despair of rooting of them up The horrour of any sin goes off by custome and when men are used to it they are so far from repenting that they are apt to look upon themselves as innocent when Lions are not yet used to range abroad for prey they may be tamed but being become lusty and strong all endeavours of cicuration are vain and though we are told of Androdus his Lion that grew tame when he was of full age yet as one Swallow doth not make a Summer so neither is it advisable to venture into the Sea without skill in swimming because one or two ignorant of the art have been saved from drowning by a Miracle Men give God but little encouragement to employ his miraculous power to convert them when during the vigour of their age they have mocked all his Stratagems and defeated his Methods of Compassion and whatever God hath done upon extraordinary occasions and under extraordinary circumstances we are assur'd by the Psalmist that he sware in his wrath that they who had grieved him Forty years in the Wilderness should never enter into his rest Psal. 95.10 11. 2. Except a man remember his Creator in the days of his youth he is not in a likely way to compass all those graces which are fit and proper for a Candidate of Eternity The vertues which the Holy Ghost faith are necessary for a Christian are not to be acquired or purchased but by long striving frequent encountring of Temptations assiduous labour and constant endustry and indefatigable circumspection Shadows of Graces are compassed in a shorter space but habits of Goodness are the work of time One Virtue may possibly be got this year another the next another the third Of Ammonas we read that he was fourteen years conquering his anger and passion and others have laboured many more before they arrived to a habit of meekness and patience Before a man can say that he is master of such a Virtue he must have several tryals and those tryals occur not all in one week or in one month He that is free from a temptation this year may have
but that thou hast lived pondus utile terra That thou hast been a dead weight in the world and hast not lived one day to the comfort and welfare of thy immortal Soul This present time is the time that God prescribes thee to watch against sin to resist temptation to get the ornament of Grace and Vertue If thou fanciest any other time may do better thou reckonest without thy Host buildest Castles in the Air and only deceivest thy self with pleasant Illusions Who should know it so well what time is fittest for this work as the all-wise God Shall thy shallow brain pretend to know better than he who made thy frame or considers and ponders things in the Ballance of his eternal Wisdom Canst thou imagine that a God bent so much upon thy good would prescribe any thing prejudicial to thy interest Doth he affirm and protest that the present time is the best and only time and darest thou contradict him or act as if he were mistaken and thy choice were best What insolence what rudeness is this and if it were no sin can any thing be more contrary to good manners What time would'st thou set apart for this necessary work What! the age of infirmity of sickness or of dotage Go and offer it to thy Governour and see whether he will accept of such weak endeavours Nay art thou so fond of weak services that thou wouldest expect none from thy Servant but when his strength fails him Wilt thou give that to God which Man would scorn and thy self do'st not care for Hath thy God deserved so little at thy hand that thou canst serve him so Is this the return thou makest him for the thousand Mercies he bestows upon thee Doth he take care of thy Soul and Body with all his strength and shall such a crawling Worm refuse to offer him that which is found and whole Hath he given his Son for thy ransome broke down the Gates of Hell to free such a slave as thou art from the Prison and shalt thou think much of remembring him with all thy heart Wilt thou make Bargains with him as Pharaoh did with the Children of Israel and limit him how much he shall take at thy hands Canst thou think so and be fearless of his anger is Vengeance asleep or is his Justice do'st thou think sunk into a fatal slumber Can God see thee thus refractory and forbear preparing his Arrows upon the Bow against thee Need he court his Servant to do his work who hath Flames enough to force him to it Wilt thou deal so basely with him who hath acted so generously for thy good What mighty purchase doth he get by thy remembring of him Is it any advantage to him when thou workest in his Vineyard Is it not thy profit he seeks and shall he after all be scorned and under-valued for his pains Hast thou any spark of Reason left and dost not thou blush at these doings What vanity or what frenzy rather hath possessed thy mind that thou talkest of being serious hereafter Mightest not thou as well say that thou wilt forbear wholesom Food some years and eat and drink hereafter If thou wouldest not cheat thy Body in this manner what hurt hath thy Soul done thee that thou wilt wrong it thus Must thy Body feed and thy Soul be starved Hath not that need of nourishment as well as thy corruptible Flesh Or do'st thou think that thy Soul will be contented with the trash thou feedest thy Body with Thy Soul stands in need of the love of God as much as thy Body doth of meat and drink That 's her food as much as Bread is of the ignobler part If she wants this she dies and falls a Prey to Wolves to ravenous Birds even to hellish Furies And shall so noble a Creature be undone for want of a little care Sinner Do'st thou know what Salvation means Is being happy for ever nothing Is it so light a thing that thou needest deliberate whether thou shalt prepare for it When the Saints of old have left Father and Mother and Lands and Houses and lost Life it self for it dost thou stand musing whether thou shalt accept of it upon the conditions of the Gospel Art thou afraid of remembring thy Creator when everlasting Treasures depend upon the choice Do'st thou believe Salvation is the confluence of all Felicity and dost thou dread an early consideration how thou shalt arrive to it Is it the Mercy that ever was Mankind and dost not thou think it worth accepting upon any terms Was it purchased by the Bloud of God and shalt thou think any thing too dear for it It is that which Angels wonder at that God should condescend to take a handful of dust and ashes into his bosom and dost not thou think it worth while to enquire what thou shalt do to be saved Salvation which to get and to attain to St. Paul runs through Fire and Water through Honour and Dishonour through a good Report and an evil Report and counteth all things dross and dung in comparison of it dost thou prefer dross and dung and a sinful careless life before it What a contempt dost thou put upon God in valuing that so little which he prizes at the highest rate Do'st thou contemn God and hope to escape Do'st thou make nothing of his Promises and Threatnings and think to go unpunished If thou allowest God to be a greater Prince than thy King will he sit silent dost thou think while thou tramplest his Authority under thy feet A temporal Prince will not suffer himself to to be baffled thus and canst thou imagine that a jealous God will connive at it It 's true God is merciful but art thou a fit Object of Mercy that despisest the riches of his goodness Will he have mercy on a sinner that had rather wallow in mire and dirt than be washed and justified and sanctified in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God Why should he shew mercy to a person that thinks his mercy a buthen and his kindness troublesome It is Mercy that calls thee to remember thy Creator now It 's Mercy that would save thee from perishing in the Deluge with ungodly men It 's Mercy that would draw thee away from thy Vanities from thy admiration of the world and from sinful compliances It 's Mercy that invites thee now to chuse the better Part and to lay up thy Treasure in Heaven If this Mercy be counted a drug and instead of being priz'd look'd upon as a thing needless and impertinent how shall Mercy plead for thee in the last day Or what apologies can Mercy make for a person that had rather have the wrath of God than that Mercy for his portion How must this please the enemy of mankind to see a Creature whom God would love run away from him and instead of remembring his Creator forget him and his Laws which are his Cordials and