work, and the nature of salvation requireth. 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. When I say, unto the wicked, saith God, 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. Ezek. iii. 18, 19.

"WHAT SHALL A MAN GIVE IN EXCHANGE FOR HIS SOUL ?"

In handling these words, I shall first speak of the occasion of them, and then of the words themselves.

The occasion of the words was this;-the people that now were auditors of the Lord Jesus, and that followed him, did it without that consideration which 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

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and the charge he is likely to be at, if he follow me; for following me is not like following 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, 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 have 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 of God 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 now set down on the right hand of the throne of God." Heb. xii. 2.

But, I say, there is not in every man this knowledge of things, and so by consequence, not such consideration as can make the cross and self-denial acceptable to them, for the sake of Christ, and of the things that are where he now sitteth at

* Reason is here put for the false reasonings of Unbelief. Sound Reason is always in harmony with Faith; leads us to it at first, and holds us to it at last. Our Author himself clearly shows this in what follows.-J. N. B.

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 three things together-namely, the cross, the loss of life, and the soul; and then reasoneth with them for the same, saying, Here is the cross, the life, and the soul. 1. The cross; and that you must take 2. The life; and that if will follow me. up, you you may save for a time, if you cast me off. 3. And the soul; which will everlastingly perish if you come not to me, and abide not with me. Now consider what is best to be done. Will you take up the cross, come after me, and so preserve your souls from perishing? or will you shun the cross to save your lives, and so run the danger of eternal damnation? Or, love life till as you have it in John, will you your or will hate "He that loveth his your life, and save it? you life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal." John xii. 25. As if he should say, He that loveth a temporal life, he that so loveth it as to shun the profession of Christ to save it, shall lose it upon a worse account than if he had lost it for Christ and the gospel; but he that will set light by it, for the love that he hath to Christ, shall keep it unto life eternal.

you

lose it?

Christ having thus discoursed with his followers about their denying themselves, their taking up their cross and following him, doth in the next place put the question to them, and so leave it upon them for ever, saying, “For what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" ver. 36. As if he should say, I have bid you take heed that you do not lightly, and without due consideration, enter into a profession of me and of my gospel (for he that without due consideration shall begin to profess Christ, will also without it forsake him, turn from him, and cast him behind his back); and since I have, even at the beginning, laid the consideration of the cross before you, it

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is because you should not be surprised and overtaken by it unawares, and because you should know that to draw back from me after you have laid your hand to my plough, will make you unfit for the kingdom of heaven. Luke x. 62. Now, since this is so, there is no less lies at stake than salvation, and salvation is worth all the world, yea, worth ten thousand worlds, if there should be so many. And since this is so also, it will be your wisdom to begin to profess the gospel with expectation of the cross and tribulation, for to that are my followers in this world appointed. 2 Thess. iii. 3. And if you begin thus, and hold it, the kingdom and crown shall be yours; for as God counteth it a righteous thing to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, so to you who are troubled, and endure it, (for we count them happy, says James, that endure, James v. 11), rest with the saints, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel, &c. 2 Thess. 1. 7. And if no less lies at stake than salvation, then is a man's soul and his all at the stake; and if it be so, what will it profit a man if, by forsaking me, he should get the whole world? "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

Having thus laid the soul in one balance, and the world in the other, and affirmed that the soul outbids the whole world, and is incomparably for value and worth beyond it; in the next place, he descends to a second question (which is that I have chosen at this time for my text), saying, "Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"

In these words, we have first a supposition, and such an one as standeth upon a double bottom.

The supposition is this-That the soul is capable of being lost; or thus-It is possible for a man to lose his soul. The double bottom that this supposition is grounded upon is, 1. A man's ignorance of the worth of his soul, and of the

danger that it is in; and 2. Men commonly set a higher price upon present ease and enjoyments than they do upon eternal salvation. The last of these doth naturally follow upon the first; for if men be ignorant of the value and worth of their souls, as by Christ in the verse before is implied, what should hinder but that they should set a higher esteem upon that with which their carnal desires are taken, than upon that about which they are not concerned, and of which they know not the worth?

But again, as this by the text is clearly supposed, so there is also something further implied—namely, that it is impossible to possess some men with the worth of their souls until they are utterly and everlastingly lost. "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" That is, men when their souls are lost, and shut down under the hatches, in the pits and hells, in endless perdition and destruction, then they will see the worth of their souls, then they will consider what they have lost, and truly not till then. This is plain, not only to sense, but by the natural scope of the words, “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” Or, what would not those that are now for sin made to see themselves lost by the light of hell-fire, (for some will never be convinced that they are lost, till, with rich Dives, they see it in the light of hell-flames); I say, what would not such, if they had it (Luke xvi. 22, 23), give in exchange for their immortal souls, or to recover them again from that place and torment?

I shall observe two truths in the words.

1. The first is, that the loss of the soul is the highest, the greatest loss—a loss that can never be repaired or made up. “What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”—that is, to redeem his lost soul to liberty.

2. The second truth is this, that how unconcerned and careless soever some now be about the loss or salvation of their souls, yet the day is coming (but it will then be too