The Value of Salvation (Part 2)

Preached by Jonathan Edwards, Fall 1722
For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Matthew 16:26

VI. The life and salvation of the soul is of inestimable worth and value. Though the whole world is good for nothing in comparison, yet the life of the soul is of inestimable worth and value, insomuch that the value of the same cannot be conceived of nor imagined, and that appears:

First, because the salvation of it is the deliverance of it from so great misery, and secondly, because so great happiness is to be enjoyed in the salvation of the soul.

First. Because the salvation of the soul is its deliverance from so great misery. This misery which the soul is saved from is very dreadful.

1. Because in it they shall [be] deprived of all manner of good forever:

[(1)] They shall be deprived of all the pleasures they used to enjoy in this world. They shall no more enjoy the pleasures of eating and drinking, no more enjoy the pleasures of seeing and hearing; they shall no more enjoy their lusts: there shall be nothing in hell for men to satisfy their lust upon. They will have taken their leave, then, of all the riches, honors and pleasure of the world, which they used so to hug and make a god of; their dear lusts, which were so dear to them that they would not part with them for heaven, that they would not let go [of] for God himself, and all the happiness which God could bestow upon them: they must part with them for nothing now, never to enjoy anything like them again. If they have been used to please themselves by handling of their silver and gold, with the shining of precious stones and jewels, they shall enjoy no more of them forever; if they have been used to gorgeous apparel and to deck themselves with shining and glistening robes, they shall never more be clothed with any other sort of garments but scorching and tormenting flames which will wrap themselves about their otherwise naked bodies forever; if they have been used to dwell in proud and stately palaces upon earth, they will have nothing for their habitation then but the bottomless pit and the dismal and doleful dungeon of outer darkness; instead of lying at ease in beds of down, they shall have nothing but a sea of liquid fire for their bed, flames instead of...