The soul a vessel for grace.
4. The soul of men is such as God counts worthy to be the vessels to hold His grace, the graces of the Spirit, in. The graces of the Spirit—what are they like, or where are they to be found, save in the souls of men only? 'Of His fulness have we received, and grace for grace' (John 1:16). Received, into what? into 'the hidden part,' as David calls it (Psa 51:6). Hence the king's daughter is said to be 'all glorious within,' (Psa 45:15); because adorned and beautified with the graces of the Spirit. For that which David calls the hidden part is the inmost part of the soul; and it is, therefore, called the hidden part, because the soul is invisible, nor can anyone living infallibly know what is in the soul but God Himself. But, I say, the soul is the vessel into which this golden oil is poured, and that which holds, and is accounted worthy to exercise and improve the same.
Therefore, the soul is it which is said to love God—Say ye him whom my soul loveth?' (Song 3:3); and, therefore, the soul is that which exercises the spirit of prayer—With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early' (Isa 26:9). With the soul, men are also said to believe, and into the soul, God is said to put His fear. This is the vessel into which the virgins got oil, and out of which their lamps were supplied. But what a thing, what a great thing, therefore, is the soul, that that above all things that God hath created should be the chosen vessel to put His grace in. The body is the vessel for the soul, and the soul is the vessel for the grace of God. But,
5. The greatness of the soul is manifest by the greatness of the price that Christ paid for it, to make it an heir of glory; and that was His precious blood (1 Cor 6:20; 1 Peter 1:18, 19). We esteem things according to the price that is given for them, especially when we are convinced that the purchase has not been made by the estimation of a fool. Now the soul is purchased by a price that the Son, the wisdom of God, thought fit to pay for the redemption thereof—what a thing, then, is the soul? Judge of the soul by the price that is paid for it, and you just need to confess unless you count the blood that has bought it an unholy thing, that it cannot but be of great worth and value. Suppose a prince, or some great man, should, on a sudden, descend from his throne, or chair of state, to take up, that he might put in his bosom, something that he had espied lying trampled under the feet of those that stand by; would you think that he would do this for an old horseshoe, or for so trivial a thing as a pin or a point?
Nay, would you not even of yourselves conclude that that thing for which the prince, so great a man, should make such a stoop, must need to be a thing of very great worth? Why, this is the case of Christ and the soul. Christ is the prince, His throne was in heaven, and, as He sat there, He espied the souls of sinners trampled under the foot of the law and death for sin. Now, what doth He, but comes down from His throne, stoops down to the earth, and there, since He could not have the trodden-down souls without price, He lays down His life and blood for them (2 Cor 8:9). But would He have done this for inconsiderable things? No, nor for the souls of sinners neither, had He not valued them higher than he valued heaven and earth besides. This, therefore, is another thing by which the greatness of the soul is known.
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