Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f theLoss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.37

 

Of grief.

5. Another passion of the soul is grief, and it, as that afore-named, acteth even as it is governed. When holiness is lovely and beautiful to the soul, and when the name of Christ is more precious than life, then will the soul sit down and be afflicted, because men keep not God's law. 'I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved; because they kept not Thy word' (Psa 119:158). So Christ; looked around with anger, 'being grieved for the hardness of their hearts' (Mark 3:5). But it is rarely seen that this passion of the soul is thus exercised. Almost everybody has other things to spend the heat of this passion on. Men are grieved that they thrive no more in the world; grieved that they have no more carnal, sensual, and worldly honor; grieved that they suffered no more to range in the lusts and vanities of this life; but all this is because the soul is unacquainted with God, sees no beauty in holiness, but is sensual, and wrapt up in clouds and thick darkness.

Of anger.

6. And lastly, There is anger, which is another passion of the soul; and that, as the rest, is extended by the soul, according to the nature of the principle by which it is acted, and from whence it flows. And, in a word, to speak nothing of the fierceness and power of this passion, it is then cursed when it breaks out beyond the bounds that God hath set it, which, to be sure, it does when it shall, by its fierceness or irregular motion, run the soul into sin. 'Be ye angry, and sin not' (Eph 4:26), is the limitation wherewith God hath bounded this passion; and whatever is more than this, is a giving place to the devil. And one reason, among others, why the Lord doth so strictly set this bound, and these limits to anger, is, because it is so furious a passion, and for that, it will so quickly swell up the soul with sin, as they say, a toad swells with its poison. Yea, it will in a moment so transport the spirit of a man, that he shall quickly forget himself, his God, his friend, and all good rules. But my business is not now to make a comment upon the passions of the soul, only to show you that there are such, and also which they are.

And now, from this description of the soul, what follows but to put you in mind what a noble, powerful, lively, sensible thing the soul is, that by the text is supposed may be lost, through the heedlessness, carelessness, or slavish fear of him whose soul it is; and also to stir you up to that care of, and labor after, the salvation of your soul, as becomes the weight of the matter. If the soul were a trivial thing, or if a man, though he lost it, might yet himself be happy, it were another matter; but the loss of the soul is no small loss, nor can that man that has lost his soul, had he all the world, yea, the whole kingdom of heaven, in his own power, be but in a most fearful and miserable condition. But of these things, more is in their place.