A39675:742
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.
I do not say this lower World receives no benefit at all by them, after their death; for though they can speak no more, write no more, pray for, and instruct the Inhabitants of this World no more, nor exhibit to them the beauty of Religion in any new acts or examples of theirs: (which is that I mean by saying they have finished all their work of obedience on earth) Yet the benefit of what they did whilst in the Body, still remains, after they are gone; as the Apostle speaks of Abel, Hebr. 11.4. Who being dead, yet speaketh. ⟨p. 209⟩This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the Souls of men upon earth, long after they are gone to Heaven. And this should greatly quicken us to leave as much as we can behind us, for the good of Posterity, that after our decease (as the Apostle speaks, 2 Pet. 1.15.) they may have our words and examples in remembrance. But for any service to be done de novo after death, it is not to be expected. We have accomplished as an Hireling our day, and have not a stroke more to do.
(2) As all our work of obedience is then finished by us, so at death, all the Work of God is finished by his Spirit upon us. The last hand is then put to all the preparatory work for glory; not a stroke more to be done upon it afterward, which appears as well by the immediate succession of the life of glory, (whereof I shall speak in another Proposition) as by the cessation of all sanctifying means and instruments, which are totally laid aside as things of no more use, after this stroke is given, Adepto fine, cessant media, Means are useless, when the end is attained. There is no work, saith Solomon, in the Grave. How short soever the Souls stay and abode in the Body was, though it were regenerated one day, and separated the next; yet all that is wrought upon it, which God ever intended should be wrought in this World, and there is no preparation-work in the other World.