And once more, what if to the testimony of the dying, we could add that of the dead? What if God were to turn aside the veil which separates between us and the invisible world, and to permit the most careless sinner in the assembly to converse for a few moments with the inhabitants of it? If you were to apply yourself to a happy spirit, that trod the most thorny road to Paradise, or passed through the most fiery trial, and to ask him, "Was it worth your while to labour so much, and to endure so much for what you now possess?" Surely if the blessed in heaven were capable of indignation, it would move them to hear that it should be made a question. And on the other hand, if you could enquire of one Tormented in that flame below, though he might once be clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day*, if you could ask him, "Whether his former enjoyments were any equivalent for his present sufferings and despair?" What answer do you suppose he would return? Perhaps an answer of so much horror and rage, as you would not be able so much as to indure. Or if the malignity of his nature should prevent him from returning any answer at all, surely there would be a language even in that silence, a language in the darkness, and flames, and groans of that infernal prison, which would speak to your very soul what the word of God is with equal certainty, though less forcible conviction, speaking to your ear, that one thing is needful. You see it is so in the judgment of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, of the wisest and best of men, of many, who seemed to judge most differently of it, when they come to more deliberate and serious thought, and not only of the dying, but of the dead too, of those who have experimentally known both worlds, and most surely know what is to be preferred. But I will not rest the whole argument here, I add therefore,

2. I appeal to the evident reason of the case itself, as it must appear to every unprejudiced mind, that the care of the soul is indeed the one thing needful.

I still consider myself as speaking not to atheists, or to deists, but to those who not only believe the existence and providence of God, and a future state of happiness and misery, but likewise who credit the truth of the christian revelation, as many undoubtedly do, who live in a fatal neglect of God and their own souls. Now on these principles a little reflection may be sufficient to convince you, that it is needful to the present

repose of your own mind; needful if ever you would secure eternal happiness; if ever you would avoid eternal misery, which will be aggravated, rather than alleviated, by all your present enjoyments.

1. The care of the soul is the one thing needful, because "without it you cannot secure the peace of your own mind, nor avoid the upbraidings of your conscience."

That noble faculty is, indeed, as you are often told, the vicegerent of God in the soul. It is sensible of the dignity and worth of an immortal Spirit, and will sometimes cry out of the violence that is offered to it, and cry so loud, as to compel the sinner to hear, whether he will or no. Do you not sometimes find it yourselves? When you labour most to forget the concerns of your soul, do they not sometimes force themselves on your remembrance? You are afraid of the reflections of your own mind, but with all your artifice and all your resolution, can you entirely avoid them? Does not conscience follow you to your beds, even if denied the opportunity of meeting you in your closets, and though with an unwelcome voice, there warn you, "that your soul is neglected and will quickly be lost?" Does it not follow you to your shops and your fields, when you are busiest there? Nay, I will add, does it not sometimes follow you to the feast, to the club, to the dance, and perhaps, amidst all resistance, to the theatre too? Does it not sometimes mingle your sweetest draughts with wormwood, and your gayest scenes with horror? So that you are like a tradesman, who, suspecting his affairs to be in a bad posture, lays by his books and his papers, yet sometimes they will come accidentally in his way. He hardly dares to look abroad for fear of meeting a creditor or an arrest; and if he labours to forget his cares and his dangers, in a course of luxury at home, the remembrance is sometimes awakened, and the alarm increased, by those very extravagances in which he is attempting to lose it. Such, no doubt, is the case of some of your minds, and it is a very painful state; and while things are thus within, external circumstances can no more make you happy, than a fine dress could relieve you under a violent fit of the stone. Whereas if this great affair were secured, you might delight in reflection, as much as you now dread it; and conscience, of your bitterest enemy, would become a delightful friend, and the testimony of it your greatest rejoicing.

2. The care of the soul is the one thing needful," because without it you cannot possibly secure your eternal happiness."

A crown of everlasting glory is not surely such a trifle as

to be thrown away on a careless creature, that will not in good earnest pursue it. God doth not ordinarily deal thus, even with the bounties of his common providence, which are comparatively of little value. As to these, the hand of the diligent generally makes rich, and he would be thought distracted, rather than prudent, who should expect to get an estate merely by wishing for it, or without some resolute and continued application to a proper course of action for that purpose. Now, that we may not foolishly dream of obtaining heaven, in the midst of a course of indolence and sloth, we are expressly told in the word of God, that The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force; and are therefore exhorted to Strive, with the greatest intenseness, and eagerness of mind, as the word properly signifies, to enter in at the strait gate, for this great and important reason, because many shall another day seek to enter in, and shall not be able †. Nay, when our Lord makes the most gracious promises to the humble petitioner, he does it in such a manner as to exclude the hopes of those who are careless and indifferent. Ask, and it shall be given you seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. If therefore you do not ask, seek and knock, the door of mercy will not be opened, and eternal happiness will be lost.

And surely if I could say no more as to the fatal consequences of your neglect, than this, that eternal happiness will be lost, I should say enough to impress every mind that considers what eternity means. To fall into a state of everlasting forgetfulness might indeed appear a refuge to a mind filled with the apprehension of future misery. But, oh how dreadful a refuge is it! Surely it is such a refuge, as a vast precipice, from which a man falling would be dashed to pieces in a moment, might appear to a person pursued by the officers of justice, that he might be brought out to a painful and lingering execution. If an extravagant youth would have reason to look round with anguish on some fair and ample paternal inheritance, which he had sold or forfeited merely for the riot of a few days: How much more melancholy would it be for a rational mind to think that its eternal happiness is lost for any earthly consideration whatever. Tormenting thought! had I attended to that one thing which I have neglected, I might have been great and happy, beyond expression, beyond conception. Not merely for the little span of ten thousand thousand ages, but for ever. So that the

*Mat. xi. 12.

+ Luke xiii. 24.

Mat. vii. 7.

moment would have come, when, if it had been asked concerning me, "How long has that glorious Spirit been an inhabitant of heaven? How long has it been enjoying God, and itself, in that state of perfection?"—The answer would have been such, that a line reaching even to the remotest star would not have been able to contain the number of ages, nor would millions of years have been sufficient to figure them down. This is eternity, but I have lost it, and am now on the verge of being. This lamp, which might have outlasted those of the firmament, will presently be extinguished, and I blotted out from amongst the works of God, and cut off from all the bounties of his hand. Would not this be a very miserable case, if this were all? And would it not be sufficient to prove this to be the better part, which, as our Lord observes, can never be taken away? But God forbid that we should be so unfaithful to him, and to the souls of men, as to rest in such a representation alone. I therefore add once more,

3. The care of the soul is the one thing needful, because "without it you cannot avoid a state of eternal misery, which will be aggravated, rather than alleviated by all your present enjoyments."

Nothing can be more evident from the word of the God of truth. If there plainly appears to be a determined case, which leaves no room for a more favourable conjecture or hope. The wicked shall be turned into hell, even all the nations that forget God. They shall go away into everlasting punishment †, into a state where they shall in vain seek death, and death shall flee from them. Oh! Sirs, it is a certain, but an awful truth, that your souls will be thinking and immortal beings, even in spite of themselves. They may indeed torment, but they cannot of destroy themselves. They can no more suspend their power thought and perception, than a mirror its property of reflecting rays that fall on its surface. Do you suspect the contrary? Make the trial immediately. Command your minds to cease from thinking but for one quarter of an hour, or for half that time, and exclude every idea and every reflection. Can you succeed in that attempt? Or rather, does not thought press in with a more sensible violence on that resistance; as an anxious desire to sleep, makes us so much the more wakeful. Thus will thought follow you beyond the grave, thus will it, as an unwelcome guest, force itself upon you, when it can serve only to perplex and distress the mind. It will for ever upbraid you,

that notwithstanding all the kind expostulations of God and man, notwithstanding all the keen remonstrances of conscience, and the pleadings of the blood of Christ, you have gone on in your folly, till heaven is lost, and damnation incurred; and all for what? for a shadow and a dream.

Oh think not, sinners, that the remembrance of your past pleasures, of your success in your other cares, whilst that of the one thing needful was forgotten, think not that this will ease your minds. It will rather torment them the more. Son, remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things. Bitter remembrance! Well might the heathen poets represent the unhappy spirits in the shades below, as eagerly catching at the water of forgetfulness, yet unable to reach it. Your present comforts will only serve, to give you a livelier sense of your misery, as having tasted such degrees of enjoyment; and to inflame the reckoning, as you have misimproved those talents lodged in your hands for better purposes. Surely, if these things were believed, and seriously considered, the sinner would have no more heart to rejoice in his present prosperity, than a man would have to amuse himself with the curiosities of a fine garden, through which he was led to be broke upon the rack.

But I will enlarge no farther on these things. Would to God that the unaccountable stupidity of men's minds, and their fatal attachment to the pleasures and cares of the present life, did not make it necessary to insist on them so frequently and so copiously!

IV. I proceed to the reflections which naturally arise from hence, and shall only mention two.

1. How much reason have we to lament the folly of mankind in neglecting the one thing needful.

If religion be indeed the truest wisdom, then surely we have the justest reason to say with Solomon, that folly and Madness is in men's hearts. Is it the one thing needful? Look on the conduct of the generality of mankind, and you would imagine they thought it the one thing needless: The vainest dream and the idlest amusement of the mind. God is admonishing them by ordinances, and providences, sometimes by such as are most awful, to lay it to heart; he Speaks once, yea twice, yea, a multitude of times, but man regards not +. They profess perhaps to believe all that I have been saying, but act as if the contrary were self-evident; they will risk these souls and this eternity, for a thing of nought, for that for the sake of which they would not

* Eccl. ix. 3.

+ Job xxxiii. 14.