'Voices From The Past' Vol. 1 — January 26

The body is called the house of the soul. Now the house is much inferior to him that dwells in it. And yet, alas, with grief, how common it is for men to spend all their time, care, strength, and attention for the honour and preferment of the body, as if the soul were a poor, pitiful, and sorry thing, not worthy of thinking about, or caring for! Yet, it is the body that our foolish fancies are taken with, and not that great noble part—the soul. The greatness of the soul is manifest by the greatness of the price paid for it to make it an heir of glory: his precious blood (1 Pet. 1:18-19). We esteem things according to the price paid for them. The soul has been purchased by a price that the Son and wisdom of God thought appropriate to pay for its redemption. What a thing, then, must be the soul! You must confess that it is of great value. Suppose a prince should descend from his throne, to pick up and put in his bosom, something that he had seen lying trampled under the feet of men. Do you think that he would do this for an old horseshoe, or a trivial thing as a pin or broken shoelace? Would you not conclude that the thing for which that prince should make such an effort must be a thing of very great worth? Why, this is the case with Christ and the soul! Christ is the Prince, and, as he sat there on the throne of heaven, he looked at the souls of men trampled under the foot of the law and under the penalty of death. What did he do? He came down from his throne, stooped down to earth, and there he laid down his life and blood for them (2 Cor. 8:9). Would he have done this for inconsiderable things? No, nor would he for the souls of sinners either, if he had not valued them higher than he valued heaven and earth besides.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Devotional Readings 'Voices From The Past Vol.1.'
John Bunyan, Works, I:112-116
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