It is our Childishness and Imperfection that we are so pleased and that we have not Higher Greater Larger more Constant Thoughts in the highest Things as the Apostle says When I was a Child I thought as a Child I spake as a Child I did as a Child but when I became a Man I put away Childish things from me Men look upon the things of their Childhood with great disdain and so put them away from them as nothing to them when they come to be Men they change both their overvalue of Trifles and their undervalue of Weightier things they then had This indeed the Apostle speaks of our Highest Attainments in Grace here and it is hardly allowable to apply it to the Case we are upon but in a charitable Condesention to our weakness it may be alluded to But it is most certain when we come to know what the enjoyment of God is what it is to drink of the River of his pleasures when he shews us the Path of Life when we come to his Presence where is fulness of Joy and to the Pleasures of his Right Hand that are for evermore What Trifles will all these things appear to us And on the other side even the sorrows of a lost state will make us see what empty Vanities they all were On both sides then Oh with what a despisal shall we look upon the things we are so fond of now that we have been so endear'd to here Those things that if we cannot have them we as Amnon are ready to die for we shall then with Scorn and Hatred put out and shut the door upon If we could really think with what an Eye Angels and Saints look upon those things we make such a do with that take up our time and we call Great Business How do we say such a Time we must take care of such an Ornament for the Body such a Provision for our Table such Conveniencies and Furniture for our Houses such a concern of Trade such a settlement of our Revenue and these are things that pass for great things as we think them now especially Trade Estate or such like For even some of these wise Men count Trifles now and despise those who are taken up about them But even the highest the weightiest of them when we come to understand them in another World we shall wonder how we could lay out so many thoughts upon them in the neglect of things so much greater that concern our much more worthy Selves in our Spirits in our Immortal State With what admirable Divine Eloquence therefore Solomon says Happy is the Man that findeth wisdom and the Man that getteth understanding For the Merchandise of it is better than the Merchandise of Silver and the gain thereof than of fine Gold She is more precious than Rubies and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her Length of days in her Right Hand and in her Left Hand Riches and Honour Her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace She is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon Her and Happy is every one that retaineth her Prov. 3. 13 14 c. Here now is the Provision proper to Immortal Spirits to the state of the Resurrection of the dead and if we have Wisdom in degree and preparations to that Great State now these things will be our Choice There is a solemn Inquiry Job 28. 12. Where shall wisdom be found and where is the place of understanding Man knoweth not the price thereof neither is it found in the Land of the Living The Depth saith It is not in me and the Sea saith It is not in me that is it does not Rise from the Riches of the Earth nor from the Treasures of the Sea It cannot be gotten for Gold neither shall Silver be weighed for the price of it It cannot be valued with the Gold of Ophir with the precious Onyx nor the Saphire stone The Gold and the Chrystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for Jewels of sine Gold No mention shall be made of the Coral or of the Pearl For the price of Wisdom is above Rubies Thus the Spirit of God is pleased to go on like an Orator and to shew us that the whole World is not worth one Soul and therefore it is not worth Wisdom that Wisdom to Salvation of Souls and without which Souls are lost For He that sinneth against Wisdom wrongeth his own Soul All they that Hate it Love death Thus the whole World is Inventoried as it were It s chief Riches are weighed and found too Light for Wisdom In the same manner there is a sad Reflection on the Misery of Lost Souls For Death and Destruction say we have Heard the Fame thereof with our Ears a most lively and elegant expression of the state of Lost Souls who in two regards may be said to have Heard or to Hear the Fame thereof with their Ears 1. They that are Lost and in a state of Death and Destruction had while in this Life Heard the Fame of Wisdom with their Ears in those Discourses of the Gospel in that Law written in our Hearts in many motions of Conscience c. but despised all its Counsel and would have none of its Reproof so they only Heard the Fame but never Received or Entertained Acquaintance with it It was never as their Sister or Kinswoman as Solomon speaks in intimacy with them Christ is said in this very sense to have Preach'd of old to the Spirits lost Spirits now in Prison So Death and Destruction have Heard the Fame of it with their Fars 2. The Fame of it comes near to them They Hear it with their Ears but cannot come at it as Dives in Hell Hearing the Fame of the Wisdom of Repentance to Salvation desir'd his Brothers might take that Benefit of it which he had lost and could make no purchase of no Exchange for it out of all that World he had had Death and Destruction can find no Exchange for a Soul because they have nothing to give in Exchange for Wisdom Thus this Expression is parallel to our Saviour's What shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul And thus now 'T is evident The World and all the things of it are no more Commensurate to the Greatness of a Soul or of an Everlasting Self in all its Offertures than as if Man should say He would make a Garment for the Sun though never so Rich and Beautiful a Garment you know it could bear no proportion to the Beauty and Excellency of Light or to the vastness of the Orb of the Sun No more can all the Riches Pleasures goodly Houses or Divertisements of the World extend to a Soul or to a Man considered in his future State The very Quality and Dignity of a Being made to be for ever does so beyond all Expression and Comparison exceed the Quality and Intrinsic value of
THE Loss of the Soul THE IRREPARABLE LOSS Opened and Demonstrated I. By the Excellency of the Soul II. The Utter Incompetency of the World to Answer it III. The Misery of a Soul Lost IV. The Eternal Sting of that Question What shall a Man give in Exchange for a Lost Soul IN A SERMON ON MATT. XVI 26. What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul By T. BEVERLEY LONDON Printed for W. Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-street 1694. Where you may be supplied with most of Mr. Beverley's and Dr. Owen's Works TO THE Honourable Gentlemen Supporting the Lords-Day Lecture in the Morning at Mr. Lobb's Meeting near Fetter-Lane London THere is no Apology to be made my very Honoured for the Confidence of my presenting this Sermon to you but the Transcendent Weight and Excellency of the Subject and that wherever this Discourse comes your giving such Encouragement to the Preaching the Gospel of Christ on which occasion this Sermon was Preached may be spoken of by it in Memorial of you and of my own Grateful Sense of my participation of your Favour and Good-will therein who Acknowledg my self most unworthy of any such I Acknowledg I have Darkened the Counsels of so Great a Truth by Words without Knowledg But who is sufficient for it according to its Dignity The Secrets of this Wisdom are double to All can be said of it But if there be any Thing spoken with the Evidence of Divine Truth or in Any Measure through Gracious Assistance Worthy of it or Acceptable to any of the Servants of Christ or your selves in particular I desire most Humbly it may by a proportion of Acceptance be Transferred to the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ and the Line of Time to it I have so laboured in yet not I but the Grace of Christ with me For if the Lord hath enabled his unworthiest Servant to speak in this Great Point aright and according to his Word and the Divine Reason of it I hope it will hence appear He hath Enabled me to give Good Heed to what I have spoken and whereof I have Affirm'd and on what grounds I have so Affirm'd concerning the Great Revolution of the Kingdom of Christ so near as 1697. and which I cannot but Humbly Look upon as that Especial Dispensation committed to me and therein I magnify my Office And so I commend All to Divine Influence and Blessing Preparing by this Discourse for his Kingdom and Assuring it thereby to us And for all Blessings and most Gracious Presence of God with you in all your Stations Action and Conditions especially in Heavenly Places and Things are the most unfeigned Supplications of Honoured Gentlemen Your Most Humble Servant in that Everlasting Kingdom T. BEVERLEY THE GREATNESS OF THE Loss of a Soul AND THAT There can be no Exchange found for it MATT. XVI 26. For what is a Man Profited if He Gain the whole World and Lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul THIS Great Oracle of our Lord and Master is indeed one of the chief Bases or Foundations of the Doctrine of Christianity It is one of the Pillars the Seven Pillars on which Wisdom hath Founded its House viz. That there is no Comparison between the whole World and the value and worth of an Immortal Spirit considered as in an Immortal State and Condition an Immortal Unchangeable and Everlasting Self So that if a Man could Gain the whole World with the loss of this Self he could be no Gainer because that which should enjoy all is lost And further He must be a loser beyond all we can conceive or express for he will come to Rue or dearly to Repent this Loss He will come even Eternally to cry out What shall I give in exchange or as a price of Redemption for my Lost Soul though I lost it for a whole World gain'd by that loss This is expressed by our Lord in so plain and familiar a way and so shooting of it self into the Universal Sense and Apprehension of Mankind Every one can weigh at this Scale and by this Beam and cast this Account If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self But if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it Prov. 9. Our great unhappiness is this That we have not as I may call it a Vital sense and Apprehension of it such a one as that is by which we Apprehend State and Value or rather immediately feel and are touch'd to the quick ' as we say in all the concernments of the present Life and self preservation in it This Sense we cannot have but from the Spirit of Truth leading into All Truth by giving us a Vital Union to it and with it for tho' it be spoken Ten Thousand times to us tho' we cannot deny it tho' we praise the Discourses of it yet we shall not else perceive such Dints and Impressions such alway accompanying Powers of it as to Act according to it Yet that I may present this Discourse with all the advantages of Address I can by Divine Assistance extend it to and on which I most humbly pray the Benediction of the Father of Lights of Spiints I will first by way of Preparation and Entrance Consider these Four Things 1. Who is He that hath here spoken these words to all the World to the whole Human Nature especially to all that are called Christians and among them more especially to those who are indeed his Friends as he calls them in a like speech Luke 12. What is a Man profited if he gain c. It is even He that as He is the great Lover of Souls so He is the great Purchaser and Redeemer of them He that had computed and knew the value of Souls when He came to dye for them to Humble Himself to the death of the Cross He weighed with Himself what was the worth of these Immortal Beings for which he came to dye For as it is said of Abner Died Abner as a Fool dieth Died He upon a small or trivial an Account How much more may we say of the Lord of Life and Glory Did He come to dye on any low account He knew what He came to dye for He knew what the Immortal state of Spirits is the Greatness of the Happiness on one side of the Misery on the other He knew then the Souls of all Men of all that are now before him He knew in a peculiar manner the Souls of his own what the Misery was He Redeemed them from and the Happiness also He Ransomed them into Now in the view and survey of all this and as giving the Account as Solomon speaks in another Case which His Soul had sought and found He spake these words What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his Soul and if he loses his Soul What
shall he give in exchange for it We deferr this to every Wise and Honest Man We allow this Honour to him that He is able to speak of the Things wherein he deals according to their true worth and value We give this Credit to Merchants that deal in Foreign Commodities to any great Purchaser we look upon his Judgment and estimate as a Standard Now He that knew above any in Heaven or Earth the price of Souls He who is the single and alone Purchaser of Them For as to any other The Redemption of Souls is Precious and ceaseth for ever said this And he is not only the Purchaser but the Creator and Supreme End of them They were all created by him and for him Who then as He could Lift up his Hand as it were to Heaven and say What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for it He saw and searched it out and declared it from his own certain knowledg in the making Souls and from his Experience in the Purchase of them 2. Let us observe how our Lord lays us in one Scale whatever is highest even the uttermost that can be supposed tho' it never has or shall be attained He does not speak of a little thing when he lays a Soul in the other Scale but whatever can be supposed to Counter-sway or Counter-ballance a Soul Suppose all the Honours Profits Pleasures of the World could be gained at the price of a Soul whatever the Covetous or the Ambitious or Proud the Sensualist or Voluptuary do or would roll themselves in Suppose a Man could have all this with all immaginable advantages All this saith our Lord could not weigh against one Soul We know it is a very little of the World we adventure for we engage our Souls for There was never yet any Man that could say He was Master of the whole World and All Things in it But suppose a Man could say He had it and upon the longest Term of Life and at the highest Elevation or Exaltation yet if we believe Him who had all Reason to know it All this were not to be named with a Soul Nay in Solomon's Judgment they are not sufficient to defray the Charges of Life the Vanity and Vexation of Spirit that press upon this Life in this state of Sin and Misery one may say it is Mortgaged under 3. The Foot of the Account the Ballance of the Account at the lowest that can be given is this That a Man would not be profited if he should gain the whole World and lose his own Soul All that he got by it would amount to just nothing Our Lord Conveys it therefore under the shade of a Man Adventuring upon the Sea and getting how much soever can be supposed by the Adventure and then his Life Himself be cast away suppose it were a World in his Arms What would such a Man get If that whereby we Taste Enjoy Take in whatever can be given into our possession be lost All that whole World becomes immediately nothing to him For whose then shall that World become If Solomon says Seeing there are many things that increase vanity What is Man the better How much more if his whole becomes an absolute Cypher a Nothing to him What can He be the better This is experimental Truth The Devil truely said Skin for skin all that a Man hath would he give for his Life This is true in the sense and verdict of Nature God therefore the Great Arbiter of Life hath this Bridle in the Mouth of the most Atheistic the Fools that say either in their Heart or openly There is no God They are under this Despotic Absolute Power whatever they call it they must dye and they cannot secure against how soon And this blanks all they can propose Their Breath is at some ones Pleasure some Will and Dispose that is not their own but above it It goeth forth and in that very day their thoughts perish concerning all things under the Sun And this proportionably falls on all who are Rich towards themselves and not towards God Luke 12. 21. 4. By these words of our Lord and Saviour there will come a great and sad review upon a Man's loss of his Soul There is a survivor to this loss that will have an earnest desire to this Soul to this Self again that will cry out Where is that Thing that I may find out to give in Exchange as a Reprizal for my lost and undone Soul And what is this Survivor but the lost and undone Soul it self reviewing and looking back on it self as so lost So our Lord intends to intimate to us by adding as a Clap of Thunder falling upon the Lost state of a Soul What shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul The words are spoken in a vehemency or in a Passion of Anguish Horror and Despair upon the sense of so miserable a Bargain Were it not for this after Account a Man might please himself in this if he could Gain the whole World or make some Noble as it might seem Acquist of it That he had laid his Hand upon the Prize as he said Hoc nobile Feci quod perii I have this satisfaction that I have brought what I desired to pass though I perish in it But this so terrible Review this so dear Repentance will sting and torment for ever because such Exchange is not possible to be found such an Exchange is neither to be found above nor below which a Man may give in Exchange for his Soul For when our Lord says What shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul It is as if he should say There is no such Possible to be found Here are two Questions then our Lord has put which can no way be Answered but by submitting to his Advice To lose our Lives here that we may save them for ever rather than to save them here and lose them for ever by being put upon the necessity of seeking an Exchange for our Souls that cannot be found These things being thus premised I will now state the sense of the Words and so lay down the Proposition to be Discoursed In stating the sense of the Words Three things are to be enquired into 1. What is meant by a Soul 2. What by a Soul lost 3. What by an Exchange for a Soul lost 1. That which is the shade and similitude under which the Lord conveys his Divine sense of a Soul is Life We know all Tast and Enjoyment is by the benefit of Life If you take away Life Man to all Things here in the World is a Carcass or lump of Clay He cannot enjoy For the Body by which the Soul had any enjoyment here is so and it is no other than a dead Body and so cannot enjoy Put all you can upon a Dead Body it is all one to it All the Funeral Pomp
and State in the World it knows nothing of It does not rejoyce in it It is not at all pleased It is all one to it to be conveyed down in the greatest silence to the Chambers of Darkness So in the very same manner Let a Man have all the World yet if his Life be taken from him all that World becomes presently a Cypher a Nothing to him a perfect Darkness In the Verse therefore before the Text v. 25. the same word is used for Life that is in this Verse of the Text v. 26 Translated Soul Whosoever will save his Life shall lose it and he that will lose his Life for my sake shall find it Psyche is the word used the very same word What is a Man prisited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Life For then the whole World is nothing to him Or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Life Because it is so well known All the World cannot buy back Life if it be once gone This is the Shade our Lord uses 2. The word Soul is to be understood yet more strictly and closely for the very Soul and Immortal Spirit because that indeed is the very Power and Principle of Life in every one of us It is not the Body nay it not that very Glorified Body of the Resurrection It is not that does primarily or originally enjoy or take in Happiness but it is that happy and blessed Spirit that shall be in that Glorified Body and therefore the Apostle calls it a Spiritual Body that is a Body every way fitted for the Use and to the Service of the Spirit If any one therefore say to himself I have a Being within me that acts in all the Members and Powers of my Body that sees in my Eye and hears in my Ear that tasts and feels and apprehends all Things and has the whole power of Resentment within it self either as to Happiness or Misery and that this Being survives even to Eternity a Resenting Being that carries all our Resentment our Apprehension If this Being that cannot dye be lost it must be lost by losing that which is the Life of it self that is the Happiness and Blessedness of the enjoyment of God and the Love of him and Likeness to him If this Soul be then in a perpetual Torment and for ever How can it enjoy any thing As we may see persons that have all the things of this World about them if they have a Spirit sunk into Trouble Disquiet Hoâ—or Melancholly which is a lost state in this World a Poor Man that hath not the Thousandth part of what such a one hath shall yet enjoy much more than he Such a one saith Solomon Eats in darkness as it were in a Dungeon How much more when a Spirit comes into its own proper state and â—ind nothing within nor without it self suitable to it but all contrary to its Life and Peace For it is granted to Souls here to be in a state of Probation and Tryal under the Grace of the Mediator and to some such degrees of enjoyment of the Creation of God that they do not feel at least to such extremity the loss of themselves and the Horror of that state of being lost although they are dayly losing their Souls in what of this World they enjoy This is generally and even almost universally vouchsafed because God looks upon Mankind through that object of Love that Son of His Love to see whether they will return to him on the Principles of his Grace he endures therefore with Patience and much Long suffering the Vessels of Wrath fitted to Destruction or while they fit themselves to it And this and the Dealings of God with such is one of the great Mysteries of his Providence and Government of the World by the Mediator 3. Soul often in Scripture Language signifies the whole Person as in the Acts of the Apostles besides the Old Testament The number of them that believed were so many Souls or Persons that is Spirits in Bodies and so certainly Christ here means In a parallel Scripture therefore Luke 9. 25. It is said What is a Man profited if he Gain the whole World and lose himself or be cast away Our Lord is here speaking of a Man as I intimated under the resemblance of a Merchant adventuring himself by Sea in the pursuit after Riches Now saith Christ If such a one Gain the whole World by the Adventure and lose himself What has that Man got by all his undertaking So if a Man lose himself in that Great State of the Resurrection of the Kingdom of Christ at the Glory that is to come If he shall be then in a pityful forlorn despised state an undone sorrowful Being a Person Removed from all enjoyment and that he knows and finds himself so What will it profit such a one to have gained the whole World and to be in that lost State And that our Lord intended this very state of the Resurrection and of every Man's self in that state is plain by his going on and declaring the Son of Man's coming in the Glory of the Father with the Holy Angels and Rewarding every Man according to his works and then shall every one know and feel the loss of himself who has thus Lost himself So Souls is us'd for Persons in the First Resurrection Rev. 29. 4. 2. By all that hath been spoken it appears what the Loss of a Soul is It is a loss from Holiness Happiness and Blessedness which Loss the Gain of the whole World can never Recompense 3. An Exchange for a Lost Soul is some way or means of Recovering a lost Soul into a state of Holiness and Happiness in the enjoyment of God Likeness and Conformity to Him And this it is the lost Soul will so earnestly cry out for and that cannot be found The Proposition I lay down is this The Loss of a Man's Soul is a Loss so exceeding great and the Exchange of Redemption or for the Recovery of it if once lost so impossible to be found That when all this comes as it shall certainly be to be clearly understood and deeply Resented It will fully appear To have Gain'd the whole World much less any part of it at such a Rate as the Loss of the Soul cannot yield the least allay to the Bitterness arising from such a Loss but will exceedingly increase it For a Man shall come to those loud Complaints and Ejulations those weepings wailings and gnashings af Teeth when he finds he hath lost that into Misery that hath all the Feeling Judgement of Good or Evil Happiness or Misery the whole power of Enjoyment or Resentment within it self That he hath lost himself his whole self or person Then will he cry out Oh! who will give me a Ransome for my Soul for my Self where shall I have it He goes up to Heaven down to Hell he searches the whole Creation to find it Where shall I
find saith he what will be taken in Exchange for a lost undone Soul For who can make his Bed in the Torments of a Wounded Spirit scorching worse than Flames Who can dwell with the Devouring Fire the Consuming Anger of the Living God or with the Everlasting Burnings of an Enraged Conscience To make out this in full Discourse and Argument I propose Three Heads 1. To shew That if a Man could dye with the whole World in his Hand he would be a Lost Man on this Account That the World could be no provision for him or the least suitable in that True and Everlasting Self his Soul as in the state of Separated Spirits or Himself in the state of the Resurrection and so he must be Lost on that Account 2. That this Lost State cannot be slumbered away in silence but he must and shall come to those vehement searches after some Exchange for a Lost Soul and Self and there being none to be found those searches must needs turn into Rage and Fury upon their so dreadful disappointment 3. I shall therefore enquire into the way of losing a Soul according to our Lords present scope and drift of Discourse because if we closely attend we shall find it out of the Road of our Common Thoughts And unto all these I will subjoyn the most pressing Applications that so naturally flow from those Heads fully open'd and enlarg'd upon I begin with the First The True Real Solid Sense and Reason of Things that none of us can deny That a Soul must needs be lost that hath no Provision but the World though it were the whole World that is If such a Thing could indeed be And though I must humbly acknowledg I am no way sufficient for these Things or the mighty considerations pertaining to this Subject yet they themselves are so great that if they be extracted out of all Discourse and be but felt in and by themselves they must needs prevail in our Thoughts the Holy Spirit thereunto working in us mightily 1. There is no Comparison between a Man's Soul a Man's Self in the Heighth and Depth the Breadth and Length of his True Being his True Self and the World though it were the whole World A Being Apprehensive of God capable of enjoying Him capable of Eternal Things of Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit For what Compare can there be between a Being prepared with Sentiments and Capacities for these Things and the narrow and pent up notions and dimensions of our selves as Creatures that eat such Meat and drink such Drinks that wear such Cloaths and dwell in such Houses or Appartments have such an Equipage and Retinue So widely different is the proportion between the World and an Immortal Spirit an Immortal self For the World is suited only to those low Notions and Apprehensions of a Man's Self and it can extend no further So that the Spirit and True Self of a Man even now in this State in this Body finds a want in the greatest abundance of these Things and cries out upon them all Vanity and vexation of Spirit and though it be buddled up and muffled and kept quiet by all Arts imaginable yet it complains and inwardly mourns to it self because it hath not the true satisfaction and enjoyment the Fibres as I may so speak of the Spiritual Stomach and Appetite are so often twitched with the hunger of something more Excellent and Divine I mean Those deep and inward Sentiments We are made for higher enjoyments than of this World often stir and move do what we can to the contrary And if it be thus now much more will this be in that future state when a Soul will be fully explicated unfolded let our into its utmost Capacities Then will all the World plainly appear to be no other than the fitting the Coat of an Infant to a Giant Oh! how much too wide and too large is that true Self for all these too extensive to be so provided for To tell an Immortal Spirit or a Man risen from the Dead of Meat and Drink and sumptuous Cloathing of Houses Estates and Money you speak I may say Infinitely below the Dignity and Majesty of such a Being It will say to the World All these thy things perish with thee That thou couldst think I could be provided for by them or that Eternal Things could be purchased with them Oh that therefore now we could say to our selves Can I think of God of Christ of his Spirit of Eternal Happiness or Misery Have I Thoughts that can embrace such Things as these Am I great enough for such Thoughts Can I think of enjoying God and Living in the purest entercourses of Reason and Holiest Understanding Can there be an enterview between my Spirit and the Father of Spirits God in Christ and do you talk to me of such poor and low things as are first most proper to Beasts and Creatures of Sense only the food of Brutes the meat of Worms and to me only in that low state and part wherein I am allied to them I know how very hard it is for us in this low Carnal state to take in the Reason of this as it were vain to entertain Beasts with the Discourses of Mathematicks of Reason or of Virtue And hereby the Children of Men may know themselves to be but Beasts as Solomon speaks a higher kind of Beasts And it were well for them if their Spirits who have thus conversed in Body might be suffered to go downward as Beasts so indeed such Men would have them do when they come to dye But this cannot be as God said to the Israelites They would fain have been as the Heathen Families but He would Bring them under the Bond of the Covenant of Israelites of those He called his People so such would fain be as the Beasts But this shall not be God will bring them under the Law of Spiritual and Everlasting Beings and of the Family of never dying Spirits Let us but a little Appeal to our own Minds and put them a while into their own Action into their own proper Exercise and we shall find in their Enquiries after God after Righteousness after the enjoyment of him in the Blood and Redemption of Jesus Christ and the operations of his Spirit That they are made for these Things And how poor then will all the things in this World appear to be when we come to the height of this Action and Activity And though we take so much pleasure and delight in these now yet seeing we can rise up to higher things and frame notions of them it is certain we are made for those higher things and they must be our state for ever For it is certain this is a great Rule and Maxime By the most excellent part in every Thing is its proper and lasting Good to be known and judged of It is therefore our Degeneracy and Depravedness or to speak the most Favourably and Charitably
the World So that a man loses himself and his Soul while he lays out his thoughts love desire and expends his Soul upon them because they are only for the Soul to serve it self in some small measure upon for its higher end now but if it center upon them it is lost for they are not worth that in any degree 2. If after this enjoyment of the World then suppose the longest time that can in any Reason Example or Precedent be supposed there comes on the eternal duration of an Immortal Spirit a self in an everlasting state A man cannot be profited that enjoys the whole world and loses his Soul For if a Soul be immortal and for ever then the State of that Soul and Spirit must be immortal and for ever also And then if the World be all the Provision that is made for it it cannot but be Lost upon that account because the World can be a portion for it only in this Life Whether therefore a man lose his Soul by his bad ways of gaining the World or whether he lose his Soul by having made no provision for it but only the World there can be no profit to a man but extreme loss by gaining the World because he loses his Soul for it For if this Soul be lost notwithstanding all the World can do to help it it is all one to the man whether he have the World or have it not For a Soul lost is for ever lost or else it is not lost at all and if the World cannot redeem that loss what is a man the better for the World it is still the same thing Or if the Soul be lost by having no provision for it but the World and the World cannot go into Eternity with it and that so it being lost and miserable What can it profit a man to have gain'd the whole world and lose his soul The World leaves him in the time of his greatest extremity Oh how then will our Immortal Spirit reproach us or it self For man by his Soul or Spirit hath such a power of self reflection of self charge and condemnation and in this state it will exercise it to the height It will say What do you make Provision for me for a moment for a minute in comparison for a span long for a hand breadth of time when I must endure Ages of Ages is this the love you have for an Immortal Spirit to make such provision for it that is to endure and last a Line parallel to Eternity it self and you have provided for it comparatively as but for an hour a day a minute would not a Child say to a Parent that should make provision for it but for a day a month a year that we may suppose in a course of nature and common providence may live many years Is this the love you have for me to make provision but for so short a time Oh with how much greater reason force and sting will our Souls say to us How is it that when you understood I am prepared for Everlasting you have only laid up for me for the short time of this Life For whose shall those things be you have provided you know they cannot be mine I cannot carry them with me or if I had all the World it could do me no good it could not redeem my loss in this Eternal State I must go out naked notwithstanding them Oh let us therefore always remember the Words Scripture sounds so often in our ears Everlasting Eternal for ever always to come as Matt. 25. 24 c. Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you c. And on the other side Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels And these go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal Oh that every one of us both speaking and hearing could deeply consider this I am to be for ever and therefore what do you speak to me of things that are to be only for a short time And if it be for posterity that we are urged even that is but a Notion of this World and of this Life though it look big and sound great and carry a fair and honourable pretention and men upon it call their Lands after their own Names and their Posterity indeed approve their Sayings All this notwithstanding the Spirit of God says This their way is their folly And when men come into an Eternal Condition this Bubble falls there are no such Notions there For says Job their Sâ—ns come to honour and they know it not and they are brought low and they perceive it not of them But their Flesh upon them has pain and their souls within them mourn That is A man has not the least abatement of the black and mournful state of a lost Soul by it We should therefore say Shall I be miserable for ever that I may leave an Estate to my Family Shall I be miserable to Eternity Thus I may entail upon my Posterity what I shall in my own Eternal self have no more relation too than a Stranger and yet be in misery for so forecasting for my Posterity It is certain the Tongues of Angels and men is not enough to express this thing according to the weight of it Indeed Words are nothing alone but as they are subordinate to the Divine Spirit pressing the things themselves For things press close and make a strong impression upon the heart Mind and Affections when so set home Oh therefore that I might be the Minister of God to utter Things to you and that he would enable you to take things to your selves out of all Expressions and Words that in all this case we may not be prevail'd upon by vain Fantasies and appearances from this World and the Scheme or Guise of it and find no weight force nor Authority in things so solid and real For whether we will hear or forbear it is certain this carries the greatest Reason That we should not incur an Eternal Loss for a momentary and present Interest This is according to all the Reason in the World 3. From hence it follows that all appearances in this World and in the out-side happiness and prosperity of it any further than it is subordinated to the supreme ends of the glory of God and of our Eternal Salvation is happiness welfare prosperity enjoyment only in a disguise in Masquerade or as on a Stage Now if an Actor on a Stage should forget what he really is because he acts the part of a King or any great Personage because he is under such an Appearance and Character in a Play and think himself to be such a one how great would the Delusion and Intoxication be 〈◊〉 And such is the Fascination and as I may justly call it the Fanaticism and Enthusiasm the business and enjoyment and enrichments of this World transport men into They make them forget what a
little and short interest men have in this World how far from an indefeisable state of Inheritance as they love to speak a Term not so much as for Life That is a Provision so long as we are to be and to live For this as we have seen is to Eternity not so much as a Term for years which is a time certain whereas This night our souls may be required of us and then whole shall those things be we have provided All therefore we do or speak or magnifie our selves in though upon any thing in this World is but so much Theatre Farce and Masquerade as to all that arises from this World And thus much we might learn from the Stage Herein we are more foolish than those Actors however their Profession is justly more despicable than of the poorest Mechanick or Day-labourer that they do not think themselves to be what they act but know their true State and Character and use those Theatrical Garments and Representations for a real support of themselves and their Families and consider in the midst of all those feigned Appearances their true Necessities at home Even thus as Christ instructs us should we make to our selves Friends of the mammon of Vnrighteousness make improvement of all we seem to be heer that when we fail from all these we may be received to Everlasting Habitations But alas how generally do we value our selves by our acquitting our selves as upon a Theatre we give our selves a secret Applause as we are Men of Mode as we have behaved our selves in our Business Trade Appearance in Courts of Judicature in the Courts of Princes in such or such Company and Men will praise us when we do as they think well for our selves in these things because they are like unto us We think our selves what we are in Acting and forget that true Self at home that though it be indeed the Noble and Princely part the Lasting and Eternal part the only True and Real Self yet is put under the disguise of a Slave But oh how amazed shall we be when that Self starts out and appears like it self and we have lost it for a Thing a Life a Being a Happiness so only in a Vizor Oh! How will this Amaze and Torment us for ever when in vain we shall cry out I never knew nor thought my self to be such a one as I now find my self and as Christ says So is He that lays up Treasure for Himself under so false a Masque of self and is not Rich towards God and his True Self so shall we find it Such Fools such Enthusiasts heated with vain and wordly Imagination shall we be found And yet dayly are seen such Servants on Horseback false Selves set aloft and Princes the True Self the Immortal Soul made to walk on Foot Thus the Spirit of God setting out the State of wicked Men in the World Psal 73. He sets it out as in this Masquerade till the Disguize and Vizor be pulled off There are no Bands in their Death but their Strength is firm They dye oftentimes as they say in the Bed of Honour with all Advantages about them without fear of what 's to come They are not in Trouble as other Men neither are they Plagued as other Men Therefore Pride compasseth them about as a Chain He means of Gold They take state upon them as great Princes or Magistrates with their Rich Collars their Chains of Gold Violence covereth them as a Garment They take Power and Command to themselves to enforce their pleasure Their Eyes stand out with fatness They carry Great Port and Presence as we speak They have more than heart could wish They are Corrupt and speak wickedly Concerning Oppression they speak loftily Who dares undertake them Who can attack them or make War with them They speak Great and Big as if Heaven and Earth was their own They set their Mouth against the Heaven and their Tongue walks through the Earth These are the ungodly prospering in their way This looks very great for a Time but it is all but as on a Stage It is all Stage-Play However Good Men are ready to be troubled at it as if it were real But I did but go saith the Psalmist to the House of God then understood I their end I saw the end of the Play and it ends as we say in a Tragedy All Horror at the last Surely thou didst set them in slippery places Thou castedst them down to destruction How are they brought into desolation in a moment They are utterly consumed with Terrors I am fully assured All the Wit of Man could never have reached this height no Poetry no Oâ—aâ—oâ—y only the Spirit of God who perfectly knows and speaks Things Things so great as to find themselves such loughty and massy Words when understood as the Divine Spirit understands them How are they brought into desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with Terrors As soon as they are got but never so little on that side the Line beyond this World They are All in Desolation and Terror As a Dream when one awaketh so Oh Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their Image All their State here is but Dream and Image meer Stage Appearance Masquerade and Disguise To bring all this home then to what we should be and do according to the same Psalmist We should acknowledg our Brutishness and Folly in being at all concerned with such Spectres of Happiness losing in the mean time their Precious Immortal Selves We should resign our selves wholly to Divine Conduct To be led by his Counsel till we are brought to his Glory We should look wholly to and for him Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth I desire beside thee c. All fails even a whole World All except God alone All far from him perish It is good then for us to draw near to him that we may declare the wonders of his Power in his Grace to us setting us before his Face for ever I come to the second Head to shew you in what way according to our Saviours Discourse and the scope of it we come to lose a Soul For this is a very critical Point and that if closely applied would try us as by a Jealousy Water whether we are Christ's or not I shall endeavour to be very brief in it though the Things themselves require vast and largest Discourse Now therefore I must tell you that we even Protestants are under the name of Christians and Protestants a very Degenerate Race We end where Christianity in its own True Genuine and Transcendent Powers begins For Christianity either finds Men Sober and as we speak of Good Lives as the young Man in the Gospel that was Lovely in the Eyes of Christ for all Moral Accomplishments Matt. 9. compar'd with Mark 17. or it presently makes them so as Zaccheus and other Converts and then it plants them with its nobler
Principles and Operations It takes for granted no gross Impieties or Immoralities should be amongst them not so much as the Apostle says as once named among them as Becometh Saints but then it hath much higher Gâ—aces Powers and Actions to Communicate to them whereas among us If a Man be no Swearer Professed Prophane Person no fordidly Covetous Person Defrauder or Oppressor Talks and Lives Soberly and Joyns in the Duties of Publick Worship and Acknowledgment of God we are ready to say This is an Excellent Man But this was not so in the Eye of Christ For He in his manner of Discourse and Preaching â—aâ—â—â— to the Sober and Moral Men and our Men of Good Lives 〈◊〉 Religious Men and that distinguish themselves from the Lewd and Irreligious Now saith Christ to such whom we are ready to think very very safe Take heed you are not the Persons losing your Souls though you do it with a great deal of Gravity Soberness and Becommingness in the Wâ—rld and under such a profession of Christianity and Protestancy that no one should so much as dare to question your Salvation Lest He offend and scandalize you and discourage All from being Christians as the young Man who went away sorrowful discouraged and as we speak disobligeâ— k … ked off from the Doctrine of Christ and staggering the very Disciples who cried out Who then can be saved I will therefore lead you into the occasion of these words of our Lor'ds What is a Man profited if he gain the whole World and lose his Soul c In this Chapter v. 21. Began Jesus to shew to his Disciples that he must go up unto Jerusalem that Head City and Seat of the Jewish Religion and the Doctors of it the Elders Chief Priests and Scribes that hâ—ld the Standard of it of whom He must suffer many Things and be killed and Raised again the Third Day I must saith he be Mocked I must be Buffeted I must be Spit upon I must be Laughed at and Drolled upon and I must dye that ignominious death of a Slave of a great Criminal and Malefactor But I shall Rise again the Third Day Now Peter looking not at all upon the Rising the Third Day but letting that pass for a Phantasy a Thing in the Clouds as we do All Discourse of the Kingdom of Christ at this Time else that might have Reconciled him But He altogether intent upon the Suffering part began to take Christ to task and to Rebuke him saying Be it far from thee Lord This shall not be unto thee Let not this thing be once thought of That such a Person as Thou art should be thus Treated Deal more mercifully with thy self For Thou who canst do all things canst hinder it if thou pleasest But Christ turned to Peter and with an unusual sâ—verity said to him Get thee behind me Satan For Thou savourest not the Things that be of God but those that be of Men. Then he adds This is a Thing I am so far from being turn'd off from that I establish it as a Rule for All my Disciples If any Man will come after me as my Disciple Let him deny himself take up his Cross and follow me in all this I have represented upon my self And if any Man think much of this and chuses rather to save his Life such a one shall lose it but He that loses his Life thus for my sake shall find it All this is as if Christ should say I do not only say you must leave your Debaucheries the Gross Pride and Vanities of this World but you must come to that to be willing to lose your Lives you must Take up your Cross do that the Nature of Man so much abhors Now 〈◊〉 Peter having such a Love to Christ said Let it be far from thee so we are ready to say too looking upon our selves or any other a Man of Condition a Man of Quality as we speak what you come to Take up your Cross to deny your self to go lower in the World This shall not be But Christ is positive If any Man when required by me to lose his Life will save it He shall lose it But if any will lose his Life so required by me He shall find it in a higher Life as I shall find my Life the Third Day Now saith Christ Life and Soul are you know the Power and Measure of all enjoyment and if you lose your True Life Soul Self though you gain the whole World what do you get by it But beyond this If you come to Repent so great a Loss and to cry out What shall I give as an Exchange a Ransom for that Soul that Life lost and no such can be found How Miserable will you be Here is the very Reason and Thread of our Lord's Discourse And herewith agree all his Discourses on this subject Let us take them in the Gospel Verity and Purity the very words of Christ Luke 14. 35. There were Great Multitudes following Christ Many were taken with the Excellency of his Discourse with the Majesty of his Holy Conversation and Miracles But he turned to them and saith I would not have you mistake me If any Man come after me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children c. and his own Life also He cannot be my Disciple And therefore saith he Consider well and the Point of Consideration He sets out by two close similitudes Implying Christianity undertaken in the Truth of it is like Building a Tower which he that does had need sit down first and count the charge and it is like beginning a War in which equal Power is to be well stated lest otherwise All end in scorn and Ruine So saith He Whoever undertakes to be a Christian to be my Disciple must first consider whether he can bear it out I say To be a Christian For Christ saith Disciple and we generally say Christians And indeed by Oracle as from Heaven the Disciples were called Christians Acts 11. 26. So to be a Disciple and to be a Christian however the word Disciple be become a word of scorn among us is the same thing Now if any Man will be a Christian here are the Terms of it and we must drop the very Name of Chriâ—tian if we are not thus prepar'd And yet who is thus prepar'd Take another Scripture John 12. 2 4. Christ considering his own dying compares the thing to a casting a Corn of Wheat into the ground Verily verily saith Christ except a Corn of Wheat fall into the Ground it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit He that loveth his life shall lose it and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal Here is the plain sense of loâ—â—ng Life or a Soul when we lose Life Eternal and to lose that with the gain of a Life that the whole world can make great is a loss wholly unaccountable intollerable and
irremediable notwithstanding the most passionate desires of an exchange or remedy which shall ever enflame the loss Now a Corn of Wheat saith Christ to this purpose except it die abides alone it can never be any more than a Corn of Wheat and at last as such it putrifies but if it be cast into the ground and die it rises in all the flourish of Nature So if a man say He 'll be this great man this rich man this man of Power and Honour this man of Mode and pleasure in this World and adventure for what is to come say what you will saith he I will not diminish from the Figure I am or can hope or attain to make Why if so saith Christ you may as you can be that Figure but you shall never be any more and when you come to die what becomes of that Figure And besides beyond that viz. when That Figure is to be no more there arises the Loss of a Soul and of Life Eternal which is beyond all expression a Loss dreadful and without any reprisal or recovery And to this very purpose is that so known Discourse of the Apostle James Thus the Truth of that Faith which justifies appears by the mighty Operations of it in self-denial self-resignation and of all our Interests in this World as Abraham and Rahab made Such Acts of Faith as the Apostle gives a Catalogue of Heb. 11. by which the Elders obtained so great so good a Report which if well consider'd would much abate the Controversal part of that Scripture the Apostle being not in discourse upon the constant Ordinary Works of Moral Obedience but of those Heroick Acts opposing to the Body of Profession that mighty Spirit of Justifying Faith giving up all to God and Christ I will therefore but name the Particulals wherein this is to be shewn that we are ready to forsake all to follow Christ 1. It is certain the very forsaking of all in the plain Letter or Matter of Fact was the Case for three hundred years and more after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ it was so dispos'd by the Supreme Lord of Time if a man would be Christ's Disciple if he would take up him to be a Christian at that time he must undervalue for the sake of Christ the whole World and all Relations and Interests in it or else he could not be so So that this was continually brought to the Beame to the Scale whether a man 's own Soul or the whole World weighed most Indeed after three hundred years and something more the Kingdom of Christ made some appearance in the Christian Empire and the Christians came to be in a Condition of Honour and Estate and outward prosperity and the Bishops and Hierarchy as they call'd themselves became the greatest of the Earth But if we believe Ecclesiastick History there was a Voice from Heaven at that time This day is Poyson diffus'd into the Church But whether that were so or not certainly the thing was most true For hence arose an Opinion That Christianity in such a low and impure state as the World was then in and hath continued in to this day did yet advance to worldly honour and greatness or that the profession of Christ and his Gospel made men with no greater Influences of holiness appearing at the same time great and rich and Lords then which nothing is more contrary to the Kingdom of Christ and which brought in Antichristianism a mock Kingdom of Christ immediately upon and even out of the Christian Empire But this was the State of what we call Antiquity before the Christian Empire or the time of the purest Christianity it was a laying down all at the foot of Christ 2. It is certain every one of us ought to be prepared to have a Mind Fixed and ready to give up All to Christ else we cannot be Disciples of Christ suppose any of us have Advantages of Descent of Place of Estate of Credit of Reputation of Great Abilities of Understanding of all the Splendor of Living Attendance Equipage Garb If we cannot be willing to lay all this aside for Christs sake and to be wrapt up in the vilest Appearance we cannot be Christs Disciples and so cannot be Christians For Disciples are called Christians by Oracle And as I said before of the Christian Empire until it came in there was nothing but Poverty Persecution Disgrace and all the Torments the wits of Pagans could invent upon Christians so in After Times when Antichristianism came to a height there was no enjoying the Purity of Christianity but the Name of Hereticks Entitled all those who would be Christians not according to what they call'd Holy Church but according to the Gospel it self to all the Cruelty Persecution and Torments the Heathen had before found out and Practised upon Christians which now Antichristians took up against sincere Christians But for this last Age and almost another to it our Reformation hath brought in a greater Liberty of the Protestant Profession and the same Honour Titles and Grandieur on Protestants But we had need take care we do not abuse it For if we are not in the preparation of our Hearts Dying as a Corn of Wheat we cannot in the Sense of the great Master and Founder of Christianity be his Disciples or Christians And it is much to be consider'd All things of Worldly greatness and Enjoyment are still under this Perjudice that the Kingdoms of this World are yet in Beastian Hands of the Last of Daniels Beastian Powers the Antichrist the Pope so that the Succession of Christ's Kingdom cannot yet be The Kingdoms of this World are not yet become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ It is therefore very observable that Counterfeit of the Kingdom of Christ as it is a Mock Kingdom in regard of the Worldly Grandieur of Popery Cardinalls Arch-Bishops Bishops c. So it hath served it self of the Counterfeit of the Self Denial of the Gospel in thoâ—â— Austere Self Denying Orders under such strict Laws of Mortification and Despisal of this World Both Teaching us if we would Learn That there is indeed a Time of the Glory of Christianity in that Kingdom of Christ but not Carnal and Worldly yet full of outward Glory and Enjoyment but that at the present All is in Patience and Affliction 3. Every one ought at least to look to this to see what instances of Secret Mortification Self Examination Humiliation and profoundest Abasement of Himself before God Self Condemnation in Sense of his own Unworthiness and manifold Transgressions with all the Aggravations of Them Self Denial Holy Self-Resignation he Lives in the Practise and Exercise of laying our selves low at Christs Feet bringing all the Glory to Christianity and bringing as many into it as we can Seeking not our own but the Things that are Jesus Christs Suffering Affliction with the People of God in the State of our Minds and Contributing All we can to the
necessities of Saints not Stretching our Selves as on Beds of Ivory Drinking Wine in Bowls Chaunting to the Sound of the Viol and Organ c. and forgetting the Afflictions of Joseph Waiting Longing for the Kingdom and Appearance of Christ If such things as these are not in us we are saving the Lives of a short Figure and loosing our Souls and the Life Eternal that are for ever we are in a Dream and making that Image God and Christ will suddenly Awake and Despise As a Conclusion and as an Addition to the Second Head I will enquire into the meaning and importance of that Vehement Question signifying that the loss of a Soul cannot be slumbred away What shall a man give in Exchange for his Soul And it speaks these three Things 1. Suppose that a Person could have the whole World in his Hand to give It would be utterly Despised It would be of no valew This must needs be so For if the World could be of value to Exchange for a Lost Soul It must then needs have preserved the Soul from being Lost For a Man therefore to come and say to God here is the Estate I have gotten with the Loss of my Soul here is the Great Revenew I have attain'd and left to posterity Here are the years I have spent in pleasure and that I was blessed upon Account of by all that lived about me and Knew me Because I lived in Pomp and State in All I could desire and did as the Psalmist Expresses it well to my self will this if it could be All given Back be an Exchange for a Lost Soul no the Redemption of Souls is precious and Ceases for Ever as to any such Exchange will the Remembrance of it Appease an Angry God or as Enraged Conscience Alas That will be the Burden and sting of that Condition as the Apostle James speaks Your Riches are Corrupted and your Garments Moth-Faten your Gold and Silver are Cankered and the Rust of them shall witness against you and eat your Flesh as it were Fire You have heaped Treasure together for the Last Days James 5. 2 3. c. 2. Is there Any of the Creatures in Heaven or Earth that can stretch out an Hand or an Arm of Compassion in such a case as this is of a Lost Soul Are there any of the Angels of the highest Principalities in Heaven the Thrones and Dominions there that can step in in a way of might and tenderest Compassion and say Oh Soul that art Lost now will I help now will I Interpose and bring thee off from thy Lost State and Rescue thee Or any of the Saints that have known the Temptations of Human Nature on Earth or known any Particular Lost Soul Alas This is all impossible as it is said in Job Call now if there be any that will Answer thee and to which of the Saints wilt thou Turn Job 5. 1. They all Justify and Glorify the Righteous Judgment of God in that lost State of the Person that hath undervalued his Soul They praise the Mediator by whom they themselves Consist and the Redeemer by whom they themselves are Reconciled They dare not appear Mediators or Invade the Honour of the one Mediator but as they Praise and Adore free Grace in Christ to themselves so they in Relation to those Dismal Appearances of the Lost as it is expressed in Ezekiel c. 14. 22. are Comforted in what God hath done Beholding the Righteousness with which he hath done it when they see the ways and doings of Lost Souls and know that God hath not done without Cause All that he hath done unto them 3. When the Saviour and Redeemer of Souls shall say What shall a Man Give in Exchange for his Lost Soul It is as if he should say Do not look that I should be your Ransom your Exchange that your Ruine should be under my Hand or I Rescue you from it While you were in the World I offered you the wisest of my Counsel I offered you the dearest and most precious of my Blood And I said with tears Oh that in your day yau would have known the things of your peace but now they are hidden from your eyes I am now removed from being a Saviour to you I am now altogether at a distance from you or from shewing you any compassion as it is said Esay 27. 11. They are a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them and he that formed them will shew them no favour So Christ will say They have been souls of no consideration notwithstanding all I have said therefore I have no Commission from my Father no Authority to interceed for these Children of perdition Only for those he gave me while in the World I am no Redeemer of lost Souls on this other side of the Line of Life and entred into Eternity Having now thus far insisted on this Point in a Doctrinal way I close in brief with the particular Application Application 1 I would speak to the Atheist that complains of the want of evidence and assurance of these things I would speak to him as in his own Language and would to discourse with him say There is not a certainty I 'll yield there is not such a blockish bruitish kind of certainty as he requires that should affect Stocks and Beasts yet I cannot but observe to him that after all his cavil against evidence he cannot get rid or quit and clear of that he has I dare appeal to him whether his own Conscience will not have the last word that these things are so however he be oblig'd not to confess it But I would deal with him by way of proportion upon our Saviour's Words in such a sense as he will allow That a man gets nothing tho he should gain the whole World and lose his life in that moment he gains it I ask him in his way of certainty What is that man the better If then it be but possible though not certain there should be a Soul to rue the loss of it self in a Christian sense he knows what he can get All is but such a part of the World as he can get it is but a World he hath nothing to do with when he dies and there is this Bridle in his Jaws do what he can he cannot shake that off he must die he knows not how soon and there remains a possibility of a Soul in a lost state after all the World What odds therefore does he give against himself in making nothing of a Soul for a little of the World in a Life that cannot with all it has defray the charge of living the vanity and vexation of Spirit that certainly attends Life and the certainty it must end and wholly uncertain how soon and yet he stands the hazard of a Soul miserable for ever in its being lost and for ever crying out for an exchange for it self that cannot be found any
more than he knows what to give in exchange for his life if once lost And why should he of all persons think a Soul miserable for ever an impossible thing tho not certain or so much as improbable that thinks so many things have been and are that no one as he thinks can tell how they come to be Sure that man that will believe nothing but upon sense transgresses the very Law of his own Sense that sees many things come to pass he look'd not for and will not believe because he does not yet see and against his own Prudentials upon Sense for he takes heed and guards against things possible that he has never seen yet by the eye of Sense why not then against this so dreadful prossibility Application 2 If it be so desperate a case to lose a soul for a whole world how great madness is the loss of a Soul for a little of the World Men that live in Allyes and Dungeons and eat in darkness all their days and yâ—t lose their Souls Oh how earnest should all the poor be to receive the Gospel preached to them as the most fit Subjects of it in that gracious Expression of Christ to them The poor are evangelized and to lay hold on Eternal Life to make a Vertue of that Necessity they are under On the other side they that live in gaiety and splendor and value it so much and have such abhorring thoughts of a contrary condition how earnest should they be to live so for ever in a Divine Sense being receiv'd into the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and not to fall into the miseries of a lost soul as so horrible a descent from their present state Application 3 Let me beseech you to take the things that have been conveyed to you in these Words out of Words and as things to weigh them well for Things are greater than words and canot be deceived or turn'd off any more than Mountains or Walls or Gates of Iron and Brass in our way Let any one but for an hour think of these Words he will find them rise up to him as Things and meet him with inward assurances and so let him often do and especially with humblest supplication to the Father of Spirits the Creator of Souls through Christ the Lover and Redeemer of Souls by the Spirit the blessed Inhabitant of all holy and wise Spirits to impress upon him this great Oracle concerning the value of Souls and Spirits and he shall find by the Evidence and witness within himself of the value of his own Soul There is such a sense of these things possible to us that he that hath lost Houses Lands Wife Children for Christ's sake may receive a hundred fold in this life even now and in the very midst of Persecution which is the greatest evidence of their Reality in the comforts and assurances of preserving all unto Life Eternal For Christ adds In the world to come life eternal Mark 10. 29 30. Application 4 Seeing things are so dark in the present smoak black Vapour thick Steam of this World and the Lusts thereof and are so hardly considered and weighed duly in the noises and dust the rolling wheels of this World raise Oh how earnestly desirous should we be of that day dawning that day of the Kingdom of Christ but dawning from on high that shall make all these things so clear as to put the World into another state and posture as towards God and all holiness and the more earnest should we be seeing the day may by the sure word of prophesy shining in this dark place be seen to be near approaching and how great relation this great Saying of Christ hath to that Kingdom appears in that Christ goes on immediately to his coming in the Glory of his Kingdom of which he gave a Type in the Transfiguration Chap. 17. following FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is an Exposition upon the whole Book of the Revelation Explaining the Sacred Text Word by Word and opening and arguing the Divine Senses of that great Prophesy Sold by Richard Wellington at the Lute in St. Pauls Church-yard and are to be had at Mr. Marshals at the Bible in Newgate-street and of Mr. Salisbury at the Rising-Sun in Corn-hill Books Sold by VVilliam Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-Street Books Written by the late Dr. John Owen In Folio 1. HIs Exposition on the whole Epistle to the Hebrews with Exercitations concerning the Messiah Wherein the Promises concerning him to be a Spiritual Redeemer of Mankind are explained and vindicated His Coming and Accomplishment of his Work according to the Promises is proved and confirmed The Person or who he is declared The whole Oeconomy of the Mosaical Law Rites Worship and Sacrifices is explained And in all the Doctine of the Person Office and Work of the Messiah is opened The Nature and demerit of the first Sin is unfolded The Opinions and Traditions of the Antient and Modern Jews are examined Their Objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered The time of the Coming of the Messiah is stated And the great foundational Truth of the Gospel vindicated In four Volumes Folio 2. A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Wherein an Account it given of his Name Nature Personality Dispensation Operations and Effects His whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained The Doctrine concerning it vindicated from Oppositions and Reproaches The Nature also and Necessity of Gospel Holiness the Difference between Grace and Morality or a Spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a Course of Moral Virtues are stated and declared Fol. 3. The Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance explained and confirmed Or the certain Permanency of their 1. Acceptation with God and 2. Sanctification from God manifested and proved From 1. The Eternal Principles 2. The Effectual Causes And 3. The External Means thereof c. Fol.