Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.73

 

DOCTRINE SECOND,

First, That God has undertaken, and will accomplish, the breaking of the spirits of all the world, either by His grace and mercy to salvation or by His justice and severity to damnation. The damned soul under consideration is certainly supposed, as by the doctrine, so by the text, to be utterly careless, and without regard of salvation, so long as the acceptable time did last, and as the white flag, that signifies terms of peace, did hang out; and, therefore, it is said to be lost; but, behold, now it is careful, but now it is solicitous, but now, 'what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' He of whom you read in the gospel, who could tend to do nothing in the days of the gospel but to find out how to be clothed in purple and fine linen and to fare sumptuously every day, was by God brought so down and laid so low at last that he could crouch, cringe, and beg for one small drop of water to cool his tongue—a thing, that but a little before he would have thought scorn to have done when he also thought scorn to stoop to the grace and mercy of the gospel (Luke 16:19,24). But God was resolved to break his spirit, and the pride of his heart, and to humble his lofty looks, if not by His mercy, yet by His justice; if not by His grace, yet by hellfire.

This he also threatens to bring upon the fool in the Proverbs: They shall call, they shall seek, they shall cry' (Prov 1:22-32). Who shall do so? The answer is, They that sometimes scorned either to seek, or call, or cry; they that stopped their ears, that pulled away their shoulders, and that refused to seek, or call, or cry to God for mercy (Zech 7:11-13).

Sinner, careless sinner, didst thou take notice of this first inference that I have drawn from my second doctrine? If thou didst read it again: it is this, 'God has undertaken, and will accomplish, the breaking of the spirits of all the world, either by His grace and mercy unto salvation or by His justice and severity unto damnation.' The reason for this is this: God is resolved to have the mastery, He is resolved to have the victory. 'Who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together (Isa 27:4). I will march against them. God is merciful, and is come forth into the world by His Son, tendering of grace unto sinners by the gospel, and would willingly make a conquest over them for their good by His mercy. Now He being come out, sinners like briars and thorns do set themselves against Him and will have none of His mercy. Well, but what says God? Saith He, Then I will march on, I will go through them, and burn them together. I am resolved to have the mastery one way or another; if they will not bend to Me, and accept My mercy in the gospel, I will bend them and break them by My justice in hell fire. 

They say they will not bend; I say they shall; now they 'shall know whose words shall stand, Mine or theirs.' (Jer 44:25-28). Wherefore the apostle, when he saw that some of the Corinthians began to be unruly and to do those things that did begin to hazard them, saith, 'Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? are we stronger than He?' (1 Cor 5:22). As who should say, My brethren, are you aware what you do? do you not understand that God is resolved to have the mastery one way or another? and are you stronger than He? if not, tremble before Him, or He will certainly have you under His feet—' I will tread them in my anger, and trample them in My fury' (Isa 63:3). Thus He speaks of them that set themselves against Him; therefore beware. Now the reason for this resolution of God flows from a determination in Him to make all His sayings good and to verify them on the consciences of sinners. And since the incredulous world will not believe now, and fly from wrath, they shall shortly believe and cry under it; since they will not now credit the Word, before they see, unto salvation, they shall be made to credit it by sense and feeling unto damnation.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.72

 

DOCTRINE SECOND,

I now come to the second doctrine that I gathered from the words—namely, that how unconcerned and careless soever some now be about the loss or salvation of their souls, the day is coming, but it will then be too late when men will be willing, had they never so much, to give it all in exchange for their souls. There are four things in the words that prove this doctrine.

1. There is an intimation of life and sense in the man that has lost, and that after he has lost, his soul is in hell—" Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' These words are by no means applicable to the man that has no life or sense; for he that is dead according to our common acceptance of death, that is, deprived of life and sense, would not give two pennies to change his state; therefore, the words do intimate that the man is yet alive and sensible. If a man were alive and sensible, though he were in none other place than the grave, there to be confined, while others are at liberty, what would he give in exchange for his place, and to be rid of that for a better! but how much more to be delivered from hell, the present place, and the state of his soul!

2. There is in the text an intimation of a sense of torment 'Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?' I am tormented by this flame. Torment, then, is something the soul is sensible of, and there is a place of ease and peace. And from the sense and feeling of torment, he would give, yea, what would he not give, in exchange for his soul?

3. There is in the text an intimation of the intolerableness of the torment because it supposeth that the man whose soul is swallowed up therewith would give all, were his all never so great, in exchange for his soul.

4. There is yet in the text an intimation that the soul is sensible of the lastingness of the punishment, or else the question rather argues a man unwary than considerate in his offering, as is supposed by Christ, so largely, his all in exchange for his soul. But we will, in this manner, proceed no further, but take it for granted that the doctrine is good; wherefore I shall next inquire after what is contained in this truth. And,

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.71

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

(3.) Add to these, the durable condition that the body in this state is now in with the soul. Time was when the soul died, and the body lived, and the soul was tormented while the body slept and rested in the dust, but now these things are past; for at the day of judgment, as I said, these two shall be re-united, and that which once did separate them, be destroyed; then of necessity they must abide together, and, as together, abide the punishment prepared for them; and this will greaten the torment of the body.

Death was once the wages of sin, and a grievous curse; but might the damned meet with it in hell, they would count it mercy, because it would separate soul and body, and not only so, but take away all sense from the body, and make it incapable of suffering torment; yea, I will add, and by that means give the soul some ease; for without doubt, as the torments of the soul extend themselves to the body, so the torments of the body extend themselves to the soul; nor can it be otherwise, because of union and sympathy. But death, natural death, shall be destroyed, and there shall be no more natural death, not in hell (1 Cor 15:26). And now it shall happen to men, as it has done in lesser and inferior judgments. They shall seek death and desire to die, and death shall not be found by them (Job 3:21; Rev 9:6). Thus, therefore, they must abide together; a death that used to separate them asunder is now slain—1. Because it was an enemy in keeping Christ's body in the grave; and, 2. because it was a friend to carnal men in that, though it was a punishment in itself, while it lasted and had dominion over the body of the wicked, it hindered them of that great and just judgment which for sin was due unto them; and this is the third discovery of the manner and way of punishing the body. But,

(4.) There will then be such things to be seen and heard, which the eye and the ear—to say no more than has been said of the sense of feeling—will see and hear, that will greatly aggravate the punishment of the body in hell; for though the eye is the window, and the ear a door for the soul to look out at, and also to receive in by, yet whatever goeth in at the ear or the eye leaves influence upon the body, whether it be that which the soul delighteth in, or that which the soul abhorreth; for as the eye affecteth the heart, or soul (Lam 3:51), so the eye and ear, by hearing and beholding, doth ofttimes afflict the body. 'When I heard, my belly trembled—rottenness entered into my bones.' (Hab 3:16).

Now, I say, as the body after its resurrection, to damnation, to everlasting shame and contempt (Dan 12:2; John 5:29) will receive all its senses again, so it will have a matter to exercise them upon, not only to the letting into the soul those aggravations which they by hearing, feeling, and seeing are capable of letting in thither but, I say, they will have matter and things to exercise themselves upon for the helping forward of the torment of the body. Under temporal judgments of old, the body as well as the soul had no ease, day or night, and that not only by reason of what was felt but by reason of what was heard and seen. 'In the morning, thou shalt say, Would God it were even! And at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning!' (Deu 28:67). 1. 'For the fear of thine heart, wherewith thou shalt fear;' 2. 'And for the sight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see.' Nay, He tells them a little before, that they should be mad for the sight of their eyes, which they should see (verse 34).

See! Why, what shall they see? They will find themselves in hell, with others like them; and this will be a torment to their bodies. There is bodily torment, as I said, ministered to the body by the senses. What do you think? If a man saw himself in prison, in irons, upon the ladder, with the rope around his neck, would not this be distressing to the body, as well as to the mind? To the body, doubtless. Witness the heavy looks, the shaking legs, trembling knees, pale face, and beating and aching heart; how much more, then, when men shall see themselves in the most dreadful place; it is a fearful place, doubtless, to all to behold themselves in that shall come thither (Luke 16:28).

Again; they shall see others there, and by them, they shall see themselves. There is an art by which a man may make his neighbor look so ghastly, that he shall frighten himself by looking on him, especially when he thinks of himself, that he is of the same show also. It is said concerning men at the downfall of Babylon, that they shall be amazed one at another, for 'their faces shall be as flames' (Isa 13:8). And what if one should say, that even as it is with a house set on fire within, where the flame ascends out at the chimneys, out at the windows, and out at every chink and crevice that it can find, so it will be with the damned in hell? That soul will breathe hellfire and smoke, and coals will seem to hang upon its burning lips; yea, the face, eyes, and ears will seem all to be chimneys and vents for the flame and smoke of the burning which God by His breath has kindled therein, and upon them, which will be beheld one in another, to the great torment and distress of each other.

What shall I say? Here will be seen devils, and there will be heard howlings and mournings; here will the soul see itself at an infinite distance from God; yea, the body will see it too. In a word, who knows the power of God's wrath, the weight of sin, the torments of hell, and the length of eternity? If none, then none can tell, when they have said what they can, the intolerableness of the torments that will swallow up the soul, the lost soul, when it is cast away by God, and from Him, into outer darkness for sin. But this much is for the cause of the loss of the soul.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.70

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

Objection. But you say, Does not this give encouragement to sinners to give way to the body to be in all its members lost, vain, and wicked, as instruments of sin?

Answer: No; forasmuch as the body shall also have its share in punishment. For though I have said the soul shall have more punishment than the body, I have not said, that the body shall at all be eased by that; no, the body will have its due. For a better understanding of my answer, consider the following particulars:

(1.) The body will be the vessel to hold the tormented soul in; this will be something; therefore, man, damned man, is called a vessel of wrath, a vessel, and that in both body and soul (Rom 9:22). The soul receiveth wrath unto itself, and the body holds that soul that has thus received, and is tormented by the wrath of God. Now the body, being a vessel to hold this soul that is thus possessed with the wrath of God, must itself be afflicted and tormented with that torment, because of its union with the body; therefore the Holy Ghost saith, 'His flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn' (Job 14:22). Both shall have their torment and misery, for that both joined hand in hand in sin, the soul to bring it to birth, and the body to midwife it into the world; therefore it saith again, with reference to the body, 'Let the curse come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.' Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle, etc. (Psa 109:17-19). The body, then, will be tormented as well as the soul, by being a vessel to hold that soul that is now possessed and distressed with the unspeakable wrath and indignation of the Almighty God, and this will be a great deal if you consider,

(2.) That the body, as a body, will, by reason of its union with the soul, be as sensible, and so as capable in its kind, to receive correction and torment as ever, nay, I think more; for if the quickness of the soul giveth quickness of sense to the body, as in some case, at least, I am apt to think it doth, then forasmuch as the soul will now be most quick, most sharp in apprehension, so the body, by reason of union and sympathy with the soul, will be most quick and most sharp as to sense. Indeed, if the body should not receive and retain sense, yea, all its senses, by reason of its being a vessel to hold the soul, the torment of the soul could not as torment, be ministered to the body, no more than the fire tormented the king of Babylon's furnace (Dan 3). Or that the king of Moab's lime kiln was afflicted because the king of Edom's bones were burnt therein. But now the body has received again its senses, now, therefore, it must, yea, it cannot choose but must feel that wrath of God that is let out, yea, poured out like floods of water into the soul.  Remember also, that besides what the body receiveth from the soul by reason of its union and sympathy therewith, there is a punishment, and instruments of punishment, though I will not pretend to tell you exactly what it is, prepared for the body for its joining with the soul in sin, therewith to be punished; a punishment, I say, that shall fall immediately upon the body, and that such a one as will most fitly suit with the nature of the body, as wrath and guilt do most fitly suit the nature of the soul.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.69

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

Answer 4. With the soul by itself are the most quick and suitable apprehensions of God and His wrath; wherefore, that must needs be made partaker of the sorest punishment in hell; it is the soul that now is the most subtle at discerning, and it is the soul that will be so; then a conscience, memory, and understanding, and mind; these will be the seat of torment, since the understanding will let wrath immediately upon these, from what it apprehends of that wrath; conscience will let the wrath of God immediately upon these, from what it fearfully feels of that wrath; the memory will then, as a vessel, receive and retain up to the brim of this wrath, even as it receiveth by the understanding and conscience, the cause of this wrath, and considers the durableness of it; so, then, the soul is the seat and the receiver of wrath, even as it was the receiver and seat of sin; here, then, is sin and wrath upon the soul, the soul in the body, and so soul and body tormented in hell fire.

Answer 5. The soul will be most tormented, because strongest; the biggest burden must lie upon the strongest part, especially since it is made capable of it by its sin. The soul must bear its own punishment, and a great part of the body's too, forasmuch as, so far as apprehension goes, the soul will be quicker at the work than the body. It is true that the body, with the help of the soul, will see too, but the soul will see even more abundantly. And there is good reason that the soul should bear part of the punishment of the body because it was through its allurements that the body yielded to help the soul sin. The devil presented sin, the soul took it by the body, and now the devil, the soul, and body and all must be lost, cast away; that is, damned in hell for sin; but the soul must be the burden bearer.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.68

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

Answer 2. Therefore, the soul must be the part most sorely punished, because justice must be distributed with equity. God is a God of knowledge and judgment; by Him, actions are weighed; actions to judgment (1 Sam 2). Now, by weighing of actions, since He finds the soul to have the deepest hand in sin; and He says that He hath so, of equity the soul is to bear the burden of punishment. 'Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right' in His famous distributing of judgment? (Gen 18:25). 'He will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God' (Job 34:23). The soul, since deepest in sin, shall also be deepest in punishment. 'Shall one man sin,' said Moses, 'and wilt Thou be wroth with all the congregation?' (Num 1:22). He pleads here for equity in God's distributing of judgment; yea, and so exact is God in the distribution thereof, that He will not punish heathens so as He will punish Jews; wherefore He saith, 'Of the Jew first,' or chiefly, 'and also of the Gentile' (Rom 2:9). Yea, in hell He has prepared several degrees of punishment for the several sorts or degrees of offenders; And some 'shall receive greater damnation' (Luke 22:47). And will it not be unmeet for us to think, since God is so elect in all His doings, that He will, without His weights and measures, give to soul and body, as I may say, carelessly, not severally, their punishments, according to the desert and merit of each?

Answer 3. The punishment of the soul in hell must need, to be sure, to a degree, differ from the punishment of the body there. When I say, differ, I mean, must needs to be greater, whether the body is punished with the same fire with the soul or fire of another nature. If it be punished with the same fire, yet not in the same way; for the fire of guilt, with the apprehensions of indignation and wrath, are most properly felt and apprehended by the soul, and by the body by its union with the soul; and so felt by the body, if not only, yet, I think, mostly, by way of sympathy with the soul; and the cause, we say, is worse than the disease; and if the wrath of God, and the apprehensions of it, as discharging itself for sin, and the breach of the law, be that with which the soul is punished, as sure it is: then the body is punished by the effects, or by those influences that the soul, in its torments, has upon the body, by that great oneness and union that is between them.

But if there be a punishment prepared for the body distinct in kind from that which is prepared for the soul, yet it must be a punishment inferior to that which is prepared for the soul; not that the soul and body shall be severed, but being made of things distinct, their punishments will be by that which is most suitable to each. I say, it must be inferior, because nothing can be so hot, so tormenting, so intolerably insupportable, as the quickest apprehensions of, and the immediate sinking under, that guilt and indignation that is proportional to the offense. Should all the wood, brimstone, and combustible matter on earth be gathered together for the tormenting of one body, yet that cannot yield that torment to that which the sense of guilt and burning-hot application of the indignation of God will do to the soul; yea, suppose the fire wherewith the body is tormented in hell should be seven times hotter than any of our fire; yea, suppose it, again, to be seven times hotter than that which is seven times hotter than ours, yet it must suppose it to be but created fire, be infinitely short, as to tormenting operations, of the unspeakable wrath of God, when in the heat thereof He applieth it to and doth punish the soul for sin in hell therewith. So, then, whether the body be tormented with the same fire wherewith the soul is tormented, or whether the fire is of another kind, yet it is not possible that it should bear the same punishment as to degree, because, or for the causes I have showed. Nor, indeed, is it meet it should, because the body has not sinned so, so grievously as the soul has done; and God proportioneth the punishment suitable to the offence.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.67

 

Objection. But some may object, and say, But you denounce all against the soul; the soul, as if the body were in no fault at all; or, as if there were no punishment assigned for the body.

Answer 1. The soul must be the part punished because the soul is that which sins. 'Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,' fornication or adultery excepted (1 Cor 6:18). 'Is without the body; that is, as to the wilily inventing, contriving, and finding out ways to bring the motions of sin into action. Alas! What can the body do to these? It is in a manner wholly passive; yea, all together as to the lusting and purposing to do the wickedness, excepting the sin before excepted; ay, and not excepting that, as to the rise of that sin; for even that, with all the rest, ariseth and proceedeth out of the heart—the soul; 'For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man' (Mark 7:21–23). That is, the outward man. But a difference must always be put betwixt defiling and being defiled, that which defileth being the worst; not but that the body shall have its share of judgment, for body and soul must be destroyed in hell (Luke 12:4,5; Matt 10:28). The body as the instrument, the soul as the actor; but oh! the soul, the soul, the soul is the sinner; and, therefore, the soul, as the principal, must be punished.

And that God's indignation burneth most against the soul appears in that death hath seized upon every soul already; for the Scripture saith, that every natural or unconverted man is dead (Eph 2:1-3). Dead! How? Is his body dead? No, verily; his body liveth, but his soul is dead (1 Tim 5:6). Dead! But with what death? Dead to God, and to all things gospelly good, by reason of that benumbing, stupifying, and senselessness, that, by God's just judgment for and by sin, hath swallowed up the soul. Yeah, if you observe, you shall see that the soul goeth first, or before, in punishment, not only by what has been said already, in that the soul is first made a partaker of death, but in that God first deals with the soul by convictions, yea, and terrors, perhaps, while the body is well; or, in that He giveth up the soul to judicial hardness and further blindness, while He leaveth the body to do His office in the world; yea, and also when the day of death and dissolution comes, the body is spared, while the soul is tormented in unutterable torment in hell. 

And so, I say, it shall be spared, and the clods of the valley shall be sweet unto it, while the soul mourneth in hell for sin. It is true, at the day of judgment, because that is the last and final judgment of God on men, the body and soul shall be re-united or joined together again, and shall then, together, partake of that recompense for their wickedness, which is met. When I say, the body is spared and the soul tormented, I do not mean that the body is not then, at death, made to partake of the wages of sin, 'for the wages of sin is death' (Rom 3:23). But I mean, the body partakes then of temporal death, which, as to sense and feeling, is sometimes over presently, and then rests in the grave, while the soul is tormented in hell. Yes, and why is death suffered to slay the body? I dare say, not chiefly for that the indignation of God most burneth against the body; but the body being the house for the soul in this world, God even pulls down this body, that the soul may be stripped naked, and being stripped, may be carried to prison, to the place where damned souls are, there to suffer in the beginning of suffering, that punishment that will be endless.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.66

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

1. He saith, that he regardeth not this Christ, that he seeth nothing in Him, why he should admit Him to be entertained in his affections. Therefore the prophet, speaking in the person of sinners, says, 'He (Christ) hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him;' and then adds, to show what he meaneth by his thus speaking, he is despised and rejected of men' (Isa 53:2, 3). All this is spoken with reference to His person, and it was eminently fulfilled upon Him in the days of His flesh, when He was hated, maligned, and persecuted to death by sinners; and is still fulfilled in the souls of sinners, in that they cannot abide to think of Him with thoughts that have a tendency in them to separate them and their lusts asunder, and to the making of them to embrace Him for their darling, and the taking up of their cross to follow Him. All these sinners speak out with loud voices, in that they stop their ears and shut their eyes as to Him, but open them wide and hearken diligently to anything that pleases the flesh, and that is a nursery to sin. But,

2. As they despise, and reject, and do not regard His person, so they do not value the grace that He tendereth unto them by the gospel; this is plain by that indifference of spirit that always attends them when, at any time, they hear thereof, or when it is presented to them.

I may safely say, that most men who are concerned in a trade, will be more vigilant in dealing with a twelve-penny customer than they will be with Christ when He comes to make unto them, by the gospel, a tender of the incomparable grace of God. Hence they are called fools, because a price is put into their hands to get wisdom, and they have no heart for it (Prov 18:16). And hence, again, it is that that bitter complaint is made, 'But My people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of Me' (Psa 81:11). Now, these things being found, as practiced by the souls of sinners, must, after a wonderful manner, provoke; wherefore, no marvel that the heavens are bid to be astonished at this, and that damnation shall seize upon the soul for this (Jer 2).

And indeed, the soul that doth thus by practice, though with his mouth—as who doth not? he shall show much love, he doth, interpretatively, say these things:

(1.) That he loves sin better than grace, and darkness better than light, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shown, 'And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness more than light (as is manifest) because their deeds were evil' (John 3:19).

(2.) They do, also, by their thus rejecting of Christ and grace, say, that for what the law can do to them, they value it not; they regard not its thundering threatenings, nor will they shrink when they come to endure the execution thereof; wherefore God, to deter them from such bold and desperate ways, that do, interpretatively, fully declare that they make such desperate conclusions, insinuates that the burden of the curse thereof is intolerable, saying, 'Can thine heart endure, or can thine hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee? I, the Lord, have spoken it, and will do it' (Eze 22:14). (3.) Yea, by their thus doing, they do as good as say that they will run the hazard of a sentence of death at the day of judgment and that they will, in the meantime, join issue, and stand trial at that day with the great and terrible God. What else means their not hearkening to Him, their despising of His Son, and their rejecting of His grace; Yeah, I say again, what else means their slighting of the curse of the law, and their choosing to abide in their sins till the day of death and judgment? And thus I have shown you the causes of the loss of the soul; and, assuredly, these things are no fables.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.65

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

1. He is set forth as born for us, to save our souls (Isa 9:6; Luke 2:9–12).

2. He is set forth before us as bearing our sins for us and suffering God's wrath for us (1 Cor 15:3; Gal 3:13).

3. He is set forth before us as fulfilling the law for us, and as bringing everlasting righteousness to us for our covering (Rom 5:4; Dan 9:24).

Again, as to the manner of His work, He worked out the salvation of sinners for them, that they might have peace and joy, and heaven and glory, forever.

(1.) He is set forth as sweating of blood while He was in His agony, wrestling with the thoughts of death, which He was to suffer for our sins, that He might save the soul (Luke 22:44).

(2.) He is set forth as crying, weeping, and mourning under the lashes of justice that He put Himself under, and was willing to bear for our sins (Heb 5:7).

(3.) He is set forth as betrayed, apprehended, condemned, spit on, scourged, buffeted, mocked, crowned with thorns, crucified, pierced with nails and a spear, to save the soul from being betrayed by the devil and sin; to save it from being apprehended by justice, and condemned by the law; to save it from being spit on, in a way of contempt, by holiness; to save it from being scourged with the guilt of sins, as with scorpions; to save it from being continually buffeted by its own conscience; to save it from being mocked at by God; to save it from being crowned with ignominy and shame forever; to save it from dying the second death; to save it from wounds and grief forever.

Dost thou understand me, sinful soul? He wrestled with justice, that thou mightest have rest; He wept and mourned, that thou mightest laugh and rejoice; He was betrayed, that thou mightest go free; was apprehended, that thou mightest escape; He was condemned, that thou mightest be justified; and was killed, that thou mightest live; He wore a crown of thorns, that thou mightest wear a crown of glory; and was nailed to the cross, with His arms wide open, to show with what freeness all His merits shall be bestowed on the coming soul; and how heartily He will receive it into His bosom? Further, all this He did of mere goodwill, and offereth the benefit thereof unto thee freely; yea, He cometh unto thee, in the word of the gospel, with the blood running down from His head upon His face, with His tears abiding upon His cheeks, with the holes as fresh in His hands and His feet, and as with the blood still bubbling out of His side, to pray thee to accept the benefit and to be reconciled to God thereby (2 Cor 5). But what saith the sinful soul to this? I do not ask what he saith with his lips, for he will assuredly flatter God with his mouth; but what doth his actions and carriages declare as to his acceptance of this incomparable benefit? For a wicked man speaketh with his feet, and teacheth with his fingers' (Prov 6:12,13). With his feet—that is, by the way, he goeth: and with his fingers—that is, by his acts and doings. So, then, what saith he by his goings, by his sets and doings, unto this incomparable benefit, thus brought unto him from the Father, by His only Son, Jesus Christ? What saith he? Why, he saith that he doth not at all regard this Christ, nor value the grace thus tendered unto him in the gospel.

Works of John Bunyan – The Greatness of The Soul, And Unspeakableness 0f the Loss Thereof; What Shall A Man Give In Exchange For His Soul.64

 

[Through sin the soul sets itself against God.]

II. To speak of the gospel and of the carriage of sinful souls towards God under that dispensation.

The gospel is a revelation of a sovereign remedy, provided by God, through Christ, for the health and salvation of those who have made themselves objects of wrath by the breach of the law of works; this is manifest by all the Scripture. But how doth the soul carries it towards God, when He offered to deal with it under and by this dispensation of grace? Why, just as it carried it under the law of works: they oppose, they contradict, they blaspheme, and forbid that this gospel be mentioned (Acts 13:45; 27:6). What higher affront or contempt can be offered to God, and what greater disdain can be shown against the gospel? (2 Tim 2:25; 1 Thess 2:14-16). Yet all this the poor soul, to its own wrong, offered against the way of its own salvation; as it is said in the Word of truth, 'He that sinned against me wronged his own soul: all they that hate Me love death' (Prov 8:36).

But, further, the soul despised not the gospel in that revelation of it only, but the great and chief bringer thereof, with the manner, also, of His bringing of it. The Bringer, the great Bringer of the gospel, is the good Lord Jesus Christ himself; He 'came and preached peace to them that the law proclaimed war against; became and preached peace to them that were afar off, and to them that were nigh' (Eph 2:17). And it is worth your observation to take notice how He came, and that was, and still is, as He is set forth in the word of the gospel; to wit, first, as making peace Himself to God for us in and by the blood of His cross; and then, as bearing (as set out by the gospel) the very characters of His sufferings before our faces in every tender of the gospel of His grace unto us. And to touch a little upon the dress in which, by the gospel, Christ presented unto us while He offered unto sinful souls His peace, by the tenders thereof.