A39675:1172
Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man
Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man wherein the divine original, excellent and immortal nature of the soul are opened, its love and inclination to the body, with the necessity of its separation from it, considered and improved, the existence, operations, and states of separated souls, both in Heaven and Hell, immediately after death, asserted, discussed, and variously applied, divers knotty and difficult questions about departed souls, both philosophical, and theological, stated and determined, the invaluable preciousness of humane souls, and the various artifices of Satan (their professed enemy) to destroy them, discovered, and the great duty and interest of all men, seasonable and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father, Son, and Spirit, for the salvation of their souls, argued and pressed / by John Flavel ...Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man wherein the divine original, excellent and immortal nature of the soul are opened, its love and inclination to the body, with the necessity of its separation from it, considered and improved, the existence, operations, and states of separated souls, both in Heaven and Hell, immediately after death, asserted, discussed, and variously applyed, divers knotty and difficult questions about departed souls, both philosophical, and theological, stated and determined, the invaluable preciousness of humane souls, and the various artifices of Satan (their professed enemy) to destroy them, discovered, and the great duty and interest of all men, seasonable and heartily to comply with the most great and gracious design of the Father, Son, and Spirit, for the salvation of their souls, argued and pressed / by John Flavel ...
London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1685
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
1. From defiling corruptions into perfect purity. No sin hangs about the separated, though it do about the sanctified Soul. They come out of the Body suitable to that character and encomium, Cant. 4.7. Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in thee. It doth that for the Saints which all their graces, and duties, all their mercies and afflictions could never do. Faith is a great purifier, Communion with God a great cleanser, sanctified afflictions a Refiner's fire and Fuller's Soap, these have all done their parts, and been useful in their places; but none of them nor altogether perfected this cure till death come; and then the work is done, and the cure perfected.
All Weeping, all Praying, all Believing, all Hearing, all Sacraments, all the means and instruments in the World, cannot do what death will do for thee. One dying hour will do what ten thousand praying hours never did, nor could do. In this hour the design of all those hours is accomplished; as he that is dead by mortification is at present freedom from sin, in respect of imputation and dominion, Rom. 6.7. so he that being justified and mortified is dead ⟨p. 315⟩naturally; is immediately freed from the very indwelling and existence of sin in him. We read of the washing of the Robes of the Saints in Rev. 7.14. The blood of the Lamb cleanseth them from every spot, but it doth it gradually. The last spot of guilt indeed was fetched out by one act of justification, but the last spot filth is not fetched out till the time of their dissolution, when they are come out of the Agonies of death (which the Scripture calls great tribulation) then and not till then are they perfectly cleansed. Sin brought in death, and death carries out sin.
All Weeping, all Praying, all Believing, all Hearing, all Sacraments, all the means and instruments in the World, cannot do what death will do for thee. One dying hour will do what ten thousand praying hours never did, nor could do. In this hour the design of all those hours is accomplished; as he that is dead by mortification is at present freedom from sin, in respect of imputation and dominion,