SERMON XIX.

FUTURE LIFE AND HAPPINESS THE PROPER OBJECTS OF A CHRISTIAN'S PURSUIT.

JOHN VI. 26, 27.

JESUS ANSWERED THEM (THE PEOPLE) AND SAID, VERILY, VERILY, I SAY UNTO YOU, YE SEEK ME, NOT BECAUSE YE SAW THE MIRACLES, BUT BECAUSE YE DID EAT OF THE LOAVES, AND WERE FILLED. LABOUR NOT FOR THE MEAT WHICH PERISHETH, BUT FOR THAT MEAT WHICH ENDURETH UNTO EVERLASTING LIFE, WHICH THE SON OF MAN SHALL GIVE UNTO YOU: FOR HIM HATH GOD, THE FATHER, SEALED.

WHEN the people who followed Jefus to Capernaum found him there, they faluted him with a mixture of impatience and curiofity, faying, "When cameft thou hither?"

Jefus, having very recently fed five thoufand perfons with five barley loaves and two small fishes, and knowing that it was that miraculous fupply of provifion, which induced them thus to follow him, anfwered them, "Verily, verily, I fay unto you, ye seek

66 me,

66 me, not because ye faw the miracles, but "because ye did eat of the loaves, and were "filled." He then proceeded to fupport and juftify this deferved reproof by a most benevolent exhortation, in order to remove all occafion for it in future, charging them "not to labour for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which en"dureth unto everlasting life, which the "fon of man fhould give unto them: for "him had God, the father, sealed.

66

This reproof and advice were, with peculiar propriety, given to those, to whom it was addreffed; and it remains recorded in the gospel of John, for the inftruction of all the future followers of Jefus Chrift.

The exhortation to labour for the meat that endureth unto everlasting life in preference to, and even to the neglect of, that which perisheth, is founded in wisdom, and may be of great advantage to us. It cannot except by wilful misapprehenfion) be confidered as a precept, forbidding us to pay that reasonable and proper attention to procure a decent and comfortable provifion for ourselves, our families, or those

who

who may want our affiftance, which nature and the state of fociety demand of us; for we have various directions, both in the old and new Testament, to provide for those of our own houshold, and to give to him that needeth. Mofes tells us, that God placed man "in the garden of Eden to drefs it, "and to keep it."* Solomon abounds with observations to our purpose: "He that ga"thereth in fummer is a wife fon; but he "that fleepeth in harvest is a fon that "caufeth fhame."+ "Seeft thou a man

66

diligent in his business? he shall stand be"fore kings, he fhall not stand before mean men."‡ "Whatsoever thine hand "findeth to do, do it with all thy might; "for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wifdom in the grave, "whither thou goeft." § Christ himself, in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, reproves them for "ftanding all the day idle."|| The apostle Paul tells us "not to be flothful in bufinefs;"** and

* Gen. ii. 15. Prov, xxii. 29. Matt. xx. 6.

+ Prov. x. 5.

reminds

Ecclef. ix. 10.

** Rom. xii. II.

reminds the Theffalonians, that he "heard "that there were fome, who walked among "them, not working at all, but being bufy"bodies;' in confequence whereof he commands and exhorts fuch, " with all quietnefs, to work, and eat their own "bread."*.

The proper reconciliation of these plain and repeated directions to labour in our refpective worldly occupations, with the anfwer of our lord to those who followed him for the fake of the loaves and fishes, depends upon our giving the due preference to duties of the first and most important obligation, and making the provision for our temporal wants a fecondary, instead of a primary, duty; and fubordinate to our obtaining that "meat which endureth unto everlafting "life." The reproof of the scribes and pharifees by our lord himself will illuftrate this diftinction, and juftify the preference given to that which is moft needful; for they complied with all the ceremonies of the law, " they paid tithe of mint, and anife, and cummin, but omitted the

* 2 Theff. iii, 11, 12.

"weightier

66

weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faithfulness: these ought ye "to have done," faid Chrift, "and not to "leave the other undone*."

Upon these high authorities, approved by our own reafon, and confiftent with the nature and the neceffity of the cafe, we may very fafely prefume, that the direction of our lord in our text, "not to labour for "the meat that perifheth," meaneth only that we are not wholly to devote ourselves to the inferior concerns of the present life in preference to the infinitely more important ones of the next; but that we should make it the chief object of our attention, and the end of all our labours, to fecure the approbation of God, and the happiness promised us in a future life: remembering alfo, that every endeavour to procure the meat that perifheth (our food, our raiment, and other comforts of life) be conducted with justice, integrity, and honour towards others; and that the fruit of our labour be enjoyed with temperance and innocence with respect to ourselves, and with kindness and benevolence towards others. Neither fhould it be unobferved

*Matt. xxiii. 23.