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 dressesl’
‘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 thee to such as shall feed thy soul with knowledge and
understanding.
Reader, let me no longer keep thee upon the threshold but enter upon
this important treatise with earnest prayer; and may the blessed Spirit
enable us to live under a sense of the greatness of the soul, the
unspeakableness of the loss thereof, the causes of losing it, and the
only way in which its salvation can he found.
GEORGE OFFOR. Hackney, April 1850
THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL,
AND UNSPEAKABLENESS OF THE LOSS THEREOF
‘OR WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL?’—MARK 8:37.
I HAVE chosen at this time to handle these words among you, and that
for several reasons:—
l. 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 salvation. Where is one man in 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 pitched 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 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 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 thine hand. Yet if thou warn
the wicked, and he turn not front his wickedness, nor from his wicked
way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul’
(Eze 3:18, 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 (Luke14:25) ‘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 (Mark 8:34). 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 of the 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 whosever
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
and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it (Luke
14:27-29).
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’ (Heb 12:2).
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
3:2-4). 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 you love your life till you
lose it? or will 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’ (John 12:25). 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 a man, if he shall gain the
whole world, and lose his own soul?’ (Mark 8:36). 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 (Luke 9:62).
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 gospellers1 in this world appointed
(James 1:12; 1 Thess 3:3). 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,’ (James 5:11), 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, etc. (2 Thess 1:7, 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 out-bids 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 to here 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 (Luke 16:22, 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?2
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?
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 will a man give in exchange for his soul?’
What would he not give? What would he not part with at that day, the
day in which he will 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 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’ (Psa 49:8). 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 36:18,19). 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.
FOURTH, I shall show you the cause for which men lose their souls; and
by this time the greatness of the loss will be manifest.
[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.3
[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, have their rise; thus desires are of the
heart or 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’ (Prov 23:26). ‘Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts,’
etc. (Matt 15:19; 1 Peter 3:15; Psa 26:2).
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 notion.
‘With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit
within me will I seek thee early’ (Isa 26:9). When he saith, ‘Yea, with
my spirit—will I seek 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’ (Luke 1:46,47).
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 20:3) ‘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.
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
understand, 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’ (James 2:26). Or nothing but (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 etc. 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 saith, ‘in that very day his thoughts perish,’ etc.
(Psa 146:4). The first text is more emphatical; Her soul was in
departing (for she died). There is the soul of a beast, a bird, etc.,
but the soul of a man is another thing; it is his understanding, and
reason, and conscience, etc. 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’ (Rom 13:1). ‘Then sent Joseph, and called his father
Jacob to him, and all his kindred, three-score and fifteen souls (Acts
7:14). 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,
‘What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the 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?’ (Luke 9:25) 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’
(Psa 22:20). 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’ (Psa 35:17). 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, my slave; nay, thou
slave to the devil and sin; for what sin, what lust, what sensual and
beastly lust is there in the world that some do not cause their souls
to bow before and yield unto? But David, here, as you see, calls it his
darling, or his choice and most excellent thing; for, indeed, the soul
is a choice thing in itself, and should, were all wise, be every man’s
darling, or chief treasure. And that it might be so with us, therefore,
our Lord Jesus hath thus expressed the worth of the soul, saying, ‘What
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ But if this is true, one
may see already what misery he is like to sustain that has, or shall
lose his soul; he has lost his heart, his spirit, his best part, his
life, his darling, himself, his whole self, and so, in every sense, his
all. And now, ‘what shall a man,’ what would a man, but what can a man
that has lost his soul, himself, and his all, ‘give in exchange for his
soul?’ Yea, what shall the man that has sustained this loss do to
recover all again, since this man, or the man put under this question,
must needs be a man that is gone from hence, a man that is cast in the
judgment, and one that is gone down the throat of hell?
But to pass this, and to proceed.
[Powers and Properties of the Soul.]
I come next to describe the soul unto you by such things as it is set
out by in the Holy Scriptures, and they are, in general, three—First,
The powers of the soul. Second, The senses, the spiritual senses of the
soul. Third, The passions of the soul.
Of the powers of the soul.
First, We will discourse of the powers, I may call them the members of
the soul; for, as the members of the body, being many, do all go to the
making up of the body, so these do go to the completing of the soul.
1. There is the understanding, which may be termed the head; because in
that is placed the eye of the soul; and this is that which, or by which
the soul, discerning things that are presented to it, and that either
by God or Satan; this is that by which a man conceiveth and
apprehendeth things so deep and great that cannot, by mouth, or tongue,
or pen, be expressed.
2. There is, also, belonging to the soul, the conscience, in which I
may say, is placed the Seat of Judgment; for, as by the understanding
things are let into the soul, so by the conscience the evil or good of
such things are tried; especially when in the
3. Third place, there is the judgment, which is another part of this
noble creature, has passed, by the light of the understanding, his
verdict upon what is let into the soul.4
4. There is, also, the fancy or imagination, another part of this great
thing, the soul: and a most curious thing this fancy is; it is that
which presenteth to the man the idea, form, or figure of that, or any
of those things, wherewith a man is either frighted or taken, pleased
or displeased. And,
5. The mind, another part of the soul, is that unto which this fancy
presenteth its things to be considered of; because without the mind
nothing is entertained in the soul.
6. There is the memory too, another part of the soul; and that may be
called the register of the soul; for it is the memory that receiveth
and keepeth in remembrance what has passed, or has been done by the
man, or attempted to be done unto him; and in this part of the soul, or
from it, will be fed ‘the worm that dieth not,’ when men are cast into
hell; also, from this memory will flow that peace at the day of
judgment that saints shall have in their service for Christ in the
world.
7. There are the affections too, which are, as I may call them, the
hands and arms of the soul; for they are they that take hold of,
receive, and embrace what is liked by the soul, and it is a hard thing
to make the soul of a man cast from it what its affections cleave to
and have embraced. Hence the affections are called for, when the
apostle bids men ‘seek the things above; set your affections upon
them,’ saith he (Col 3), or, as you have it in another place, ‘Lay
hold’ of them; for the affections are as hands to the soul, and they by
which it fasteneth upon things.
8. There is the will, which may be called the foot of the soul, because
by that the soul, yea, the whole man, is carried hither and thither, or
else held back and kept from moving.5