FOE ETEKNAi FOOD,
361
I Nay, to raise it a little higher, learning and knowledge, if it be only of perishing things, is food that perisheth ; for as the frame of nature and the civil frame of the world must have an end and perish, so the knowledge of natural and civil things must needs be perishing also.
And to say no more, the very knowledge, the speculative and con- templative knowledge of religious things, if we have only the knowledge of the things in us, and are not turned into the things we know, is a perishing thing. The truths of God indeed are the food of the soul, but unless the goodness of those truths be the food of the will and aflections, unless we are moulded and fashioned into the very form of those truths, unless we are framed to a love and liking of that which we know, that those truths be rooted and planted in us, it is ' food that perisheth.'
In a religious discourse, in preaching, all your ornaments, besides that which quickeneth and strengtheneth the soul to holy duties, is ' food that perisheth.' And your hearing, if it be only to hear witty sentences and turnings of speech, without regard to the truth itself, is ' food that perisheth.' Thus you see what a great latitude this food that perisheth hath in Christ's meaning.
Now our blessed Saviour takes them off from labouring for this by a strong argument. Would you have a greater argument ? ' It is food that perisheth.' We do not regard the lustre of things, but their continuance. Why do we esteem of crystal more than glass ? Because it continues. Flowers have a goodly gloss, but we regard them little, because they are fresh in the morning, and cast away at evening. And" so it is with all excellencies, unless it be grace or glory. All flesh is grass, and the excellentest things of nature, wit, and honour, and learning, and all, though they be not as grass so common, yet they are as ' the flower of the grass ; they are all fading and withering ; but the word of God endureth for ever ;' that is, the grace and comfort that we get by the blessed truths of God,
* that endures for ever,' and it makes us endure for ever. But all other things are food that perisheth, and we perish in the use of them. ' The world passeth away, and the concupiscence of it ;' the world, the things lusted after perish ; and in lusting after the world, the lust perisheth, and we perish too in the pursuit of them ; nay, which is worse, the immoderate seeking after these things destroy us : we eternally perish. For by placing our affections on earthly things we turn earthly. Therefore in divinity we have our denomination from our affections. We are called good or ill, not from our knowledge, but from our aflections. The devil knows good, but he is not good. It is loving, and joying, and delighting in good or ill that makes us good or ill. We have our form and being in religion from our afi'ections.
Now by seeking after and placing our aflections, that are ordained to close with better things — which shall make us happy in another world — by plant- ing them on earthly things, we become like the things, earthly ; by placing them on the world, we become the world, we become earthly. Therefore they are not only perishing in themselves, but we perish in the pursuit of them. It is a strong argument that is here used. All earthly things are
* food that perisheth.' For, alas ! he that is rich to-day may be poor to-morrow. He may be as rich as Job in the morning, and as poor as Job at night. He may be in credit now with Haman, and be in discredit ere soon. He may be in health now, and sick ere long. We need not Scrip- ture for this. Experience reads us this lecture enough ; but we are so desperately set on earthly things, that neither faith nor experience, nor the
362 THE FRUITFUL LABOUR
strength of discourse, nor reason, is sufficient to take us oflf, till God by his Spirit convince us thoroughly of this. Therefore Moses prays that ' God would teach them to number their days,' Ps. xc. 12. So, though there is a sufficient argument in the discovery of these earthly things to be perishing things to enforce a dissuasion, yet we cannot loosen our affections to them, nor know the uncertainty of them till God teach us.
To make some use of this in a word, and so to go on to that which I more intend. If all things here below be grass, and as the flower of the grass, perishing and fading things, why then we should take heed that we do not redeeem anij pcrishiiif) thin// with the loss of that which doth not perish, with the loss of tliis soul of ours, which is an eternal spiritual substance, breathed in by God in the creation, and redeemed by Christ ; which is capable of immortality, capable of happiness, capable of the blessed im- pression of the image of God. * What if one should gain the whole world,' saith Christ, that knows the price of a soul best, ' and should lose his own soul !' It is an argument sufficient even to a man that is led but with the strength of natural reason, not to labour for that which will perish, when he hath a soul that will not perish. To labour after that thing as his main chief good, that is of shorter continuance than himself, is extremity of folly. Therefore no carnal man, that seeks after these perishing things, can ever be a wise man, because he hath an end inferior to himself. He may be wise for particular ends, to be rich, to have great places, to get his pleasure. This is to be wise for particular ends. But he cannot be wise for the chief, and last, and best end, for his soul, for eternity. He cannot direct his course that way, that labours for the ' food that perisheth.'