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 ...

Inference II.

IS it but a puff of feeble breath, which holds our Souls and Bodies in union, then every man is deeply concerned to make all hast, to take all possible care and pains, to secure a better and more durable habitation, for his Soul in Heaven, whilst yet it sojourns in this frail Tabernacle of the Body.

The time is at hand, when all these comely and active bodies, shall be so many breathless carkasses, no more capable of any use or service for our Souls, than the seats you sit on, or the dead bodies that lye buried un∣der your feet. Your breath is yet in your Nostrils, and all the means and seasons of salvation will expire with it; and then it will be as impossible for the best Minister in the world to help your Souls, as for the ablest Physician to recover your Bodies. As Physick comes too late for the one, so counsels and perswasions for the other.

Three things are worth thinking on in this matter.

• 1. First, that you are not without the hopes and possi∣bilities of Salvation, whilst the breath of life is in your Nostrils. A mercy (how lightly soever you value it) that would ravish with joy those miserable Souls, that have already shot the gulf of Eternity, and turn the shrieks and groans of the Damned into joyful shouts and acclamations of praise. Poor wretch, consider what thou readest; That thy Soul is not yet in Christ, is thy greatest misery, but that yet it may be in Christ, is an unspeakable mercy: though thy Salvation be not yet secured, yet, what a mercy is it, that it is not des∣perate.
• 2. Secondly, When this uncertain breath is once expired, the last hope of every unregenerate person is gone for ever. It is as impossible to recover hope, as it is to recover your de∣parted

• breath, or recall the day that is past. When the breath is gone, the Compositum is dissolved. We cease to be, what now we are, and our life is as water spilt on the ground, which shall not be gathered up till the Resurrection. Our life is carried like a precious liquor in a brittle Glass, which death breaks to pieces. The Spirit is immediately presen∣ted to God, and fixed in its unalterable State. Hebrews 9.27. All means of Salvation now cease for ever. No Am∣bassadors of peace are sent to the Dead. No more Calls, or Strivings of the Spirit, no more space for Repentance. O! what an inconceivable weight hath God hanged on a puff of breath?
• 3. Thirdly, And since matters stand thus, it is to be admired, what shift men make to quiet themselves in so dangerous a State, as most Souls live in: quiet and un∣concerned, and yet, but one puff of breath betwixt them and Hell! O the stupefying and besotting nature of sin! O the efficacy and power of spiritual delusions! Are our lives such a throng and hurry of business, that we have no time to go alone and think, where we are, and where we shortly must be? What shall I say? If bodily concerns be so weighty, and the matters of Eternity such trifles; if meat, and drink, and trade, and children, be such great things, and Christ, and Soul, and Heaven, Hell, and the world to come, such little things in your eyes; you will not be long in that opinion, I dare assure you.