The Whole Duty of Divine Meditation, Part 2 · Meditation 5
MED. V. The Youth's Memento.
Eccles. xii. 6.
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.
IT was both seasonable and profitable Advice, and one of the elegantest and choicest Expressions in the Royal Preacher's Sermon. For, who is he which is now Young and Vigorous, that is certain he shall live to be Old? And yet that potent Voice which loudly proclaims to all the World, and whose Sound will remain till Death shall be expired, is scarce aucible in the Ears of thousands.
II. 'TIS one of this divine Chanters harmonious Lessons; and yet the World thinks it too harsh a Note, and is very much displeased with the Tune. 'Tis strange, and an amazing Wonder, That the Sweetest and Wisest of Preachers should have so slender a Train of Followers, being his Oratory is so Rhetorical and Divine: And yet it is so weighty a Text, which though they shun to hear, understand, or read, they cannot evade the seeing; for the whole Universe is but a Comment on it; every Creature we behold, preaches this useful Doctrine, which we so supinely sleep out with our Eyes open.
III. NATURE her self carries this Memento in her Forehead; and the very Bruit Beasts, in this Philosophy, can reason with us: And it is strange madness, that Man should forget his Maker, did he but remember himself. But alas, blooming Youth affects not to be put in mind of Heaven, which he is not acquainted with; 'twould impair his Memory, and make him think of his Prayers too often: Piety will but chill his Blood; Religion makes him look wither'd; the Thoughts of Heaven, and a Future-State, will make him sager than his years requires: his Blood informs him, he is not yet qualified to turn Divine; he may serve his Creator time enough, when he is more at leisure.
IV. THUS these Temporal Objects of Vanity and Pleasure chase away our Thoughts from Heaven, and its Celestial Raptures: We can spend the Flower and Beauty of our Years in Vice, and think the Almighty will be well enough pleas'd with the Deformity of decrepit Age: We can sport and revel our Piety and Time in vain and frivolous Delights, and conclude our selves potent enough to compel Heaven, and become Religious, when we are bowed down with Infirmities, and have nothing left us but Repentance and a Tomb.
V. WE are so highly pleas'd with the Sweetness of Sense, that we are negligent of any greater Felicity; and so extraordinary much delighted with the Happiness of Sinning freely, that we could willingly embrace that Religion which tolerates Vice most: We place all our Devotion, with the luxurious Epicure, in the Riots of Nature: Jolly Meetings are our best Religious Exercises; a Sermon is as troublesom and melancholy to us, as a Funeral; and to hear of our Latter-end in the mid'st of our Pleasures, sounds like a Lecture of Death, the unwelcome and faint Eccho of the Grave.
VI. LET the Preacher instruct us never so earnestly to remember our Creator, we rather chuse to follow Satan's Doctrine, to enjoy this World as long as we can, and entertain Thoughts of Heaven at our leisure. And shall the Lusts of this vain World, O Lord, be greater in my Soul than the Love of Thee? Shall the temporary Allurements of Sin eclipse the Memory of thy Glory? My Life, I know, is but a Span; and yet, I beseech thee, abreviate that, rather than it shoud be spent in a neglect of Thee: better this Earthly Tabernacle of my Body be dissolv'd, than become a Theatre for Sin to revel in.
VII. LET me pay unto Nature the due Debt I owe her, sooner than perhaps she would summons it, rather than run deeper in score with thy Justice. 'Tis far better I should die, and be lost in the memory of the World, than to forget thee: Thou broughtest me, at first, from nothing, not to sin, but to serve and fear Thee; and has impressed in me a Ray of thy blessed Self, that I might not seek my own perverse Will, nor pursue this vain World, but heavenly Mansions: inure me therefore to Thee, that I may behold those solid and ravishing Joys and Consolations that is in serving of Thee; what Tranquility accompanies thy Grace; that so I may no longer follow my own depraved Sense, but my Saviour.
VIII. IT is none of the least Sins of our Youth, that we are negligent and forgetful of Thee our Creator. And no wonder we are ignorant and insensible of the Joys to come, that live in such a constant and continued neglect of Heaven. Make me therefore, O my God, seriously to consider, that had I the perfect Fruition of all I could wish or long for here, I should not only be unsatisfied, but, in the end, find how miserable he is that fixeth his Heart on any thing but Thy Self. Teach me therefore so to enjoy the World, that I lose not Thee, nor the Memory of that Blessed and Eternal Reward Thou hast promised to them that Honour and Fear Thee.