5. The whole man goes
under this denomination; man, consisting of body and soul, is yet called by
that part of himself that is most chief and principal. 'Let every soul,' that
is, let every man, 'be subject unto the higher powers' (Rom 13:1). 'Then sent
Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, three-score
and fifteen souls (Acts 7:14). By both these, and several other places, the
whole man is meant, and is also so to be taken in the text; for whereas here he
saith, 'What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul?' It is said elsewhere, 'For what is a man advantaged if he gain
the whole world, and lose himself?' (Luke 9:25) and so, consequently, or, 'What
shall a man give in exchange (for himself) for his soul?' His soul when he
dies, and body and soul in and after judgment.
6. The soul is called
the good man's darling. 'Deliver,' Lord, saith David, 'my soul from the sword;
my darling from the power of the dog' (Psa 22:20). So, again, in another place,
he saith, 'Lord, how long wilt thou look on? rescue my soul from their
destructions, my darling from the [power of the] lions' (Psa 35:17). My
darling—this sentence must not be applied universally, but only to those in
whose eyes their souls, and the redemption thereof, is precious. My
darling—most men do, by their actions, say of their soul, 'my drudge, my slave;
nay, thou slave to the devil and sin; for what sin, what lust, what sensual and
beastly lust is there in the world that some do not cause their souls to bow
before and yield unto? But David, here, as you see, calls it his darling, or
his choice and most excellent thing; for, indeed, the soul is a choice thing in
itself, and should, were all wise, be every man's darling, or chief treasure.
And that it might be so with us, therefore, our Lord Jesus hath thus expressed
the worth of the soul, saying, 'What shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?' But if this is true, one may see already what misery he is like to
sustain that has, or shall lose his soul; he has lost his heart, his spirit,
his best part, his life, his darling, himself, his whole self, and so, in every
sense, his all. And now, 'what shall a man,' what would a man, but what can a
man that has lost his soul, himself, and his all, 'give in exchange for his soul?'
Yea, what shall the man that has sustained this loss do to recover all again,
since this man, or the man put under this question, must needs be a man that is
gone from hence, a man that is cast in the judgment, and one that is gone down
the throat of hell?
But to pass this, and
to proceed.
[Powers and
Properties of the Soul.]
I come next to
describe the soul unto you by such things as it is set out by in the Holy
Scriptures, and they are, in general, three—First, The powers of the soul.
Second, The senses, the spiritual senses of the soul. Third, The passions of
the soul.
