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 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 (Jer 38:16; Eze 18:4).
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' (Luke 9:25). 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 consideration (Job 8:20; Matt 13:50). This, then, is that which God
will add, and so make the sad state of them that lose themselves double. The
man for sin has lost himself, and God by justice will cast him away; according
to that of Abigail to David, 'The soul of my lord,' said she, 'shall be bound
in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God; and the souls of thine enemies,
them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling' (1 Sam 25:29). So
that here is God's hand as well as man's; man's by sin, and God's by justice.
God shall cast them away; wherefore in the text above mentioned he doth not
say, or cast away himself, as meaning the act of the man whose soul is lost;
but, 'or be cast away' (Luke 9:25).
Supposing a second person joining with the man
himself in the making up of the greatness of the loss of the soul—to wit, God
himself, who will verily cast away that man who has lost himself. God shall
cast them away—that is, exclude them His favour or protection, and deliver them
up to the due reward of their deed! He shall shut them out of His heaven, and
deliver them up to their hell; He shall deny them a share in his glory, and
shall leave them to their own shame; He shall deny them a portion in His peace,
and shall deliver them up to the torments of the devil, and of their own guilty
consciences; He shall cast them out of His affection, pity, and compassion, and
shall leave them to the flames that they by sin have kindled, and to the worm,
or biting cockatrice, that they themselves have hatched, nursed, and nourished
in their bosoms. And this will make their loss double, and so a loss that is
loss to the uttermost, a loss above every loss. A man may cast away himself and
not be cast away of God; a man may be cast away by others, and not be cast away
of God; yea, what way soever a man be cast away, if he be not cast away for
sin, he is safe, he is yet found, and in a sure hand. But for a man so to lose
himself as by that loss to provoke God to cast him away too, this is fearful.
The casting away, then, mentioned
in Luke, is a casting away by the hand of God, by the revenging hand of God;
and it supposed 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 supposed 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 teaches 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' (Isa
30:22), 'He shall gather the good into vessels, and cast the bad away' (Matt
13:48; 25:41). Cast them out of My presence. Well, but whither must they go?
The answer is, into hell, into utter darkness, into the fire that is prepared
for the devil and his angels. Wherefore, to be cast away, to be cast away of
God, it showed unto us God's abhorrence of such souls, and how vile and
loathsome such are in His divine eyes. And the similitude of Abigail's sling,
mentioned before, doth yet further show us the greatness of this
abhorrence—'The souls of thine enemies,' said she, 'God shall sling out as out
of the middle of a sling.' When a man casts a stone away with a sling, then he casted
it furthest from him, for with a sling he can cast a stone further than by his
hand. 'And he,' saith the text, 'shall cast them away as with a sling.'
2. But that is not all, neither: for
it is not only said that He shall sling away their souls, but that He shall
sling them away as 'out of the middle of a sling.' When a stone is placed, to
be cast away, in the middle of a sling, then doth the slinger cast it furthest
of all. Now God is the slinger, abhorrence is His sling, the lost soul is the
stone, and it is placed in the very middle of the sling, and is from thence
cast away. And, therefore, it is said again, that 'such shall go into utter,
outer darkness'—that is, furthest off of all. This therefore shows us how God
abhors that man that for sin has lost himself. And well he may; for such an one
has not only polluted and defiled himself with sin; and that is the most
offensive thing to God under heaven; but he has abused the handiwork of God.
The soul, as I said before, is the workmans hip of God, yea, the top-piece that
He hath made in all the visible world; also He made it for to be delighted with
it, and to admit it into communion with Himself. Now for man thus to abuse God;
for a man to take his soul, which is God's, and prostrate it to sin, to the
world, to the devil, and every beastly lust, flat against the command of God,
and notwithstanding the soul was also His; this is horrible, and calls aloud
upon that God whose soul this is to abhor, and to show, by all means possible,
His abhorrence of such an one.
