to pieces You must prepare to follow him that is gone but a few days before He with whom you liv'd and with whom you had familiar and sweet Friendship has now taken his Lieve of you and is gone into a far Country never to return again He whom you heard praying and discoursing but a little while ago is now silent in the Dust He whom you saw once brisk and lively you must now see no more till you and he meet at the Tribunal in the Clouds You have seen him that was as strong and as healthful and a few days since as likely to Live as any of you seized with a mortal Distemper and after a few uneasy Days and restless Nights carried out with a Train of Mourners and after a little Solemnity laid into the Grave I hope therefore that as often as you Remember your departed Friend which I perswade myself will be very frequent so often at the least you will with thankful Souls Remember your Creator that has been pleased when he cut off him to shew you greater Favour to prolong your time and to give you the Opportunity of hearing this and other Sermons when instead of these you might have heard the more doleful Sound and Voice of Death Your Companion has already heard his Sentence and is now in his everlasting State and you must ere long hear yours too therefore now Remember God but I am fully consident your serious Endeavours to do it will render it needless for me to give you a further Exhortation To us all this Example may be of great Use that we may betimes leave the pursuit of foolish transitory Pleasures and return home to our Duty that so we may like obedient Children when our Heavenâ—â— Father calls without repining die and go to bed when we have lived a little longer we that are now together shall be separated with the black Vail of Death and from this World fly to the Regions of Immortality and as this Assembly will soon be dissolved so we that are here when we have spoken and moved and breathed a little longer must go to our Long Homes and sleep in the Chambers of the Grave Let us therefore pray that our passage hence to God may be sedate and peaceful and though we may not perhaps be suffered to see the Faces of one another again in such Meetings as these yet that we may all have an happy Meeting in the Assembly of the First Born and at the right hand of our Saviour in the next World If wee desire this as surely we all do if we would have Consciences calm and quiet when we come to dye if we would have a sense of the Divine Favour and Assistance when we are to perform our last Service and to wrestle with the Last Enemy if we would have some draughts of those Consolations that flow from the perpetual Fountain of delight and much of Heaven while we are below Let us Remember our Creator who if we flourish in his Courts now will in due Season transplant us into the Celestial Paradise and when we hope to go thither 't is no matter how soon we dye it will be no real Evil though it be in our youthful days Can we too soon be with God too soon at rest from Labour or shall be wronged if we sleep in Jesus while others are awake in this World to see many sad Objects that will pierce their hearts to see it may be the greatest Judgments fall upon their Native Country that ever yet fell upon a careless backsliding Generation shall we have any Reason to complain when we are safe Landed on the Coast of Heaven that our passage thither was too quick or shall we murmur that we were too soon wafted over while others were left in Storms and Darkness and had a more tedious uncomfortable Voyage No! we shall bless the Wisdom of our Pilot that taught us how to steer so swift and so near a Course and ever adore his Goodness when we look back and see what Dangers how many Shelves and Sands and Rocks were in the way and yet how safely we escaped all these on which so many split and were lost for ever If we now Remember our Creator when we leave this vexatious uncertain World we shall go to the Bosome of our Lord and to all those blessed Young men whom he gathered into his Garner betimes as knowing they were fully ripe for Glory With these and with the Glorious Angels and with all Saints shall we joyn our Anthems and together make up a Melodious Consort to Sing the Songs of Sion having remembred our Creator we shall go to a City whose Inhabitants are all of one mind and where they Sincerely love one another to a Church which has no mischievous Impositions no cruel informing persecuting Members and which is free from Corruptions and pure as well as great We shall go to a place where there are no bitter Censures no reproachful Ignominious Names and Titles where there is no misunderstanding among Friends no false Brethren no loss of Goods no fear of Evil. And when we are once free of the Society that is above none will dispute our Title When our Names are once enrolled among the honorable Companies of that Corporation and among the Twelve chief Tribes of the Children of that Israel we shall never lose our Priviledge nor have our Names blotted out We shall always enjoy our just Rights and Liberties and upon the continuance of our Charter praise the Goodness of our Eternal King and ever speak the sweet Language of the Place Hallelujah Salvation and Glory and Honour and Power unto the Lord our God FINIS
if there can be any left in so sad a Case for you to think that you did not as others by their brutish Lusts even desire our Saviour to depart out of our Coasts that you did not hasten the loss of the Gospel nor the setting of the Sun And if at any time you find your selves indispos'd to the performance of this important necessary Work call to mind the example of this young Gentleman your late Companion and Fellow-Student Think with what earnestness and fervour he prayed and do you the same But I am afraid I shall but encrease the sorrow that you have for so great a Loss and make your Wounds bleed afresh while I mention the Name of your dear Friend It is I know a trouble to you when you consider that he is dead who had he liv'd might have been a great comfort to the now disconsolate Lady his Mother and to you an Instance of a more than ordinary Zeal and Piety and by his Example a great help to you in your way to Heaven He might have been a great Blessing to this Nation that needs the Prayers of many such as he was But God saw it fit to put a period to his Life In his early days he arrived to those bounds that were appointed for his abode here And tho' his Maker and yours thought fit soon to remove him yet you may conclude that it was even then the most proper and sensonable time for him to die And I am sure you will not be so disloyal nor so traiterously enclin'd as to call the King of the World to your Bar nor to question the Supream Ruler that was never guilty of any miscarriage in Government for what he hath done with his own It may be he is removed from those Evils that you must live to see and will you that loved him so well envy him the peculiar favour and regard of God or be vex'd that your Friend is safe while you are in the danger or that he is in the Harbour while you are yet to sail upon the rough stormy Waves It has been observ'd that Jesus when he knew that Lazarus was dead was not much concern'd but when he was to be rais'd and to come into this miserable World again then he wept And indeed considering the Sorrows and Troubles the Disappointments and Vexations of this short uneasy Life how uncertain and how frail are its Joys and how sure its Griefs we may well think it was not without the highest Reason that the Wise Man said Eccles 7.1 The day of Death is better than the day of ones Birth to the Religious I am sure it is greatly so The one is as the entring into a noisom Prison the other as the going out into a stately Palace and a clear Air. The one is the way to Labour and the other is the way to Rest The one a passage to a dark troubled Condition the other to a perpetual Calmness and Serenity If our Holy Friends that were better prepared have gone faster than we and have bid us farewel let us remember they are but gone as our Saviour did upon higher accounts to their Father and Ours and it is not a farewel for ever They are in the House not made with Hands and we are in this Tabernacle yet we shall meet again tho' not to eat and drink together as we did here yet to live as Angels do upon the sweet Emanations of the Deity and the Joys that follow thereupon which is a far more glorious honourable Life If many of our good Friends are in Heaven already this World should seem to us all less desirable than it was and we that are young should upon this Consideration run with the greater chearfulness and long to be there where none are complaining they died too soon Let us now be Religious and then the time will come when you and I and all the good People both young and old that we have known on Earth shall meet together in the presence of our Lord who with the shouts of his attending Angels and Saints will congratulate our Happiness and bid us welcome to the secure possession of that glorious Crown for which we now strive and pray Then shall we discourse of our Creator and of all things that are great and comfortable in a far better manner and with much more pleasure than we can below And that we may when this Life shall end obtain so great a Blessing shall be the continued and sincere desire of London Nov. 15. 1682. Respected SIRS Your real Friend and humble Servant Timothy Rogers To the Young READER BEing desired by the Author of the following discourse to write something before it by way of Preface I have thus far complied with him rather to bear Testimony to what he spake concerning the Young Gentleman whose early Death gave Occasion to it then that I thought my name of any significancy to recommend it to the Publick My present Circumstances are such as is not unknown to the Author that I have not had time for so much as a thorough perusal of the Sermon and therefore am not to be accountable for every thing a critical much less a Capricious Observer may Cavil at Midwives are not responsible for every Mold or Mark on the Children they help into the World Let it suffice that as I have found in what I have Read of it many things serious savory profitable so I have heard the whole much commended by those that heard it Preached in a Congregation mostly of Young ones for whose benefit it was designed and to whom it was chiefly accommodated it did affect when heard why may it not when Read The account given of the Party deceased in the latter end is most of it true upon my personal Knowledge who was frequently with him in his Sickness unto whom much then mentioned was spoken the rest I believe to be true upon the Authority of credible Persons who were with him when I was absent He had the ill Fate which attends many Young Men to the Blasting those Hopes their Relations or Country might have of them to fall into some bad Company and then as wonder if into some bad Courses Though he never arrived at any height of Debauchedness But beside the more timely Checks God gave him in the way of his providence by some Cross Occurrents and the stop he was thereby put to which in his Health I have heard him acknowledge to have been his mercy he was further in his Sickness awakened to a serious consideration of his ways which he did with great regret reflect upon and judge himself for not only making promises no less deceitful in most under his Circumstances than frequent of what he would do and be should the Lord restore him but Earnestly Praying for Christ and Grace both for pardon and purging with several serious and spiritual Expressions more then was expected from one who had lately been under so
The Care that our Creator takes of us in this World should engage us to remember him When he thought fit to tye the Marriage-knot between Martal and Immortal the Body and the Soul like an indulgent kind Father he before-hand provided all Accommodations that might be for the mutual Comfort of the loving Couple and is it not fit we should remember so great a Benefactor so kind a Friend He is our Landlord we his Tenants that hold all that we have on his Grant and shall we not acknowledg his Dominion and Soveraignty and pay him with delight this small and easy Tribute His Love to us surpasses the Love of Men or Women He lets us still abide in these Houses of Clay though we run behind and fail in the payment of that Homage he requires He bears our Affronts with Patience he tries us yet longer whilst we ingrateful Cratures can find in our Hearts to put off our best Friend only with good Words with fair Promises and vain Delays He prolongs our Days and gives us more time when his Justice might ere this have seiz'd upon us for our Arrears when we deserved to be cast into an eternal Prison and to be turn'd out of this World and Heaven both at once We are fed with his Bread clothed with his Wool all our Enjoyments our Friends our Health our Peace are his Gift and ought we not to remember the Donor of so many Mercies If the Rain and the Dew moisten and refresh the Ground 't is for our good if the Birds of the Air and the Beasts of the Field are maintain'd by the constant Supplies of his Providence 't is for us So that all the Creatures the Fowls of Heaven the Fishes of the Sea the Sun Moon and Stars that are the Lamps hung upon the Roof of our Dwelling to make our Lives the more sweet and comfortable nay the Day and the Night and the several Seasons of the Year utter their Voice Psal 19.2 and early and late call upon us to remember God The Language of all our Mercies is this that our Creator and their Parent is worthy to be lov'd and thought upon And if some of the Eastern Nations paid their early Devotions to the Sun * Vâ—ssius de origine progressu Idololatriae lib. 2. cap. 2. because of its Greatness and Splendor and Usefulness in cherishing and ripening the Fruits of the Earth with its kindly Beams because of its refreshing Heat and Comfortable Light How should we consecrate the Morning of our Age to God who made that so bright so useful and so glorious a Creature as it is and is much more by his favourable Influences to every one of us than the Sun is to the World He that has been long sick will remember the Physician by whose Skill and good Advice he obtain'd a Cure He that has by the help of his Friend been freed from a long and tedious Captivity will all his days with a thankful Heart remember that Friend The Pilgrim will remember him that gives him Entertainment in his Travel the Poor his Benefactor And shall not we then remember our Creator who when we were fallen among Thieves and Robbers among the savage Inhabitants of the miserable Place who had left us as they thought for dead having stript us of our Innocence sent his own Son to heal our Wounds and to cloath us with the Garments of Salvation When we were by our own Folly like to languish all our Days in Bondage and a dark mournful State he sent the Angel of the Govenant to strike off our Chains and to yield us so much of heavenly Light that we might both see who it was that set open the Prison Door and where the way lay that would conduct us to a better place When we had sold our selves he bought us again at a great and dear Price 1 Pet. 1.19 The Blood of his own Son When we were poor he open'd the Treasures of Heaven to make us rich and to supply our Wants How frequently then ought we to remember such a God that when we had turn'd our selves out of Happiness was willing to sheath his flaming Sword and to let us enter into the Joys of a better Paradise than that which was the Seat of our first Parents That sent us the News of Pardon when we were condemn'd by the Sentence of the Law even when Satan was leading us away to Execution and when we deserved to dy III. The third General to be spoken of is to shew what necessity there is that we should remember our Creator now in the days of our Youth And this will be evident when he have considered those two things First We know not but before the days of old Age Death may cut us off There be many Young Men that are now past all help and have set in Darkness that might have been shining among the Stars above had they not been over-perswaded by the Devil to neglect their God through the hopes of a long and easie Life that would never believe they were in danger till it came like an Armed Man never believe they should leave the World till they were seiz'd with the last Agonies and Pains of Death We are now in Health but do we know how soon a mortal incurable Distemper may seize upon us We are now travelling on the Road but do we know when we shall arrive at our long home and conclude our Journey Now we are in the number of the Living but ere long we may increase the number of the Dead and add some Unites more to the Weekly Bills We should remember our Creator now for the next Moment is not our own our Life is a Dream or Vision of the Night Job 20.8 that is possest with strange Delusions that when we awake to a serious Thoughtfulness of what is our real Interest pass away 1 Chron. 29.15 and are not remembred with Delight any more Our Days on Earth are as a Shadow that will vanish when the Sun is either gone down or when 't is wrapt in the Mantle of a thick Cloud Though we are now at ease in these Cottages of Clay yet we are here only by Permission and during the Pleasure of our Lord but when our Lease will expire or the day of our Departure come we know not Heb. 9.27 It is by the unalterable Decrees of God appointed for us all once to dy but we that are forbidden to pry into the Arcana's of his secret Counsels know not when that Statute that was made because of our Sin shall be put in Execution and take both our Lives and Goods away Now we have pitch'd our Tents but are not certain when the Orders will be issued out for us to remove into another place Now the Body and the Soul like two loving Friends dwell in Peace together but they must part one into the Grave and the other into a Country that is at a far
early Fruit If we do not thus what Plea shall we make at his Bar and how shall we meet our Parents and our holy Friends in the day of Judgment The Time is coming when Riches and Honour Health and Beauty Credit and Reputation among Men will be of no value nor will Gold and Silver the Idols of this be currant in the next World We should not therefore be like those young People that are only serious in the House of Mourning or when they see their Friends carried to the Grave but in the next vain Company suffer the Impressions of their Mortality to wear off again We must be always sober in our Conversation as not knowing when we our selves shall be gone only this we may know that as the Years we have already lived are soon past so will those that are to come with the same swift Motion pass away The longest Life here on Earth is but as a Moment if compar'd with the future Eternity 'T is as a flash of Lightning to the whole Element of Fire just seen and then vanisht And can it after all this be too soon to serve our Creator with our best Affections to implore his Pardon to call on his Name when ere long there will be no more use of Prayer no more the Tenders of Salâ—ation no more Time Sixthly If we would Remember our Creator now in the Days of our Youth Let us think with our selves how dreadful our Case would be should we be surprized by Death before we had done this If we cannot perform this Work now when our earthly House is in good Repair how shall we do it when the Foundations and the Building both will be destroyed and it may be struck to the Ground on a sudden as with a Clap of Thunder If we find our selves Indisposed for our ordinary Business with an aking Head or Tooth do we think to mind our Salvation when every Part of our Bodies shall be rackt with the most violent and painful Agonies and when we shall have no Intervals of Ease but be rudely treated by the Diseases that come before to clear the way for the King of Terrors Or shall we stay till the Blow be given or the Season past It may be we think there is no Danger or that we shall have time enough hereafter but our Disease is not the less for our Insensibility and to conceit our selves Well when in the Judgment of God and his Word we are much out of Order is the worst Symptom of our approaching Death What better would it be for a sick Man to fall into a Slumber and to dream of Health when he is given over as hopeless and not for this World any longer What better would he be to think his Candle will last for many Hours when it is just falling into the Socket and yeilds but a little dying Blaze which he through Mistake fancies a true lasting Flame What better would a Prisoner be to dream in the Night of Freedom and a Pardon when he sees the Officer entring in the Morning to carry him away to Execution And shall we be in a better State if we put off our Creator with Delays till Death enter into the Windows and deprive us of our Light and siezing on us by a Warrant from God hale us away to the Prison of the Grave and to the glorious awful Tribunal whether we will or not In what Mountains shall we seek a Refuge if we make no Provision for our selves till the Floods come and the weak Pillars whereon we now lean be wash'd away How many young Men are now awake and that for ever in the Flames of Hell that never would open their Eyes till they came thither That were taken away living and in the Wrath of God Ps 58.9 before their Pots could feell the Thorns before they had any real Sense of their near Danger And as the Case of that Person is very sad that when he has been newly rack'd and while he is yet sore and pained is to be carried again to the Torture So is theirs that are twice to dye whose Souls go trembling from the Body to more intolerable Pains that go from the first to the second from a Temporal to an Eternal Death How many are now in the Regions of perpetual Storms that thought because their Sun once shin'd they should always have good Weather and a clear Day For God's Sake then and for our own let us be Religious betimes and not suffer our selves to be bound with Cords in the Houses of our Enemies with more Sins lest we lose our Strength and God depart from us when we think like Sampson in the Hands of the Philistins Judg. 16.20 to rise and go abroad with the same Freedom that we did at other times The Lamp of our Life may be drown'd with too much Moisture or when we think all is calm be blown out with a sudden Blast or a stormy Wind and leave us in the Dark and when it has once expired there will be no Supplies of Oyl to make it burn again And then like the blinded Youth of Sodom Gen. 19.11 we shall reel to and fro and not find a Door of Hope till we feel the sealding Drops of Vengeance that will by degrees swell into a Flood and carry us away to the great Lake of Fire This will be the Consequent of our vain Delays and oh how dreadful will it be when instead of the Bosom of Abraham we shall find our selves in the cold Arms of Despair and instead of the Joys of Heaven have in our guilty Souls Mark 9.44 the Worm that never dyes If Men break in the World they may by the kind Assistance of their Friends and Benefactors be set up again If they be Imprisoned they may through the Mediation of the same be releas'd but what shall become of those that have no Friends that have nothing wherewith to pay their Debts and must languish and pine away in a tedious Bondage never to be eased of their Sorrows never to be released And such and more dreadful will be the State of those young Men that are surpriz'd in the moment of their Wickedness and laid in the Chains of Hell unawares Dare we then forget our Creator now when whole Troops of so great Calamities are upon the March against us and we know not when their Leader that rides upon the pale Horse Rev. 6.8 will give the Word and command them to fall upon us If we now disregard the Checks of our own Consciences they will hereafter challenge us to give them Satisfaction and be revenged on us for all the Affronts that we have put upon them Sleep on we may but it will be very sad if we awake not before the Decree for our Execution be gone forth and before the killing Sword is at our Breasts If we will take no Care even when our Feet stand in slippery Places Psal 73.18 we may
that attended on his Weakness to read the Scripture to him when he could not reach it with his own Hand he desired others to administer to him that Bread of Life He was much in Prayer in the midst of his restless Nights and strong Pains resolving as long as he could to lift up those Eyes to Heaven which he believed would shortly be closed by Death and to spend that Breath in Desires after Grace which was every Moment ready to be stop'd Thus while his Body was detained on his Bed by various Pains his Soul was swiftly moving towards its proper Center And though by the Violence of his Disease he was somewhat stupified for a little while before he died yet while his Sences continued free in their Exercise he did with the bitter Cryes of a Penitent bewail his Sins expressing a great Hatred of them and a holy Indignation against himself Sometimes when he was told of Comfort he would mournfully say You know not what I feel My Sins ly very heavy on me my Sickness is not all nor is the Anguish of my Body so great as the Anguish of my Soul God gave him a very sensible tender Conscience which though it be grievous for a while yet is a great Mercy if compared with the great Judgment of an hard unmelting Heart which many Sinners both young and old are punish'd with so that even when they are on the Rack they do not confess their Sins nor seek after God He was greatly troubled And thus a loving Physician searches to the bottom of the Sore and puts his Patient especially when the Wounds are of a long Continuance to more then ordinary Pain that he may perform a great Cure When a Cloud of Despair seem'd to obscure his Comfort being told of the Pity and the Love of Christ to the greatest Sinners the Thoughts of his Saviour revived his dying Hopes and made him willing to pass through Darkness to Light through Pain to Rest saying I desire the Blood of Christ to cure all my internal Maladies And at another time said he desired him above all things The Night before his last he lay very Unquiet expressing a great sense of Trouble with many Sighs and Groans his Nurse rightly guessing that these were the Signs of something greatly afflictive to him advised him to ease his Mind which he immediately after did to him under whose Care he was with a serious Profession of Sorrow for the Sins he then Confessed and which he then found to be a great Burthen on his Conscience though they had been Committed long before The day before desiring the Prayers of the same Person and being ask'd what he would have begg'd of God for him He answer'd That God would shew his great Mercy on him in pardoning his Sins and healing his Soul and removing his spiritual Maladies owning with a due Sorrow his Sins of Omission and Commission and those which he had committed against the holy Spirit that would have reclaimed him from them He called to mind several suitable places of Scripture even beyond Expectation and very pertinently applyed them to the Necessities of his own Case which argued that he was no Stranger to that Rule which can more then all others teach a young Man best how to cleanse his Waies and to Remember God and at last said that he would be very willing to dye if he might have a Sense of the Mercies of Christ and of Pardon Which we have good ground to hope he did not come short of These were the Speeches and this the Behaviour of this dying young Man And lest any may be troubled to think that after so many Prayers and serious Endeavours as he used he should have so many Doubts and Fears about his Title to Forgiveness and a happy State I will add this viz. That it is greatly to be Considered that Satan whom the Scripture calls a Lyon when the Evening of Time is come to any Soul marches out of his Den and is then more full of Rage and Violence then he was before and as dying Bees or Serpents thrust out their Stings with greater vehemence so does he use the greater Force when he knows his time is but short He troubles the Souls of good People with dark and mournful Apprehensions of God and their own Condition when he sees them just at the Door of Heaven at which when they once enter his Spite is over and he can do no more Many Christians he thus Assaults that are of a long standing in the Vineyard and therefore it is not to be wondered if he thus tost to and fro this young Man who was but as a tender Plant. He had indeed a laborious Conflict and an hard Passage but we may well hope that it was but to him as a dark Night before a clear Day and that his Troubles here were but as the sharp Sauce the better to prepare his Appetite for the sweeter Tast of Happiness Many a time the Sun that sets in a Cloud does arise in Glory and many a Ship at last arrives to a quiet Harbour that met with Waves and Storms and high Winds all the way thither Let us also by this Example be perswaded to Remember our Creator now in the Days of our Youth while the evil Days come not For we see 't is he alone that can speak Peace and that to him alone we must go at last for Comfort who can heal our wounded Spirits and bear us up when if we should look to all our Friends they can only bewail our sad Case but not remove our Sorrows If we do this Mal. 3.16 17. he will write our Names in his Book of Remembrance and in that day when he makes up his Jewels he will spare us as a Man spareth his own Son that serveth him Ps 33.26 And when our Heart and our Flesh fails he will be the Strength of our Heart and our Portion for ever We may now see that all the Delights and Pleasures of the World are of no value and but miserable Comforters in the time of spiritual Distress from the sense of Sin and Guilt they will yield us then no Solace no peaceable Thoughts no Refreshment but our God is worthy to be thought upon who can by his Grace and Favour uphold and Bless the departing Soul To you that were the Acquaintance of the Deceas'd I shall only say this now you have stronger Engagements upon you to Remember your Creator then you had before for he has by the death of your Companion sent you a near and a loud Warning to prepare for your own He had but a little if any Sickness at all before that which proved his last Flatter not then your selves with the too great Hopes of long Life because of your present Health and Strength For though your earthly Tabernacles have not been undermin'd with many Infirmities and Diseases yet you know not but the first Storm that comes may shatter them
this serious Employment slight the Consideration of God and their Souls from day to day they run upon the score and so long spend their Substance till like ill Tradesmen they are unwilling to cast up their Books to make up their Accounts and to look into their own Souls they so long defer to speak with their own Consciences till at last they have no Message to them but of Wo and Terror So it must not be with us we must retire from the multitude of Temptations that we meet with in the World and reckon those happy Seasons wherein we may converse with God The Memory of a Person is disturb'd with a great Noise and so will our Thoughts be among the busy Cares and Clamours of the World Have we time to spend among our Acquaintance and our Friends and have we none for God that is our best Friend Can we take delight in the Company of others and yet take none in his in whom all the Myriads of the blessed Angels and the glorious Saints and the whole Society of sincere Worshippers in the Church on Earth daily rejoyce Mat. 6.31 Can we be solicitous what to eat and drink and what to put on and not be as much careful about the more violent and pressing Necessities of our Souls Or have we any Business that is more weighty than this how we may please our Creator grow in Grace and avoid the Wrath to come We should when we awake take the Wings of the Morning and fly up to Heaven and every one of us say This day will I remember God and in the Evening if we have been stedfast in our purpose we must praise him for his Assistance and do the same again No Business can excuse any for the neglect of so great a Duty Even the Apprentice must remember that he has a great Master in Heaven to serve and if the Affairs of his Trade require a more than ordinary Care he may rise a little sooner in the Morning and go to bed a little later as knowing that no Service for others can dispense with the Allegiance he has sworn to God and that he will never have cause to repent of the time he spends in serious fervent Prayer and when the Young Man is in his Retirement we may suppose him to address himself to his Creator in this or the like manner O my merciful Creator view from thy sacred Throne a poor Sinner that am covered with Shame and Blushing when I think I have long too long been forgetful of thee and of my true Self be thou my Physician for I am diseased be thou my Satisfaction for all the Time I have wandred to and fro in a strange Land I have been seeking Rest but have found none Luke 15.19 I am not worthy to be called thy Son any more but let thy Bowels yearn over a poor Prodigal that now sees his Error and is resolv'd by thy Assistance not to run away from his Duty nor to sin again O God my God early will I seek thee Psal 63.1 my Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no Water is 'T is true Lord I had once set mine Eyes on that which was not Prov. 23.5 but henceforth I will humbly make mention of thy Name and contemplate thy Glories and not gaze with Delight on this cheating vain World again Behold according to my Baptismal Engagement and vow I give up what is thy own to thee I surrender all that I have or am all the Faculties and Powers of my Soul to be thine for ever And here I now promise as in thy Presence and as I ever hope to hear a welcome Sentence in the day of Christ that I will not any more be led away with ill Examples nor conspire with Sinners to rebel against Thee be thou therefore O my gracious Creator the Directer of my Steps the Guide of my Life my Strength in Weakness my Friend in Trouble and inspire me with Courage and Wisdom to manage my self well in the hour of my Combate when by my old Enemies the Flesh the Devil and the World against whom I now declare a perpetual War I shall be set upon Fourthly Another Rule that is to be observ'd of those that would remember their Creator now in the days of their Youth is to improve the secâ—â—â—d Passages of Providence either to the Church of God or themselves to this end We have all great reason to think of him Ps 111.4 and to celebrate his Praise who as the Royal Prophet speaks has caus'd his wonderful Works to be remembred And we of this Nation are more peculiarly engaged thankfully to commemorate the Miracles of his Mercy which appeared in the great Deliverance that he gave to our Fore-Fathers as on this day Norem 5. tho we are young we all share in the blessed Essects of such a wonderful Deliverance The Papists indeed that long envied the Wellfare of our Sion thought to have made England once more a Slave to the Prince of Darkness and like to Rome Even We have Reason to be thankful for had their Train been fired and the Blow given there had been long ere this nothing to be seen in our Hemisphere but swarms of Locusts from the bottomless Pit nothing but Flies and Serpents and all the Plagues of Egypt And is not the God of England the God of our Fore-Fathers and our God worthy to be remembred that has hitherto kept these Frogs from croaking in our Houses and our Bed-Chambers Far be it from us either to forget such a God or to mock him as we shall if we thank him for our Escape out of the House of Bondage and yet as too many in our days be willing to return again thither If like foolish Children we cry for the Leeks and Garlick of others when we have at home better Food 'T is fit we should remember the God of this great Deliverance that so we may never leave our own pure and holy Faith for an Idolatrous and a false Religion the Religion of Rome that is indeed a scandal to the Name and that instead of Meekness and Love the true Lineaments of all the Followers of Jesus has by its cruel Designs no other than tho Features of the Devil the Great Murderer from the beginning Jâ—hn 8.14 And when the Plotters delighted in those Works of Darkness they acted as true Children of him their Father who flies the Light When they digg'd as deep as Hell they were but in their own Element for all they that are born from Heaven carry upon them Forbearance Peace and Innocence which is to resemble indeed a patient holy God I am the more willing to enlarge upon this both because of the Respect I bear to that Authority that enacted the Observation of this as a Day of general Thanks-giving over all the Nation and because young Men to some of which the Providence
slide into the dark Pit from which there will be no Redemption We may be surprized with the loud Thunder and the roaring Cannon when we think there is no Danger and when we flatter our selves with the vain Hopes of Peace and Safety sudden Destruction may come upon us 1. Thes v. 3. as Travel upon a Woman with Child To what shall I compare the Miseries of that young Man that is taken away in the midst of all his Pleasures and before he hath well thought of Death 'T is as dreadful as if you should see a Person in the midst of all his Mirth and Laughter immediately fall down Dead so that he cannot by all the Tears of his Friends nor by all the Chafing and Applications that are made be fetch'd to Life again A Surprizal that carries with it as great Horror and Amazement as does the sudden falling of a cruel Enemy into the Tents of a luxurious wanton Army that spares neither Young nor Old that mingles their Blood with the Sacrifices they made to their lustful Appetites and gives them no time either to Arm or to cry for Quarter 'T is as Dreadful as if a Massacre should happen among a company of little Children playing in the Street that while they suspected nothing are cut in a thousand pieces and carried away to the other World in a Sea of their own Blood The sudden untimely Death of careless young Men is as dreadful as a general Inundation that while Men are asleep breaks over all Bounds and carries them their Houses and their Goods away together Have we then no Pity for our selves or do we resolve not to prepare for our Tryal till the Assize come and the Judge is seated on the Bench Is it a small or a tolerable thing to be snatchâ—d away in one Moment from Life and Hope to have our Souls violently torn from our Bodies and to be sent from under the Dews of Heaven and a chearful pleasant Habitation to be scorched with flaâ—â—ing Wrath and to Live in a Land of Darkness where is all that can afflict or grieve the separated Spirit If we were assured by certain Intelligence from the unseen World that this were the last Sermon we were to hear this the last time that we should have a Call to Remember God and to Repent and that before we Enjoy another of the Days of the Son of Man we should hear our final Doom and be either in Heaven above or Hell beneath Oh with what Cries should we rend the Heavens with what Earnestness should we pour out our Souls in Prayer and as a Criminal that is condemned to dye and is not ready for so great a Change make use of all our Friends to begg of God that he would Reprieve us and spare us a little longer that we may acquaint our selves with him and make our Peace before we go hence and be no more Psal 39.13 With how many Tears should we then bewail our early Follies and not listen to the Charms of sensual worldly Pleasures or the Temptations of the Devil And why should we not do the same now seeing we know not but that may be our Case Mat. 24.42 We know neither the Hour or the Day when our Lord will come nor when Death that is by his Commission going its Circuit and has already past its Sentence upon many others will Arrive at our Place and call us also to the Barr. I might here have shew'd you how many and how great would be the Advantages of an early Remembrance of your Creator how by this you would be a great comfort to your Ministers and Parâ—â—ts and a Blessing both to this Age and to the next As also that hereby you would meet with prosperous Success in your affairs and after many years Labour sweet Repose and the Possession of an inward unspeakable Peace in your way to Glory And besides that you might in a great measure prevent those Calamities that have at a distance long threatned a secure careless People but now are at our very Doors and likely to seize on your Native Country which cries to you that are young to have pity upon her I might here entreat you as you would not see a Famine of the Word nor your Teachers driven to more solitary Corners nor after it has long stood upon the Threshold see the final departure of the Glory that you would now remember your Creator but I shall leave these to your more serious Consideration And now I shall endeavour to move you to this great Duty by setting before you the Example of that young man whose death presented me with the sad occasion of this Sermon though he be dead yet his Death speaks this to us all that we should in health remember our Creator and not defer so great a Work till we are just upon the Borders of the Grave We may think we are yet many paces off but when we have breathed a little longer we shall be there we shall go and dwell with him and with many others that were gathered from such Assemblies as this to the greater Congregation of the dead we shall go from the noise of populous Towns and Cities into that silent forlorn Desert and from Spirits that move in Bodies to those that are unclothed in that vast World which we the Pilgrims on Earth never saw and when we have well performed the Duties of our present state we shall go from moving in this Lower Firmament to move in that which is above all that we see and which is the proper Region and Sphere of the Soul the Seat and Habitation of the bless'd of all those that while they were on Earth remembred their Creator and believed in Christ I shall not draw the Picture of the Young Gentleman of whom I am now to speak in any other Colours then those which were reckoned to make up his true Complexion when he was alive and which were taken from him by such as had opportunity by Converse and Acquaintance to observe the several parts of his Behaviour I. In his more early days he was sent to the University of Dublin in Ireland that there he might obtain the useful knowledge of the Liberal Arts which when duely studyed are a great Ornament and Glory to the mind and render a man more capable of Noble Thoughts and Actions and greatly conduce to the making his Life not only more comfortable to himself but more useful to others but as is the deplorable condition of too many young men in such publick places of Education where the Boar out of the Forest the Devil waits to spoil the tender Vines that are newly planted there he was by the perswasion of ill Associates led away to some things not worthy of Commendation And when God that designed Mercy for his Soul not only checked him in his course by some cross Providences of which he still retained the sense but put it into the heart of his
necessary Work The evil days will come and the Years wherein we shall have no Pleasure And these together afford us this plain Proposition We ought in our early days before the Approaches of old Age to remember God In the explaining of which I shall endeavour to shew you I. What is meant by the Remembrance of our Creator II. Why we are engaged to this III. What should move us to do it in our early Days IV. What Rules we must observe that we may attain this early Remembrance V. What will be the good Consequences that will accompany the Practice of so great a Duty First What it is to remember our Creator It is in all our religious and civil Actions before others and in secret to have an awful reverential Sense of God upon our Souls to acknowledg his rightful Dominion over us and all our Actions to contemplate with delight and wonder the various efforts of his Goodness and his innumerable Favours to be mindful of his August Presence and to attempt nothing that is mean or sordid as knowing we are under the sight of his jealous Eye His that sees us in all our Retirements and Solitude that ponders our Steps and has all our private Thoughts our Words and Actions on Record to love Him with a supream cordial Affection to hope in his Promise to chuse him alone as our most lasting valuable chief Good To imitate as far as we can the Loyal Angels that surround his Throne in Postures full of Reverence and Submission that wait to know his Command and when 't is once revealed delay not but with a swift Motion execute his Pleasure To observe his Laws to celebrate his Praise to acquiesce in all his Dealings and Procedures with us to think of Him with the most elevated Apprehensions to mount as high as we can in our Contemplation of his glorious adorable Excellencies and then to descend and lie low in the humble Sense of our short scanty Thoughts to make Him the constant delightful Object of our Meditation This is to remember God and is the same with being truly Religious the mark of all sincere holy Persons whereas to forget him is to be wicked and to bear the stamp of Hell Psal 9.17 II. The second thing in order is to shew what Engagements we are under to remember our Creator First All the Faculties and Powers of our Souls are given us to this end and purpose The great Creator of the World has made all things for himself Prov. 16.4 and us much more who as far exceed all inferiour Creatures as Angels do Men and the Sun the lesser Lights He has beautified our Natures with so many Resemblances of his own glorious Perfections that we cannot look upon our Frame but we must view the fair Draughts of a kind and skillful Hand and when we see that they exceed all the best Essays of Art conclude they were drawn there by the Finger of the Lord who is upon this account worthy to be remembred Our Creator has endowed us with a sprightly Vigor and a Power of moving beyond all sensible exteriour Things that we may pass these by as too inglorious and mean for our Consideration and that when we see the World even in its best Cloaths and Furniture in all its Pomp and Splendor unable fully to content our Thoughts we may with a generous Disdain act like the Spectators of a better Place and soar as on Eagles Wings from these low Regions of Unquietness and Fear to the Seat of that one solid and eternal Good who can alone satisfy the boundless Desires of the Soul and ought to be the first Object of our Choice Have we a Spirit that is in its sublime Nature not only allied to Angels but to God himself and shall we forget our honourable Kindred or fix our Minds on these Vanities below when we have a Being that is all beautiful and lovely to think upon Our thinking Powers and our Affections stream'd from his ever-flowing Goodness and therefore should like the Rivers that owe their Being to the Sea make haste to pass through the Earth and return again thither Wherefore have we this Living immaterial Substance this glorious Inhabitant in our earthly Tabernacles sent from yonder World but that it may be mindful of its illustrious Descent of the Author of its Being and strive to shake off its Chains and to return to that happy Land again Wherefore are we assigned our abode here but to be the humble Spectators of our Maker's Wisdom and to yield him Praise and that while we see the World enriched with so many wonders of the divine Power and Goodness we may contemplate and adore the Creator of it Our heaven-born Spirits are design'd for a nobler Work than to gaze upon the small glimmering Appearances of Good and Pleasure here below and when we see all Sublunary things changing with a continual Vicissitude ebbing and flowing and scarcely for one day the same we ought to fix our whole Aim on him that is unchangeable Heb. 12.9 on him that is the Father of our Spirits that when the diseased crazy World shall give up the Ghost will inspire them with Life and Health 1 Cor. 7.31 that will cloath them in new Robes when the Fashion of these present things shall pass away and when this cheating fallacious Earth Psal 102 26. and the visible Heavens themselves shall wax old and like a Vesture be changed Shall we not remember our Creator when we have innumerable Instances of his Munificence and Bounty we are warm'd with his Beams see with his Light and shall we either shut our Eyes against him or turn them to meaner Objects when we have him always to look upon Besides this the very Frame of our earthly Dwelling which is so well fitted for all the noble Uses and Operations of the Soul should engage us to remember that wise Builder that has in fair and legible Characters set his own great Name upon it so that he that runs may read there the wonderful Wisdom and the Power of God This was the Employment of the Royal Prophet of all others most devout when he considered that he was fearfully made Psal 139 14. he breaths out the Desires of an Heart enflamed with sincere Love O God when I awake Vers 18. I am still with thee As soon as ever Sleep left his Eyes they were lifted up to Heaven and his Breast was filled with new Meditations of the great Wisdom and the Power of God The Soul of Man as * Dr. More in his Antidote against Atheism ch xi p. 61. one observes is as it were a compendious Statue of the Deity her Substance is a sollid Effigies of God And therefore as with Ease we may consider the Substance and Motions of the vast Heavens on a little Sphere So we may with like Facility contemplate the Almighty in this little Medal of God the Soul of Man Secondly