many Sins against such a good God as the Lord is III. What Mercies I had received for which I desire to bless the Lords Name 1. He hath given me to be born of Godly Parents 2. I have always had the means of Grace lengthen'd out unto me 3. The Lord hath graciously pleased to give me some answers of Prayer 1. As to the lengthning out of my Health 2. As to the Increase of my Library What shall I render to the Lord for all his loving kindness towards me I resolved to Dedicate my self wholly to God and his Service And he did accordingly This Year did not roll about before he had in a manner very solemn entred in to Covenant with God. This weighty and awful thing was not rashly done by him or in a sudden Flash and Pang of Devotion He Thought he Read he Wrote and he Prayed not a little before this Glorious Transaction between God and him and upon Mature Deliberation he judged it most adviseable for him to make his Covenant with God as Explicit as Writing and Signing could render it that so it might leave the more Impression upon his Heart and Life and be an Evidence likewise which in Temptation or Desertion he might have recourse unto Wherefore he set apart a Time for I think secret Fasting and Prayer before the Lord and then behold how this Young Man counting it high time for him to be bound out unto some Service took a course for it He subscribed an holy Covenant of which this was the Matter this the Form. The Covenrnt between God and my Soul renewed confirmed and signed Nov. 22. 1683. Whereas not only the Commands of God who hath often called upon me by his Word Preached to give up my self both Body and Soul to be at his Disposal which calls by the publick Ministry were enough to engage me unto this but also the Christian Religion which I profess and my Baptism in which I took the Lord to be my God and promised to Renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and to dedicate my self unto the Service Work and Will of God do bind me hereunto In that God is such a God as deserves this yea infinitely more than this at my hands my Creator the Fountain of my Being my Preserver my Benefactor my Lord my Soveraign my Judge He in whose Hands my Life my Breath and all my concerns are He that doth protect me from all Dangers and supply me in all wants support me under all Burdens and direct me in all streights He alone that can make me happy or miserable He alone that can save me or damn me He alone that can give inward Peace and Joy that is my Friend my God In that Self-Dedication is the Creatures Advancement these First-fruits if in Sincerity putting upon me a Gloriousness and Excellency In that Felicity hereafter depends upon my dedicating of my self unto God now In that this is the highest piecâ— of Gratitude I am capable of expressing unto God and I know no better way to Obey the Will of God than first to give up my self unto him And whereas the Mercies which the Lord hath been pleased graciously to bestow upon me are so many that even bare Morality doth shew me that I can never enough requite one that hath done so much for me except by giving up my self wholly to him 1669 Whereas God hath given me a Godly Father and Mother 1674 In that when I was like to dye being twice sick of a Feaver God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery and lengthen out the Thread of my Life 1675 Whereas when I by an Accident fell down and had like to have been deprived of the use of my Tongue God was in his good Providence graciously pleased to give me the use of it 1678 Whereas when I was sick of the Small-Pox God was pleased to bless means for my Recovery Whereas then I made Promises unto God that if he would give me my Health I would endeavour to become a New Creature and he hath done so for these five Years And whereas God hath of late been bestowing many and wonderful mercies upon me What can I do less than give up my self wholly to him Which now I do And O Lord God I beseech thee to accept of thy Poor Prodigal now prostrating of himself before thee I confess O Lord I have fallen from thee by my Iniquity and am by nature a Son of Hell but of thy Infinite Grace thou hast promised Mercy to me in Christ if I will but turn unto thee with all my Heart Therefore upon the Call of thy Gospel I come in and from the bottom of my Heart I renounce all thy Enemies with whom I confess I have wickedly sided against thee firmly Covenanting with thee not to alloâ— my self in any known Sin but coâ—scientiously to use all means which â— know thou hast prescribed for the uâ—ter destruction of all my Corruptions And whereas I have inordinately I out my Affections upon the World here resign my Heart unto thee thâ—â— made it humbly Protesting before tâ—â— Glorious Majesty that it is the finâ— Resolution of my Heart and that I 〈◊〉 unfeignedly desire Grace from thee thâ—â— when thou shalt call me thereunto â— may put in practice my Resolution through thine Assistance to forsake 〈◊〉 that is dear unto me in the World râ—ther than to turn from thee to tâ—â— ways of sin and that I will watch againâ— all it's Temptations whether of Prosperty or Adversity lest they should witâ—draw my Heart from thee beseechiâ—â— thee to help me I renounce all my own Righteousnesâ— and acknowledge that of my self I aâ— helpless and undone and without Rigâ—teousness And whereas of thy bottomless Mercy thou hast offer'd to accept of 〈◊〉 and to be reconciled to me and 〈◊〉 be my God through Christ if I woulâ— accept of thee I do this day avouch thee to be the Lord my God. I do here take the Lord Jehovah Father Son and Holy Ghost for my portion and chief Good and do give up my self Body and Soul for thy Servant promising to endeavour to serve thee in Righteousness and Holiness I do here also on the bended knees of my Soul accept of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only and living Way by which sinners may have access to thee and do here joyn my self in a Marriage-Covenant with him O Lord Jesus I come to thee hungry poor miserable blind and naked and a most loathsome Creature a condemned Malefactor Who am I that I should be Married unto the King of Glory I do accept of thee for my Head and Husband and embrace thee in all thy Offices I renounce my own Worthiness and do choose thee the Lord my Righteousness I do renounce my own Wisdom and do take thine for my Guide I take thy Will for my Will and thy Word for my Law. I do here willingly put my Neck under thy Yoke I do subscribe to all thy
Looks made the Treasure in him wholly unsuspected by Strangers to him yet they that were intimately Acquainted with him can attest unto the Veracity of him that giveth this Description and there are no mean Persons who will profess with Admiration That they could scarce encounter him in any Theme of Discourse which he was not very notably acquainted with But the Bark is now split in which all these Riches were stowed A Spanish wrack hath not more Silver than the Grave of such a Young Man hath Learning buried in it Indeed these things Mortâ— Erunt perhaps they dyed with him Buâ— there is a more Immortal thing to be observed in him and that is II. His PIETY Tho' a fine Carriage was the least thing that ever he affected yet a Good Nature made him dear to those that were familiar with him He was always very obliging and officious and more ready to do than others could be to ask a good turn at his hands But he was above all happy by being Early in pure Religion The Common Effects of such a Piouâ— Education as the Family in which he lived afforded unto him were seen even in his Childhood and secret Prayer became very betimes one of his Infant Exercises He does in his MSs. particularly take notice of a Scripture Copy set for him when he learned to Write as a thing that had much Efficacy on him but when he was Twelve or more Years old more powerful Convictions did the Spirit of God set home upon him than he had been used unto some Records therefore I find in his Papers with this Clause in the Head of the Account Rejoyce O my Soul for the Lord has dealt bountifully with thee Now it was that he allowed his Pen to write these among other Expressions of his Trouble about his Estate Feb. 19. 1682. What shall I do What shall I do to be sav'd Without a Christ I am undone undone undone for Evermore O Lord let me have Christ tho' I lye in the Mire for ever O for a Christ O for a Christ a Christ Lord Give me a Christ or I dye It was now another of his Registred Meditations I have been in a Great Hesitancy whether I should choose Jesus Christ for my Prophet Priest and King with all his Inconveniencies to take up my Cross and follow him Wherefore I do now take him as mine my whole Christ and my only Christ and I am resolved to seek him All that I have shall be at his Service and all my Members and all my Powers shall endeavour his Glory And yet again there were these Considerations in his Mind Had I not better seek the Lord Christ while I have a Time of Prosperity and Peace while he offers himself to me saying Come unto me and I will save thee and lay all thy Burdens upon me and I will sustain thee Than in Affliction to cry and not be heard when he stretcheth forth his Hand and says Believe on me and thou shalt be saved and now to Day he offers himself shall I refuse and say Lord To Morrow No surely And these pathetical Groans then likewise got a Room in his Papers O that I had a Christ O that I had Him who is the Delight of my Soul Then O then I should be perfectly Blessed and want no food that would make me so This is a Copy of the Passages then Recorded in this Young Believers Diary Thus did he now Labour to affect his own Soul with his own State and leave things no more at peradventures between God and him He read many savoury Books about Faith and Repentance and Conversion and he Transcribed many Notes therefrom not resting satisfied within himself until he had some experience of a true Regeneration Among other workings of his Heart at this Age his Papers have such things as these Reasons for my speedy closing with Jesus Christ First It 's the Command of Jesus Christ that I should come unto him Secondly Jesus Christ Invites me also in Matt. 11. 28. Come unto me Thirdly He hath laid me under many Obligations to turn unto him in that he hath recovered me from Sickness so often and now given me a curious Study Fourthly In that I have vow'd unto the Lord if he would do so and so for me I would make a solemn Covenant with him and endeavour to serve him And again elsewhere O that God would help me to seek Him while I am Young O that he would give unto me His Grace However I will lay my self down at his Feet If he Save me I shall be happy for ever if he Damn me I must Justifie him O thou Son of God have mercy on me I know not what to say but I will take thee at thy Word Thou sayst Come unto me my Soul answers Lord at thy Command I will come He thus continued following hard after God enjoying and answering many striveings of his Holy Spirit until he was about Fourteen Years Old. In this time he did not a little acquaint himself with profitable Godliness being frequent and fervent in his Prayers to God upon all occasions and careful not only to hear Sermons but also to consider after them what Improvement he should make of what he heard Not only his Prayers but his Praises too now took notice of even the smallest Affairs before him I know not whether you can see any thing Childish I am sure I see something serious in a passage or two that I shall fetch out of his Diary written when he was about Thirteen years old On March 13. he wrote This day I received of my Father that famous Work The Biblia Polyglotta for which I desire to praise the Name of God Again on June 29 he wrote This day my Brother gave me Schindlers Lexicon a Book for which I had not only longed much but also prayed unto God Blessed be the Lords Name for it The Thoughts of Death also now found a Lodging in his Heart and he Rebuked himself because he had been so much without them Tho' at this Age for the most part Persons think of any thing every thing more than of their dying day And his writings discovered him to be pecâ—liarly affected with that Ancient History or Apologue of him who after a dissolute and ungodly Youth going to repent in Age heard that Voice from Heaven to him Des illi Furfurem cui dedisti Farinam The Devil had thy Flower and thou shalt not bring thy Bran to me Self-Examination was also become one of his Employments and once particularly in one of his Diaries he does thus express himself April 8. 1683. This Morning I was much cast down with the sense of my Vileness I Examin'd I. What Sins I had that were not Mortified 1. My sin of Pride 2. My sin of Vnthankfulness 3. My not improving the means of Grace as I ought to do II. What Graces I find need of 1. Converting and Regenerating Grace 2. Humiliation for my
Meditation to humble my self and every tvvo Months to keep a Day of private Thanksgiving But though his Prayers were chiefly in yet they were not confined to his Closet There vvere divers Private Praying Meetings of younger People in North-Boston vvhich he visited as often as he could and one of those might peculiarly be called His. Yea it vvas his desire though vvith as little aim to be seen of men as could be to support all such opportunities of Good among them that vvere of the same age with him Wherefore I find this among the Notes in his Diary Quest What shall I do for God Ans It vvas suggested to me to get some of my Acquaintance to spend some vvhile every Friday night in Prayer for the Success of the Work of Grace in New-England especially in Boston on the Souls of the Rising Generation Let me propound this to some serious devout young Persons Thus vvas his Prayer as it vvere his Breath and thus he vvas always fetching of it untll at last it expir'd in Praise Praise for evermore Thirdly He was one that Thought much of his GOD and his END There was a sort of Heaven formed in the just Soul of this Young-man by the Thoughts that were continually sparkling there He had an unpacifiable Dissatisfaction at himself until good Thoughts were lodg'd in him and vain ones were forced to gnash their teeth and melt away Nothing would content him but the bringing of his Thoughts into a Subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore he chew'd much on the excellent Sermon of Mr. Charnock about Thoughts which he wrote out not only with his hand but in his heart and made it the very Mould of his gracious Mind There are none but very Renew'd Souls that are at great pains in a course of Meditation on the things of God. Yet this Young-man like another Isaac vvas grovvn very expert at it and frequent in it It was his manner in the Morning to meditate very seriously and fixedly upon some Truth or some Text for a good part of an hour together He had collected a good variety of Subjects and Scriptures to handle in thus communing with himself and went over more than a little Divinity in this transcendent Exercise Sometimes when thus he separated himself to intermeddle with all wisdom I find him committing his Thoughts or some breviate of them unto the durable custody of his Papers from vvhich Memoirs I vvill produce but an Instance or tvvo of many August 16. 1685. Med. about The reason I have to love God because of what he has been to me and what he is in himself And I thought Is not God the Best Good Surely then he is worthy to be my Last End. Has he not been shewing many Mercies to me and what shall I not resign up my self to Live unto God because of his goodness to me Much affected with the thoughts of these things And I hope I closed with the Motion Again October 1. Meditated on that If a Man does intend to be truly Religious he must expect nothing but to save his Soul But how can this be true Must I lose my Body altogether Must I be vvilling that the Vnion between my Body and Soul should for evermore be loosed Must I be willing to be for ever without a Body No no. All that the Lord requires of me is to have my Body for a few days or years a few I say for they cannot be many to be wholly at the service of my Soul and to be willing that the Vnion between those two Mates then should be dissolved the Soul first taking its progress into everlasting Bliss the Body being laid in the Dust to rise at the Resurrection accompanying the Soul into its eternal Felicity My present Notion of this thing is this This Dissolution of the Union between the Soul and Body is but a Dismission of the Spirit into its happiness after a wearisom conflict here And as long as it shall be best for me to be here here I shall continue Infinite Wisdom is to be the Orderer of this and it will be a grievous and shamefuâ— reflection thereupon for me to say It will be better for me to live than to dye at such a time when I am called thereunto With my Body I must expect to lose all the pleasant Enjoyments of this World Liberty Library Study and Relations But yet neither shall I lose these As for my Liberty by True Religion and by Dying for it too when need requires I shall gain the only Liberty even from the body of sin As for my Library if I die for Christ or in the Lord I shall have no need of it My Understanding shall be enough enlarged and I shall not need to turn over Books for Learning As for my Study my Paradice I shall have a better a larger and a more compleat than this As for my Relations those of them that are truly pious I shall only go before them and if there should be any of them not pious the longer I should stay with them here if they continue impenitent it would but make my Grief more intolerable to think vvhen I leave them that I shall have no hopes to see them again for ever But this is not all neither My Body must be used as the Souls Instrument and here all that strength and â—ase vvhich I have must be used for the Soul And truly there is reason enough for it that so there may be eternal happiness for both together In Marriage the Husband and Wife should have the same design Would it not be inhumane for the one to have a design which tends to the ruine of the other Just so my Soul and Body should have the same design and the Body being the more vile of the two should be subordinate to the Soul. And it is a necessary disjunction either the Body the strength and ease and members of it must be used for the good or for the hurt of the Soul there is no medium here Let me then herein make my Body useful to my Soul in accomplishing all the good-designs of it which it is capable of being interested in Nor is there any thing else worth speaking of that must be foregone except health and the momentaneousness of all bodily Torments will make them very tolerable My Resolutions be That I will not expect by devoting my self unto the Fear of God to gain any thing as to my Body in this World. That through the Grace of Christ I will use the strength ease health of my Body yea my whole Body in Subordination to my Soul in the Service of the Lord Jesus With such Meditations as these he kept mellowing of his own Soul and preparing it for the state wherein Faith is turned into Sight But there was yet a more delightful and surprizing way of Thinking after which he did aspire He considered that the whole Creation was full of God and that there was not
like them that can say Meditation is sweet unto me 'T is said of Isaac He walked in the Fields to Meditate And indeed He walked with God when he was alone at that Imployment We should after a Sermon retire to Ruminate thereupon We should in an Evening reflect upon God's Mercy to us and our Carriage to him in the day foregoing We should often single out some Text or some Truth to Exercise our Thoughts upon This will strengthen us for our Walk Again Let us by a Sacramental Eating Feed upon the Bread of God. It is dreadful to see what multitudes do turn their backs upon the Table of the Lord. Alas that ever Men should break the Laws of God yea and the Vows of God as they do by this Omission Art not thou Baptized and now Old enough to be Confirmed Then as often as thou withdrawest from the Supper of the Lord he sets that mark upon thee There goes a Covenant-breaker out of Doors Answer to this Hast thou a sincere desire to Walk with God or no If thou hast not how darest thou sleep in that horrible Perilous Vnregeneracy If thou hast then come hither Come lamenting all thy Infirmities Let thy weakness quicken thee and not hinder O come for thy Food so thou shalt Walk and not faint yea Run and not be weary RULE IV. Let us be with God that we may Walk with Him. Be alwayes on God's side against Sins side All other siding may be culpable but this is Necessary this is Praise-worthy Indeed Sin that calls like Jehu in 2. King. 9. 32. Who is on my side who This is the outcry of Superstition and Profanity Who is on my side who But let me oppose that of Moses hereunto in Exod. 32. 26. Who is on the Lords side Even so Who is on the side of Godliness and Honesty Who is on the side of Holiness and Sobriety Who will bear a Testimony to all the Truths and all the Wayes of the Lord Let us all be on that side and Walk accordingly RULE V. Let us remember that we are Walking and it will be with God. Keep up the frame of Mortals and the frame of Strangers in the World. O Remember as Joshua in Josh 23. 14. I am going the way of all the Earth Remember thou art a Traveller The Psalmist says in Psal 39. 12. I am a Sojourner with God. The way to be with God is to remember I am a Sojourner O Remember this I am walking on the Borders of Eternity every day I am walking apace towards an eternal home This will make our Walk more amiable than that of the three things which go well or than that of the four things which are comely in their going THE GOOD END OF A GOOD WALK GEN. V. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he was not for God took him THe Walk of Holy and Happy Men has been the Subject of our Discourse Behold the End of that Walk now offering it self unto consideration with us The Psalmist hath said unto us in Psal 37. 37. Mark the perfect and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace In the blessed Enoch we may see such an End of such a Man. Two little Clauses comprize the Account which Moses has given of it and the double Estate of this Great Saint is therein referred unto First It is said He was not This points at that Estate which he passed from You may conceive what he was in regard of his Condition and Employment here But now he was not that Sufferer he was not that Preacher any more Secondly It is said God took him This points at that Estate which he passed into Good took him to Himself God took him unto all that Light and Life and Heaven which the Angels themselves had before the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ All that we have hitherto been told seems to be no more than what befalls every godly Man. But no less an Interpreter than the Spirit of God himself by the Apostle Paul has illustrated this Text with a more surprizing Interpretation of it Consult Heb. 11. 5. and we have this Paraphrase hereupon Here it is said He was not There 't is said He was not Found It seems that this Famous Prophet suddenly â—â—sappeared from the view of the World All Mankind with Wonder sought and ask'd and look'd after Enoch as they did after Elijah at another time but they could not find him Why What vvas become of him Here 't is said God took him There 't is said God had translated him that he should not see Death This was a very marvellous Providence He had born a zealous Witness for the Worship and the Truths and the ways of God against a wicked World. God vvould make them see that he own'd the Testimony and the Conversation of this vvorthy Man. Hence though Abel was murdered for his Piety Enoch shall be translated for his He was immediately fetched and changed into the Circumstances of the Glorified Thus he became as Tertullian says of him A Candidate of Eternity The Doctrine which we are hence allowed an Application of is DOCT. To be taken by God from a Mortal Estate on Earth to a Glorious Estate in Heaven is the Priveledge of them that Walk with him PROP. I. They that Walk with God shall be Taken by God from their Mortal Estate on Earth The Scholars of the Colledge at Bethel said once unto Elijah in 2 King. 2. 3. Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to day And he said Yea I know it In like manner it may be said unto the Body of the Christian Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy Master thy Spirit from thy Head into another state one day Every Believer may reply Yes I know that it will be so Our Estate in this World is an Estate of Tryal God is here Trying and Framing and Shaping of us in order to everlasting Happiness or Misery And it is an Estate of Trouble too Our Fall from God is the occasion of the many Distresses that belong unto it This Mortal Estate of ours the Lord will one day take us from One day but on what day shall this Deliverance be Truly at our last day at the Day of our Death at the day that we are most ready to tremble at On that Day the Lord will deliver us from the hand of all our enemies and from the hand of sin First God will take the Believer from the state of a Sinner here The dolorous Anguishes of the best Men alive are like those of the Apostle in Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Soul I will tell thee what shall do it The Death of this Body shall That that will do the deed The Believer is now lamenting My iniquities are more than the hairs of my head he is now lamenting My wounds stink and are corrupt
God will take us where they shall be our intimate Companions We shall move and live among those morning Stars The First-born they are our Familiars here we covet their being so notwithstanding all the Folly and Error and Ill humour that is often in them God will take us vvhere we shall associate our selves with all that ever feared God and not one breach of Charity shall ever disturb our Conversation there Fourthly The State which God will take the Believers into the Comforts of will be an Eternal State. God will take us to an House but what a one We read in 2 Cor. 5. 1. It will be an eternal House God will take us to a Glory But of what sort is it We read in 1 Pet. 5. 10. It is an eternal glory God will take us to an Inheritance But how long shall it last We read in Heb. 9. 15. It is an Eternal Inheritance Truly it is a Life Eternal which our God will take us to We shall be in it as many Millions of Ages as there are Drops in the Ocean or Atoms in the Universe yet Believer thou shalt say My Heaven will infinitely outlast as many Ages more Prop. III. There is a variety of Dispensation used by God in his thus taking of them that Walk with him The Lords taking of Men is in general by his changing of them it is by making that they shall not be Not an Annihilation but a vast Alteration happens to Believers when it shall be said of them They are not And then they are taken by the Lord And in particular it is managed three such ways as these First It is by Dying when we Dye then we are not The Dying Man may say as in Psal 39. 13. I go hence I am no more The Dead Man is not a Man in such a place he is not a Man of such a Thought he is not acting upon such Objects as he was before When a Man is ready to Dye we perceive it by Changing as we call it of the Man much more when a Man is dead he is a changed Man. Then it is that we are taken by the Lord Thus it is said in Isa 57. 1. The Righteous is taken away The Spirit is then taken to all the Delights and Pleasures that a separate Soul can feed upon Secondly It is by Rising When vve Rise at the last day then vve are not vve are not such feeble vvretched things as we are this day The Resurrection will bring a marvellous Change on the Subjects of it It is the Speech of Job in Ch. 14. 14. If a man dye shall he live again He seems to refute vvhat he did recite just before as the Opinion of too many Men and say now Yes that he shall find And hence it is added I will wait all the Dayes of my appointed time until my Change come What Change is that I will not exclude or oppose the common sense of it yet I would humbly suggest vvhy may it not be the Change which the next Words referr unto Thou shalt call and I will answer thee thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine Hands At the Resurrection it will be so God will then have a Desire to see our once Curious but novv Rotten Body set in order again he shall then call Arise ye Dead where are you Arise And we shall start out of the Dust as it were ansvvering Lord I come This the Departed Soul is to keep waiting for It seems more than a Moment it may seem a long while to the Soul 'till this be accomplished Then it is also that we are taken by the Lord with some respect unto this our Lord said unto his Disciples in Joh. 14. 3. I will come again and take you unto my self The Body is then also taken to be an Incorruptible a Spiritual and a Powerful Instrument of the Soul in all the motions of it Thirdly There is another Taking that some have Experience of and that is by Translation There are some Persons in whom the Vnion between their spirits and their bodies never is dissolved by the Ministry of Angels they are both in spirit and in body too made capable of a present entrance into the Kingdom of God and so those vvinged Messengers of Heaven carry them avvay vvithout any more ado This vvas the Prerogative of Enoch before the Law and of Elijah under it I believe this would have been the Case of all Men if Adam had not sinned vvhen he did and there are many thousands of Pious People vvith vvhom it will yet be so At the second Coming of our Lord there will be multitudes of Christians in the World vvhat vvill become of them vvhen the Fire of God shall be flaming and raging as far as Noah's Flood did extend of old How shall they get out of the vvay of that horrible Fire that shall consume and carry all before be Hear Davids Answer to that Question in 1 Chron. 28. 15. Our days on Earth are as a Shadow and there is none abiding Let James answer it in Jam. 4. 14. What is your Life it is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and vanishes away Let Joâ— answer it in Job 9. 25. My dayes are swifter than a Post they are passed away as the swift Ships as an Eagle that hastens to the Prey Our Age is now contracted into Seventy Years and how few reach to Seventy in comparison of them that never see Twenty of them Besides a big part of our few dayes are already past and gone with many of us How many may sadly sit and sigh and say this day I have been here but a little while yet I cannot now be so long more as I have already been Consider 2. If God then take us not who will I have read of a profane Monster who on one side of his Sword had the Picture of Christ on the other side the Picture of the Devil with this Motto under it Si tu non vis iste rogitat If He won't Take me here 's One that will. Horrid Creature But that Frenzy is almost equalled among us by those that wish the Devil to take them every day Alas that that will be the horrible Destruction of them that shall not be taken by the Lord. It is a fearful Curse upon the wicked Man in Psal 109. 6. Let Satan stand at his right hand Thus O thus it will be When the Soul of a wicked Man is going away a Devil a Dragon stands by his Bed-side and will take and hold and wound that miserable Soul. Yea there is a more astonishing Vengeance to come upon such a Man. If a Man be not taken by the saving Hands he will be taken by the damning Hands of God himself The Hands of the Great and Terrible God will for ever take those that fall thereinto and smite them and slay them with immediate Impressions of his Fiery Wrath. But what sayes the Apostle in
it is not too late as yet for you so to do The Lord said in Jer. 3. 1. Though thou hast play'd the Harlot with many Lovers yet return unto me Even so thô thou hast committed many sins thô thou hast been sinning many years yet return unto me saith the Lord. There was in this very Land one that had lived a carnal stupid ignorant Person for about an hundred years and yet became a serious Christian before he dyed Unto the Oldest Enemy of God among us all I this day proclaim the mercy of the Lord O let this break thy heart and cause thee to come and say I will do Iniquity no more But let this also Terrifie you it will be too late for you e're long It is said in Psal 6. 5. In Death there is no Remembrance of thee Thy Death thy Death is just ready to seize upon thee and there is no work no wisdom in the Grave whither thou art going Then thy cry will be like that of Despairing Ones All too late All too late God prevent such a miscarriage of thy never-dying Soul. VSE II. Let us that are in our Youth Now Remember our Creator in it There are a multitude of young Persons to vvhom the Word of God may reach this day Now the Almighty God make this Word of his Quick and powerful and sharper than a two-edged Sword within their Souls Hear O Young People Hear that your Souls may live It is reported of Jotham in Judg. 9. 7. He stood in the top of the Mount and he lift up his voice and cryed and said Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you Thus would I do thus would I speak this day Here I stand in the Name of God that made you all I would lift up my voice and cry and say O Remember your Creator now in the dayes of your youth If you will not hear this Call of God now God will not hear your cry to Him another Day God will be deaf to the Words of thy Roaring in the dayes of thy Age and of thy Death and of thy Wrath if thou art now deaf to the Words of his Counsel The Counsel and it is wholsome Counsel of our God now unto us is Remember me betimes In order thereunto these things are to be done Rule I. Let us Remember that which will help us to Remember God. First Remember thy Death and thou wilt Remember thy God. A Remembrance of Death will produce in a Man a serious and godly frame of Spirit One that was Remarkable for his Devotions gave that Reason of it O I must Dye I must Dye If a Young Man would awfully realize unto himself that thing I must dye it would highly promote an Acquaintance between God and him And young Man it is not too soon for thee to have the Apprehensions of it There was a young Man in this Land that left behind him in Writing Meditations to promote Preparation for Death O that every young man would be no Stranger to such prudent Meditations Let every young Person Remember this I shall dye very certainly As Job could say in Ch. 30. 23. I know that thou wilt bring me to Death So let the young Person say I know that I must e're long look the King of Terrors in the Face and I know that e're long I shall go thither whence I shall not return Often look upon that Scripture in Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed unto all Men once to dye Often look upon that Scripture in Psal 89. 48. What man is he that liveth and shall not see Death And let these warnings make a deep Impression upon thy Mind There was a Prince who gave a Pension unto a Person that he might once a day come and say unto him Remember that thou art a Mortal Man Do that office unto thy self every Day Look upon Death as the way of all the Earth And Remember I must go that Way Look upon Death as the End of all men and Remember I shall have that End. Remember there is no discharge in that War. Let every young Person also Remember this I shall dye very speedily While we are young we strangely promise our selves to live long Do not harbour that mistake but rectifie it by that Premoniton in Jam. 4. 14. What is your life It is even a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and vanisheth away Rectifie it by that Premonition in 1 Chron. 28. 15. Our dayes on the Earth are as a shadow and there is none abiding What are the poor Seventy years that the Life of Man is now contracted into Remember they are winged things they fly away with a marvellous Velocity We are truly told of them in Job 9. 25. that they are swifter than a Post yea more than so swifter than a Ship yea more than that swifter than an Eagle hast'ning to the Prey Besides Remember 't is possible that half of those years may be all that thou shalt ever see it hath been well said That an old Man has Death before his Face but a young Man has Death behind his Back Perhaps Death may strike thee down before him that is old enough to be thy Father Remember that there are Skulls of all sizes in Golgotha Secondly Remember thy Soul and thou wilt Remember thy God Thou hast a never-dying Soul within thee a Spiritual and an Immortal Substance able to discern and argue and affect with a wonderful Apprehension How frequently and fearfully do young Persons forget that they are Owners of such a Jewel Let every young Person Remember this The state of my Soul is miserable Remember the guilt and filth which thy Soul by it's becoming a constituent Essential part in one of Adams Children soon was defil'd withal Remember what a dreadful Anger and Vengeance of God thy Soul by thy sin is expos'd unto Remember that Character of thy Soul in Gen. 6. 5. Every imagination of the thoughts of the heart is only evil continually Remember that condition of thy Soul in Eph. 2. 12. Without Christ a stranger from the Convenant of promise having no hope and without God in the World. Remember what thou hast been doing unto thy Soul ever since thy Birth It is said in Prov. 8. 36. He that sinneth wrongeth his own Soul. O Remember what Wrongs what Wounds thy own Soul has had from thy own hand and Remember what an ever-gnawing Worm what an ever-burning Fire is now ready to seize upon that poor Soul of thine Thou art mindful of thy Body of thy Estate of thy Credit and mindful of almost every Creature which thou art concerned in Thy Soul now begs of thee O Remember me Let every young Person likewise Remember this The worth of my Soul is invaluable A Great Man was well advised once every day to remember that Sentence of our Lord in Matt. 16. 26. What is a man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his own soul Thou canst not Remember a
them who cannot plead so O that every young Man would remember that saying in Prov. 1. 10. My Son if sinners entice thee consent thou not walk not thou in the way of them and remember that saying in Prov. 13. 20. He that walketh with the wise shall be wise but a Companion of fools shall be destroyed What shall I say more In fine Remember young Man that on thy Death-bed thou wilt gnash thy Teeth at the sight of such Companions thy groan will then be O gather not my soul with sinners and one of them in thy Chamber would then be thy Torment there Well then save your selves from this untoward Generation 2. Abandon the Sin of Sabbath-breaking that you may Remember your Creator It is the Command of God in Exod. 20. 8. Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy Men are like to Remember God himself if they remember this day of the Lord as they ought to do If you look through the World you shall see that Mens Religion is as their Sabbath is The Sabbath is the Engine by which by the Bible true Remembrance of God is kept alive It is the Description which the Lord gives of all good Men in Isa 56. 4. They that keep my Sabbaths and choose the things that please me Young Men this is the Day to which all other days may say Thou art worth Ten thousand of us Of this Day it shall evermore be said O thou Day that is highly favoured the Lord is with thee blessed art thou among the Dayes and cursed is he that despises thee Young Persons are apt on this day to be vain in their Thoughts and Words and Idle in their whole Behaviour But labour thou to spend this Day as a Market-day for thy Soul spend it in Holy Duties and in those things that may prove both a Cause and a Sign of thy Rest among the People of God for ever Do according to that in Isa 58. 13. Call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord and honourable Do not abuse this high Day of God as the Prophet said unto Gehazi Is this a Time to receive Money so let me say Is this a time to be making of Bargains or to be ordering of Journeys Much more Is this a time for Rioting and Drunkenness for Chambering and Wantonness or for such things as are never seasonable No 't is not such a Time To the young People that make it such a Time I would say as in Neh. 13. 18. You bring Wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath Such Persons are the meer Achans of the Land they live in Finally There are many other sins of Youth especially that sin of Vncleanness which we must avoid and forsake if we would Remember God Let no Young Man allow himself in those cursed things RULE III. Let us Remember the virtuous Example of them that have been good betimes especially the Holy Pattern of the Holy Jesus It is said in Heb. 13. 7. Remember them whose Faith is to be followed So it may be urged Remember them whose Youth is to be followed If we remember them we shall remember God. There have been young Persons that have had the Grace of Forty at the Age of Twenty in them Sometimes a young Man has given up himself to God by a Covenant never to be forgotten A young Man has maintain'd a course of daily supplication and besides often had his extraordinary Dayes of Prayer and Praise a young Man has upheld a course of daily Meditation and besides accustomed himself to read the Scripture with such Attention as to fetch a Note and a Wish out of every Verse before him such an one I have lately follow'd unto the Grave Many more such Instances of Early Piety perhaps a Young Man here and there may afford unto us O now Go thou and do likewise But above all the Lord Jesus Christ calls for our Imitation It is said of Him in Psal 110. 3. Thou hast the Dew of thy Youth In his Youth it self a Dew of Grace was to be seen upon him in his Youth he fulfilled the whole will of God in his Youth he was always about his Fathers business He now says to Young Men what he says to All Men in Joh. 13. 15. I have given you an Example that you should do as I have done O then study Christ Jesus observe Christ Jesus follow Christ Jesus ask What was the Behaviour of Christ Jesus in his Youth and Be as he was in the World. RULE IV. Let us remember the profitable Instruction of them that wish well unto us There is a twofold Instruction which young Persons among us are made partakers of There is Pastoral Instruction and there is Parental Instruction under which you sit Regard this Instruction lest you mourn at last and say How have I hated Instruction and not obeyed the voice of my Teachers You enjoy Pastoral Instrnction O despise it not You have with Sermon after Sermon been publickly and solemnly called upon to Remember God. Besides this I have personally treated with some scores of you about your Eternal Welfare and I hope I may live to visit every one of you for this end earnestly and urgently beseeching of you to be Reconciled unto God. It was of old enjoyned in Deut. 31. 12. Gather the People together Men and Women and Children that they may hear and learn and fear the Lord Behold the Children as well as the Adult have been advised here to Remember the Lord. What is now the effect of it I will for once wax bold with you and say as Dying Bolton said unto his Children Children let any of you meet me at the day of Judgment in a Christless unregenerate estate if you dare I will testifie against you I say again I will testifie against you before the Lord Jesus if you do You enjoy Paternal Instruction too O refuse it not Does not thy Father or thy Master or thy Mother charge thee to Remember God Did they never charge thee to read the Word and seek the Face of God and to make Conscience of thy Wayes Then My Son hear the Instruction of thy Father and forsake not the Law of thy Mother What befell the Sons of Eli those Sons of Belial in 1 Sam. 2. 25. They hearkened not to the Voice of their Father because the Lord would slay them Art thou a young Person counselled by a good Parent to Remember the Lord The Lord will slay thee yea The Lord will Damn thee if thou dost not Hearken thereunto Thus are we to Remember God And O who among you are more than almost perswaded hereunto Let a few Considerations more add weight unto those that have also bespoke it of you CONSIDER I. The God of Heaven has Commanded you to Remember him you have this Command in a shadow under the Law of old It was required in Exod. 22. 29. Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of the ripe fruits unto me The Lord