expres'd To shew how fitly they are adapted to the State and Circumstances of those that are Young who are the Persons to whom this Exhortation is address'd With which I shall conclude this Discourse 1. From the Terms used to shew the Time of remembring our Creator it may be observ'd 1. That this double Timing of the Duty first by expresly prescribing it in Youth and then before Old Age with its Miseries come on gives the Words a certain Force and Energy proper to inculcate so important an Admonition 'T is a giving Precept upon Precept and Line upon Line as the Prophet Isaiah speaks which he commends as the proper Course to instruct the Young or to use his own Words to teach them Knowledg and to make them understand Doctrine who are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the Breasts to gain the Attention of giddy and unthinking Youth many of whom tho' God condescends to speak once yea twice as he doth here are yet so dull of hearing as not to perceive the Reasonableness of their Duty or at least not sufficiently to consider it and the Danger to which the neglect of it exposes ' em And 2. We may further observe that this Obligation of Remembring our Creator extends it self equally with the Capacity we have of Reflecting on God as our Maker and increases proportionably to the knowledg we may obtain of him So that none are entirely exempt from it who are capable of exercising their Thoughts on God and therefore those may not pretend to be dispens'd with who have not arriv'd to the full maturity of Youth if they are in any degree capable of knowing their Creator As far as they are able to take notice of his Nature and of his Will so far are they oblig'd to worship and obey him And this is further cleared by the Opposition the Wise Man seems to make betwixt the Duty in our Text and the Vanity of Childhood and Youth mentioned just before So that if we take Vanity here in a Moral Sense the Exhortation extends it self to Persons that fall under either of those Denominations that are either in the state of Childhood or Youth And if by Vanity Natural Frailty and Mortality be intended the words are not less extensive for then the frailty of Childhood and Youth is used as a Consideration to prepare the way for this Admonition and Children as well as Young Men are therefore excited to give themselves to the Service of their Creator Because neither are exempt from the danger of Sickness and of Death And this may be further collected from the charge given to Youth in the Text to remember their Creator not only before the Evil Days of Old Age are come but before those Years draw nigh while Old Age is yet at a distance Which shews that none that are capable of reflecting on their relation to God as Creator may excuse themselves as too Young to be concern'd in his Service For as his being our Creator is the foundation of this Duty of remembering him So 't is evident that our Obligation to it is to be measured by the Capacity we have of knowing him as such Therefore he may well require that the tender Buds of Childhood as well as the maturer Blossoms of Youth be consecrated to him who sometimes perfects his Praise out of the mouths of such who in comparison of those of riper Years are but Babes and Sucklings and therefore by the Psalmist calls upon Young Men and Maidens and Children as well as Old Men to praise and worship him 2. That the Terms of Remembring their Creator are wisely adapted to the state of Youth to engage them early in the Service of God will appear by the following Remarks on each of those Terms 1. God under the Title of Creator is fitly recommended to the Young as the Object of their Worship and Obedience 1. Because 't is a Term that easily excites in the Mind a strong and clear Idea of God's infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness And the Wise Man having to do with Youth whose unexperience for want of Years and whose unattention for want of a habit of steady thinking renders them less capable of arriving at the knoledg of the Deep things of God than those who to the advantage of a long observation of things have added that of addicting themselves to frequent Thoughtfulness and Meditation he makes use of that Title of God which might most familiarly suggest a proper Notion of him to their Minds He exposes to them the Alphabet of the Creation out of which even Children may easily learn to spell the Being of a Deity The Ignorant and the Young even those that run as the Prophet speaks the heedless and unattentive may read the Characters of the Divine Attributes which are plainly engraven on the Pillars even of this Material World And as the Apostle observes may clearly discern the Eternal Power and Godhead of the Creator who is Invisible by the curious Fabrick of this Visible Creation so as to render them altogether inexcusable if they neglect to glorisy God according to those sensible notices of him which they may so easily and constantly receive For as the sight of a Magnificent Palace induces us to consider the Skill and Ability of the Architect that built it So when we take a serious prospect of the Structure and Frame of the World or of any part of it it familiarly raises our Thoughts to its Great Author and Cause For as every House is built by some Man so 't is natural to conclude with the Apostle that he that built all things is God And therefore 2. This of Creator is a Title which God is usually pleas'd to assume in Scripture to distinguish himself as the True and Living God from the Idols of the Heathen and to convince their Ignorant Votaries that He is the only proper Object of Religious Worship The LORD is the True God saith the Prophet Ieremiah he is the Living God and an everlasting King The Gods that have not made the Heavens and the Earth even they shall perish from the Earth and from under these Heavens Then speaking again of the True God he says He hath made the Earth by his Power he hath established the World by his Wisdom and hath stretched out the Heavens by his Discretion And then having spoken of the Vanity of Idols he adds The Portion of Jacob is not like them for he is the Former of all things And the Prophet Isaiah introduces the God of Israel proving himself to be the True God under the same Character I have made the Earth and created Man upon it I even my Hands have stretched out the Heavens and all their Host have I commanded And a little after the Prophet insults over the makers of Idols and then adds Thus saith the LORD that Created the Heavens God himself that formed
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
a Man to suffer the fittest season to escape him for the performance of that Work which is the most difficult of all others to be well done and upon the due accomplishment of which both his present and future Happiness depends For 1. Youth is the best Time for our Conversion Because the Soul is not then so much vitiated by evil Habits as when she has run through the several stages of Life in a continued course of Wickedness Tho Sin is deeply enough rooted in our Nature which is all defil'd with the Original Stain Yet we very much fortify our corrupt Inclinations by producing them into Act and by multiplying those Sinful Acts till they become familiar and customary to us and till we drink down Iniquity like Water So that the difficulty of turning from Sin encreases together with the Time of our continuance in the practice of it Can the Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard his Spots Then may ye also do Good that are accustomed to do Evil says the Prophet Is it to be thought that Conversion to God is so slight and easy a matter that any Time may serve for its Accomplishment Are not the difficulties that a long habit of Sinning will lay in the way of that great and important Work to be fear'd Is it not much more easy to bend a Young Twig than an Aged Oak and to prevent evil Habits than to rectify ' em A little observation of the World may suffice to inform us that long Custom or Habit is so bewitching a thing that scarce any thing can be imagin'd more ridiculous absurd and inconvenient than many things which the long usage of some Persons nay of some whole Nations has authoriz'd And if Men are so tenacious of any silly and troublesome thing which they have been much addicted to and sacrifice their Reason their Honour and their Ease to the Tyranny of Custom how much more prevalent must a long habit and course of Sin be which besides its deep rooting in our Nature and besides the ordinary force of mere Habit has both its flattering Promises and Pleasures to tempt us to its Embraces and its Threats and Terrors too in suggesting all the mortifying Circumstances of a vertuous course of Life to raise in our Minds the most frightful Idea of Piety and Religion So that if Custom and Habit in general be proverbially stil'd a Second Nature the habit of Sin may of all others most fitly be so term'd And the force of its Dominion over our Souls and the difficulty of its Extirpation out of them must needs have an increase proportionate to the Time of its Duration in them Can any thing then be more evident than that in the days of our Youth when Sin has not yet so deeply rooted it self in our Hearts by evil habits as in Old Age after a long course of Vice in a multitude of repeated Acts our Conversion must needs have the most easy and kindly accomplishment 2. This further appears in that the Minds of the Young are ordinarily the most capable of Instruction It was a saying of a Philosopher that to Cure a Dead Man and Teach an Old Man were things equally difficult For tho in some respects Youth is sufficiently addicted to Pride yet there is a kind of Natural Modesty and becoming Humility often discernible in the Young arising from a Consciousness of their Ignorance and unexperience of things which disposes them to a more Docible frame of Mind than is usually to be found in Elder Persons whose Maturity of Age often makes 'em unwilling to be inform'd especially in matters of Religion either because they imagin they already know what others may pretend to teach 'em or because they are unwilling to undergo the shame of being accounted so long ignorant of Religion and their concern therein which every body ought to be early acquainted with And upon this account 't is likely our Saviour tells his Disciples that except they should humble themselves and become as little Children they should not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. unless they should imitate Children in Modesty and lowliness of Mind that the Sense of their Ignorance might make 'em Teachable Besides the Minds of Youth are generally a much fitter Soil for Truth than those of the Aged because not usually so over-run with the Briars and Thorns of strong and deeply rooted Prejudices The Soul of Man will not long remain empty if it be not early stor'd with Truth 't will be gradually stuff'd with Errors and as 't is much more troublesome to alter and correct a Writing full of Nonsense and Confusion by much razing out and interlining than to write a handsome piece of good Sense on a blank Paper So it is abundantly harder to instruct or rectify a Mind long prepossess'd with Falshood than to make deep impressions of Truth on a Soul more simple and unprejudic'd which if empty of Knowledg yet is not fill'd with Error which as it has not yet learn'd to judg right of things so neither has been much us'd to judg wrong and if not happy enough to be well stock'd with good Notions yet is not so unhappy as to be crowded with bad ones Now seeing to capacitate us to serve God who is a Spirit and therefore will be serv'd with our Spirits without which Bodily Exercise profiteth little there are many great Truths to be learned and tho he has promis'd the help of his Holy Spirit to reveal these to the simple yet seeing he requires us to be diligent in the investigation of Truth and very attentive to the Voice of Reason and Scripture to that End 't is easy to see by reflecting on what has been just now said That the Young whose Minds are yet unform'd have a mighty advantage above the Aged for learning the knowledg of the ways of God and for obtaining a more copious and solid understanding of Truth So that we may well say with the Prophet tho perhaps he speaks in another sense Whom shall he teach Knowledg And whom shall he make to understand Doctrine Them that are wean'd from the Milk and drawn from the Breasts 3. Again there is a certain Tenderness of Spirit attending our first Years and not ordinarily to be found afterwards which renders Conversion more feasible The Heart is more malleable and more easily receives Impressions from the Promises and Threatnings recorded in the Word of God and from the Mercies and Judgments distributed in the World by his Providence Therefore we find few Persons whose Education has given them any tolerable means of the knowledg of Divine things who do not remember themselves to have been much affected in their Youth in attending to the Word of God or in observing some remarkable Passages of his Providence If deep Conviction is a great step towards Conversion Experience shews this is most easily wrought on one that is young How often do we