CONTENTS
In this Chapter the Preacher finisheth his discourse, and a beautiful close he makes of it, running up all into the love and fear of God, as the great object of man's creation, and the ultimate end of man.
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;
A beautiful and most affectionate address the Chapter opens with to the youthful part, in recommending and enforcing an earnest regard to God, as the Creator. No doubt the Preacher meant it, under both views of the Creator, in nature and in grace: and having closed the former Chapter with an address to the young, he begins this in the same strain. We may consider this as one of the inferences from the whole sermon. Having fully proved the vanity of human life, the younger part of those who attended to his discourse, are here called upon to make the proper conclusion from it. There is a beauty in this verse, which a mere English Reader, unacquainted with the original Hebrew, could not possibly know, unless pointed out to him. I mean, that the word Creator, is in the original plural Creators; and ought by our translators to have been so rendered. And the importance of it is much greater than at first view some may imagine. For it implies the grand fundamental truth of the Bible, namely, that the one glorious and eternal, Jehovah, hath his existence and self-being totally distinct from all his creatures, and doth exist in a three-fold character of persons; Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Hereby confirming the same glorious truth as was revealed at the opening of the Bible; Jehovah Alehim, in each person of the Godhead, concurred and co-operated in the creation of man. Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness: Genesis 1:26. And as a still further confirmation of this glorious doctrine, we find the same word in that passage plural; Job 35:10, where is God my makers, who giveth songs in the night?