THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL, AND UNSPEAKABLENESS OF THE LOSS THEREOF: WITH THE CAUSES OF THE LOSING IT. THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL, AND UNSPEAKABLENESS OF THE LOSS THEREOF; WITH THE CAUSES OF THE LOSING IT. PREACHED AT PINNERS-HALL. "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?”—Mark, viii. 37. I HAVE chosen at this time to handle these words among you, and that for several reasons-1. Because the soul, and the salvation of it, are such great, such wonderful great things; nothing is a matter of that concern as is, and should be, the soul of each one of you. House and land, trades and honours, places and preferments, what are they to salvation, to the salvation of the soul? 2. Because I perceive that this so great a thing, and about which persons should be so much concerned, is neglected to amazement, and that by the most of men; yea, who is there of the many thousands that sit daily under the sound of the gospel that are concerned, heartily concerned, about the salvation of their souls?—that is, concerned, I say, as the nature of the thing requireth. If ever a lamentation was fit to be taken up in this age about, for, or concerning anything, it is about, for, and concerning the horrid neglect that everywhere puts A forth itself with reference to eternal salvation. Where is one man of a thousand-yea, where is there two of ten thousand that do shew by their conversation, public and private, that the soul, their own souls, are considered by them, and that they are taking that care for the salvation of them as becomes them ?-to wit, as the weight of the work and the nature of salvation requireth. 3. I have therefore pitched upon this text at this time to see if peradventure the discourse which God shall help me to make upon it will awaken you, rouse you off of your beds of ease, security, and pleasure, and fetch you down upon your knees before him, to beg of him grace to be concerned about the salvation of your souls. And then, in the last place, I have taken upon me to do this, that I may deliver, if not you, yet myself, and that I may be clear of your blood, and stand quit, as to you, before God, when you shall for neglect be damned, and wail to consider that you have lost your souls, Ezek. iii. 18, 19. When I say, saith God to the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou the prophet or preacher givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thy hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul. "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” In my handling of these words, I shall first speak to the occasion of them, and then to the words themselves. The occasion of the words was, for that the people that now were auditors to the Lord Jesus, and that followed him, did it without that consideration as becomes so great a work —that is, the generality of them that followed him were not for considering first with themselves what it was to profess Christ, and what that profession might cost them. "And when he had called the people unto him," the great multitude that went with him (Luke, xiv. 25), "with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me," ver. 34. Let him first sit down and count up the cost and the charge he is like to be at, if he follow me; for following of me is not like following of some other masters. The winds sit always on my face, and the foaming rage of the sea of this world, and the proud and lofty waves thereof, do continually beat upon the sides of the bark or ship that myself, my cause, and my followers are in; he therefore that will not run hazards, and that is afraid to venture a drowning, let him not set foot into this vessel. "So whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, he cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?" Luke, xiv. 15, 26–29. True, to reason this kind of language tends to cast water upon weak and beginning desires, but to faith it makes the things set before us, and the greatness, and the glory of them, more apparently excellent and desirable. Reason will say, Then who will profess Christ that hath such coarse entertainment at the beginning? but faith will say, Then surely the things that are at the end of a Christian's race in this world must needs be unspeakably glorious, since whoever hath had but the knowledge and due consideration of them have not stuck to run hazards, hazards of every kind, that they might embrace and enjoy them. Yea, saith faith, it must needs be so, since the Son himself, that best knew what they were, even for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the throne of God," Heb. xii. 2. 66 But, I say, there is not in every man this knowledge of things, and so by consequence not such consideration as can make the cross and self-denial acceptable to them for the sake of Christ, and of the things that are where he now sitteth at the right hand of God (Col. ii. 2-4); therefore our Lord Jesus doth even at the beginning give to his followers this instruction. And lest any of them should take distaste at his saying, he presenteth them with the consideration of |