The Works of John Bunyan, vol 1, John Bunyan [reading like a writer TXT] 📗

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 preeminence 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