dures to eternal life," John vi. 27. than in that by which this mortal body must be fupported. It is needful for you that are advanced in years; though your ftrength be impaired fo that the "grafhopper is a burthen," Eccl. xii. 5. and though you have by your long continuance in fin rendered this great work fo hard, that were it lefs 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 fink under a curfe aggravated by every year and by every day of your lives. It is needful to you that are young, though folicited by so many gay vanities, to neglect it, though it may be represented as an unfeasonable care at prefent, yet I repeat it, it is needful to you; immediately needful, unless you who walk fo frequently over the duft of your brethren and companions, that died in the bloom and vigour of their 'days, have made fome fecret covenant with the grave for yourselves, and found out fome wonderful method, hitherto unknown, of fecuring this precarious life, and of answering for days and months to come, while others cannot answer for one fingle moment.

2. The care of the foul is a matter of the highest importance;" beyond any thing which can be brought into comparifon with it.

As Solomon fays of wisdom, that "it is more precious than rubies, and that all things which can be defired are not to be compared with her," Prov. iii. 15. So I may properly fay of this great and most important branch of wifdom; whatever can be laid in the balance with it, will be found altogether lighter than vanity. This is ftrongly implied when it is faid in the text," one thing is needful;" one thing, and one thing alone is fo. Juft as the bleffed GOD is faid to be "only wife," 1 Tim. i. 17. and "only holy," Rev. xv. 4. because the wisdom and holiness of angels and men is as nothing, when compared with his. What feems moft great and most important in life, what kings and fenates, what the wifeft and greatest of this world are employing their time, their councils, their pens, their labours upon, are triAles, when compared with this one thing. A man {may fubfift, he may in fome confiderable measure be happy, without learning, without riches, without titles, without health,

without

without liberty, without friends, nay, though "the life be more than meat, and the body than raiment," Matth. vi. 25. yet may he be happy, unspeakably happy, without the body itfelf. But he cannot be fo, in the neglect of the one thing needful. I must therefore befpeak your regard to it in the words of Mofes," it is not a light thing, but it is your life," Deut. xxxii. 47.

3. The care of the foul is of fo comprehenfive a nature, that "every thing truly worthy of our regard may be conf dered as included in it, or fubfervient to it.

As David obferves, that "the commandment of God is exceeding broad," Pfalm cxix. 96. fo we may say of this one thing needful; or as Solomon very juftly and emphatically expreffes it," to fear GOD and to keep his commandments is the whole duty of man," Eccl. xii. 13. his whole duty, and his whole intereft; and every thing which is wife and rational does in its proper place and connection make a part of it. We fhould judge very ill concerning the nature of this care, if we imagined, that it confifted merely in acts of devotion, or religious contemplation; it comprehends all the lovely and harmonious band of focial 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 reft, 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 improving the mind in a growing meetness for a ftate of compleat 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, or however it may be fweetened to gratify the tafte. Name a thing, which, instead of thus improving the foul, has a tendency to debafe and pollute, to enflave and endanger it, and you name what is moft unprofitable and mifchievous, be the wages of iniquity ever so great; most foul and deformed, be it in the eyes of men ever fo honourable, or in their customs ever fo fashionable. Thus I have endeavoured to fhew you what we may suppose implied in this expreffion of "one thing being needful." I am now,

Thirdly,

Thirdly, To fhew you with how much propriety the care of the foul may be reprefented under this character, as the one thing needful, or as a matter of univerfal and most serious concern, to which every thing else is to be confidered as fubfervient, if at all worthy of our care and purfuit.

There let me appeal to the fentiments of those who must be allowed moft capable of judging, and to the evident reason of the cafe itself, as it muft appear to every unprejudiced mind.

1. Let me argue " from the opinions of those who must be allowed most capable of judging in such an affair," and we hall quickly fee that the care of the foul appears to them, the one thing needful.

Is the judgment of the bleffed GOD " according to truth," how evidently and how folemnly is that judgment declared? I will not fay 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 Fob and Mofes to the conclufion of the canon of scripture. Job xxviii. 21, 23, 28. " If wisdom be hid from the eyes of all the living, furely GOD understandeth the way thereof, he knoweth the place thereof;" and if he does, it is plainly pointed out, for "unto man he ftill faith, behold, the fearof the LORD, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil, that is understanding." By Mofes he declared to the Ifraelites, that to do the commandments of the LORD would be their wisdom and their understanding in the fight of the nations, who should hear his ftatutes, and fay, furely this is a wise and an understanding people," Deut. iv. 6. When he had raised up one man' on the throne of Ifrael, with the character of the wifeft that ever lived upon the face of the earth, he chose to make him eminently a teacher of this great truth." And though now all that he fpoke on the curious and lefs concerning fubjects of natural philofophy is loft, "though he spoke of trees from the cedar to the hyffop, and of beafts, and of fowls, and of creeping things, and of fishes," 1 Kings iv. 33. that faying is preferved in which he teftifies, that the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom," Prov. i. 7, 9, 10. and those Proverbs, in almost every line of

which, they who neglect GoD and their own fouls, are fpoken of as fools, as if that were the most proper fignification of the word, while the religious alone are honoured with the title of wife. But in this refpect, as attefting this truth in the name of GOD and in his own,

Solomon is here."

46 a greater than

For if we inquire 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 paffage wherein our LORD not only declares his own judgment, but feems to appeal to the confciences of all, as obliged by their own fecret convictions to fubfcribe to the truth of it. "What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lofe his own foul; or what fhall a man give in exchange for his foul?" Matth. xvi. 26. If it were once loft, 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 fufferings, his blood, his death, speak what a value he fet on the fouls of men. Is it to be imagined, that he would have relinquished heaven, have dwelt upon earth, have laboured by night and by day, and at laft have expired on the crofs, 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," Coloff. ii. 3, 9. was mistaken in judgment so deliberately formed, and fo folemnly declared?

If after this, there were room to mention human judgment and teftimonies, how eafy would it be to produce a cloud of witnesses in such a cause, and to fhew that the wifest and best of men in all ages of the world have agreed in this point, that amidst all the diverfities of opinion and profeffion, which fucceeding generations have produced, this has been the unanimous judgment, this the common and moft folicitous care of those whofe characters are moft truly valuable, to secure the falvation of their own fouls, and to promote the falvation of others.

And let me befeech 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 fide?

The number of fuch is comparatively few; and when you compare what you have observed of their temper and conduct, I will not fay with what you read of holy men of old, but with what you have yourselves feen in the faithful, active, and zealous fervants of CHRIST, in these latter ages, with whom you have converfed; do you on the whole find, that the rejecters and deriders of the gofpel, are in other refpects fo much more prudent and judicious, so much wiser for them, felves, and for others, that are influenced by them, as that you can be in reafon obliged to pay any great deference to the authority of a few fuch names as these, in oppofition to those to whom they are here opposed?

But you will fay, and you will fay it too truly, Though but a few may venture in words to declare for the neglect of the foul and its eternal intereft, that the greater part of mainkind do it in their actions. But are the greater part of mankind fo wife, 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 fide, in their most serious moments? When the intoxications of worldly business and pleasures are over, and fome languifhing fickness forces men to folitude and retirement; what have you generally observed to be the effect of fuch a circumftance? Have they not then declared themfelves convinced of the truth we are now labouring to establish? Nay, do we not fometimes fee, that a diftemper which feizes the mind with violence, yet does not utterly deftroy its reafoning faculties, fixes this conviction on the foul in a few hours, nay, fometimes in a few moments? Have you never feen a gay, thoughtless creature, furprized in the giddy round of pleasures and amufements, and presently brought not only to ferioufnefs, but terror and trembling, by the near views of death? Have you never seen the man of bufinefs and care interrupted, like the rich fool in the parable, in the midst of his fchemes for the prefent world? And have you not heard one and the other of them owning the vanity of thofe pleasures and cares, which but a few days ago were every thing to them? Confeffing that religion was the one thing needful, and recommending it to others with an earneftness, as if they hoped thereby to atone for their own former neglect? We that are minifters, fre

quently