A39675:1692
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.) Deep, serious, and fixed consideration, which lets conviction deep into the Soul, and settles it, and roots it fast in the heart: Psal. 119.59. I thought upon my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. There are close and anxious debates in those Souls in whom convictions prosper to full conversion: they sit alone, and think close to their great and eternal concerns: they carry their thoughts back to the evils of their life past, then smite on the thigh, and cry, What have I done? They run their thoughts forward into Eternity, and that to a great depth, and then cry, What shall I do to be saved? They deliberate and weigh in their most advised thoughts what is to be done, and that speedily for the escaping of the wrath to come: thus they fix those tender, weak, and hazardous motions, which dye away in multitudes of Souls; and in the loss of them their seasons of Salvation are also lost.
(2.) The first stirrings and motions of the Spirit upon mens hearts do then become a season of Salvation to them, when they are accompanied with spiritual, fervent, and frequent prayer: so it was with Paul, Acts 9.11. Behold, he prayeth. It's a good sign when Souls get alone, and affect privacy and retirement to pour out their fears, sorrows, and requests to God. It is in the Espousals of a Soul to Christ, as it is in other Marriages; a third person may make the motion, and bring the Parties together, but they only, betwixt themselves, must conclude and agree the matter. Prayer is the first breath which the new Creature draws in, and the last (ordinarily) it breaths out in this world. This nourishes and maturates those weak and tender first motions after God, and brings them to some consistence and fixedness in the Soul.