A39675:1472
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.
Where one thought is spent about this question, What shall I eat, drink, and put on, a thousand should be spent about that question, What shall I do to be saved? If a Treasure of ten or twenty thousand pounds were committed to your trust and charge, and for which (in case of loss) you must be responsible, would not your thoughts, cares, and fears be working night and day about it, till you be satisfied it is safe and out of danger, and then your mind would be at rest, but not before. Thy Soul, O man, is more worth than the Crowns and Treasures of all the Princes in the World: if all their Exchequers were drained, and all their Crown-Jewels sold to their full value, they could never make up half a Ransom for the Soul of the poorest and meanest man. This invaluable Treasure is committed to your charge, if it be lost, you are lost for ever: that which St. Matthew calls the losing of the Soul in my Text, St. Luke calls losing himself: if the Soul be lost, the man is lost: the body is but as a Boat fastened to the stern of a stately Ship, if the Ship sink, the Boat follows it.
Where one thought is spent about this question, What shall I eat, drink, and put on, a thousand should be spent about that question, What shall I do to be saved? If a Treasure of ten or twenty thousand pounds were committed to your trust and charge, and for which (in case of loss) you must be responsible, would not your thoughts, cares, and fears be working night and day about it, till you be satisfied it is safe and out of danger, and then your mind would be at rest, but not before. Thy Soul, O man, is more worth than the Crowns and Treasures of all the Princes in the World: if all their Exchequers were drained, and all their Crown-Jewels sold to their full value, they could never make up half a Ransom for the Soul of the poorest and meanest man. This invaluable Treasure is committed to your charge, if it be lost, you are lost for ever: that which St. Matthew calls the losing of the Soul in my Text, St. Luke calls losing himself: if the Soul be lost, the man is lost: the body is but as a Boat fastned to the stern of a stately Ship, if the Ship sink, the Boat follows it.
O therefore what thoughts, what fears, what cares should exercise the minds of men day and night, till their precious Souls be out of all danger! Methinks the sound of this Text should ring a perpetual Alarm in the ears of careless sinners, and make them hasten to the Insurance-Office, as Merchants do, who have great Adventures in danger at Sea. It was counsel given once to a King, and worthy to be pressed upon all, from the King to the Beggar, to ruminate these words of Christ one quarter of an hour every day, What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? certainly it would make men slack their pace, and cool themselves in their hot and earnest pursuit of the trifles of this World, and convince them, that they have somewhat else to do of far greater importance.