A39675:1445
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
MATTH. 16.26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole… › Doctrine 1: DOCT. I.
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.
but God waters our Souls with what is infinitely more costly than Wine, he waters them with the Heart-blood of Christ, and the precious Gifts and Graces of the Spirit, which certainly he would never do, if they were not of great worth in his eyes. O how many excellent Ministers who were, as is said of John, burning and shining Lights in their places and generations, have spent themselves, and how many are there who are willing to spend and be spent, as Paul was, for the salvation of Souls! God is at great expenses for them, and therefore puts a very high value upon them.
but God waters our Souls with what is infinitely more costly than Wine, he waters them with the Heart-blood of Christ, and the precious Gifts and Graces of the Spirit, which certainly he would never do, if they were not of great worth in his eyes. O how many excellent Ministers who were, as is said of Iohn, burning and shining Lights in their places and generations, have spent themselves, and how many are there who are willing to spend and be spent, as Paul was, for the salvation of Souls! God is at great expences for them, and therefore puts a very high value upon them.
Now all this respects the Soul of man, that is the object of all ministerial labours. The Soul is the terminus actionum ad intra, the subject on which God works, and upon which he spends all those invaluable treasures. 'Tis the Soul which he aims at, and principally designs and levels all to, and reckons it not too dear a rate to save them at.
No man will dig for common stones with golden Mattocks, ⟨image 204⟩the instruments that would be worn out being of far greater value than the thing. This may convince us of what worth our Souls are, and at what rates they are set in Gods Book, that such instruments are sent abroad into the World, and such precious Gifts and Graces like golden Oil spent continually for their Salvation: whether Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, all are yours,