talk of it in a warm, or an awful manner, in public assemblies, or in our private converse; while it does not penetrate our hearts as our own greatest care. Our case will then be like that of the Israelitish Lord in Samaria*, who was employed to distribute the corn when the siege was raised, seeing it with our eyes, and dispensing it with our hands, we shall ourselves die miserably, without tasting the blessings we impart. It is needful to all you that are our hearers, without the exception of one single person. It is needful to you that are rich, though it may on some accounts be peculiarly difficult for you; even as difficult, comparatively speaking, as for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle +; yet if it be neglected, you are poor in the midst of all your wealth, and miserable in all your abundance; and a wretch starving for hunger, in a magnificent palace and a rich dress, would be less the object of compassion than you. It is needful for you that are poor; though you are distressed with so many anxious cares, What you shall eat, and what you shall drink, and wherewithal you shall be clothed‡. The nature that makes you capable of such anxieties as these, argues your much greater concern in the Bread which endures to eternal life §, than in that by which this mortal body must be supported. It is needful for you that are advanced in years, though your strength be impaired so that the Grasshopper is a burden, though you have by your long continuance in sin rendered this great work so hard, that were it less important, one would in pity let you alone without reminding you of it: Yet late as it is, it must be done, or your hoary heads will be brought down to the grave with wrath, and sink under a curse aggravated by every year and by every day of your lives. It is needful to you that are young, though solicited by so many gay vanities, to neglect it; though it may be represented as an unseasonable care at present, yet I repeat it, it is needful to you; immediately needful, unless you who walk so frequently over the dust of your brethren and companions, that died in the bloom and vigour of their days, have made some secret Covenant with the grave for yourselves, and found out some wonderful method, hitherto unknown, of securing this precarious life, and of answering for days and months to come, while others cannot answer for one single moment. 2. The care of the soul is "a matter of the highest importance;" beyond any thing which can be brought into comparison with it. * 2 Kings vii. 2-17. † Mat. xix. 24. Mat. vi. 31. § John vi. 27. || Ec. xii. 5. As Solomon says of wisdom, that it is More precious than rubies, and that all things which can be desired are not to be compared with her*, so may I properly say of this great and most important branch of wisdom, whatever can be laid in the balance with it, will be found altogether lighter than vanity. This is strongly implied when it is said in the text, one thing is needful; q. d. one thing, and one thing alone is so. Just as the blessed God is said to be Only wiset, and Only holy ‡, because the wisdom and holiness of angels and men is as nothing, when compared with his. What seems most great and most important in life, what kings and senates, what the wisest and greatest of this world are employing their time, their councils, their pens, their labours upon, are trifles, when compared with this one thing. A man may subsist, he may in some considerable measure be happy, without learning, without riches, without titles, without health, without liberty, without friends, nay, though the Life be more than meat, and the body than raiment, yet may he be happy, unspeakably happy, without the body itself. But he cannot be so in the neglect of the one thing needful. I must therefore bespeak your regard to it in the words of Moses, It is not a light thing, but it is your life. 3. The care of the soul is of so comprehensive a nature, that every thing truly worthy of our regard may "be considered as included in it, or subservient to it." ** As David observes, that the Commandment of God is exceeding broad, so may we say of this one thing needful; and as Solomon very justly and emphatically expresses it, to Fear God and to keep his commandments is the whole duty of man his whole duty, and his whole interest; and every thing which is wise and rational does in its proper place and connection make a part of it. We should judge very ill concerning the nature of this care, if we imagined, that it consisted merely in acts of devotion, or religious contemplation; it comprehends all the lovely and harmonious band of social and humane virtues. It requires a care of society, a care of our bodies, and of our temporal concerns; but then all is to be regulated, directed, and animated by proper regards to God, Christ, and immortality. Our food and our rest, our trades and our labours are to be attended to, and all the offices of humanity performed in obedience to the will of God, for the glory of Christ, and in a view to the improving the mind in a growing meetness for * Prov. iii. 15. + 1 Tim. i. 17. + Rev. xv. 4. ** Ec. xii. 13. § Mat, vi. 25. a state of complete perfection. Name any thing which has no reference at all to this, and you name a worthless trifle, however it may be gilded to allure the eye, however it may be sweetened to gratify the taste. Name a thing which, instead of thus improving the soul, has a tendency to debase and pollute, to enslave and endanger it, and you name what is most unprofitable and mischievous, be the wages of iniquity ever so great; most foul and deformed, be it in the eyes of men ever so honourable, or in their customs ever so fashionable. Thus I have endeavoured to shew you what we may suppose implied in the expression of one thing being needful. I am now, III. To shew you with how much propriety the care of the soul may be represented under this character, as the one thing needful, as a matter of universal and most serious concern, to which every thing else is to be considered as subservient, if at all worthy of our care and pursuit. Now let me appeal to the sentiments of those who must be allowed most capable of judging, and to the evident reason of the case itself, as it must appear to every unprejudiced mind. 1. Let me argue "from the sentiments of those who must be allowed most capable of judging in such an affair," and we shall quickly see that the care of the soul appears to them the one thing needful. Is the judgment of the blessed God according to truth? how evidently and how solemnly is that judgment declared! I will not say merely in this or the other particular passage of his word, but in the whole series of his revelations to the children of men; and the whole tenor of his addresses to them. Is not this the language of all, from the early days of Job and Moses to the conclusion of the canon of scripture. If wisdom be hid from the eyes of all the living, surely God understandeth the way thereof, he knoweth the place thereof; and if he does, it is plainly pointed out, for unto man he still saith, behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding. By Moses he declared to the Israelites, that to do the commandments of the Lord would be their wisdom and their understanding in the sight of the nations, who should hear his statutes, and say, Surely this is a wise and understanding people. When he had raised up one man on the throne of Israel, with the character of the wisest that ever lived upon the face of the earth, he chose to make him eminently a teacher † Deut. iv. 6, * Job xxviii. 21, 23, 28. of this great truth. And now all that he spoke on the curious and less interesting subjects of natural philosophy, is lost, though He spoke of trees from the cedar to the hyssop, and of beasts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes*; that saying is preserved in which he testifies, that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom †, and those proverbs, in almost every line of which they who neglect God and their own souls are spoken of as fools, as if that were the most proper signification of the word, while the religious alone are honoured with the title of wise. But in this respect as attesting this truth in the name of God and in his own a greater than Solomon is here. For if we enquire what it was that our Lord Jesus Christ judged to be the one thing needful, the words of the text contain as full an answer as can be imagined; and the sense of them is repeated in a very lively and emphatical manner, in that remarkable passage wherein our Lord not only declares his own judgment, but seems to appeal to the consciences of all, as obliged by their own secret convictions to subscribe to the truth of it. What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? If it were once lost, what would he not be willing to give to redeem it? But it depends not on the words of Christ alone. Let his actions, his sufferings, his blood, his death speak what a value he set on the souls of men. Is it to be imagined, that he would have relinquished heaven, that he would have dwelt upon earth, that he would have laboured by night and by day, and at last have expired on the cross, for a matter of light importance? Or can we think that he, in whom dwell All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and all the fulness of the Godhead bodily §, was mistaken in judgment so deliberately formed, and so solemnly declared? If, after this, there were room to mention human judgment, and testimonies, how easy would it be to produce a cloud of witnesses in such a cause, and to shew that the wisest and best of men in all ages of the world have agreed in this point, that amidst all the diversities of opinion and profession, which succeeding generations have produced, this has been the unanimous judgment, this the common and most solicitous care of those, whose characters are most truly valuable, to secure the salvation of their own souls, and to promote the salvation of others. * 1 Kings iv. 33. + Prov. i. 7. ix. 10. Mat. xvi. 26. Col. ii. 3, 9. And let me beseech you seriously to reflect, what are the characters of those who have taken the liberty, most boldly and freely to declare their judgment on the contrary side? The number of such is comparatively few; and when you compare what you have observed of their temper and conduct, I will not say with what you read of holy men of old, but with what you have yourselves seen in the faithful, active, and zealous servants of Christ in these latter ages, with whom you have conversed, do you not on the whole find that the rejectors and deriders of the gospel, are in other respects, so much more prudent and judicious, so much wiser for themselves, and for others that are influenced by them, as that you can be in reason obliged to pay any great deference to the authority of a few such names as these, in opposition to those to which they are here opposed? But you will say, and you will say it too truly, though but a few may venture in words to declare for the neglect of the soul and its eternal interest, the greater part of mankind do it in their actions. But are the greater part of mankind so wise, and so good, as implicitly to be followed in matters of the highest importance? And do not multitudes of these declare themselves on the other side, in their most serious moments? When the intoxications of worldly business and pleasures are over, and some languishing sickness forces men to solitude and retirement; what have you generally observed to be the effect of such a circumstance? Have they not then declared themselves convinced of the truth we are now labouring to establish? Nay, do we not sometimes see that a distemper which seizes the mind with violence, yet does not utterly destroy its reasoning faculties, fixes this conviction on the soul in a few hours, nay sometimes in a few moments? Have you never seen a gay, thoughtless creature, surprised in the giddy round of pleasures and amusements, and presently brought not only to seriousness, terror and trembling, by the near views of death? Have you never seen the man of business and care interrupted, like the kich fool in the parable, in the midst of his schemes for the present world? And have you not heard one and the other of them owning the vanity of those pleasures and cares, which but a few days ago were every thing to them? Confessing that religion. was the one thing needful, and recommending it to others with an earnestness, as if they hoped thereby to atone for their own former neglect? We that are ministers frequently are witnesses to such things as these, and I believe few of our hearers are entire strangers to them. but |