As _David_ observes, that “the commandment of GOD is exceeding broad,” _Psalm_ cxix. 96. so we may say of this one thing needful; or as _Solomon_ very justly and emphatically expresses it, “to fear GOD and to keep his commandments is the whole duty of man,” _Ecclesiastes_ xii. 13. 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 improving the mind in a growing meetness for a state 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 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 this expression of “one thing being needful.” I am now,
_Thirdly_, To shew you with how much propriety the care of the soul may be represented under this character, as the one thing needful, or 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.
There 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 opinions 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. _Job_ xxviii. 21, 23, 28. “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 an understanding people,” _Deuteronomy_ iv. 6. 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 of this great truth. And though now all that he spoke on the curious and less concerning 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,” _1 Kings_ iv. 33. that saying is preserved in which he testifies, that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,” _Proverbs_ i. 7, 9, 10. 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.”