A39675:1449
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.
There cannot be a more acceptable service done to God, than for a man to set himself heartily and diligently to the Conversion of Souls: so many Souls as a man instrumentally saves, so many Diadems will God crown him withal in the great Day. S. Paul calls his converted Philippians his joy and his crown, Phil. 4.1. and tells the converted Thessalonians, they were his Crown of rejoicing in the presence of Jesus Christ at his coming, 1 Thess. 2.19. There is a full reward assured by promise to those that labour in this great service, Dan. 12.3. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever. The wisdom here spoken of I conceive not to be only that whereby a man is made wise to the salvation of his own Soul, but whereby he is also furnished with skill for the saving of other mens Souls, according to that, Prov. 11.30. He that winneth souls is wise: and so the latter Phrase is exegetical of it, meaning one and the same thing by being wise, and turning many unto righteousness: and to put men upon the study of this wisdom, he puts a very honourable title upon them, calling them [Greek or Hebrew], the justifiers of many, as in 1 Tim. 4.16. they are said to save others. Here is singular honour put upon the very instruments employed in this honourable service, and that is not all; but their reward is great hereafter, as well as their honour great at present: they shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and the stars for ever and ever. The Firmament shines like a Sapphire in it self, the Stars and Planets more gloriously again; but those that faithfully labour ⟨p. 376⟩in this work of saving Souls, shall shine in Glory for ever and ever, when the Firmament shall be parched up as a scroll. O what rewards and honours are here to provoke men to the study of saving Souls! God will richly recompense all our pains in this work: if we did but only sow the seed in our days, and another enters into our labours, and waters what we sowed, so that neither the first hath the comfort of finishing the work, nor the last the honour of beginning it; but one did somewhat towards it in the work of Conviction, and the other carried it on to greater maturity and perfection, and so neither the one or other began and finished the work singly; yet both shall rejoice in Heaven together,