spoken to; and that is, to show you what we are to understand by losing
of the soul, or what the loss of the soul is—‘What shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?’
[He that loseth his soul loseth himself.]
First, The loss of the soul is a loss, in the nature of it, peculiar to
itself. There is no such loss, as to the nature of loss, as is the loss
of the soul; for that he that hath lost his soul has lost himself. In
all other losses, it is possible for a man to save himself, but he that
loseth his soul, loseth himself—‘For what is a man advantaged, if he
gain the whole world, and lose himself?’ (Luke 9:25). Wherefore, the
loss of the soul is a loss that cannot be paralleled. He that loseth
himself, loseth his all, his lasting all; for himself is his all—his
all in the most comprehensive sense. What mattereth it what a man gets,
if by the getting thereof he loseth himself? Suppose a man goeth to the
Indies for gold, and he loadeth his ship therewith; but at his return,
that sea that carried him thither swallows him up—now, what has he got?
But this is but a lean similitude with reference to the matter in
hand—to wit, to set forth the loss of the soul. Suppose a man that has
been at the Indies for gold should, at his return, himself be taken by
them of Algiers, and there made a slave of, and there be hunger-bit,
and beaten till his bones are broken, 15 what has he got? what is he
advantaged by his rich adventure? Perhaps, you will say, he has got
gold enough to obtain his ransom. Indeed this may be; and therefore no
similitude can be found that can fully amplify the matter, ‘for what
shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’ ’Tis a loss that standeth
by itself, there is not another like it, or unto which it may be
compared. ’Tis only like itself—’tis singular, ’tis the chief of all
losses—the highest, the greatest loss. ‘For what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul?’ A man may lose his wife, his children, his
estate, his liberty, and his life, and have all made up again, and have
all restored with advantage, and may, therefore, notwithstanding all
these losses, be far enough off from losing of himself. (Luke 14:26;
Mark 8:35). For he may lose his life, and save it; yea, sometimes the
only way to save that, is to lose it; but when a man has lost himself,
his soul, then all is gone to all intents and purposes. There is no
word says, ‘he that loses his soul shall save itl’ but contrariwise,
the text supposeth that a man has lost his soul, and then demands if
any can answer it—‘What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?’
All, then, that he gains that loseth his soul is only this, he has
gained a loss, he has purchased the loss of losses, he has nothing left
him now but his loss, but the loss of himself, of his whole self. He
that loseth his life for Christ, shall save it; but he that loseth
himself for sin, and for the world, shall lose himself to perfection of
loss; he has lost himself, and there is the full point.
There are several things fall under this first head, upon which I would
touch a little.
He that has lost himself will never be more at his own dispose.
(1.) He that has lost his soul has lost himself. Now, he that lost
himself is no more at his own dispose. While a man enjoys himself, he
is at his own dispose. A single man, a free man, a rich man, a poor
man, any man that enjoys himself, is at his own dispose. I speak after
the manner of men. But he that has lost himself is not at his own
dispose. He is, as I may say, now out of his own hands: he has lost
himself, his soul-self, his own self, his whole self, by sin, and wrath
and hell hath found him; he is, therefore, now no more at his own
dispose, but at the dispose of justice, of wrath, and hell; he is
committed to prison, to hell prison, there to abide, not at pleasure,
not as long and as little time as he will, but the term appointed by
his judge: nor may he there choose his own affliction, neither for
manner, measure, or continuance. It is God that will spread the fire
and brimstone under him, it is God that will pile up wrath upon him,
and it is God himself that will blow the fire. And ‘the breathof the
Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it’ (Isa 30:33). And thus
it is manifest that he that has lost himself, his soul, is no more at
his own dispose, but at the dispose of them that find him.
He that hath lost himself, is not at liberty to dispose of what he
hath.
(2.) Again, as he that has lost himself is not at his own dispose, so
neither is he at liberty to dispose of what he has; for the man that
has lost himself has something yet of his own. The text implies that
his soul is his when lost, yea, when that and his all, himself is lost;
but as he cannot dispose of himself, so he cannot dispose of what he
hath. Let me take leave to make out my meaning. If he that is lost,
that has lost himself, has not, notwithstanding, something that in some
sense may be called his own, then he that is lost is nothing. The man
that is in hell has yet the powers, the senses, and passions of his
soul; for not he nor his soul must be thought to be stripped of these;
for then he would be lower than the brute; but yet all these, since he
is there, are by God improved against himself; or, if you will, the
point of this man’s sword is turned against his own heart, and made to
pierce his own liver.
The soul by being in hell loseth nothing of its aptness to think, its
quickness to pierce, to pry, and to understand; nay, hell has ripened
it in all these things; but, I say, the soul with its improvements as
to these, or anything else, is not in the hand of him that hath lost
himself to manage for his own advantage, but in the hand, and in the
power, and to be disposed as is thought meet by him into whose
revenging hand by sin he has delivered himself—to wit, in the hand of
God. So, then, God now has the victory, and disposeth of all the
powers, senses, and passions of the soul for the chastising of him that
has lost himself. Now the understanding is only employed and improved
in and about the apprehending of such things as will be like daggers at
the heart—to wit, about justice, sin, hell, and eternity, to grieve and
break the spirit of the damned; yea, to break, to wound, and to tear
the soul in pieces. The depths of sin which the man has loved, the good
nature of God whom the man has hated, the blessings of eternity which
the soul has despised, shall now be understood by him more than ever,
but yet so only, as to increase grief and sorrow, by improving of the
good and of the evil of the things understood, to the greater wounding
of the spirit; wherefore now, every touch that the understanding shall
give to the memory will be as a touch of a red-hot iron, or like a
draught of scalding lead poured down the throat. The memory also
letteth those things down upon the conscience with no less terror and
perplexity. And now the fancy or imagination doth start and stare like
a man by fears bereft of wits, and doth exercise itself, or rather is
exercised by the hand of revenging justice, so about the breadth and
depth of present and future punishments, as to lay the soul as on a
burning rack. Now also the judgment, as with a mighty maul, driveth
down the soul in the sense and pangs of everlasting misery into that
pit that has no bottom; yea, it turneth again, and, as with a hammer,
it riveteth every fearful thought and apprehension of the soul so fast
that it can never be loosed again for ever and ever. Alas! now the
conscience can sleep, be dull, be misled, or batter, no longer; no, it
must now cry out; understanding will make it, memory will make it,
fancy or imagination will make it. Now, I say, it will cry out of sin,
of justice, and of the terribleness of the punishment that hath
swallowed him up that has lost himself. Here will be no forgetfulness;
yet nothing shall be thought on but that which will wound and kill;
here will be no time, cause, or means for diversion; all will stick and
gnaw like a viper. Now the memory will go out to where sin was
heretofore committed, it will also go out to the word that did forbid
it. The understanding also, and the judgment too, will now consider of
the pretended necessity that the man had to break the commandments of
God, and of the seasonableness of the cautions and of the convictions
which were given him to forbear, by all which more load will be laid
upon him that has lost himself; for here all the powers, senses, and
passions of the soul must be made self-burners, self-tormentors,
self-executioners, by the just judgment of God; also all that the will
shall do in this place shall be but to wish for ease, but the wish
shall only be such as shall only seem to lift up, for the cable rope of
despair shall with violence pull him down again. The will indeed will
wish for ease, and so will the mind, etc., but all these wishers will
by wishing arrive to no more advantage but to make despair which is the
most twinging stripe of hell, to cut yet deepeer into the whole soul of
him that has lost himself; wherefore, after all that can be wished for,
they return again to their burning chair, where they sit and bewail
their misery. Thus will all the powers, senses, and passions of the
soul of him that has lost himself be out of his own power to dispose
for his advantage, and will be only in the hand and under the
management of the revenging justice of God. And herein will that state
of the damned be worse than it is now with the fallen angels; for
though the fallen angels are now cast down to hell, in chains, and sure
in themselves at last to partake of eternal judgment, yet at present
they are not so bound up as the damned sinner shall be; for
notwithstanding their chains, and their being the prisoners of the
horrible hells, yet they have a kind of liberty granted them, and that
liberty will last till the time appointed, to tempt, to plot, to
contrive, and invent their mischiefs, against the Son of God and His
(Job 1:7; 2:2). And though Satan knows that this at last will work for
his future condemnation, yet at present he finds it some diversion to
his trembling mind, and obtains, through his so busily employing of
himself against the gospel and its professors, something to sport and
refresh himself withal; yea, and doth procure to himself some small
crumbs of minutes of forgetfulness of his own present misery and of the
judgment that is yet to pass upon him; but this privilege will then be
denied to him that has lost himself; there will be no cause nor matter
for diversion; there it will; as in the old world, rain day and night
fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven upon them (Rev
14:10,11). Misery is fixed; the worm will be always sucking at and
gnawing of, their soul; also, as I have said afore, all the powers,
senses, and passions of the soul will throw their darts inwards, yea,
of God will be made to do it, to the utter, unspeakable, and endless
torment of him that has lost himself. Again,
They cannot sit down by the loss.
(3.) All therefore that he that has lost himself can do is, to sit down
by the loss. Do I say, he can do this?—oh! if that could be, it would
be to such, a mercy; I must therefore here correct myself—That they
cannot do; for to sit down by the loss implies a patient enduring; but
there will be no such grace as patience in hell with him that has lost
himself; here, will also want a bottom for patience—to wit, the
providence of God; for a providence of God, though never so dismal, is
a bottom for patience to the afflicted; but men go not to hell by
providence, but by sin. Now sin being the cause, other effects are
wrought; for they that go to hell, and that there miserably perish,
shall never say it was God by His providence that brought them hither,
and so shall not have that on which to lean and stay themselves.
They shall justify God, and lay the fault upon themselves concluding
that it was sin with which their souls did voluntarily work—yea, which
their souls did suck in as sweet milk—that is the cause of this their
torment. Now this will work after another manner, and will produce
quite another thing than patience, or a patient enduring of their
torment; for their seeing that they are not only lost, but have lost
themselves, and that against the ordinary means that of God was
provided to prevent that loss; yea, when they shall see what a base
thing sin is, how that it is the very worst of things, and that which
also makes all things bad, and that for the sake of that they have lost
themselves, this will make them fret, and, gnash, and gnaw with anger
themselves; this will set all the passions of the soul, save love, for
that I think will be stark dead, all in a rage, all in a
self-tormenting fire. You know there is nothing that will sooner put a
man into and manage his rage against himself than will a full
conviction in his conscience that by his own only folly, and that
against caution, and counsel, and reason to the contrary, he hath
brought himself into extreme distress and misery. But how much more
will it make this fire burn when he shall see all this is come upon him
for a toy, for a bauble, for a thing that is worse than nothing!
Why, this is the case with him that has lost himself; and therefore he
cannot sit down by the loss, cannot be at quiet under the sense of his
loss. For sharply and wonderful piercingly, considering the loss of
himself, and the cause thereof, which is sin, he falls to a tearing of
himself in pieces with thoughts as hot as the coals of juniper, and to
a gnashing upon himself for this; also the Divine wisdom and justice of
God helpeth on this self-tormentor in his self-tormenting work, by
holding the justice of the law against which he has offended, and the
unreasonableness of such offence, continually before his face. For if,
to an enlightened man who is in the door of hope, the sight of all past
evil practices will work in him ‘vexation of spirit,’ to see what fools
we were, (Eccl 1:14); how can it but be to them that go to hell a
vexation only to understand the report, the report that God did give
them of sin, of His grace, of hell, and of everlasting damnation, and
yet that they should be such fools to go thither? (Isa 28:19). But to
pursue this head no further, I will come now to the next thing.
[The loss of the soul a double loss.]
Secondly, As the loss of the soul is, in the nature of the loss, a loss
peculiar to itself, so the loss of the soul is a double loss; it is, I
say, a loss that is double, lost both by man and God; man has lost it,
and by that loss has lost himself; God has lost it, and by that loss it
is cast away. And to make this a little plainer unto you, I suppose it
will be readily granted that men do lose their souls. But now how doth
God lose it? The soul is God’s as well as man’s—man’s because it is of
themselves; God’s because it is His creature; God has made us this
soul, and hence it is that all souls are His (Jer 38:16; Eze 18:4).
Now the loss of the soul doth not only stand in the sin of man, but in
the justice of God. Hence He says, ‘What is a man advantaged, if he
gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away’ (Luke 9:25).
Now this last clause, ‘or be cast away,’ is not spoken to show what he
that has lost his soul has done, though a man may also be said to cast
away himself; but to show what God will do to those that have lost
themselves, what God will add to that loss. God will not cast away a
righteous man, but God will cast away the wicked, such a wicked one as
by the text is under our consideration (Job 8:20; Matt 13:50). This,
then, is that which God will add, and so make the sad state of them
that lose themselves double. The man for sin has lost himself, and God
by justice will cast him away; according to that of Abigail to David,
‘The soul of my lord,’ said she, ‘shall be bound in the bundle of life
with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He
sling out, as out of the middle of a sling’ (1 Sam 25:29). So that here
is God’s hand as well as man’s; man’s by sin, and God’s by justice. God
shall cast them away; wherefore in the text above mentioned he doth not
say, or cast away himself, as meaning the act of the man whose soul is
lost; but, ‘or be cast away’ (Luke 9:25). Supposing a second person
joining with the man himself in the making up of the greatness of the
loss of the soul—to wit, God himself, who will verily cast away that
man who has lost himself. God shall cast them away—that is, exclude
them His favour or protection, and deliver them up to the due reward of
their deed! He shall shut them out of His heaven, and deliver them up
to their hell; He shall deny them a share in his glory, and shall leave
them to their own shame; He shall deny them a portion in His peace, and
shall deliver them up to the torments of the devil, and of their own
guilty consciences; He shall cast them out of His affection, pity, and
compassion, and shall leave them to the flames that they by sin have
kindled, and to the worm, or biting cockatrice, that they themselves
have hatched, nursed, and nourished in their bosoms. And this will make
their loss double, and so a loss that is loss to the uttermost, a loss
above every loss. A man may cast away himself and not be cast away of
God; a man may be cast away by others, and not be cast away of God;
yea, what way soever a man be cast away, if he be not cast away for
sin, he is safe, he is yet found, and in a sure hand. But for a man so
to lose himself as by that loss to provoke God to cast him away too,
this is fearful.
The casting away, then, mentioned in Luke, is a casting away by the
hand of God, by the revenging hand of God; and it supposeth two
things—1. God’s abhorrence of such a soul. 2. God’s just repaying of it
for its wickedness by way of retaliation.
1. It supposeth God’s abhorrence of the soul. That which we abhor, that
we cast from us, and put out of our favour and respect with disdain,
and a loathing thereof. So when God teacheth Israel to loathe and abhor
their idols, He bids them ‘to cast away their very covering as a
stinking and menstruous cloth, and to say unto it, ‘Get you hence’ (Isa
30:22), ‘He shall gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away’
(Matt 13:48; 25:41). Cast them out of My presence. Well, but whither
must they go? The answer is, Into hell, into utter darkness, into the
fire that is prepared for the devil and his angels. Wherefore, to be
cast away, to be cast away of God, it showeth unto us God’s abhorrence
of such souls, and how vile and loathsome such are in His divine eyes.
And the similitude of Abigail’s sling, mentioned before, doth yet
further show us the greatness of this abhorrence—‘The souls of thine
enemies,’ said she, ‘God shall sling out as out of the middle of a
sling.’ When a man casts a stone away with a sling, then he casteth it
furthest from him, for with a sling he can cast a stone further than by
his hand. ‘And he,’ saith the text, ‘shall cast them away as with a
sling.’ But that is not all, neither: for it is not only said that He
shall sling away their souls, but that He shall sling them away as ‘out
of the middle of a sling.’ When a stone is placed, to be cast away, in
the middle of a sling, then doth the slinger cast it furthest of all.
Now God is the slinger, abhorrence is His sling, the lost soul is the
stone, and it is placed in the very middle of the sling, and is from
thence cast away. And, therefore, it is said again, that ‘such shall go
into utter, outer darkness’—that is, furthest off of all. This
therefore shows us how God abhors that man that for sin has lost
himself. And well he may; for such an one has not only polluted and
defiled himself with sin; and that is the most offensive thing to God
under heaven; but he has abused the handiwork of God. The soul, as I
said before, is the workmanship of God, yea, the top-piece that He
hath made in all the visible world; also He made it for to be delighted
with it, and to admit it into communion with Himself. Now for man thus
to abuse God; for a man to take his soul, which is God’s, and prostrate
it to sin, to the world, to the devil, and every beastly lust, flat
against the command of God, and notwithstanding the soul was also His;
this is horrible, and calls aloud upon that God whose soul this is to
abhor, and to show, by all means possible, His abhorrence of such an
one.
2. As this casting of them away supposeth God’s abhorrence of them, so
it supposeth God’s just repaying of them for their wickedness by way of
retaliation.
God all the time of the exercise of His long-suffering and forbearance
towards them, did call upon them, wait upon them, send after them by
His messengers, to turn them from their evil ways; but they despised
at, they mocked, the messengers of the Lord. Also they shut their eyes,
and would not see; they stopped their ears, and would not understand;
and did harden themselves against the beseeching of their God. Yea, all
that day long He did stretch out His hand towards them, but they chose
to be a rebellious and gainsaying people; yea, they said unto God,
‘Depart from usl’ and ‘what is the Almighty’ that we should pray unto
him? (Hosea 6:2; Rev 16:21; Job 21:14,15; Mal 3:14).
And of all these things God takes notice, writes them down, and seals
them up for the time to come, and will bring them out and spread them
before them, saying, I have called, and you have refused; I have
stretched out Mine hand, and no man regarded; I have exercised
patience, and gentleness, and long-suffering towards you, and in all
that time you despised Me, and cast Me behind your back; and now the
time, and the exercise of My patience, when I waited upon you, and
suffered your manners, and did bear your contempts and scorns, is at an
end; wherefore I will now arise, and come forth to the judgment that I
have appointed.
But, Lord, saith the sinner, we turn now.
But now; saith God, turning is out of season; the day of My patience is
ended.
But, Lord, says the sinner, behold our cries.
But you did not, says God, behold nor regard My cries.
But, Lord, saith the sinner, let our beseeching find place in Thy
compassions.
But, saith God, I also beseeched, and I was not heard.
But Lord, says the sinner, our sins lie hard upon us.
But I offered you pardon when time was, says God, and then you did
utterly reject it.
But, Lord, says the sinner, let us therefore have it now.
But now the door is shut, saith God.
And what then? Why, then, by way of retaliation, God will serve them as
they have served Him; and so the wind-up of the whole will be this—they
shall have like for like. Time was when they would have none of Him,
and now will God have none of them. Time was when they cast God behind
their back, and now He will cast away their soul. Time was when they
would not heed His calls, and now He will not heed their cries. Time
was when they abhorred Him, and now His soul also abhorreth them (Zech
11:8). This is now by way of retaliation—like for like, scorn for
scorn, repulse for repulse, contempt for contempt; according to that
which is written, ‘Therefore it is come to pass, that as He cried, and
they would not hear; so they cried, and I would not hear, saith the
Lord’ (Zech 7:13). And thus I have also showed you that the loss of the
soul is double—lost by man, lost by God.
But oh! who thinks of this? who, I say, that now makes light of God, of
His Word, His servants, and ways, once dreams of such retaliation,
though God to warn them hath even, in the day of His patience,
threatened to do it in the day of His wrath, saying, ‘Because I have
called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man
regarded; but ye have set at nought all My counsel, and would none of
My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your
fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction
cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then
shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me
early, but they shall not find Me’ (Prov 1:24-28). I will do unto them
as they have done unto Me; and what unrighteousness is in all this?
But,
[The loss of the soul most fearful.]