The Soul of Man, Part 11
MATTH. 16.26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
DIfficult Duties need to be enforced with powerful Arguments: in the 24th verse of this Chapter, our Lord presseth upon his Disciples the deepest and hardest duties of self-denial, acquaints them upon what terms they must be admitted into his service, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.
This hard and difficult Duty he enforceth upon them by a double Argument, viz. from
1. The vanity of all sinful shifts from it, v. 25.
2. The value of their Souls which is imported in it, v. 26.
They may shift off their Duty to the loss of their Souls, or save their Souls by the loss of such trifles. If they esteem their Souls above the World, and can be content to put all other things to the hazard for their Salvation, making account to save nothing but them by Christianity; then they come up to Christs terms, and may warrantably and boldly call him their Lord and Master; and to sweeten this choice to them, he doth in my Text balance the Soul and all the World, weighing them one against the other, and shews them the infinite odds and disproportion betwixt them, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
What is a man profited?] There is a plain Meiosis in the Phrase, and the meaning is, how inestimably and irreparably is a man damnified! what a Soul-ruining bargain would a man make!
If he should gain the whole world,] There is a plain Hyperbole in this Phrase; for it never was, nor will be the lot of any man to be the sole Owner and Possessor of the whole world *Hypotheticâ …âc hyperbole amissionis salutis aeternae atrocitas summa notatur. S. Glassius. Non magis juvabitur q…àm qui acquirit Venetias, ipse verò susp…ndatur ad portam. Pareus in loc.But suppose all the power, pleasure, wealth, and honour of the whole World were bid and offer'd in exchange for a mans Soul; what a dear purchace would it be at such a rate! What were this, saith one, but to win Venice, and then be hang'd at the gate of it? As that man acts like a mad man, that goes about to purchase a treasure of gold with the loss of his life; for life being lost, what is all the gold in the world to him? he can have no enjoyment of it, or comfort in it: so here, what is all the world, or as many worlds as there are creatures in it, when the Soul is lost? if he gain this.
And lose his own soul.] The comparison lyes here betwixt one single Soul and the whole World. The whole world is no price for the poorest, meanest and most despised Soul that lives in it.
By losing the Soul, we are not to understand the destruction of its Being, but of its happiness and comfort, the cutting it off from God, and all the hopes of his favour and enjoyment for ever. This is the loss here intended, a loss never to be repaired. The whole world can be no recompence for a loss to the Soul; if it be but the loss of its purity or peace for a time, much less can it recompense the loss of the Soul in the loss of all its happiness for ever. When a mans chief happiness is finally lost, then is his Soul lost; for what benefit can it be, nay, how great a misery must it be, to have a Being perpetuated in torments for ever?Animâ vero suâ mulctetur. BezMaldon. This is the fine or mulct which is set upon sin, as some render the word. What shall a man gain by such pleasures, for which God will mulct or fine him at the rate or price of his own Soul? that is, of all the happiness, joy and comfort of it to all Eternity.
Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?] The question aggravates the sense,Interrogatio …xaggerans. and amplifies the loss and damage of the man that sells his Soul for the whole world. There is no recompence in all the world for the hazard or danger of the Soul one hour, nor would a man that understands what Soul and Eternity are, put it into danger for ten thousand worlds, much less for a penny, yea, for nothing, as many do; but to barter and exchange it for the world, to take any thing in lieu of it▪ this is the height of madness. The way of buying in former times was not by money, but by the Exchange of one Commodity for another:foreign vocat id quo dat…, redimitur aliquid; juxta Pris…orum commercia qua non monitâ, sed rorum permutatione constabant. Brugens. and to this custom Brugensis thinks this Phrase is allusive. Now what commodity is found in all the world, or who that is not blinded by the God of this world, can think that the whole world it self, if all the rocks in it were rocks of Diamonds, and the Seas and rivers were liquid Gold; is a commodity of equivalent worth to his own Soul? Hence two Notes rise naturally.
DOCT. I.
That one Soul is of more value than the whole World.
DOCT. II.
How precious and invaluable soever the Soul of man is, it may be lost, and cast away for ever. I begin with the first.