You should therefore Chuse God betimes because you know not how soon the Day of Grace may be past These are the Reasons of the Point And now I come to the Application and I shall make but two Uses of it One by Way of Trial And The other by Way of Counsel First By Way of Trial you have heard Young Ones what your Duty is to begin with God in the first Place and make him the Object of your Choice Now the Question I would ask you is what have you done in this Matter You that are in your Youth and Prime of your Days what have you done in this Matter Now is your chusing time pray what Choice have you made It is a needful Question God help you to answer it in your own Hearts One Chuses this Imploy another that one Chuses to go to Sea another Chuses to tarry on Shore one Chuses this Calling another Chuses that but have you Chosen God to be your God Have you ever made that Choice It was David's Question to the Egyptian 1 Sam. 30.14 To whom belongest thou To whom belongest thou Young Ones to whom do you belong Pray do you belong to God Why you will say how may I know this It can't be known a Priori as we say by God's Chusing of you that is an Imminent Act and Imminent Acts cannot give Evidence they Prove nothing therefore it must be known a Posteriori by some Subsequent Act of our own There are two Ways of being the Lord's People but there is but one Way of knowing it we are made his both by his Act and our own by his Electing of us and by our Electing of him Now we cannot know that we are God's by his Act by his Chusing of us but we may know it by our Act by our Chusing of him This is the Question that I would put to you have you seriously Chosen God to be your God Did you ever make this Choice This must be before any one can lay a true Claim to him God will never be yours let me tell you without your own Choice Now have you ever Chosen God I do not mean at a Present Pinch it may be under the Checks of Conscience or in some Present Distress many will take God to be their God but this Choice seldom comes to any thing it lasts but till the Storm is over and the Distress removed but have you ever chose God in the Sence Described Have you Chosen him by a Deliberate Act of the Will Guided by Judgment and with full Purpose of Heart to cleave to God How shall I know this you will say Briefly there are divers Ways by which it may be known I will name but Two or Three It may be known First By a Self-dedication and devoting of your selves to be the Lord's Whenever the Soul truly Chuses God for his God it is always accompanied with a Self-dedication to God So it is said of those Macedonians 2 Cor. 8.5 They gave themselves to the Lord. Now what can you say to this Have you ever given up your selves to be the Lord's resolving to live in an Intire Submission to his Will Have you ever made a Solemn Covenant between God and your own Souls that God shall be your God and that you through his Grace will be his Why if so then you have Chosen God and he is your God Secondly It may be known by your Behaviour in Reference to Sin When you are Tempted to any Sin either by Satan or by your own Lusts what do you do Do you give Way to it or do you run to Christ for Strength against it Do you Comply with it or do you Resist it Do you Countenance or Curb it Is it Loved or Hated This is no hard Case to Determine every Child can tell what he Loves and what he Hates No one that Lives in the Love of any known Sin can say that ever he hath Chosen God mind it any one Lust indulged will certainly confute this claim For where Sin is Loved there it Reigns and where Sin Reigns God is Disowned And can any one Disown God and yet say he hath Chosen God It cannot be Thirdly It may be known by your Obedience He that Chuses God for his chief Good Chuses him for his only Lord and that necessarily inferrs Obedience to him in all things So says the Apostle His Servants ye are whom ye obey Rom. 6.16 Many make their Boast of God and Claim a Propriety in him but whom do you obey Pray mind that doth the Flesh bear sway Doth Pride reign Do youthful Lusts and Vanities command the Heart Why then I tell you God was never the Object of your Choice you may Profess him and Talk of God but you have never Chosen God for your God It is not Profession but Affection and Action that must warrant our Title to God David Psalm 119.94 tells God I am thine Lord I am thine Ay but how does he prove it Why says he I have sought thy Precepts Pray mind he does not only say I have kept thy Precepts I have done them but I have sought them Now to seek them is much more than barely to do them It implies Four Things First An earnest Desire to know them and that is a great Evidence of an upright Heart and a sincere Love to God to be Inquisitive into the Will of God Secondly It implies an Affection and Respect no Man seeks what he doth not Love I have Respect says David to all thy Commandments Thirdly It implies a constant Endeavour to Practice them for the end of seeking is keeping we seek to know his Will that we may do it and therefore seeking and keeping are put together Psalm 119.2 Blessed are they that keep his Testimonies and that seek him with the whole Heart Fourthly It implies earnest Desires after higher Measures of Grace for the bettering of our Obedience this is seeking Now such a seeking is a sure Evidence of your chusing of God O therefore that I could prevail with Young Ones to come to the Trial in this Matter whether ever you have really chosen God or no! And I tell you why I urge it for Three Reasons First Because it is about the most concerning Case in the World as it is the greatest Duty in the World to seek after God so it is the greatest Priviledge in the World to know my Interest in God therefore it is a Matter worth Inquiring into What if all the World were thine If God be not thine you are undone and will you not know whether he be yours or no Secondly I urge it because of the Treachery and Deceitfulness of your Hearts The Heart is Deceitful above all things the Prophet says so in Young Ones especially and in nothing more than in this Matter How fondly and presumptuously do many Boast of their Propriety in God when alas they have no manner of Interest in him It was the very Case of Laodicea She
MATTHEW MEAD Minister of the Gospel Aetatis Suce 70. An. o Do 1699. Printed for Iohn Marshall Sold by him at the Bible in Grace-church-Street THE Young Man's REMEMBRANCER AND YOUTH's Best Choice BEING An Exhortation to Conversion in Two Anniversary Discourses from Eccl. xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them LONDON Printed in the Year MDCC THE EPISTLE TO Young Readers Looking towards the Kingdom of God Dearly Beloved in our Lord THE Hopes that there is a Harvest of Young Ones to Christ for which the Fields are Already White when Christ shall have in this sense the Dew of his Youth from the Womb of the Morning and You Free-will Offerings to Him in that Day of his Power This gives Encouragement of this Address to you in Confidence there will be many of You Readers It is Evident Young Persons are One Eminent Portion of the Lord Jesus his Love and Care and so of the Gospel Ministry and of the Servants of God in all Ages God was assured of Abraham he would Instruct his Children after Him in his Knowledge and Fear Moses took great Care of this to leave Monuments for Young Israelites growing up David the Father gave Excellent Principles to his Son Solomon And in a Holy Zeal and Love to Young Men cries out Wherewithal shall a Young Man cleanse his Way As if he should say What Spiritual Engine shall I find to raise the Hearts of Young Men to Buoy them up from the World the Raging Sea of Vanity Lust and Wickedness I should rejoice in such a One and I have found it even thy Word to which they should always give heed Solomon in this Penitential Sermon of his after some Declinings recovering the Piety of his Youth in which he stiles himself Ecclesiastes or the Preacher is much engaged in it as you will see in the Following Discourses Jesus Christ in Love to the Rising Hopes of Young Ones Blessed early even Infant Age The Beloved Apostle that lay in the Bosom of Christ says I write to you Young Men because you are strong Vigorous in Mind Body full of Spirit and Vivacity and in all of them who are Christians the Word of God abideth and as Vigorous Persons the Champions of Christ overcome the Wicked One though the Strong Man Obadiah feared God from his Youth that early Saint of the Old Testament Timothy of the New Testament Knew the Scriptures from a Child Christ remembers the Kindness of Youth the Love of First Espousals before farther Alienations from him and Prostitutions to Sin Satan the World His Soul desires the First Ripe Fruit. Oh that all this might perswade But I especially recommend the following Directions prepar'd for you given forth by some Excellent Master of Assembly whom I will not attempt to suppose who he was being not entrusted with it and whether he did not Animam in Vulnere Ponere He did not draw out his very Spirit and Life in shooting this Sharp Arrow of Christ into your Hearts that you might fall under Christ Oh therefore You in the Ascendency of Life against all Temptation flee Youthful Lusts sacrifice this Choice Part of Life to God take heed that Curse come not on you You who have in your Flock this Male of Life even Youth Oh design not to Vow to Sacrifice to God the Corrupt Thing of Old Age Grown old in Sin The Brand of a Deceiver is set on all such Know therefore in this your Day the Lord hath made for you the Day of your Visitation the Accepted Day of Salvation the Things of your Peace This is recommended to you in the following Instructions under the Blessing of the Eternal Father through the Redemption of the Eternal Son by the mighty Efficacy of the Eternal Spirit the One Eternal God the Ancient of Days the Father of Lights with whom is no variation of Age nor shadow of Turning to the West of Days to whom be Glory for Ever Amen TO THE READER IT may not be amiss to inform thee that this Piece thou hast now in thy Hand may truly he called Orphan and therefore it cannot be expected to come forth in such a Curious Dress as becomes the Child of such a Parent there being no possibility of access to his Wardrobe to adorn it Yet notwithstanding I hope there are many Witnesses to its Birth into whose Hands it may come that may give sufficient Testimony of its Legitimacy It cannot be at all questioned but you who have so often desired and have with pleasure heard its Voice but will also add this Request to your former Let me see thy Face It now with Samuel to Eli cries out Here am I for thou didst call me Say not of it as the God of Israel How shall I put thee among the Children But let this which was the Parents Benoni be thy Benjamin and the rather because as the Reverend Mr. Mead says * Preface to Four Vseful Discourses by J. Burroughs The Publishing the Labours of such Men of Worth is of Happy Tendency to promote our Communion with them in the Spirit whom it may be we never saw in the Flesh and it is to be reckoned among our Mercies when the Dead are made to speak that the Living may be perswaded to hear May the God of Heaven attend this Essay with his Blessing that its Publication may be attended with such Success as was the Author's Design in its Preaching and may'st thou by this Small Tract be Enabled to have an Eye to that Reward which now he reaps as the end of so Liberal a Seed-time here even Everlasting Joy and Felicity in the World to come Farewel THE Young Man's REMEMBRANCER I. DISCOURSE Eccles xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them THE Two great Duties of the Christian Life are to Cease to do Evil and to Learn to do Well the one is Negative Godliness the other is Positive the latter can never be without the former No Man can be Good that doth not Cease to be Evil and therefore Solomon Exhorts to the former in the Last Verse of the foregoing Chapter and he brings it in with an Illative Particle Put away Evil from thy Flesh It referrs to the Ninth Verse Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment These things that is these youthful Lusts these sensual Pleasures which by a sharp Satyr he does reprove in the former part of the Verse Rejoice O young Man in thy Youth and let thy Heart Cheer thee in the Days of thy Youth and Walk in the Ways of thy own Heart and in the Sight of thine Eyes As if he should say if thou art resolved upon thy Lusts and bent to
and Confidence in thy Word and Promises Thirdly This Remembrance implies Repentance Forgetfulness and Impenitence always go together Repentance is a Calling Sin to Remembrance with a Due Sence of the Evil of it and Sorrow for it as it is done against God and how can this be where God is forgotten If there be no right Conceptions of the Nature of God His Omniscience His Holiness and Justice there can be no Repentance for Sinning against him They are frequent Remembrances fresh Views of God that work to Repentance and Self-abhorring So it did in Job Chap. 42.5 6. Mine Eye seeth Thee therefore I abhor my Self and Repent in Dust and Ashes The Clearer Manifestations a Soul hath of God the Deeper will its Humiliation for Sin be When Peter remembred the words of Christ then he went out and Wept bitterly Till we Remember and Consider God in the Purity of his Holiness the Severity of his Justice the Tenderness of his Mercy the Inevitableness of his Wrath we can never truly Repent of Sin Fourthly This Remembring of God carries Love in it Though an Object be every Way Amiable and made up of Delights yet it can never be let into the Affections so long as it is shut out of the Thoughts nor on the other hand can it be with any pleasure Remembred when it has no room in our respect God's Design and End is not so much to be Remembred by us as to be Loved by us and his bespeaking a room in our Thoughts is that he may Dwell in our Hearts The Highest Act of Honour the Creature can do to God is to trust him and love him Those that Distinguish the Order of the Angels place the Seraphims above the Cherubims because they have a more ardent Love as well as a more clearer Light a Remembrance of God without a suitable respect will neither be Profitable nor Durable for when any other Object Possesses our Affections God is soon forsaken and forgotten then a Man Remembers God aright when his Affections are suitable to his Apprehensions As it is with Sin a Man hath not the right Notion of Sin unless he feel the Weight of it and loath it Then shall ye Remember your own Evil Ways and shall Loath your Selves for your Iniquity Ezek. 36.31 Or as it is with the Word of God no Man remembers the Word aright if he do not Believe it and Love it So no one can have right Apprehensions of God who has not Choice Affection to him and his Chief Delight in him Look what that is which we Love best and we always think of that most what a Man Loves best is his Chief Good and his Chief Good is his Treasure and where the Treasure is there the Heart will be Christ says What we Love we Delight to think upon as what we hate we soon forget So it is said of Jeshurun Deut. 32.15 He forgat God which made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation He lightly esteemed him and therefore soon forgets him If one that is but a common Acquaintance with you be Absent you soon forget him out of Sight out of Mind but a bosom Friend a dear Friend a Friend that is as a Man 's own Soul you cannot forget such a one Love will remember him when the Eye cannot see him and makes him Present when he is Absent nay he lives in the Mind when perhaps he lies dead in the Grave therefore I Pray mind that Precept of our Lord Matth. 22. ver 37. Thou shalt Love the Lord with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind Mark ye it is not said only Thou shalt Love God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul but with all thy Mind we Love him with the Heart and Soul when we Devote our selves to him and we Love him with our Mind when we have him daily in our Thoughts and Remembrance the Desire of our Souls is to thy Name and to the Remembrance of thee Isa 26.8 Fifthly This Remembring of him implies Obedience Obedience to his Will the Will of God is the Rule of Obedience and his Will is made known in his Word Obedience is Knowledge digested into Affection and Practice Hence is that Counsel of David to his Son Solomon Know thou the God of thy Father and serve him with a perfect Heart and with a willing Mind 1 Chro. 28.9 Paul's first Question when touched his Heart was Who art thou Lord And then the next was What wilt thou have me to do Acts 9.5 6. to shew us that all Obedience is produced by Knowledge As Ignorance is the Cause of Sin so a Right Sence of God is the best Antidote against it for this begets Love and the more God is beloved the more readily he will be obeyed a weak Conception and a fruitless Remembrance of God Glorifies him no more than a Painter does the Person whose Picture he draws The Glory of God consists not in the lifeless Notions of him but in active Conformity to him a Natural Man may have some Pleasure in knowing the Nature of God Ay but he cares not for knowing the Ways of God Job 21.14 They say we Desire not the Knowledge of thy ways He would own him in his Mercy and Goodness but he hath no regard to his Precepts Mercy is suitable to our Wants but Obedience is repugnant to the Interest of the Flesh That Knowledge of God which doth not take root in the Heart and grow up into Obedience in the Life it is Blindness and Ignorance in God's Account whatever our Notions of it may be Those Gentiles which are said to know God Rom. 1.21 they are said ver 28. not to know God The Sons of Eli could not but know the Lord having such a good Father and being the Lord's Priests But yet because they were Loose and Vile in their Carriage and Behaviour therefore they are said not to know the Lord 1 Sam. 2.12 As there can be no Obedience where God is known so that Knowledge of God stands for nothing which is not fruitful in Obedience It is a Blessed thing so to know God and so to Remember him as not to forget his Precepts It is Moses his Counsel to that People and it is mine to you Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God Deut. 8.11 How is that The next Words tell you in not keeping his Commandments that is forgetting of God Disobedience is called a Forgetting God They forgat God their Saviour Psalm 106.21 And we are said to forget his Words when we do not Remember his Commandments to do them Psalm 103.18 And that which here in the Text is called Remembring thy Creator is in Chap. 12. Ver. 13. expressed by Fearing God and keeping his Commandments which is said to be the Whole Duty of Man If the Authority of God be cast off and we make not his Word the Rule of our Lives he is as much forgotten as if he were
says Remember thy Creator now in the Days of thy Youth You little think how soon Death may come it doth not always give warning what warning had the Rich Man Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee when he cries out I have Goods laid up for many Years What warning had Job's Children that were all taken away in an Hour O Sirs Death hath several passages to your strong Holds that you cannot find out He doth not lay long Siege to all There is no saying to Death when it comes there is one Older than I take him there is one was Gray when I was but a Child let him go first No Sirs you must know that Sin hath alter'd the Course of Nature the Son Dies before the Father and the Daughter before the Grand-Mother I say therefore the Present Time is only yours yesterday can never be recalled and to Morrow may never be enjoyed The Present Time is only yours Young Ones Die as well the Old Blossoms are liable to Nipping in the Spring as well as full Grown Fruit to Rotting in Autumn Thou that art Young and Strong thou art not sure of another Year no nor of another Day O therefore who would hazard his precious Soul upon such uncertainties Opportunity ended returns no more There is hope of a Tree if it be cut down saith Job that it will sprout again but Man lyeth down and riseth not till the Heavens be no more Sirs Pray remember we have but one Arrow of Life to hit the Mark with and if we shoot at Random we loose all therefore we had need be good Archers O what will you do Young Ones what will you do if your Day be ended before your work be finished if your Paradice be laid waste before the Tree of Life be planted in it O therefore that you would be perswaded to hearken to God here in the Text To Remember thy Creator now in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Days draw nigh wherein thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them THE YOUTH's Best Choice II. DISCOURSE Eccles xii 1. Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth while the Evil Days come not nor the Years draw nigh in which thou shalt say I have no Pleasure in them THere are two great Concerns which lye upon all our Hands which ought to be seriously thought of by us and duly attended the one is A Wise Improving this present Life and the other is A careful providing for a better two Things which none can be too Diligent about and he that is truly Faithful in one will in some Measure be Conscious in both And both these are pointed at in the Text. For he that in the Days of his Youth Remembers his Creator as he ought does at once rightly improve the present Life and wisely provide for that to come and so unites in his Practice those Duties that God hath joined together in the Precept Remember thy Creator now in the Days of thy Youth c. In which Words you have the Call and Command of God to a very Important Duty wherein we may observe First The Act or Duty it self to Remember Secondly The Object to be Remembred Thy Creator Thirdly The Season wherein this Duty is to be put in Practice now But least you should think that this now takes in the whole time of the Present Life therefore he does exclude the latter Part of Life and limits this now to the former Part Remember thy Creator now in the Days of Youth I did the last Year as some of you may remember upon this Occasion speak from these Words I then only opened them to you and shewed the Comprehensive Sence of them without making any Observation from them I told you that this remembring our Creator points to a Fivefold Duty First To a right Knowledge of God and he cannot be rightly known but in and by Christ we cannot else know the Way of doing it for he is the Way the Truth and the Life And therefore the right Remembring our Creator includes in it a Saving Knowledge of God in Christ Secondly This Remembring includes believing we cannot be said to remember God in the Sence of the Text if we do not depend upon him and trust in him therefore David expresses his Faith in God by remembring of him Psalm 20.7 Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God That is others trust in Creatures but our trust shall be in God Thirdly Remembring implies Repenting Forgetfulness and Impenitency always go together Sinning is called in Scripture a Forgetting God and Repentance is a calling Sin to Remembrance with a true Sence of the Evil of it and Sorrow for it as done against God and therefore where God is forgotten and out of our Remembrance there can be no Repentance Fourthly Remembring our Creator carries in it Love and Respect Though an Object be every way Amiable and made up of Delights yet it can never be remembred with pleasure when it hath no room in our Respect God's Design and End in requiring to be remembred by us is that he may be loved by us and his bespeaking a Place in our Thoughts is that he may have a Room in our Hearts The highest Act of Honour the Creature can do to God is to trust him and love him A Remembrance of God without suitable Respect cannot answer the Call in the Text because it is but passant and transcient For when any other Object possesseth our Affections God is soon forgotten and forsaken What we love we love to think on as what we slight we soon forget As it is said of Jeshurun he forgat God that made him and lightly esteemed the Rock of his Salvation Fifthly This Remembring of God includes obedience to his Will Obedience is nothing else but Knowledge digested into Affection and Action Hence is that Counsel of David to his Son Solomon Know thou the God of thy Fathers and serve him with a perfect heart and willing mind As there can be no Obedience where God is not known so that Knowledge of God stands for nothing that is not fruitful in Obedience Mark that Counsel of Moses Deut. 8.11 Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God How is that The next Words tell you in not keeping his Commandments Disobedience is a forgetting God so that that which in the Text is called a Remembring our Creator is in the last Chapter of this Book ver 13. expressed by fearing God and keeping his Commandments If the Authority of God be cast off and we make not his Word the Rule of our Lives he is as much forgotten in a Scripture Sence as if he were utterly shut out of our Thoughts So says David I have remembred thy Name O Lord and have kept thy Word So that you see this Remembring is a very Comprehensive Term. Then the Object to be
but as better than all other good whatever We shall never chuse God before all till we come to Esteem him above all Thirdly This chusing of God implies a voluntary Inclination and Desire a Man is said to chuse those things which he Likes and Loves and which his Soul Inclines to So that he is carried after them not by the Force of any External Principle but by his own Propension and Inclination and this supposes Love for Desires are the Natural Issues of Love The Soul can never mount upward if the Affections tend downward and therefore when the Holy Ghost would give an advance to the Life of God in the Soul he begins first with the Affections Set your Affections on things above and then as Desires always spring from Love so they are drawn forth by a Sence of Want for what we Love and have not that becomes a Want and Sence of Want will quicken Appetite and set Desires on Work now these Desires must be fed and satisfied and that none can do but God therefore it is God that he chuses Fourthly This chusing implies a firm Purpose and a fixed Resolution of adhering to our choice We never chuse till we bring our Minds and Wills to a firm Purpose there may be many good Thoughts and Wishes in the Soul but still till we are resolved for God we do not chuse him When the Heart is Peremptory and Fixed for God that will come to something when the Soul says I see I am an undone Creature I am convinced of my State and the Necessity of my Case I must have God I must secure an Interest in Christ I must be Born again I must mind the saving of an Immortal Soul this will come to somewhat and a Profession of Religion let me tell you signifies very little till it comes to this Who is this that hath engaged his Heart to Approach to me says God Jer. 30.21 It is Resolution that ingages the Heart for God and makes our choice of him firm and unalterable especially if it be deliberate and intire First It must be deliberate from a Sence and Conscience of our Duty and Interest Resolves taken up upon Sudden Surprizes or Present Heats rarely produce any good Effect This is often the Case of you Young Professors that are like an Early Spring all Blossoms but no Fruit or like a Vapour Exhaled by the Warmth of the Sun that rises no higher than the middle Region where it is Condensed and drops down again This is that very thing that makes so many Apostates from God and his Ways they take up a Profession of Religion too soon before the Word of God has taken Root in the Heart Indeed a Soul that chuses God aright can never Profess him too soon the sooner the better but he that makes a Profession of God before he makes a choice of God before the Word is rooted in the Heart or any thing of the Power of Religion is felt within such a one takes up a Profession too soon It is said of the Seed Sown in stony Places Mat. 43. Forthwith it sprung up Above ground too soon it grows upward but not downward all Blade but no Root So says Christ Verse 21. Yet hath he not Root in himself And what follows He dureth but for a while A Mushroom Christian the Birth of a Night and the Abode of a Day Such begin too soon to hold out with God long This has caused many Scoffers at Religion to take up that Envious Proverb A young Saint and an old Devil whereas if they had said A young Hypocrite and an old Apostate it had been a Truth too too often Experienced Flashy Affections that have no Principles to maintain them within come to nothing they are like Fire in Green Wood that burns no longer than it is blown or like Water hanged over a Quick Flame that is soon Hot but when it is taken off again is as soon Cold nay Colder than it was before because the Natural Spirits are evaporated How nimbly does the Windmill Work when it blows a Brisk gale but the Wind no sooner ceases but the Mill stands So sudden and immature Resolutions come to nothing they must be managed with Judgment and Deliberation David's Practice is an excellent Pattern Psalm 119.59 I considered my ways and turned my Feet to thy Testimonies David speaks like a Man under a Dilemma as having two ways before him there is the Way of Sin and Lust and Carnal Delight this the Flesh presents and it seems an easie and a pleasant Way Ay but it leads to Destruction Then there is the Way of God's Commandments This the Word presents it is Narrow it is Troublesome but it leads to Life and that makes amends for all Now when we stand still and debate upon the Choice which of these is the better Way and consider the Loss and the Gain of either Side and the final Issue of the one Way and the other and thereupon resolve to take in with the Ways of God as promoting our truest Interest and Felicity this is a deliberate Resolution And this was the Course of that Prodigal Son when he came to himself Luke 15. v. 17. he first bethinks himself falls into a serious Debate of his Case How many Hired Servants of my Father's have Bread enough and I perish with hunger What shall I do I will arise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants Thus he debates the case with himself and thereupon takes up this resolve well I will arise and go to my Father there is his deliberate Resolution Secondly Our Resolution must be entire that is without boggling at any of God's Commands and without the reserve of any one Sin or Lust for no Man can serve two Masters the Commands of Christ and Satan are absolutely inconsistent Obedience to the one is downright Rebellion against the other we must not capitulate with Christ and think that strictness in some Duties will excuse our Indulgence to any Lust the great standing Law of Heaven is Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and him only shalt thou serve The Work of the Christian Calling is such as that it cannot be done without this we have many Enemies to oppose many Sins to conquer many Lusts to mortifie many Duties to perform therefore our Resolution must be entire and that is a Fourth Thing Fifthly This Chusing in the Text implies a complacency and delight in the Object of our choice though Election be an Act of the Will yet it is quickened by the Motions of the Affections As where the Will is bent against Sin there is always a hatred of it included so where-ever it fixes upon God it is attended with pleasure and delight When David had chosen God
for his Portion he expresses a delight in his choice Psalm 16. v. 6. The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage This is the Language of a Soul affected with its own Felicity and the pleasure it takes in an All-sufficient Good So it was in his chusing the Precepts of God says he I have chosen thy Precepts Psalm 119.173 and in the next Verse Thy Law is my Delight A Man loves what he chuses and where there is Love in the Choice there will be Pleasure in the Service for to love there is nothing grievous Thus you see what this chusing God does imply and carry in the Nature of it and that is the First Thing Secondly Let me give you the Reasons why it is the Duty of Young Ones thus to chuse God Why One great Reason is because God commands it that is the First Pray mind that of the Apostle 2 Epistle John v. 4. I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth as we have received a Commandment from the Father Pray mind these were a Ladies Children to teach us there are none too great to be good these Children were found walking in the Truth not taking a step or two making it a Business by the by as your Genteels and great Persons use to do but they persisted in it they were steady in the Ways of God and that in their Childhood against all the Tide and Stream of Youthful Lusts Now this was that God had commanded Mark ye though they were Children yet God commands this of them I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy Children walking in the Truth even as we have received a Commandment from the Father But where do we find this Command that Youth should devote themselves to God You have it in the Text Remember now thy Creator in the Days of thy Youth And there is a Command older than that Psalm 78.5 6 7. He established a Testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children What for That they might set their hope in God and not forget the Works of God but keep his Commandments Nay our Lord Jesus Christ strictly enjoins it Matt. 6.33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof First here does not only not a Preheminence first above all but it notes a Priority first before all It is very Observable that our Saviour in that Prayer he gave to his Disciples which you call the Lord's Prayer he gives but one Petition for Temporal Things and Five for Spiritual and that for Temporals is neither the First nor the Last Not the First for Hallowed be thy Name is before it Nor is it the Last for Deliver us from Evil comes after it to teach us that we must begin and end with God In Mat. 21.28 The Command of the Father to his Son is Go Work to Day in my Vineyard The command of God brooks no Delays the Promises of God have Respect to the Future but the Command looks to the Present To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts Why did God under the Law require for himself the first Sheaf of the Harvest the first ripe Fruits the Firstlings of the Herd and Flock but to teach us that our first Affections our first Strength our first Desires and first Choice and first Service should be Devoted to God For it is the command of God and that is the great Reason and Rule of all Obedience that is one Another Reason is this the Nature of your Extract and Original requires this Pray where had you your Beings Young Ones how came you into the World Who made you The Text tells you who this is in the very Notion God is mentioned in thy Creator There is a Concatenation of Reasons for the Creatures Owning and Chusing the Service of God included in this Notion of a Creator First He made us and not we our selves Psalm 100.3 The Prophet Isaiah says He spreadeth forth the Earth he gives Breath to the People upon it and Spirit to them that Walk therein Isaiah 42.5 So Elihu says Job 33.4 The Spirit of God hath made me and the Breath of the Almighty hath given me Life and is it not Reason that he that made us should b owned by us The Name of Father and Mother bespeaks all Duty and Honour from you Children If Children could begin their Duty in the Cradle and continue it a Hundred Years it could never Pay what Parents Deserve for all their Sorrow Care Pains and Cost Therefore Solomon is much in Pressing this Argument upon Children Prov. 23.22 Obey thy Father that Begat thee Mark that Begat thee he gave thee thy Being and Despise not thy Mother that brought thee Forth We are ever bound to Honour and Obey them for what they have done for us These Rational Beings do require it which they have been the Means to Derive to us and to Nourish and Nurse up This is highly Deserved at our Hands yea though they grow Old and Impotent and can serve us no longer O what then does God deserve from us who is much more the Author of our Being than our Father that Begat us or than our Mother that Bare us God is the First Cause Parents are but the Second Causes of Generation and the Second Cause depends upon the First and cannot act without it Therefore it is said of God In him we Live and Move and have our Being Therefore Man is nothing in our Production if compared with God and is it not Reason then that he made us should be owned and Honoured by us that he that is our Creator should be our Ruler We Own our Service where we Receive our Existence we are Debtors to God every one of us We Owe him our selves all we are and all we have for we are not our own we are the Lord's Propriety at his Disposal he hath the absolute Dominion over us as giving Being to us It is the Apostle's Argument Whether we Live or Die we are the Lord's de jure and it should be so de facto therefore we ought to Live to him Rom. 14.7 8. This Glory is the White at which we should aim Living and â—â—ying He is the Centre in which all the whole Circumstances of our Life should meet for he made us therefore Remember thy Creator Secondly He made us after his own Image and that is a Peculiar Priviledge of Creation beyond what other Creatures injoy There is the Print of God's Hand upon all his Creatures but there are none bear his Image but Angels and Men and this you are Stampt with in the very Womb. Not one of you but have the Image of God upon you the Youngest as well as the Oldest Though indeed the Moral Image of God which consists in Righteousness and Holiness that is Blotted out and Lost by the Fall we
your Sins The Presence of his Power to support your Persons The Presence of his Omniscience to know your Wants And the Presence of his Goodness to supply them He is your God your own God as David calls him God even our own God shall bless us A Man can never be happy that has nothing of his own and a Man can call nothing his own but God All things else may be lost but he that has made sure of God his Right can never be invaded nor his Propriety lost Mary hath chosen that good part which shall never be taken from her And is not this a Benefit Secondly Is it not a great Benefit to have the Heart fixt and stedfast in the Ways of God The Cause of all Halting in Religion is the Want of a Choice and Purpose resolutely set The Apostle says James 1.8 A Double-minded Man is Vnstable in all his Ways 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Two-Soul'd Man one that has a Heart and a Heart one for this way another for that one for God and another for the World Such a one must needs be unstable and of an inconstant Soul being as ready to depart from God as to close with him But he that owns God and his Ways by choice will suit his Conversation to his Election If he be sincere in his choice of God that will make him faithful in all his carriage to God And therefore Joshua when he would ingage the People to continue faithful with God he draws them on to a choice and then lays that upon their Conscience to bind them Joshua 24.22 Ye are witnesses against your selves that ye have chosen the Lord to serve him and they said we are witnesses It greatly strengthens a Bond when a Man freely binds himself Thirdly This resolute choice of God is of great advantage in carrying on the Work of the Heavenly Calling with the more ease and delight because a choice is nothing else but an inclination of the Soul guided by Judgment strengthened by Resolution and actuated by Love Now as Judgment justifies our choice and Resolution makes it entire so Love makes it easie and sweet and so our delight in obeying God answers to the sincerity of our chusing of him Fourthly This chusing God gives great peace and comfort in the Ways of God this is as natural as for the Fire to produce Heat The Fruit of Righteousness is Peace As Sin causes a Sting in the Conscience and a Wound in the Soul so every good Action done in Sincerity hath the approbation of the Conscience and that gives peace and the witness of the Spirit that brings joy and comfort This is intended in that of the Apostle Rom. 14.7 The Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Here is a double Benefit mentioned Peace and Joy There is a difference between them Peace is a tranquility of Mind springing from the rectitude of our Actions Joy is from the Impression of the comforting Spirit Peace is an acquittance from Conscience but Joy in the Holy Ghost is an acquittance from God himself who is our Supream Judge is the beginning of that Endless Joy that he has prepared for them that love him Fifthly This intitles you to a future and a fuller reward for in chusing God you chuse him for the future as well as for the present in chusing the ways of God you chuse all that is intailed upon them and that is Life and Blessedness So says Wisdom Whoso findeth me findeth Life The Word sets before every one of us Life and Death as Moses did to that People of old Deut. 30.15 Now many chuse Death rather than Life for they chuse to please their Lusts and to gratifie their carnal Appetite and therein they chuse Death as Christ says All they that hate me love Death But he that chuses God and the Ways of God chuses Life and he shall have it he chuses Endless Felicity in another World and he shall never be disappointed O the benefit of chusing God and his Ways That is a Third Thing Fourthly The Chusing God and his Ways in our Youth is the only Means to Prevent or Cure the many Mischiefs that flow from our Neglect of it Days of Youth are Days of Folly now the Way to correct the Follies of Youth is to be Wise toward God Childhood and Youth are Vanity Now the Way to Cure this Vanity is to be Serious and Earnest about Eternity Youth is most apt to be carried away by the Power of Lust hence is that Counsel of the Apostle Flee Youthful Lusts and the proper Way to flee from them is to flee to God in Christ for Help and Strength against them Youth has a great Advantage against Sin had they but Wisdom to Improve this now in the Text. Now Sin is but Budding and therefore may the easier be Nipt now Corruptions are but Twigs and therefore may sooner be Lopt off now Lust is but Conceiving and therefore may more easily be Stifled in the Birth A green Wound is soon Cured but if it be let alone long it may turn to a Gangreen that may prove Incurable O my Brethren there is no Age so fit so suitable to the Nature of Religion as Youth is Religion is the Christian Race now who Chuses an old Man to run a Race It is called a Wrestling and who will call an old Man into the Ring that is ready to have his Heels tript up by his own Age It is called a Warfare and under the Law the Aged were Discharged from War to shew that it is the proper Work of Youth Religion is a Calling a High a Holy a Heavenly Calling Now Youth is the fittest Season for Chusing any Calling and therefore the Text bids us to Chuse the Heavenly Calling by Chusing God in the Days of our Choice The Chusing of worldly Things first shuts God out of our Thoughts and Sensual Objects quickly draw the Heart from God therefore you should Chuse God first that is the Fourth Thing Fifthly To name no more No Man knows how soon his Day of Grace may be past therefore he ought to Chuse God betimes The Seasons of your Closing with God are Arbitrary Salvation is not to be had when you will but when God will and God's Will is that you should seek after it now in your Youth God hath his set Time of finding Seek the Lord while he may be found Isa 55.6 And let me tell you if God's Time be once past though you seek him you will never find him They shall seek me Early but they shall not find me Prov. 1.28 I say this is the very thing that most perish upon their slighting of God's Time Esau he would have had the Blessing but alas he came too late he missed the Season Heb. 12.6 The Foolish Virgins would fain have entred in but when they should have entred their Oil was to Get and when they would have entred the Door was Shut