known of the wrath of God, for it would take the body out of the way, and make it incapable of sensible suffering for sin, and so removing one of the objects of vengeance, the power of God's wrath would be so far undiscovered. (2.) It would also hinder the manifestation of the power and might of the soul, which is discovered much by its abiding to retain its own being while the wrath of God is grappling with it, and more by its continuing to the body a sensible being with itself. Death, therefore, must now be removed, that the soul may be made the object of wrath without molestation or interruption. That the soul, did I say? yea, that soul and body both might be so. Death would now be a favour, though once the fruit of sin, and also the wages thereof, might it now be suffered to continue, because it would ease the soul of some of its burden; for a tormented body cannot but be a burden to a spirit, and so the wise man insinuates when he says, The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity;' that is, bear up under it, but yet so as that it feels it a burden. We see that, because of the sympathy that is between body and soul, how one is burdened if the other be grieved. A sick body is a burden to the soul, and a wounded spirit is a burden to the body; 'a wounded spirit who can bear?' Pr. xviii. 14. But death must not remove this burden, but the soul must have the body for a burden, and the body must have the soul for a burden, and both must have the wrath of God for a burden. Oh, therefore, here will be burden upon burden, and all upon the soul, for the soul will be the chief seat of this burden! But thus much to show you the greatness of the 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?' So Luke has it, ix. 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,* 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. Lu. xiv. 26. Mar. viii. 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 it ;' 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. (1.) He that has lost his soul has lost himself. Now, he that has lost himself is no more at his own dispose. While a man enjoys himself, he is at He that has lost himself at his own dis will never be more pose. * Nothing more properly excited horror throughout Christendom, than the conduct of the Algerines in making slaves of their captives; because their victims had white skins, and were called Christians. Hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling were paid to redeem the Christian captives, and thus the pirates were strengthened to continue their ferocious deeds. Many contributed to those funds the very money which they derived from the negro slave trade; who, while they professed to execrate white man slavery, perpetrated the same barbarities upon their brethren of a different colour and caste. How strangely does sin pervert the understandings of men, who arrogate to themselves the highest grade of humanity and civilization !-ED. his own dispose. A single man, a free man, a rich | spirit of the damned; yea, to break, to wound, and man, a poor man, any man that enjoys himself, is to tear the soul in pieces. The depths of sin which at his own dispose. I speak after the manner of the man has loved, the good nature of God whom men. But he that has lost himself is not at his the man has hated, the blessings of eternity which own dispose. He is, as I may say, now out of the soul has despised, shall now be understood by his own hands; he has lost himself, his soul-self, him more than ever, but yet so only, as to increase his own self, his whole self, by sin, and wrath and grief and sorrow, by improving of the good and of hell hath found him; he is, therefore, now no more the evil of the things understood, to the greater at his own dispose, but at the dispose of justice, of wounding of the spirit; wherefore now, every touch wrath, and hell; he is committed to prison, to hell that the understanding shall give to the memory prison, there to abide, not at pleasure, not as long will be as a touch of a red-hot iron, or like a draught and as little time as he will, but the term appointed of scalding lead poured down the throat. The by his judge: nor may he there choose his own afflic-memory also letteth these things down upon the tion, 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 breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.' Is. xxx. 53. 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. (2.) Again, as he that has lost himlost himself, is self is not at his own dispose, so to dispose of neither is he at liberty to dispose of what he hath. 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 ther 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. He that hath not at liberty 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 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 flatter, 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 terrible. ness 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, &c., 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 deeper 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 sinners 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 i. 7; ii. 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. Re. xiv. 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 loss. (3.) All therefore that he that has down by the 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 VOL. I. 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 selftormentor 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, Ec. i. 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? Is. xxviii. 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 Q 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. Je. xxxviii. 16; Eze. xviii. 4. · a casting away by the hand of God, by the reveng ing 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.' Is. xxx. 22. 'He shall gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away.' Mat. xiii. 48; xxv. 41. Cast them out of my presence. Well, but whither must they go? The answer is, Into hell, into utter dark 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.' Lu. ix. 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 considera-ness, into the fire that is prepared for the devil and tion. Job viii. 20. Mat. xiii. 50. This, then, is that which his angels. Wherefore, to be cast away, to be God will add, and so make the sad state of them cast away of God, it showeth unto us God's abhorthat lose themselves double. The man for sin has rence of such souls, and how vile and loathsome lost himself, and God by justice will cast him such are in his divine eyes. And the similitude of away; according to that of Abigail to David, 'The Abigail's sling, mentioned before, doth yet further soul of my lord,' said she, 'shall be bound in the show us the greatness of this abhorrence— The bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies,' said she, God shall sling souls of thine enemies, them shall he sling out, as out as out of the middle of a sling.' When a man out of the middle of a sling.' 1 Sam. xxv. 29. So that casts a stone away with a sling, then he casteth it here is God's hand as well as man's; man's by furthest from him, for with a sling he can cast a sin, and God's by justice. God shall cast them stone further than by his hand. 'And he,' saith away; wherefore in the text above mentioned he the text, shall cast them away as with a sling.' doth not say, or cast away himself, as meaning the But that is not all, neither; for it is not only said act of the man whose soul is lost; but, or be cast that he shall sling away their souls, but that he away.' Lu. ix. 25. Supposing a second person join- shall sling them away as 'out of the middle of a ing with the man himself in the making up of the sling.' When a stone is placed, to be cast away, greatness of the loss of the soul-to wit, God just in the middle of a sling, then doth the slinger himself, who will verily cast away that man who cast it furthest of all. Now God is the slinger, has lost himself. God shall cast them away-that abhorrence is his sling, the lost soul is the stone, is, exclude them his favour or protection, and and it is placed in the very middle of the sling, deliver them up to the due reward of their deed! and is from thence cast away. And, therefore, it He shall shut them out of his heaven, and deliver is said again, that such shall go into utter, outer them up to their hell; he shall deny them a share darkness'—that is, furthest off of all. This therein his glory, and shall leave them to their own fore shows us how God abhors that man that for shame; he shall deny them a portion in his peace, sin has lost himself. And well he may; for such and shall deliver them up to the torments of the an one has not only polluted and defiled himself devil, and of their own guilty consciences; he shall with sin; and that is the most offensive thing to cast them out of his affection, pity, and compassion, God under heaven; but he has abused the handiand shall leave them to the flames that they by sin work of God. The soul, as I said before, is the have kindled, and to the worm, or biting cockatrice, workmanship of God, yea, the top-piece that he that they themselves have hatched, nursed, and hath made in all the visible world; also he made nourished in their bosoms. And this will make it for to be delighted with it, and to admit it into their loss double, and so a loss that is loss to the communion with himself. Now for man thus to uttermost, a loss above every loss. A man may abuse God; for a man to take his soul, which is cast away himself, and not be cast away of God; God's, and prostrate it to sin, to the world, to the a man may be cast away by others, and not be devil, and every beastly lust, flat against the comcast away of God; yea, what way soever a man be mand of God, and notwithstanding the soul was cast away, if he be not cast away for sin, he is also his; this is horrible, and calls aloud upon that safe, he is yet found, and in a sure hand. But for God whose soul this is to abhor, and to show, by a man so to lose himself as by that loss to provoke all means possible, his abhorrence of such an one. God to cast him away too, this is fearful. 2. As this casting of them away supposeth God's The casting away, then, mentioned in Luke, is abhorrence of them, so it supposeth God's just 6 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 us;' and what is the Almighty' that we should pray unto him? Ho. xi. 2. Re. xvi. 21. Job xxi. 14, 15. Mal. iii. 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. 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.' Zec. vii. 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.' Pr. i. 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.] Thirdly, As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, and a loss double, so, in the third place, it is a loss most fearful, because it is a loss attended with the most heavy curse of God. This is mani But now, saith God, turning is out of season; the fest both in the giving of the rule of life, and also 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. in, and at the time of execution for, the breach of that rule. It is manifest at the giving of the rule Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.' De. xxvii. 26. Ga. iii. 10. It is also manifest that it shall be so at the time of execution-'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' Mat. xxv. 41. What this curse is, none do know so well as God that giveth it, and as the fallen angels, and the spirits of But I offered you pardon when time was, says damned men that are now shut up in the prison of God, and then you did utterly reject it. hell, and bear it. But certainly it is the chief and But, Lord, says the sinner, our sins lie hard upon us. But, Lord, says the sinner, let us therefore have highest of all kind of curses. To be cursed in the 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 loatheth them. Zec. xi. & This is now by way basket and in the store, in the womb and in the barn, in my cattle and in my body, are but fleabitings to this, though they are also insupportable in themselves; only in general it may be described thus. But to touch upon this curse, it lieth in a deprivation of all good, and in a being swallowed up of all the most fearful miseries that a holy, and just, and eternal God can righteously inflict, or lay upon the soul of a sinful man. Now let Reason here come in and exercise itself in the most exquisite manner; yea, let him now count up all, and all manner of curses and torments that a reasonable and an immortal soul is, or can be made cap |