A39675:578
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.
O Friends, why hath God given you Bodies, if not to waste and wear them out in his service, and the service of your own Souls? if your Bodies must not be put to it, and exercised this way, where is the mercy of having a Body? If a stately Horse were given you on this condition, that you must not ride or work him, what benefit would such a gift be to you? Your Bodies must, and will wear out, and it's better wear them with working, than with rusting: we are generally more solicitous to live long, than to live usefully and serviceably, and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God, if it had been less precious in our own eyes? 'Tis just with God to destroy that health with diseases, which he sees we would cast away in slothfulness and idleness. Think with thy self, had such a Soul as Timothy's or Gaius's been blessed with such a Body as thine, so strong and vigorous, so apt and able for service, they would have honoured God more in it, in a day, than perhaps you do in a year. Certainly, this is not love, but laziness, not a due improvement, but a sinful neglect and abuse of the Body, to let it rust out in idleness, which might be employed so many ways for God, for your own and others Souls. Well, remember death will shortly dissolve them, and then they can be of no more use; and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the Resurrection, use them for God now, with a faithful self-denying diligence.
O Friends, why hath God given you Bodies, if not to waste and wear them out in his service, and the service of your own Souls? if your Bodies must not be put to it, and exercised this way, where is the mercy of having a Body? If a stately Horse were given you on this condition, that you must not ride or work him, what benefit would such a gift be to you? Your Bodies must, and will wear out, and it's better wear them with working, than with rusting: we are generally more sollicitous to live long, than to live usefully and serviceably, and it may be our health had been more precious in the eyes of God, if it had been less precious in our own eyes? 'Tis just with God to destroy that health with diseases, which he sees we would cast away in slothfulness and idleness. Think with thy self, had such a Soul as Timothies or Gaius's been blessed with such a Body as thine, so strong and vigorous, so apt and able for service, they would have honoured God more in it, in a day, than perhaps you do in a year. Certainly, this is not love, but laziness, not a due improvement, but a sinful neglect and abuse of the Body, to let it rust out in idleness, which might be imployed so many ways for God, for your own and others Souls. Well, remember death will shortly dissolve them, and then they can be of no more use; and if you expect God should put glory and honour upon them at the Resurrection, use them for God now, with a faithful self-denying diligence.