THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL, AND UNSPEAKABLENESS OF THE LOSS TIIEREOF; WITH THE CAUSES OF THE LOSING IT. FIRST PREACHED AT PINNER'S HALL, AND NOW ENLARGED, AND published for GOOD. BY JOHN BUNYAN. London: Printed for Benjamin Alsop, at the Angel and Bible in the Poultry, MDCLXXXII. Faithfully reprinted from the Author's First Edition. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. they can be saved. In attempting to conceive the greatness and value of the soul, the importance of the body is too often overlooked. The body, it is true, is of the earth; the soul is the breath of God. The body is the habitation; the soul is the inhabitant. The body returns to the dust; while the soul enters into the intermediate state, waiting to be re-united to the body after its new creation, when death shall be swallowed up of life. In these views, the soul appears to be vastly superior to the body. But let it never be forgotten, that, as in this life, so it will be in the everlasting state; the body and soul are so intimately connected as to become one being, capable of exquisite happiness, or existing in the pangs of everlasting death. pp. 112, 134. Our curiosity is naturally excited to discover what | only name under heaven given among men, whereby a poor unlettered mechanic, whose book-learning had been limited to the contents of one volume, could by possibility know upon a subject so a subject so abstruse, so profound, and so highly metaphysical, as that of the Soul-its greatness-and the inconceivableness of its loss. Heathen philosophers, at the head of whose formidable array stand Plato and Aristotle, had exhausted their wit, and had not made the world a whit the wiser by all their lucubrations. The fathers plunged into the subject, and increased the confusion; we are confounded with their subtle distinctions, definitions, and inquiries; such as that attributed to St. Aquinas, How many disembodied spirits could dance upon the point of a fine needle without jostling each other? Learned divines had puzzled themselves and their hearers with suppositions and abstract principles. What, then, could a travelling brazier, or tinker, have discovered to excite the attention of the Christian world, and to become a teacher to philosophers, fathers, and learned divines? Bunyan found no access to the polluted streams of a vain philosophy; he went at once to the fountain-head; and, in the pure light of Revelation, displays the human soul-infinitely great in value, although in a fallen state. He portrays it as drawn by the unerring hand of its Maker. He sets forth, by the glass of God's Word, the inconceivableness of its value, while progressing through time; and, aided by the same wondrous glass, he penetrates the eternal world, unveils the joys of heaven and the torments of hell-so far as they are revealed by the Holy Ghost, and are conceivable to human powers. While he thus leads us to some kind of estimate of its worth, he, from the same source— the only source from whence such knowledge can be derived, makes known the causes of the loss of • the soul, and leads his trembling readers to the He who felt and wrote as Bunyan does in this solemn treatise, and whose tongue was as the pen of a ready writer, must have been wise and successful in winning souls to Christ. He felt their infinite value, he knew their strong and their weak points, their riches and poverty. He was intimate with every street and lane in the town of Man-soul, and how and where the subtle Diabolians shifted about to hide themselves in the walls, and holes, and corners. He sounds the alarm, and plants his engines against 'the eye as the window, and the ear as the door, for the soul to look out at, and to receive in by.' p. 135. He detects the wicked in speaking with his feet, and teaching with his fingers. p. 132. His illustration of the punishment of a sinner, as set forth by the sufferings of the Saviour, is peculiarly striking. p. 131. The attempt to describe the torments of those who suffer under the awful curse, Go ye wicked,' is awfully and intensely vivid, pp. 135, 136. Bunyan most earnestly exhorts the distressed sinner to go direct to the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, and not to place confidence in those who pretend to be his ministers; but 'who are false shepherds, in so many ugly guises, and under so many false and scandalous dresses;' take heed of that shepherd that careth not for his own soul, that walketh in ways, and doth such things, as have a direct tendency to damn his own soul; come not near him. He that feeds his own soul with ashes, will scarce feed thee with the bread of life.' Choose Christ to be thy chief Shepherd, sit at his feet, and learn of him, and he will direct P. 143. THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL, AND UNSPEAKABLENESS OF THE LOSS THEREOF. OR WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL?'-MARK VIII. 37. I HAVE chosen at this time to handle these words among you, and that for several reasons:-1. Because the soul, and the salvation of it, are such great, such wonderful great things; nothing is a matter of that concern as is, and should be, the soul of each one of you. House and land, trades and honours, places and preferments, what are they to salvation? to the salvation of the soul? 2. Because I perceive that this so great a thing, and about which persons should be so much concerned, is neglected to amazement, and that by the most of men; yea, who is there of the many thousands that sit daily under the sound of the gospel that are concerned, heartily concerned, about the salvation of their souls?—that is, concerned, I say, as the nature of the thing requireth. If ever a lamentation was fit to be taken up in this age about, for, or concerning anything, it is about, for, and concerning the horrid neglect that everywhere puts forth itself with reference to eternal salvation. Where is one man of a thousand-yea, where is there two of ten thousand that do show by their conversation, public and private, that the soul, their own souls, are considered by them, and that they are taking that care for the salvation of them as becomes them-to wit, as the weight of the work, and the nature of salvation requireth. 3. I have therefore pitch'd upon this text at this time; to see, if peradventure the discourse which God shall help me to make upon it, will awaken you, rouse you off of your beds of ease, security, and pleasure, and fetch you down upon your knees before him, to beg of him grace to be concerned about the salvation of your souls. And then, in the last place, I have taken upon me to do this, that I may deliver, if not you, yet myself, and that I may be clear of your blood, and stand quit, as to you, before God, when you shall, for neglect, be VOL. 1. damned, and wail to consider that you have lost your souls. When I say,' saith God, 'unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou,' the prophet or preacher, 'givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thino hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.' Eze. iii. 18, 19. Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' In my handling of these words, I shall first speak to the occasion of them, and then to the words themselves. The occasion of the words was, for that the people that now were auditors to the Lord Jesus, and that followed him, did it without that consideration as becomes so great a work—that is, the generality of them that followed him were not for considering first with themselves, what it was to profess Christ, and what that profession might cost them. And when he had called the people unto him,' the great multitude that went with him, La. xiv. 25, with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.' Mar. viii. 34. Let him first sit down and count up the cost, and the charge he is like to be at, if he follows me. For following of me is not like following of some other masters. The wind sits always on my face, and the foaming rage of the sea of this world, and the proud and lofty waves thereof, do continually beat upon the sides of the bark or ship that myself, my cause, and my followers are in; he therefore that will not run hazards, and that is afraid to venture a drowning, let him not set foot into this vessel. So whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first | a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it. Lu. xiv. 27–29. True, to reason, this kind of language tends to cast water upon weak and beginning desires, but to faith, it makes the things set before us, and the greatness, and the glory of them, more apparently excellent and desirable. Reason will say, Then who will profess Christ that hath such coarse entertainment at the beginning? but faith will say, Then surely the things that are at the end of a Christian's race in this world must needs be unspeakably glorious; since whoever hath had but the knowledge and due consideration of them, have not stuck to run hazards, hazards of every kind, that they might embrace and enjoy them. Yea, saith faith, it must needs be so, since the Son himself, that best knew what they were, even, 'for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.' He. xii. 2. But, I say, there is not in every man this knowledge of things, and so by consequence not such consideration as can make the cross and self-denial acceptable to them for the sake of Christ, and of the things that are where he now sitteth at the right hand of God. Col. iii. 2-4. Therefore our Lord Jesus doth even at the beginning give to his followers this instruction. And lest any of them should take distaste at his saying, he presenteth them with the consideration of three things together-namely, the cross, the loss of life, and the soul; and then reasoneth with them from the same, saying, Here is the cross, the life, and the soul. 1. The cross, and that you must take up, if you will follow me. 2. The life, and that you may save for a time, if you cast me off. 3. And the soul, which will everlastingly perish if you come not to me, and abide not with me. Now consider what is best to be done. Will you take up the cross, come after me, and so preserve your souls from perishing? or will you shun the cross to save your lives, and so run the danger of eternal damnation? Or, as you have it in John, will love you your life till lose it? or will you you hate your life, and save it? He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.' Jn. xii. 25. As who should say, He that loveth a temporal life, he that so loveth it, as to shun the profession of Christ to save it, shall lose it upon a worse account, than if he had lost it for Christ and the gospel; but he that will set light by it, for the love that he hath to Christ, shall keep it unto life eternal. Christ having thus discoursed with his followers about their denying of themselves, their taking up their cross and following of him, doth, in the next place, put the question to them, and so leaveth it upon them for ever, saying, 'For what shall it profit own soul?' Mar. viii. 36. As who should say, I have bid you take heed that you do not lightly, and without due consideration, enter into a profession of me and of my gospel; for he that without due consideration shall begin to profess Christ, will also without it forsake him, turn from him, and cast him behind his back; and since I have, even at the beginning, laid the consideration of the cross before you, it is because you should not be surprised and overtaken by it unawares, and because you should know that to draw back from me after you have laid your hand to my plough, will make you unfit for the kingdom of heaven. Lu. ix. 62. Now, since this is so, there is no less lies at stake than salvation, and salvation is worth all the world, yea, worth ten thousand worlds, if there should be so many. And since this is so also, it will be your wisdom to begin to profess the gospel with expectation of the cross and tribulation, for to that are my gospellers* in this world appointed. Ja. i. 12. 1 Th. iii. 3. And if you begin thus, and hold it, the kingdom and crown shall be yours; for as God counteth it a righteous thing to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, so to you who are troubled and endure it (for we count them happy,' says James, 'that endure,' Ja. v. 11), rest with saints, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel, &c. 2 Th. i. 7, 8. And if no less lies at stake than salvation, then is a man's soul and his all at the stake; and if it be so, what will it profit a man if, by forsaking of me, he should get the whole world? For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' Having thus laid the soul in one balance, and the world in the other, and affirmed that the soul outbids the whole world, and is incomparably for value and worth beyond it; in the next place, he descends to a second question, which is that I have chosen at this time for my text, saying, 'Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' In these words, we have first a supposition, and such an one as standeth upon a double bottom. The supposition is this-That the soul is capable of being lost; or thus-'Tis possible for a man to lose his soul. The double bottom that this supposition is grounded upon is, first, a man's ignorance of the worth of his soul, and of the danger that it is in; and the second is, for that men commonly do set a higher price upon present ease and enjoyments than they do upon eternal salvation. The last of these doth naturally follow upon the first; for if men be ignorant of the value and worth of their souls, as by Christ in the verse before is implied, what should hinder but that men should set a higher esteem upon that with which their carnal desires are taken, than upon that about which they are not concerned, and of which they know not the worth. But again, as this by the text is clearly supposed, so there is also something implied; namely, that it is impossible to possess some men with the worth of their souls until they are utterly and everlastingly lost. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' That is, men when their souls are lost, and shut down under the hatches in the pits and hells in endless perdition and destruction, then they will see the worth of their souls, then they will consider what they have lost, and truly not till then. This is plain, not only to sense, but by the natural scope of the words, What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' Or what would not those that are now for sin made to see themselves lost, by the light of hell fire-for some will never be convinced that they are lost till, with rich Dives, they see it in the light of hell flames. Lu. xvi. 22, 23. I say, what would not such, if they had it, give in exchange for their immortal souls, or to recover them again from that place and torment? ་ * I shall observe two truths in the words. The first is, That the loss of the soul is the highest, the greatest loss—a loss that can never be repaired or made up. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'-that is, to recover or redeem his lost soul to liberty. not anything, nor all the things under heaven, were they all in one man's hand, and all at his disposal, that would go in exchange for the soul, that would be of value to fetch back one lost soul, or that would certainly recover it from the confines of hell. The redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever.' Ps. xlix. 3. And what saith the words before the text but the same-For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?' What shall profit a man that has lost his soul? Nothing at all, though he hath by that loss gained the whole world; for all the world is not worth a soul, not worth a soul in the eye of God and judgment of the law. And it is from this consideration that good Elihu cautioneth Job to take heed, 'Because there is wrath,' saith he, 'beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee. Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength.' Job xxxvi. 18, 19. Riches and power, what is there more in the world? for money answereth all things-that is, all but soul concerns. It can neither be a price for souls while here, nor can that, with all the forces of strength, recover one out of hell fire. DOCTRINE FIRST. So then, the first truth drawn from the words stands firm—namely, That the loss of the soul is the highest, the greatest loss; a loss that can never be repaired or made up. In my discourse upon this subject, I shall observe this method: FIRST, I shall show you what the soul is. SECOND, I shall show you the greatness of it. THIRD, I shall show you what it is to lose the soul. The second truth is this, That how unconcerned and careless soever some now be, about the loss or salvation of their souls, yet the day is coming; but it will then be too late, when men will be willing, had they never so much, to give it all in exchange for their souls. For so the question implies- What FOURTH, I shall show you the cause for which shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' What men lose their souls; and by this time the greatwould he not give? What would he not part withness of the loss will be manifest. at that day, the day in which he shall see himself damned, if he had it, in exchange for his soul? The first observation, or truth, drawn from the words is cleared by the text, What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?'—that is, there is Having the most solemn warnings mercifully given to us by God, whose word is truth itself, how strange it is, nay, how insane, to neglect the Saviour. Our author, in his 'Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,' gives a solemn account of his own distracted feelings, when he, by Divine warnings, contemplated the probable loss of his never-dying soul; and, believing in the truth of God's revealed will, he felt, with inexpressible horror, his dangerous state. He describes his mental anguish, by comparing it with the acute bodily sufferings of a criminal broken on the wheel (No. 152). Can we wonder that he was in 'downright earnest' in seeking salvation (No. 55). Oh I reader, may we be thus impelled to fly from the wrath to come.-ED. [WHAT THE SOUL IS.] FIRST, I shall show you what the soul is, both as to the various names it goes under, as also, by describing of it by its powers and properties, though in all I shall be but brief, for I intend no long discourse. † [Names of the Soul.] 1. The soul is often called the heart of man, or that, in and by which things to either good or evil, Many have been the attempts to define the qualities, nature, and residence of the soul. The sinful body is the sepulchre in which it is entombed, until Christ giveth it life. The only safe guide, in such inquiries, is to follow Bunyan, and ascertain 'what saith the Lord' upon a subject so momentous and so difficult for mortal eyes to penetrate.-ED. 1 have their rise; thus desires are of the heart or saith, in that very day his thoughts perish,' &c. soul; yea, before desires, the first conception of good or evil is in the soul, the heart. The heart understands, wills, affects, reasons, judges, but these are the faculties of the soul; wherefore, heart and soul are often taken for one and the same. 'My son, give me thine heart.' Pr. xxiii. 26. Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,' &c. Mat. xv. 19; 1 Pe. iii. 15; Ps. xxvi. 2. 2. The soul of man is often called the spirit of a man; because it not only giveth being, but life to all things and actions in and done by him. Hence soul and spirit are put together, as to the same action. • With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early.' Is. xxvi. 9. When he saith, Yea, with my spirit - will I seck thee,' he explaineth not only with what kind of desires he desired God, but with what principal matter his desires were brought forth. It was with my soul, saith he; to wit, with my spirit within me. So that of Mary, 'My soul,' saith she, doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.' La. i. Not that soul and spirit are, in this place, to be taken for two superior powers in man; but the same great soul is here put under two names, or terms, to show that it was the principal part in Mary; to wit, her soul, that magnified God, even that part that could spirit and put life into her whole self to do it. Indeed, sometimes spirit is not taken so largely, but is confined to some one power or faculty of the soul, as the spirit of my understanding,' Job xx. 3; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.' And sometime by spirit we are to understand other things; but many times by spirit we must understand the soul, and also by soul the spirit. 46, 47. Ps. cxlvi. 4. The first text is more emphatical; Her soul was in departing (for she died). There is the soul of a beast, a bird, &c., but the soul of a man is another thing; it is his understanding, and reason, and conscience, &c. And this soul, when it departs, he dies. Nor is this life, when gone out of the body, annihilate, as is the life of a beast; no, this, in itself, is immortal, and has yet a place and being when gone out of the body it dwelt in; yea, as quick, as lively is it in its senses, if not far more abundant, than when it was in the body; but I call it the life, because so long as that remains in the body, the body is not dead. And in this sense it is to be taken where he saith, He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it' unto life eternal; and this is the soul that is intended in the text, and not the breath, as in some other places is meant. And this is evident, because the man has a being, a sensible being, after he has lost the soul. I mean not by the man a man in this world, nor yet in the body, or in the grave; but by man we must understand either the soul in hell, or body and soul there, after the judgment is over. And for this the text, also, is plain, for therein we are presented with a man sensible of the damage that he has sustained by losing of his soul. What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' But, 5. The whole man goeth under this denomination; man, consisting of body and soul, is yet called by that part of himself that is most chief and principal. Let every soul,' that is, let every man, 'be subject unto the higher powers.' Ro. xiii. 1. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.' Ac. vii. 14. By both these, and several other places, the whole man is meant, and is also so to be taken in the text; for whereas here he saith, 3. Therefore, by soul we understand the spiritual, the best, and most noble part of man, as distinct from the body, even that by which we under-What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the stand, imagine, reason, and discourse. And, indeed, as I shall further show you presently, the body is but a poor, empty vessel, without this great thing called the soul. The body without the spirit,' or soul, 'is dead.' Ja. ii. 26. Or nothing but a clod of dust (her soul departed from her, for she died). It is, therefore, the chief and most noble part of man. 4. The soul is often called the life of man, not a life of the same stamp and nature of the brute; for the life of man—that is, of the rational creature -is, that, as he is such, wherein consisteth and abideth the understanding and conscience, &c. Wherefore, then, a man dieth, or the body ceaseth to act, or live in the exercise of the thoughts, which formerly used to be in him, when the soul departeth, as I hinted even now-her soul departed from her, for she died; and, as another good man whole world, and lose his own soul?' It is said elsewhere, For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world, and lose himself?' Lu. ix. 25; and so, consequently, or, What shall a man give in exchange (for himself) for his soul?' His soul when he dies, and body and soul in and after judgment. 6. The soul is called the good man's darling. Deliver,' Lord, saith David, my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.' Ps. xxii. 20. So, again, in another place, he saith, Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the [power of the] lions.' Ps. xxxv. 17. My darling—this sentence must not be applied universally, but only to those in whose eyes their souls, and the redemption thereof, is precious. My darling—most men do, by their actions, say of their soul, my drudge, |