A39675:1603
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.
The eighth way to Hell shut up by six weighty Considerations.
1. You that attend upon the Ordinances, but believe them no more than so many dev•••d Fables, nor heartily assent to the Truth of what you hear; know assuredly, that the Word shall new[…] do your Souls good it can never come to your hearts and affections in its regenerating and sanctifying efficacy, whilst it is stopped and obstructed in your understandings in the act of assent. And thus you may sit under the best ⟨p. 425⟩Ordinances all your lives, and be no more the better for them, than the Rocks are for all the showers of rain that fall upon them: Heb. 4.2. The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. This is Satan's chief strength and fastness, wherein he trusteth: he fears no Argument, whilst he can maintain this Post: the Devil hath no surer Prisoner than the Atheist: there's no escaping out of his possession and power, whilst this bolt of Unbelief is shut home in the Mind or Understanding. An unbelieved Truth never converted or saved one Soul from the beginning of the world, nor never shall to the end of it. Those bodies that have the Boulema, or Dog-appetite, whatever they eat, it affords them no nourishment or satisfaction, they thrive not with the best fare: just so it is with your Souls, no Duties, no Ordinances can possibly do them good: as in Argumentation, no Conclusion, be it never so regularly drawn, and strongly inferred, is of any force to him that denies Principles.