THE Loss of the Soul THE IRREPARABLE LOSS Opened and Demonstrated I. By the Excellency of the Soul II. The Utter Incompetency of the World to Answer it III. The Misery of a Soul Lost IV. The Eternal Sting of that Question What shall a Man give in Exchange for a Lost Soul IN A SERMON ON MATT. XVI 26. What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in exchange for his Soul By T. BEVERLEY LONDON Printed for W. Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-street 1694. Where you may be supplied with most of Mr. Beverley's and Dr. Owen's Works TO THE Honourable Gentlemen Supporting the Lords-Day Lecture in the Morning at Mr. Lobb's Meeting near Fetter-Lane London THere is no Apology to be made my very Honoured for the Confidence of my presenting this Sermon to you but the Transcendent Weight and Excellency of the Subject and that wherever this Discourse comes your giving such Encouragement to the Preaching the Gospel of Christ on which occasion this Sermon was Preached may be spoken of by it in Memorial of you and of my own Grateful Sense of my participation of your Favour and Good-will therein who Acknowledg my self most unworthy of any such I Acknowledg I have Darkened the Counsels of so Great a Truth by Words without Knowledg But who is sufficient for it according to its Dignity The Secrets of this Wisdom are double to All can be said of it But if there be any Thing spoken with the Evidence of Divine Truth or in Any Measure through Gracious Assistance Worthy of it or Acceptable to any of the Servants of Christ or your selves in particular I desire most Humbly it may by a proportion of Acceptance be Transferred to the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ and the Line of Time to it I have so laboured in yet not I but the Grace of Christ with me For if the Lord hath enabled his unworthiest Servant to speak in this Great Point aright and according to his Word and the Divine Reason of it I hope it will hence appear He hath Enabled me to give Good Heed to what I have spoken and whereof I have Affirm'd and on what grounds I have so Affirm'd concerning the Great Revolution of the Kingdom of Christ so near as 1697. and which I cannot but Humbly Look upon as that Especial Dispensation committed to me and therein I magnify my Office And so I commend All to Divine Influence and Blessing Preparing by this Discourse for his Kingdom and Assuring it thereby to us And for all Blessings and most Gracious Presence of God with you in all your Stations Action and Conditions especially in Heavenly Places and Things are the most unfeigned Supplications of Honoured Gentlemen Your Most Humble Servant in that Everlasting Kingdom T. BEVERLEY THE GREATNESS OF THE Loss of a Soul AND THAT There can be no Exchange found for it MATT. XVI 26. For what is a Man Profited if He Gain the whole World and Lose his own Soul or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul THIS Great Oracle of our Lord and Master is indeed one of the chief Bases or Foundations of the Doctrine of Christianity It is one of the Pillars the Seven Pillars on which Wisdom hath Founded its House viz. That there is no Comparison between the whole World and the value and worth of an Immortal Spirit considered as in an Immortal State and Condition an Immortal Unchangeable and Everlasting Self So that if a Man could Gain the whole World with the loss of this Self he could be no Gainer because that which should enjoy all is lost And further He must be a loser beyond all we can conceive or express for he will come to Rue or dearly to Repent this Loss He will come even Eternally to cry out What shall I give in exchange or as a price of Redemption for my Lost Soul though I lost it for a whole World gain'd by that loss This is expressed by our Lord in so plain and familiar a way and so shooting of it self into the Universal Sense and Apprehension of Mankind Every one can weigh at this Scale and by this Beam and cast this Account If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self But if thou scornest thou alone shalt bear it Prov. 9. Our great unhappiness is this That we have not as I may call it a Vital sense and Apprehension of it such a one as that is by which we Apprehend State and Value or rather immediately feel and are touch'd to the quick ' as we say in all the concernments of the present Life and self preservation in it This Sense we cannot have but from the Spirit of Truth leading into All Truth by giving us a Vital Union to it and with it for tho' it be spoken Ten Thousand times to us tho' we cannot deny it tho' we praise the Discourses of it yet we shall not else perceive such Dints and Impressions such alway accompanying Powers of it as to Act according to it Yet that I may present this Discourse with all the advantages of Address I can by Divine Assistance extend it to and on which I most humbly pray the Benediction of the Father of Lights of Spiints I will first by way of Preparation and Entrance Consider these Four Things 1. Who is He that hath here spoken these words to all the World to the whole Human Nature especially to all that are called Christians and among them more especially to those who are indeed his Friends as he calls them in a like speech Luke 12. What is a Man profited if he gain c. It is even He that as He is the great Lover of Souls so He is the great Purchaser and Redeemer of them He that had computed and knew the value of Souls when He came to dye for them to Humble Himself to the death of the Cross He weighed with Himself what was the worth of these Immortal Beings for which he came to dye For as it is said of Abner Died Abner as a Fool dieth Died He upon a small or trivial an Account How much more may we say of the Lord of Life and Glory Did He come to dye on any low account He knew what He came to dye for He knew what the Immortal state of Spirits is the Greatness of the Happiness on one side of the Misery on the other He knew then the Souls of all Men of all that are now before him He knew in a peculiar manner the Souls of his own what the Misery was He Redeemed them from and the Happiness also He Ransomed them into Now in the view and survey of all this and as giving the Account as Solomon speaks in another Case which His Soul had sought and found He spake these words What shall it profit a Man if he gain the whole World and lose his Soul and if he loses his Soul What
irremediable notwithstanding the most passionate desires of an exchange or remedy which shall ever enflame the loss Now a Corn of Wheat saith Christ to this purpose except it die abides alone it can never be any more than a Corn of Wheat and at last as such it putrifies but if it be cast into the ground and die it rises in all the flourish of Nature So if a man say He 'll be this great man this rich man this man of Power and Honour this man of Mode and pleasure in this World and adventure for what is to come say what you will saith he I will not diminish from the Figure I am or can hope or attain to make Why if so saith Christ you may as you can be that Figure but you shall never be any more and when you come to die what becomes of that Figure And besides beyond that viz. when That Figure is to be no more there arises the Loss of a Soul and of Life Eternal which is beyond all expression a Loss dreadful and without any reprisal or recovery And to this very purpose is that so known Discourse of the Apostle James Thus the Truth of that Faith which justifies appears by the mighty Operations of it in self-denial self-resignation and of all our Interests in this World as Abraham and Rahab made Such Acts of Faith as the Apostle gives a Catalogue of Heb. 11. by which the Elders obtained so great so good a Report which if well consider'd would much abate the Controversal part of that Scripture the Apostle being not in discourse upon the constant Ordinary Works of Moral Obedience but of those Heroick Acts opposing to the Body of Profession that mighty Spirit of Justifying Faith giving up all to God and Christ I will therefore but name the Particulals wherein this is to be shewn that we are ready to forsake all to follow Christ 1. It is certain the very forsaking of all in the plain Letter or Matter of Fact was the Case for three hundred years and more after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ it was so dispos'd by the Supreme Lord of Time if a man would be Christ's Disciple if he would take up him to be a Christian at that time he must undervalue for the sake of Christ the whole World and all Relations and Interests in it or else he could not be so So that this was continually brought to the Beame to the Scale whether a man 's own Soul or the whole World weighed most Indeed after three hundred years and something more the Kingdom of Christ made some appearance in the Christian Empire and the Christians came to be in a Condition of Honour and Estate and outward prosperity and the Bishops and Hierarchy as they call'd themselves became the greatest of the Earth But if we believe Ecclesiastick History there was a Voice from Heaven at that time This day is Poyson diffus'd into the Church But whether that were so or not certainly the thing was most true For hence arose an Opinion That Christianity in such a low and impure state as the World was then in and hath continued in to this day did yet advance to worldly honour and greatness or that the profession of Christ and his Gospel made men with no greater Influences of holiness appearing at the same time great and rich and Lords then which nothing is more contrary to the Kingdom of Christ and which brought in Antichristianism a mock Kingdom of Christ immediately upon and even out of the Christian Empire But this was the State of what we call Antiquity before the Christian Empire or the time of the purest Christianity it was a laying down all at the foot of Christ 2. It is certain every one of us ought to be prepared to have a Mind Fixed and ready to give up All to Christ else we cannot be Disciples of Christ suppose any of us have Advantages of Descent of Place of Estate of Credit of Reputation of Great Abilities of Understanding of all the Splendor of Living Attendance Equipage Garb If we cannot be willing to lay all this aside for Christs sake and to be wrapt up in the vilest Appearance we cannot be Christs Disciples and so cannot be Christians For Disciples are called Christians by Oracle And as I said before of the Christian Empire until it came in there was nothing but Poverty Persecution Disgrace and all the Torments the wits of Pagans could invent upon Christians so in After Times when Antichristianism came to a height there was no enjoying the Purity of Christianity but the Name of Hereticks Entitled all those who would be Christians not according to what they call'd Holy Church but according to the Gospel it self to all the Cruelty Persecution and Torments the Heathen had before found out and Practised upon Christians which now Antichristians took up against sincere Christians But for this last Age and almost another to it our Reformation hath brought in a greater Liberty of the Protestant Profession and the same Honour Titles and Grandieur on Protestants But we had need take care we do not abuse it For if we are not in the preparation of our Hearts Dying as a Corn of Wheat we cannot in the Sense of the great Master and Founder of Christianity be his Disciples or Christians And it is much to be consider'd All things of Worldly greatness and Enjoyment are still under this Perjudice that the Kingdoms of this World are yet in Beastian Hands of the Last of Daniels Beastian Powers the Antichrist the Pope so that the Succession of Christ's Kingdom cannot yet be The Kingdoms of this World are not yet become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ It is therefore very observable that Counterfeit of the Kingdom of Christ as it is a Mock Kingdom in regard of the Worldly Grandieur of Popery Cardinalls Arch-Bishops Bishops c. So it hath served it self of the Counterfeit of the Self Denial of the Gospel in thoâ—â— Austere Self Denying Orders under such strict Laws of Mortification and Despisal of this World Both Teaching us if we would Learn That there is indeed a Time of the Glory of Christianity in that Kingdom of Christ but not Carnal and Worldly yet full of outward Glory and Enjoyment but that at the present All is in Patience and Affliction 3. Every one ought at least to look to this to see what instances of Secret Mortification Self Examination Humiliation and profoundest Abasement of Himself before God Self Condemnation in Sense of his own Unworthiness and manifold Transgressions with all the Aggravations of Them Self Denial Holy Self-Resignation he Lives in the Practise and Exercise of laying our selves low at Christs Feet bringing all the Glory to Christianity and bringing as many into it as we can Seeking not our own but the Things that are Jesus Christs Suffering Affliction with the People of God in the State of our Minds and Contributing All we can to the
more than he knows what to give in exchange for his life if once lost And why should he of all persons think a Soul miserable for ever an impossible thing tho not certain or so much as improbable that thinks so many things have been and are that no one as he thinks can tell how they come to be Sure that man that will believe nothing but upon sense transgresses the very Law of his own Sense that sees many things come to pass he look'd not for and will not believe because he does not yet see and against his own Prudentials upon Sense for he takes heed and guards against things possible that he has never seen yet by the eye of Sense why not then against this so dreadful prossibility Application 2 If it be so desperate a case to lose a soul for a whole world how great madness is the loss of a Soul for a little of the World Men that live in Allyes and Dungeons and eat in darkness all their days and yâ—t lose their Souls Oh how earnest should all the poor be to receive the Gospel preached to them as the most fit Subjects of it in that gracious Expression of Christ to them The poor are evangelized and to lay hold on Eternal Life to make a Vertue of that Necessity they are under On the other side they that live in gaiety and splendor and value it so much and have such abhorring thoughts of a contrary condition how earnest should they be to live so for ever in a Divine Sense being receiv'd into the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and not to fall into the miseries of a lost soul as so horrible a descent from their present state Application 3 Let me beseech you to take the things that have been conveyed to you in these Words out of Words and as things to weigh them well for Things are greater than words and canot be deceived or turn'd off any more than Mountains or Walls or Gates of Iron and Brass in our way Let any one but for an hour think of these Words he will find them rise up to him as Things and meet him with inward assurances and so let him often do and especially with humblest supplication to the Father of Spirits the Creator of Souls through Christ the Lover and Redeemer of Souls by the Spirit the blessed Inhabitant of all holy and wise Spirits to impress upon him this great Oracle concerning the value of Souls and Spirits and he shall find by the Evidence and witness within himself of the value of his own Soul There is such a sense of these things possible to us that he that hath lost Houses Lands Wife Children for Christ's sake may receive a hundred fold in this life even now and in the very midst of Persecution which is the greatest evidence of their Reality in the comforts and assurances of preserving all unto Life Eternal For Christ adds In the world to come life eternal Mark 10. 29 30. Application 4 Seeing things are so dark in the present smoak black Vapour thick Steam of this World and the Lusts thereof and are so hardly considered and weighed duly in the noises and dust the rolling wheels of this World raise Oh how earnestly desirous should we be of that day dawning that day of the Kingdom of Christ but dawning from on high that shall make all these things so clear as to put the World into another state and posture as towards God and all holiness and the more earnest should we be seeing the day may by the sure word of prophesy shining in this dark place be seen to be near approaching and how great relation this great Saying of Christ hath to that Kingdom appears in that Christ goes on immediately to his coming in the Glory of his Kingdom of which he gave a Type in the Transfiguration Chap. 17. following FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is an Exposition upon the whole Book of the Revelation Explaining the Sacred Text Word by Word and opening and arguing the Divine Senses of that great Prophesy Sold by Richard Wellington at the Lute in St. Pauls Church-yard and are to be had at Mr. Marshals at the Bible in Newgate-street and of Mr. Salisbury at the Rising-Sun in Corn-hill Books Sold by VVilliam Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-Street Books Written by the late Dr. John Owen In Folio 1. HIs Exposition on the whole Epistle to the Hebrews with Exercitations concerning the Messiah Wherein the Promises concerning him to be a Spiritual Redeemer of Mankind are explained and vindicated His Coming and Accomplishment of his Work according to the Promises is proved and confirmed The Person or who he is declared The whole Oeconomy of the Mosaical Law Rites Worship and Sacrifices is explained And in all the Doctine of the Person Office and Work of the Messiah is opened The Nature and demerit of the first Sin is unfolded The Opinions and Traditions of the Antient and Modern Jews are examined Their Objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered The time of the Coming of the Messiah is stated And the great foundational Truth of the Gospel vindicated In four Volumes Folio 2. A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Wherein an Account it given of his Name Nature Personality Dispensation Operations and Effects His whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained The Doctrine concerning it vindicated from Oppositions and Reproaches The Nature also and Necessity of Gospel Holiness the Difference between Grace and Morality or a Spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a Course of Moral Virtues are stated and declared Fol. 3. The Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance explained and confirmed Or the certain Permanency of their 1. Acceptation with God and 2. Sanctification from God manifested and proved From 1. The Eternal Principles 2. The Effectual Causes And 3. The External Means thereof c. Fol.