Matthew Poole and continuators on Ecclesiastes 12:1

1 REmember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth , while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them ;

To wit, practically, or so as to fear, and love, and faithfully serve and worship him, which when men do not, they are said to forget God, Psal. 9. 17. & 106. 21. and in many other places.

The first Author, and continual Preserver of thy Life and Being, and of all the perfections and enjoyments which accompany it, to whom thou hast the highest and strongest obligations to do so, and upon whom thou hast a constant and necessary dependance, and therefore to forget him is most unnatural, and inhumane, and disingenuous.

For then thou art most able to do it, and thou owest the best of thy Time and Strength to God; then thou hast opportunity to do it; and thou maist not live till Old-age: then it will be most acceptable to God, and most comfortable to thy self, as the best evidence of thy sincerity, and the best provision for Old-age and Death; and then it is most necessary for the conquering those impetuous Lusts and Passions which drown so many Thousands of young Men in perdition, both in this Life, and in tha[illegible: 1+ letters] to come.

The time of Old-age, which is evil, i. e. burdensome, and calamitous in itself, and far more grievous and terrible when it is loaded with the sad remembrance of a mans youthful Follies and Lusts, and with the dreadful prospect of approaching Death and Judgment, which makes him see that he cannot live, and yet dare not die, and with the consideration and experience of the hardness of his heart, which in that age is rarely brought to true Repentance, and so generally expires either in vain presumption, or in hellish desperation.

My Life is now bitter and burdensome to me, and worse than death: which is frequently the condition of Old-age.

Marginal references: Pro. 22. 6.; See 2 Sam. 19. 35.