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

The body a vessel for the soul.

3. The body is called a vessel, or a case, for the soul to be put and kept in. ‘That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctifcation and honour’ (1 Thess 4:4). The apostle here doth exhort the people to abstain from fornication, which, in another place, he saith, ‘…is a sin against the body’ (1 Cor 6:18). And here again he saith, ‘This is the will of God, that ye should abstain from fornication:’ that the body be not defiled, ‘that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour.’ His vessel, his earthen vessel, as he calls it in another place—for ‘we have this treasure in earthen vessels.’ Thus, then, the body is called a vessel; yea, every man’s body is his vessel. But what has God prepared this vessel for, and what has He put into it? Why, many things this body is to be a vessel for, but at present God has put into it that curious thing, the soul. Cabinets, that are very rich and costly things of themselves, are not made nor designed to be vessels to be stuffed or filled with trumpery, and things of no value; no, these are prepared for rings and jewels, for pearls, for rubies, and things that are choice. And if so, what shall we then think of the soul for which is prepared, and that of God, the most rich and excellent vessel in the world?

Surely it must be a thing of worth, yea, of more worth than is the whole world besides. But alas! who believes this talk? Do not even the most of men so set their minds upon, and so admire, the glory of this case or vessel, that they forget once with seriousness to think, and, therefore, must of necessity be a great way off, of those suitable esteems that becomes them to have of their souls.

But oh, since this vessel, this cabinet, this body, is so curiously made, and that to receive and contain, what thing is that for which God has made this vessel, and what is that soul that He hath put into it? Wherefore thus, in the third place, is the greatness of the soul made manifest, even by the excellency of the vessel, the body, that God has made to put it in.

The body a tabernacle of the soul.

4. The body is called a tabernacle for the soul. ‘Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle’ (2 Pet 1:14), that is, my body, ‘by death’ (John 21:18,19). ‘For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God,’ etc.

(2 Cor 5:1). In both these places, by ‘tabernacle,’ can be meant nothing but the body; wherefore both the apostles, in these sentences do personate their souls, and speak as if the soul was THE ALL of a man; yea, they plainly tell us, that the body is but the house, clothes, vessel, and tabernacle for the soul. But what a famous thing therefore is the soul!

The tabernacle of old was a place erected for worship, but the worshippers were more excellent than the place; so our body is a tabernacle for the soul to worship God in, but must needs be accounted much inferior to the soul, forasmuch as the worshippers are always of more honour than the place they worship in; as he that dwelleth in the tabernacle hath more honour than the tabernacle.8

‘I serve,’ says Paul, God and Christ Jesus ‘with my spirit (or soul) in the gospel’ (Rom 1:9), but not with his spirit out of, but in, this tabernacle. The tabernacle had instruments of worship for the worshippers; so has the body for the soul, and we are bid to ‘yield our members as instruments of righteousness to God’ (Rom 6:13). The hands, feet, ears, eyes, and tongue, which last is our glory when used right, are all of them instruments of this tabernacle, and to be made use of by the soul, the inhabiter of this tabernacle, for the soul’s performance of the service of God. I thus discourse, to show you the greatness of the soul. And, in mine opinion, there is something, if not very much, in what I say. For all men admire the body, both for its manner of building, and the curious way of its being compacted together. Yes, the further men, wise men, do pry into the wonderful work of God that is put forth in framing the body, the more still they are made to admire; and yet, as I said, this body is but a house, a mantle, a vessel, a tabernacle for the soul. What, then, is the soul itself?9 But thus much for the first particular.

[Other things that show the greatness of the soul.]

Second, We will now come to other things that show us the greatness of the soul. And,

The soul is called God’s breath.

1. It is called God’s breath of life. ‘And the Lord God formed man,’ that is, the body, ‘of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul’ (Gen 2:7). Do but compare these two together, the body and the soul; the body is made of dust, the soul is the breath of God.

Now, if God hath made this body so famous, as indeed He has, and yet it is made but of the dust of the ground, and we all do know what inferior matter it is, what is the soul, since the body is not only its house and garment, but since itself is made of the breath of God? But, further, it is not only said that the soul is of the breath of the Lord, but that the Lord breathed into him the breath of life—to wit, a living spirit, for so the next words infer—and ‘man became a living soul.’ Man, that is, the more excellent part of him, which, for that which is principal, is called man, that bearing the denomination of the whole; or man, the spirit and natural power, by which, as a reasonable creature, the whole of him is acted, ‘became a living soul.’ But I stand not here upon definition, but upon demonstration. The body, that noble part of man, had its original from the dust; for so says the Word, ‘Dust thou art (as to thy body), and unto dust shalt thou return’ (Gen 3:19). But as to thy more noble part, thou art from the breath of God, God putting forth in that a mighty work of creating power, and man ‘was made a living soul’ (1 Cor 15:45). Mark my reason. There is as great a disparity betwixt the body and the soul, as is between the dust of the ground and that, here called, the breath of life of the Lord. And note further, that, as the dust of the ground did not lose, but gained glory by being formed into the body of a man, so this breath of the Lord lost nothing neither by being made a living soul. O man! dost thou know what thou art?

The soul God’s image.

2. As the soul is said to be of the breath of God, so it is said to be made after God’s own image, even after the similitude of God.

‘And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.—So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him’ (Gen 1:26,27). Mark, in His own image, in the image of God created He him; or, as James hath it, it is ‘made after the similitude of God,’ (James 3:9); like Him, having in it that which beareth semblance with Him. I do not read of anything in heaven, or earth, or under the earth, that is said to be made after this manner, or that is at all so termed, save only the Son of God Himself.

The angels are noble creatures, and for present employ are made a little higher than man himself, (Heb 2); but that any of them are said to be made ‘after God’s image,’ after His own image, even after the similitude of God, that I find not. This character the Holy Ghost, in the Scriptures of truth, giveth only of man, of the soul of man; for it must not be thought that the body is here intended in whole or in part. For though it be said that Christ was made after the similitude of sinful flesh (Phil 2), yet it is not said that sinful flesh is made after the similitude of God; but I will not dispute; I only bring these things to show how great a thing, how noble a thing the soul is; in that, at its creation, God thought it worthy to be made, not like the earth, or the heavens, or the angels, seraphims, or archangels, but like Himself, His own self, saying, ‘Let Us make man in Our own likeness. So He made man in His own image.’ This, I say, is a character above all angels; for, as the apostle said, ‘To which of the angels said He at anytime, ‘Thou art my Son?’ So, of which of them hath He at any time said, This is, or shall be, made in or after Mine image, Mine own image?

O what a thing is the soul of man, that above all the creatures in heaven or earth, being made in the image and similitude of God.10

The soul God’s desire.

3. Another thing by which the greatness of the soul is made manifest is this, it is that—and that only, and to say this is more than to say, it is that above all the creatures—that the great God desires communion with. He ‘hath set apart him that is godly for himself,’ (Psa 4:3); that is, for communion with his soul; therefore the spouse saith concerning him, ‘His desire is toward me,’ (Song 7:10); and, therefore, he saith again, ‘I will dwell in them, and walk in them’ (2 Cor 6:16). To ‘dwell in,’ and ‘walk in,’ are terms that intimate communion and fellowship; as John saith, ‘Our fellowship, truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ’ (1 John 1:3). That is, our soul-fellowship; for it must not be understood of the body, though I believe that the body is much influenced when the soul has communion with God; but it is the soul, and that only, that at present is capable of having and maintaining of this blessed communion. But, I say, what a thing is this, that God, the great God, should choose to have fellowship and communion with the soul above all. We read, indeed, of the greatness of the angels, and how near also they are unto God; but yet there are not such terms that bespeak such familiar acts between God and angels, as to demonstrate that they have such communion with God as has, or as the souls of His people may have. Where has He called them His love, His dove, His fair one? and where, when He speaketh of them, doth He express a communion that they have with Him by the similitude of conjugal love? I speak of what is revealed; the secret things belong to the Lord our God. Now by all this is manifest the greatness of the soul. Men of greatness and honour, if they have respect to their own glory, will not choose for their familiars the base and rascally crew of this world; but will single out for their fellows, fellowship, and communion, those