The words are set down by way of Interrogation, intimating a more vehement Negation, What shall it profit? That is, It shall not at all profit. It carrieth a kind of universal concession, and unquestionable truth in it, which no man can deny. Even they themselves who cast away their souls to gain the world, cannot, themselves being Judges, but confess, that it is an absurd thing to expect profit from any thing when the soul is lost, or to prefer all the world above a mans own eternal happiness. When a thing is exceeding manifest, the Scripture useth jo make men themselves, whom it would thereby reprove, the Judges of it. Judge in your selves, saith the Apostle, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered, 1 Cor. 11.13. and the Lord in the Prophet, Isa. 5.3.4. O inhabitants of Judah, Judge I pray you, between me and my vineyard. And elsewhere, Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the ⟨p. 6⟩Lord, Amos 2.11. So the force of the Interrogation is such a denial, as the heart of him to whom it is made most needs subscribe unto, as having nothing to allege against it, And in a plain Position it is this, That man who to gain the world, doth cast away his soul, shall find no profit in such a gain; it will prove like the gain which the Apostle speaks of, Acts 27.21. a gaining of nothing but loss, and that an irreparable loss, which can never be recovered. It is dangerous venturing on such an Error, in quo non licet bis peccare, in which being once involved, a man can never get out again. Such is the loss of a soul, lose it once and it is lost for ever, there can no ransom, no change be made for it,1 [Greek or Hebrew], nothing can be put in the other scale to weigh with it: The Civil Law says, Ingenui hominis nulla est estimatio, How much more truly may we say of the soul, Immortalis animae nulla est aestimatio. No valuable consideration for a soul but the blood of Christ: If we forsake him to gain the world we shall never find any thing in the world precious enough by the exchange whereof to regain our souls.
The words are set down by way of Interrogation, intimating a more vehement Negation, What shall it profit? That is, It shall not at all profit. It carrieth a kinde of universal concession, and unquestionable truth in it, which no man can deny. Even they themselves who cast away their souls to gaine the world, cannot, themselves being Judges, but confess, that it is an absurd thing to expect profit from any thing when the soul is lost, or to prefer all the world above a mans own eternal happiness. When a thing is exceeding manifest, the Scripture useth io make men themselves, whom it would thereby reprove, the Iudges of it. Iudge in your selves, saith the Apostle, is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered, 1 Cor. 11.13. and the Lord in the Prophet, Isa. 5.3.4. O inhabitants of Judah, Judge I pray you, between me and my vineyard. And elsewhere, Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel, saith the ⟨p. 6⟩Lord, Amos 2.11. So the force of the Interrogation is such a deniall, as the heart of him to whom it is made most needs subscribe unto, as having nothing to alledge against it, And in a plain Position it is this, That man who to gain the world, doth cast away his soul, shall finde no profit in such a gain; it will prove like the gain which the Apostle speaks of, Acts 27.21. a gaining of nothing but losse, and that an irreparable losse, which can never be recovered. It is dangerous venturing on such an Error, in quo non licet bis peccare, in which being once involved, a man can never get out again. Such is the loss of a soule, lose it once and it is lost for ever, there can no ransome, no change be made for it,1 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, nothing can be put in the other scale to weigh with it: The Civil Law saies, Ingenui hominis nulla est estimatio, How much more truly maye we say of the soul, Immortalis animae nulla est aestimatio. No valuable consideration for a soul but the blood of Christ: If we forsake him to gain the world we shall never finde any thing in the world precious enough by the exchange whereof to regaine our souls.
- 1Homer. Iliad. l. 10. Digest. l. 9. tit. 1. leg. 3. & de Reg. juris l. 106.
