Constant - "The Private Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, v2"

Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne - "Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V6"

Shell Oil Company - "Let's collect rocks & shells"

Eleanor H. Porter - "Pollyanna Grows Up"

Warning: file_get_contents(http://www.publishersnewswire.com/RSS/news4.xml) [function.file-get-contents]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 404 Not Found in /home/farmy/public_html/knownwriters.net/inc/rss.php on line 8

Books: The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1

J >> John Bunyan >> The Works of John Bunyan Volume 1




3. Therefore, by soul we understand the spiritual, the best, and
most noble part of man, as distinct from the body, even that by
which we understand, imagine, reason, and discourse. And, indeed,
as I shall further show you presently, the body is but a poor,
empty vessel, without this great thing called the soul. 'The body
without the spirit,' or soul, 'is dead' (James 2:26). Or nothing
but (her soul departed from her, for she died). It is, therefore,
the chief and most noble part of man.

4. The soul is often called the life of man, not a life of the
same stamp and nature of the brute; for the life of man--that is,
of the rational creature--is, that, as he is such, wherein consisteth
and abideth the understanding and conscience etc. Wherefore, then,
a man dieth, or the body ceaseth to act, or live in the exercise
of the thoughts, which formerly used to be in him, when the soul
departeth, as I hinted even now--her soul departed from her, for she
died; and, as another good man saith, 'in that very day his thoughts
perish,' etc. (Psa 146:4). The first text is more emphatical; Her
soul was in departing (for she died). There is the soul of a beast,
a bird, etc., but the soul of a man is another thing; it is his
understanding, and reason, and conscience, etc. And this soul,
when it departs, he dies. Nor is this life, when gone out of the
body, annihilate, as is the life of a beast; no, this, in itself,
is immortal, and has yet a place and being when gone out of the
body it dwelt in; yea, as quick, as lively is it in its senses, if
not far more abundant, than when it was in the body; but I call it
the life, because so long as that remains in the body, the body is
not dead. And in this sense it is to be taken where he saith 'He
that loseth his life for my sake shall find it' unto life eternal;
and this is the soul that is intended in the text, and not the
breath, as in some other places is meant. And this is evident,
because the man has a being, a sensible being, after he has lost
the soul. I mean not by the man a man in this world, nor yet in
the body, or in the grave; but by man we must understand, either
the soul in hell, or body and soul there, after the judgment is
over. And for this the text, also, is plain, for therein we are
presented with a man sensible of the damage that he has sustained
by losing of his soul. 'What shall a man give in exchange for his
soul?' But,

5. The whole man goeth 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.

Of the powers of the soul.

First, We will discourse of the powers, I may call them the members
of the soul; for, as the members of the body, being many, do all
go to the making up of the body, so these do go to the completing
of the soul.

1. There is the understanding, which may be termed the head; because
in that is placed the eye of the soul; and this is that which, or
by which the soul, discerning things that are presented to it, and
that either by God or Satan; this is that by which a man conceiveth
and apprehendeth things so deep and great that cannot, by mouth,
or tongue, or pen, be expressed.

2. There is, also, belonging to the soul, the conscience, in
which I may say, is placed the Seat of Judgment; for, as by the
understanding things are let into the soul, so by the conscience
the evil or good of such things are tried; especially when in the

3. Third place, there is the judgment, which is another part of
this noble creature, has passed, by the light of the understanding,
his verdict upon what is let into the soul.4

4. There is, also, the fancy or imagination, another part of this
great thing, the sou1: and a most curious thing this fancy is; it
is that which presenteth to the man the idea, form, or figure of
that, or any of those things, wherewith a man is either frighted
or taken, pleased or displeased. And,

5. The mind, another part of the soul, is that unto which this
fancy presenteth its things to be considered of; because without
the mind nothing is entertained in the soul.

6. There is the memory too, another part of the soul; and that
may be called the register of the soul; for it is the memory that
receiveth and keepeth in remembrance what has passed, or has been
done by the man, or attempted to be done unto him; and in this part
of the soul, or from it, will be fed 'the worm that dieth not,' when
men are cast into hell; also, from this memory will flow that peace
at the day of judgment that saints shall have in their service for
Christ in the world.

7. There are the affections too, which are, as I may call them,
the hands and arms of the soul; for they are they that take hold
of, receive, and embrace what is liked by the soul, and it is a hard
thing to make the soul of a man cast from it what its affections
cleave to and have embraced. Hence the affections are called for,
when the apostle bids men 'seek the things above; set your affections
upon them,' saith he (Col 3), or, as you have it in another place,
'Lay hold' of them; for the affections are as hands to the soul,
and they by which it fasteneth upon things.

8. There is the will, which may be called the foot of the soul,
because by that the soul, yea, the whole man, is carried hither
and thither, or else held back and kept from moving.5

These are the golden things of the soul, though, in carnal men,
they are every one of them made use of in the service of sin and
Satan. For the unbelieving are throughout impure, as is manifest,
because their 'mind and conscience (two of the masterpieces of the
soul) is defiled' (Titus 1:15). For if the most potent parts of the
soul are engaged in their service, what, think you, do the more
inferior do? But, I say, so it is the more is the pity; nor can
any help it. 'This work ceaseth for ever,' unless the great God,
who is over all, and that can save souls, shall himself take upon
him to sanctify the soul, and to recover it, and persuade it to
fall in love with another master.

But, I say, what is man without this soul, or wherein lieth this
pre-eminence over a beast? (Eccl 3:19-21). Nowhere that I know of;
for both, as to man's body, go to one place, only the spirit or
soul of a man goes upward--to wit, to God that gave it, to be by
Him disposed of with respect to things to come, as they have been,
and have done in this life, But,

Of the senses of the soul.

Second, I come, in the next place, to describe the soul by its
senses, its spiritual senses, for so I call them; for as the body
hath senses pertaining to it, and as it can see, hear, smell, feel,
and taste, so can the soul; I call, therefore, these the senses
of the soul, in opposition to the senses of the body, and because
the soul is the seat of all spiritual sense, where supernatural
things are known and enjoyed; not that the soul of a natural man is
spiritual in the apostle's sense, for so none are, but those that
are born from above (1 Cor 3:1-3) nor they so always neither. But
to go forward.

Of sight.

1. Can the body see? hath it eyes? so hath the soul. 'The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened' (Eph 1:18). As, then, the
body can see beasts, trees, men, and all visible things, so the
soul can see God, Christ, angels, heaven, devils, hell, and other
things that are invisible; nor is this property only peculiar to
the souls that are illuminate by the Holy Ghost, for the most carnal
soul in the world shall have a time to see these things, but not
to its comfort, but not to its joy, but to its endless woe and
misery, it dying in that condition. Wherefore, sinner, say not
thou, 'I shall not see Him; for judgment is before Him,' and He
will make thee see Him (Job 35:14).

Of hearing.

2. Can the body hear? hath it ears? so hath the soul (Job 4:12,13).
It is the soul, not the body, that hears the language of things
invisible. It is the soul that hears God when He speaks in and by
His Word and Spirit; and it is the soul that hears the devil when
he speaks by his illusions and temptations. True, there is such an
union between the soul and the body, that ofttimes, if not always,
that which is heard by the ears of the body doth influence the
soul, and that which is heard by the soul doth also influence the
body; but yet as to the organ of hearing, the body hath one of
its own, distinct from that of the soul, and the soul can hear and
regard even then, when the body doth not nor cannot; as in time of
sleep, deep sleep and trances, when the body lieth by as a thing
that is useless. 'For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man, (as to
his body) perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; then
he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,' etc.
(Job 33:14-16). This must be meant of the ears of the soul, not
of the body; for that at this time is said to be in deep sleep;
moreover this hearing, it is a hearing of dreams, and the visions
of the night. Jeremiah also tells us that he had the rare and
blessed visions of God in his sleep (Jer 21:26). And so doth Daniel
too, by the which they were greatly comforted and refreshed; but
that could not be, was not the soul also capable of hearing. 'I
heard the voice of His words,' said Daniel, 'and when I heard the
voice of His words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my
face toward the ground' (Dan 10:8,9).

Of tasting.

3. As the soul can see and hear, so it can taste and relish, even
as really as doth the palate belonging to the body.6 But then the
things so tasted must be that which is suited to the temper and
palate of the soul. The soul's taste lieth not in, nor is exercised
about meats, the meats that are for the belly. Yet the soul of a
saint can taste and relish God's Word (Heb 6:5), and doth ofttimes
find it sweeter than honey (Psa 19:10) nourishing as milk (1 Peter
2:2), and strengthening like to strong meat (Heb 5:12-14). The soul
also of sinners, and of those that are unsanctified, can taste and
relish, though not the things now mentioned, yet things that agree
with their fleshly minds, and with their polluted, and defiled, and
vile affections. They can relish and taste that which delighteth
them; yea, they can find soul-delight in an alehouse, a whorehouse,
a playhouse. Ay, they find pleasure in the vilest things, in the
things most offensive to God, and that are most destructive to
themselves. This is evident to sense, and is proved by the daily
practice of sinners. Nor is the Word barren as to this: They 'feed
on ashes' (Isa 44:20). They 'spend their money for that which is
not bread' (Isa 55:2). Yea, they eat and suck sweetness out of sin.
'They eat up the sin of My people' as they eat bread (Hosea 4:8).

Of smelling.

4. As the soul can see, hear, and taste, so it can smell, and
brings refreshment to itself that way. Hence the church saith, 'My
fingers dropped with sweet-smelling myrrh;' and again, she saith
of her beloved, that 'his lips dropped sweet-smelling-myrrh' (Song
5:5,13). But how came the church to understand this, but because
her soul did smell that in it that was to be smelled in it, even
in his word and gracious visits? The poor world, indeed, cannot
smell, or savour anything of the good and fragrant scent and sweet
that is in Christ; but to them that believe, 'Thy name is as ointment
poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee' (Song 1:3).

Of feeling.

5. As the soul can see, taste, hear, and smell, so it hath the
sense of feeling, as quick and as sensible as the body. He knows
nothing that knows not this; he whose soul is 'past feeling,' has
his 'conscience seared with a hot iron' (Eph 4:18, 19; 1 Tim 4:2).
Nothing so sensible as the soul, nor feeleth so quickly the love
and mercy, or the anger and wrath of God. Ask the awakened man, or
the man that is under the convictions of the law, if he doth not
feel? and he will quickly tell you that he faints and dies away by
reason of God's hand, and His wrath that lieth upon him. Read the
first eight verses of the 38th Psalm; if thou knowest nothing of
what I have told thee by experience; and there thou shalt hear the
complaints of one whose soul lay at present under the burden of
guilt, and that cried out that without help from heaven he could
by no means bear the same. They also that know what the peace of
God means, and what an eternal weight there is in glory know well
that the soul has the sense of feeling, as well as the senses of
seeing, hearing, tasting, and smelling. But thus much for the senses
of the soul.

Of the passions of the soul.

Third, I come, in the next place, to describe the soul by the
passions of the soul. The passions of the soul, I reckon, are these,
and such like--to wit, love, hatred, joy, fear, grief, anger, etc.
And these passions of the soul are not therefore good, nor therefore
evil, because they are the passions of the soul, but are made so
by two things--to wit, principle and object. The principle I count
that from whence they flow, and the object that upon which they
are pitched. To explain myself.

Of love.

1. For that of love. This is a strong passion; the Holy Ghost saith
'it is strong as death, and cruel as the grave' (Song 8:6,7). And
it is then good, when it flows from faith, and pitcheth itself
upon God in Christ as the object, and when it extendeth itself to
all that is good, whether it be the good Word, the good work of
grace, or the good men that have it, and also to their good lives.
But all soul-love floweth not from this principle, neither hath
these for its object. How many are there that make the object of
their love the most vile of men, the most base of things, because
it flows from vile affections, and from the lusts of the flesh?
God and Christ, good laws and good men, and their holy lives, they
cannot abide, because their love wanteth a principle that should
sanctify it in its first motion, and that should steer it to a
goodly object. But that is the first.

Of hatred.

2. There is hatred, which I count another passion of the soul; and
this, as the other, is good or evil, as the principle from whence
it flows and the object of it are. 'Ye that love the Lord, hate
evil' (Psa 97:10). Then, therefore, is this passion good, when it
singleth out from the many thousand of things that are in the world
that one filthy thing called sin; and when it setteth itself, the
soul, and the whole man, against it, and engageth all the powers
of the soul to seek and invent its ruin.7 But, alas, where shall
this hatred be found? What man is there whose soul is filled with
this passion, thus sanctified by the love of God, and that makes
sin, which is God's enemy, the only object of its indignation? How
many be there, I say, whose hatred is turned another way, because
of the malignity of their minds.

They hate knowledge (Prov 1:22). They hate God (Deu 7:10; Job
21:14). They hate the righteous (2 Chron 29:2; Psa 34:21; Prov
29:10). They hate God's ways (Mal 3:14; Prov 8:12). And all is,
because the grace of filial fear is not the root and principle
from whence their hatred flows. 'For the fear of the Lord is to
hate evil:' wherefore, where this grace is wanting for a root in
the soul, there it must of necessity swerve in the letting out of
this passion; because the soul, where grace in wanting, is not at
liberty to act simply, but is biased by the power of sin; that,
while grace is absent, is present in the soul. And hence it is that
this passion, which, when acted well, is a virtue, is so abused,
and made to exercise its force against that for which God never
ordained it, nor gave it license to act.

Of joy.

3. Another passion of the soul is joy; and when the soul rejoiceth
virtuously, it rejoiceth not in iniquity, 'but rejoiceth in the
truth' (1 Cor 13:6). This joy is a very strong passion, and will
carry a man through a world of difficulties; it is a passion that
beareth up, that supporteth and strengtheneth a man, let the object
of his joy be what it will. It is this that maketh the soul fat in
goodness, if it have its object accordingly; and that which makes
the soul bold in wickedness, if it indeed doth rejoice in iniquity.

Of fear.

4. Another passion of the soul is fear, natural fear; for so you
must understand me of all the passions of the soul, as they are
considered simply and in their own nature. And, as it is with the
other passions, so it is with this; it is made good or evil in its
acts, as its principle and objects are; when this passion of the
soul is good, then it springs from sense of the greatness, and
goodness and majesty of God; also God himself is the object of this
fear'--I will forewarn you,' says Christ, 'whom ye shall fear. Fear
him that can destroy both body and soul in hell; yea, I say unto
you, Fear him' (Matt 5:28; Luke 7:5). But in all men this passion
is not regulated and governed by these principles and objects,
but is abused and turned, through the policy of Satan, quite into
another channel. It is made to fear men (Num 14:9), to fear idols
(2 Kings 17:7,38), to fear devils and witches, yea, it is made to
fear all the foolish, ridiculous, and apish fables that every old
woman or atheistical fortune teller has the face to drop before
the soul. But fear is another passion of the soul.

Of grief.

5. Another passion of the soul is grief, and it, as those afore-named,
acteth even according as it is governed. When holiness is lovely
and beautiful to the soul, and when the name of Christ is more
precious than life, then will the soul sit down and be afflicted,
because men keep not God's law. 'I beheld the transgressors, and
was grieved; because they kept not Thy word' (Psa 119:158). So
Christ; He looked round about with anger, 'being grieved for the
hardness of their hearts' (Mark 3:5). But it is rarely seen that
this passion of the soul is thus exercised. Almost everybody has
other things for the spending of the heat of this passion upon. Men
are grieved that they thrive no more in the world; grieved that
they have no more carnal, sensual, and worldly honour; grieved
that they are suffered no more to range in the lusts and vanities
of this life; but all this is because the soul is unaquainted with
God, sees no beauty in holiness, but is sensual, and wrapt up in
clouds and thick darkness.

Of anger.

6. And lastly, There is anger, which is another passion of the
soul; and that, as the rest, is extended by the soul, according to
the nature of the principle by which it is acted, and from whence
it flows. And, in a word, to speak nothing of the fierceness and
power of this passion, it is then cursed when it breaketh out beyond
the bounds that God hath set it, the which to be sure it doth, when
it shall by its fierceness or irregular motion, run the soul into
sin. 'Be ye angry, and sin not' (Eph 4:26), is the limitation
wherewith God hath bounded this passion; and whatever is more than
this, is a giving place to the devil. And one reason, among others,
why the Lord doth so strictly set this bound, and these limits to
anger, is, for that it is so furious a passion, and for that it will
so quickly swell up the soul with sin, as they say a toad swells
with its poison. Yea, it will in a moment so transport the spirit
of a man, that he shall quickly forget himself, his God, his friend,
and all good rule. But my business is not now to make a comment
upon the passions of the soul, only to show you that there are
such, and also which they are.

And now, from this description of the soul, what follows but
to put you in mind what a noble, powerful, lively, sensible thing
the soul is, that by the text is supposed may be lost, through the
heedlessness, or carelessness, or slavish fear of him whose soul
it is; and also to stir you up to that care of, and labour after,
the salvation of your soul, as becomes the weight of the matter.
If the soul were a trivial thing, or if a man, though he lost it,
might yet himself be happy, it were another matter; but the loss
of the soul is no small loss, nor can that man that has lost his
soul, had he all the world, yea, the whole kingdom of heaven, in
his own power be but in a most fearful and miserable condition.
But of these things more in their place.

[THE GREATNESS OF THE SOUL.]

SECOND, Having thus given you a description of the soul, what it
is, I shall, in the next place, show you the greatness of it.

[Of the greatness of the soul, when compared with the body.]

First, And the first thing that I shall take occasion to make this
manifest by, will be by showing you the disproportion that is betwixt
that and the body; and I shall do it in these following particulars:--

The body a house for the soul.

1. The body is called the house of the soul, a house for the soul
to dwell in. Now everybody knows that the house is much inferior
to him that, by God's ordinance, is appointed to dwell therein;
that it is called the house of the soul, you find in Paul to the
Corinthians: 'For we know,' saith he, 'that if our earthly house of
this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens' (2 Cor 5:1). We have
then, a house for our soul in this world, and this house is the
body, for the apostle can mean nothing else; therefore he calls it
an earthly house. 'If our earthly house'--our house. But who doth
he personate if he says, This is a house for the soul; for the body
is part of him that says, Our house?

In this manner of language, he personates his soul with the souls
of the rest that are saved; and thus to do, is common with the
apostles, as will be easily discerned by them that give attendance
to reading. Our earthly houses; or, as Job saith, 'houses of clay,'
for our bodies are bodies of clay:

'Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies
of clay' (Job 4:19; 13:12). Indeed, he after maketh mention of a
house in heaven, but that is not it about which he now speaks; now
he speaks of this earthly house which we have (we, our souls) to
dwell in, while on this side glory, where the other house stands,
as ready prepared for us when we shall flit from this to that; or
in case this should sooner or later be dissolved. But that is the
first; the body is compared to the house, but the soul to him that
inhabiteth the house; therefore, as the man is more noble than the
house he dwells in, so is the soul more noble than the body. And
yet, alas! with grief be it spoken, how common is it for men to
spend all their care, all their time, all their strength, all their
wit and parts for the body and its honour and preferment, even as
if the soul were some poor, pitiful, sorry, inconsiderable, and
under thing, not worth the thinking of, or not worth the caring
for. But,