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SERMON VIII.

ECCLESIASTES xii. 1.'

REMEMBER NOW THY CREATOR IN THE

DAYS OF THY YOUTH.

TH

HE reafon why we are here, and in other places of Scripture, more particularly enjoined to remember God IN OUR YOUTH, is obvious; it is, because we are then most apt to forget him. Indeed, in every stage of life as well as this, the cares and pleasures of the world too often engross our chief attention, and banish for a while the remembrance of our Maker. But it is in youth only we seem to be funk in a total forgetfulness of Religion, and ❝ to have not God in all our thoughts." In a more advanced age, reafon becomes fo ftrong, or appetite fo weak, that even in the busiest and the gayest scenes, we must have some inVOL. II.

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tervals

tervals of thinking, we must have our folitary and serious moments, in which the idea of a God will recur and force itself upon our minds. The calamities and difappointments which we meet with, as we travel forwards in this vale of tears, the lofs of friends or of fortune, acute pains, and lingering diseases, are fo many awakening inftances of our weakness and dependence, and compel us, in spite of indolence or pride, to look up to Heaven, and our Father that is in Heaven, for affiftance and protection. But in youth, these faithful monitors are wanting; there are, then, generally speaking, no cares or afflictions to remind us of our Creator, and bring us to a juft fenfe of our duty. The novelty of the objects that fucceffively surround us at our first entrance into life, fupplies us with a perpetual fund of entertainment; and an uninterrupted flow of health and fpirits "fills. "our mouth with laughter, and our tongue with "joy." We find ourfelves happy, and confider not who it was that made us fo; we find ourfelves in a wide theatre of action, and without thinking how we are to perform our respective parts upon it, furvey with rapture thofe alluring scenes that every where open to our

view, and launch out in pursuit of the pleafures that are before us with fo much eagerness and precipitation, as to leave no time either to trace them backwards to their fource, or forwards to their confequences. From these false steps in our setting out, flow most of the fatal errors and miscarriages of our future conduct; and for want of a little recollection when we are young, we too often lay up a store of mifery for the remaining part of our existence here, and for all eternity hereafter.

Since, then, in our early years, we are for the most part destitute of those useful mementos, and thofe favourable feafons of recollection, which occur fo often in the other parts of life; and are, therefore, more particularly prone to forget our Maker, at a time when it leaft becomes us fo to do, the admonition contained in the text muft feem highly proper, and cannot be too often inculcated, in order to supply, in fome measure, that unhappy infenfibility, that inattention to every thing serious and religious, which is fo generally obfervable, and fo much complained of, in youth.

. No man could be more fenfible of this, or more seriously lament it, than the ROYAL PREACHER from whom these words are taken. He faw a melancholy inftance of it in the conduct of his own fon, who began now probably to give fome indications of that fiery and ungovernable temper, which afterwards proved fo fatal to himself, and to his kingdom. He, therefore, urges the neceffity of remembering God in our youth, not only with all the authority of an experienced fage, and an inspired writer, but with all the tenderness of a parent folicitous for the welfare and profperity of his child.

And this may, perhaps, be one reason of thofe frequent and preffing exhortations to an early piety, which are every where scattered up and down in his writings. They had, however, no doubt a view to the depravity of youth in general, as well as of Rehoboam in particular; and as we may, I think, venture to fay, that there is at least as much occafion for a repeated injunction of this duty in the present times, as in the days of Solomon; it hall be the bufinefs of this difcourfe to recommend and enforce an early piety, by showing, first,

first, the reasonableness and propriety of it; and, fecondly, by pointing out some of the principal advantages which will attend the practice of it.

I. First, then, I am to fhow the reasonableness and propriety of remembering our Creator in the days of our youth.

And here it is evident, that by remembering our Creator, we are not merely to understand a habit of recalling the bare idea of him to our mind, or a cold, lifeless contemplation of his existence, but fuch a fervent, affectionate, grateful remembrance, as is sometimes kindled in our breasts by thinking on an absent or a departed friend, when every tender circum'ftance of that endearing connection rushes in upon the soul, and all his friendly offices, all the pleafing inftances of his love and kindness towards us, present themselves at once to our view. We must not only remember that he is, but that he is our Creator, and that with all those sentiments of piety and love, which fuch a relation naturally fuggefts. We must remember that he gave us life and all its bleffings, all that we actually enjoy here, or hope to enjoy hereafter; and we must show the N 3

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