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SERMON XXXI.

THE VALUE OF THE SOUL.

BY

JOHN RODGERS, D. D.

One of the Ministers of the United Presbyterian Churches, New-York.

MATTHEW Xvi. 26.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own foul? or, what shall a man give in exchange for his foul?

HE candour with which our Lord treats his difciples

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upon all occafions, is a high evidence of his fincerity, and no inconfiderable evidence of the divinity of his miffion. He not only tells them what they have to hope for, but what they have to fear, if they would be his fincere followers. He ftates the terms of their discipleship to them with great fincerity, whenever a favourable opportunity offers; nor does he on any occafion flatter their vanity.

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An inftance of this we have in the verse but one that precedes our text: Then faid Jesus to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. The neceflity, however, of being his difciples, hard as these terms may appear to a secure and profane world, is urged in the next verfe, from the danger of neglecting the duty, and the benefits arifing from a compliance therewith. For whofoever will fave bis life fball lofe it; and whosoever will lofe his life for my fake fball find it.

This fame duty is recommended and enforced in the words of our text, from the nature of the lofs fuftained by those who do not thus deny themselves for Christ, take up the crofs and follow him. For what is a man profited, if he hall gain the whole world, and lose his own foul? or, what shall a man give in exchange for bis foul?

You will eafily perceive, my brethren, our Lord's argument in the text, to induce us to be his difciples, is founded on the inestimable value of the foul. It is of more worth than a whole world. To gain a world and lofe a foul, is to fuftain an irreparable lofs; for what shall a man give in exchange for his foul? The mode of our Lord's expreffion evidently implies, there is nothing that can be given in exchange for a loft foul; and the reason is obvious, because there is nothing in all the world that equals our precious foul in value; no, nor all our world. put together, for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the WHOLE WORLD, and lofe his own foul?

Our Lord fuppofes, in the text, for the fake of illuftration, what, indeed, has never fallen to the lot of any one man; that could he poffefs the whole world, its whole fovereignty and wealth, its whole honours and enjoyments of every nature, and that to the highest degree

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poffible, they would be a vain purchase at the expence of his foul.

What then must be the folly of those who fell their fouls for so small a share of any of these?-Who fell them for a thing of nought!

What fall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lofe his own foul? Or, what shall a man give in exchange for his foul?

What I propofe from the words, by the aids of the Spirit of Grace, is,

I. Confider the value of the foul in a few particulars. II. The nature of the lofs fuftained by those who lose their precious foul.

III. The danger of lofing it.

Let us enquire,

I. Wherein does the value of this precious foul appear?

By the foul I mean, that rational and immaterial principle that is in each of us, by which we are distinguished from the brutes that perish, and become wifer than the fowls of heaven. This foul is the offspring of God. Every foul of the human race receives its being immediately from him, without the intervention of any laws whereby it is propagated. He is, in the most proper fenfe of the term, the Father of our Spirits. It is the obfervation of an eminent divine, that while all other beings were created by a fingle, let them be, and, lo, they were, the Sacred Trinity is reprefented as fitting in council on the creation of man. Thus, Gen. i. 26. Let us make man. It was not his body that was the fubject of this confultation; for there are many bodies in the material univerfe as cu

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rious in their formation, and, perhaps, as glorious in their nature, as the body of man; and which, therefore, would have as justly merited the confultation of heaven. It was this immaterial and precious foul, as united to the body.

But to proceed: The high value of this foul appears, 1. From its nature and capacity.

I have just said, that it is spiritual and immaterial in its nature. It does not confist of such grofs and material parts as our bodies do; it is hereby raised far fuperior to them, and all the material univerfe, and becomes a partaker of the fame kind of being with the angels of heaven; for they are fpirits.-Who maketh his angels fpirits. Yea, more, it is a partaker of the fame kind of being with God himself, for God is a Spirit. This, therefore, bespeaks its high dignity and inestimable value.

And from this fpirituality of its nature is derived its capacity. It is capable of knowing God; not, indeed, in a perfect manner; for fuch is the infinite glory of the Divine nature and perfections, that he cannot be fully known by any of his creatures. None by fearching can find out God;-none can find out the Almighty unto perfection. But the foul of man is capable of knowing something of the nature, the character and perfections of the Supreme JEHOVAH.-That JEHOVAH from whom all our happiness, as intelligent creatures, is derived, whose favour is life, and his loving kindness better than life.

This rational foul is alfo capable of knowing God's work's; the fun, the moon, and the stars, which his fingers have framed. It is capable of knowing the various ranks of creatures in their feveral gradations: "Down from infinite to thee, from thee to nothing." Many of these it has ranged into claffes, and gone far in explaining their nature and their laws: And O the won

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ders of wisdom, power, and goodness it has discovered in them! The works of God, both in creation and provi dence, are among those mirrors in which we behold the glory of the Divine perfections.

For the invifible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly feen, being underflood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament fheweth his bandy-work. Day unto day uttereth Speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. But it is this rational foul that enables us to fee this glory, and render the honour of it to the great God.

This foul of ours is that alfo which conftitutes us the fubjects of moral government. We are hereby capacitated for knowing truth and error, fin and duty, and for rendering a rational obedience to the Divine law. We hereby become capable of rewards and punishments; in a word, capable of the whole fyftem of duty, which is due from our race to God, and capable of all its consequent happiness. And this happiness is eternal in its duration, as well as rational in its nature.-For thefe fouls of which we fpeak, are in their very nature immortal. You have heard that they are immaterial ;— they have nothing in them that tends to diffolution;they fall furvive the ruins of the body,-furvive this world itself, especially in its prefent form,-bear date with an unwaiting duration, and exift while God himfelf exifts.

This is a property of the human foul of the highest moment to be attended to, and which inftamps an infinite value upon it,-it is immortal. When yonder fun fhall have grown dim with age,-when the moon and the stars fhall enlighten our world no more, these fouls of ours fhall exift, and flourish in eternal youth. From

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