EARLY PIETY RECOMMENDED.

16

ECCLESIASTES xii. 1.

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.

THERE are many considerations of very great weight, to awaken our mind to a holy reverence and most sacred attention, when we read or hear the word of God. It is the word of God, the infinitely great and glorious God, the supreme Lord and sovereign Governor of the whole world; whose are all things, and whose we are, and who has a right to command us; the God that angels fear, and to whose voice they always hearken with the deepest reverence, esteeming all his injunctions most sacred. And besides, all that he speaks to us is calculated not only for his own glory, but also for our best good. As the kind Father of our spirits, in his infinite wisdom he marks out that path for us to go in, which is not only right and fit in itself, but also suited to render us most happy. His laws are all holy, just, and good. And that he may reach our hearts the more effectually, he singles out particular cases, and adapts himself to the particular tempers and circumstances of the children of men. He knows just how it is with mankind, how they feel, what their hearts are apt to be set upon, and what their temptations and dangers are, and how to speak a word in season to every soul. So of old he used to deal with the children of Israel: all the nations round about them were idolaters, and worshipped their gods under some visible form. And he knew what temptations his people would be under to do as others did, and conform to the common mode. How often, therefore, and how solemnly, by Moses and by the prophets, does he warn them to beware, lest at any time they should be led away from the Lord their God to other gods, or to worship him under some visible form, as the heathen nations round about did their deities. So here in our text, he admonishes persons in their youth

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He knows the temper and temptations of young people; how apt they are to be unmindful of the God that made them, and to forsake their own mercies to follow after lying vanities, and run into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. He sees them, he pities them; and as the great Governor of the world, and the kind Father of their spirits, he calls after them, reproves and warns them. "Unto you, 0 voice is to the sons I call, and men, of men. Stop! hearken! consider! No longer forget the God that made you; be not unmindful of the hand that formed you, and holds your soul in life, nor delay any longer; but REMEMBER NOW thy Creator in the days of thy youth." As if he had said, "I see what your temper is, I know what your thoughts are, what your temptations, and what your danger: you are inclined to have no sense of God upon your spirit, to give a loose to your vain imaginations, to indulge wanton affections, and put far away all serious thoughts; flattering yourselves with vain hopes of a better time hereafter. The world looks gay to you, and your companions entice you along: but verily that road leads to eternal ruin. I see you, and know the way you take; I pity you, I call to you, I warn you, I command you, remember thy Creator; be mindful of God now, without any further delay, in the days of thy youth." And should not young people hearken when God thus speaks to them, and attend with the utmost solemnity! Especially, considering that all this is in and through Jesus Christ, the Mediator. For so bad were we, and such were our guilty circumstances, that we cannot in any reason suppose the great and holy Governor of the world would have had any thing to do with us in a way of mercy, but for the interposition of a Mediator. It would have been a reproach to the holy Majesty of heaven and earth, to have ever spoken one kind word to a guilty world, but for the mediatorial undertaking of his own Son. It would have been inconsistent with the honour of his Majesty, of his holiness and justice, and sacred authority; because, by our apostacy from God, we were become too bad to be pitied, too bad to have any mercy shown us; so bad, that every thing was too good for us, that was better than damnation. Such was

our deplorable case! But the Son of God has interposed as Mediator, to secure his Father's honour, and to open a door for mercy. He was made of a woman, made under the law; has obeyed, suffered, and died, to make atonement for sin by his blood, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. In his obedient life and death, the holiness and justice of God have received perfect satisfaction, and the honour of his law and government is secured; that now the great Governor of the world may show favour to sinners, and yet not so much as seem to be a favourer of sin. Hence he has reprieved this guilty world from ruin, and entered upon methods of grace, to recover sinners to himself. And shall we not now hearken, to any kind word he speaks, and attend to every command with all our hearts!-O that these thoughts which have been suggested, might awaken us all, and particularly every youth in the assembly, to attend with the utmost solemnity of mind, while we take the words of our text into serious consideration ! They are immediately spoken to you that are in your youth, and that from God, the great Governor and Judge of the world. In this warning he seeks your welfare; and it is the precious blood of Christ, which has purchased for you the mercy of this call from God. That I may assist you to dwell a while upon these words in serious thoughts to better advantage, I will observe this method in the following discourse:

1. I will endeavour to show what is implied in remembering God.

2. What obligations young people are under to this. And,

3. Offer some directions and motives.

I am,

1. To show what is implied in remembering GOD. And in general, it is a heart-affecting, soul-transforming, vital, efficacious remembrance of God, that is here recommended; and not any mere empty, dry, lifeless notion of God in the head. It is such a remembrance of God, or such a sense of God on the heart, as effectually divorces and weans us from all other things, and influences us to love him with all our hearts, to choose him for our portion, take up our contentment in him as our ALL, and devote ourselves to him, to walk in all

his ways, and keep all his commands, seeking his glory as our end. For when God requires us to know him, to think of him, to acknowledge him, or to remember him, he always means, as our Saviour more plainly expresses it, (when speaking of love to God,) that it should be with our heart, and with our soul, and with our mind, and with our strength. And hence those that do not thus remember God, do in Scripture-account forget the Lord, and God is said to be not in all their thoughts: yea, the Scriptures carry the point so far, as to express it thus, the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God; because wicked men in their security, although they are not professed atheists, yet they practically deny the God that is above, and feel at heart as if there was no God; for they do not worship him in spirit and in truth; they do not come to him in and by Christ; they do not love him, nor fear him, nor trust in him; but they feel, and act, and live, as if in very deed there was no God; and hence they are said to be without God in the world. Faith without works is dead, saith St. James and that remembrance of God which is unaffecting, and inefficacious, is dead, and good for nothing.

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But to be particular,

1. Remembering God implies, that we know him, that we have right apprehensions of him, that we see him to be just such an one as he is. For we cannot with any propriety be said to remember that God, whom we do not know and if we have wrong apprehensions of God, though we think of him ever so much, yet it is not God that we remember, but only that false image we have framed in our own fancy. A right remembering of God therefore supposes, that he who commands the light to shine out of darkness, shineth into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; and that we with open face behold as in a glass, (in the glass of his works and of his word, of the law and of the Gospel,) the glory of the Lord; so as to take in that very representation of God which he himself has made.

2. Remembering of God implies, that we have a vital sense of God in our hearts; a realizing, living sense of his Be ing and perfections, that we see and feel there is a God, and