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 ...

Argument IV.

THE Immortality of the Soul may be evinced from the everlasting habits which are subjected and inherent in it. If these habits abide for ever, certainly so must the Souls in which they are planted.

The Souls of good Men are the good Ground, in which the Seed of Grace is sown by the Spirit, Matth. 13.23. (i.e) the subjects in which gracious properties and affe∣ctions do inhere and dwell, (which is the formal notion of a Substance) and these implanted Graces are everlasting things. So, Iohn 4.14. It shall be in him a Well of Water, spring∣ing up into everlasting Life, (i. e.) the Graces of the Spirit shall be in Believers permanent habits, fixed Principles, which shall never decay. And therefore that Seed of Grace which is cast into their Souls at their Regeneration, is in 1 Pet. 1.23. called incorruptible Seed, which liveth and abideth for ever: and it is incorruptible, not only considered abstractly, in its own simple nature, but concretely, as it is in the san∣ctified Soul, its Subject; for it is said, 1 Iohn 3.9. The Seed of God remaineth in him. It abideth for ever in the Soul. If then these two things be clear to us, viz.

• 1. That the Habits of Grace be everlasting.
• 2. That they are inseparable from sanctified Souls;

It must needs follow that the Soul, their Subject, is so too, an everlasting and immortal Soul. And how plainly do both these Propositions lie before us in the Scriptures? As for the immortal and interminable nature of saving Grace, it is plain to him that considers, not only what the fore cited Scriptures speak about it, calling it incorruptible Seed, a Well of Water springing up into everlasting life: But add to these what is said of these Divine qualities, in 2 Pet. 1.4. where they are called the Divine Nature: and Ephes. 4.18. The life of God,

noting the perpetuity of these Principles in Believers, as well as their resemblance of God in Holiness, who are endowed with them.

I know it is a great question among Divines, An gratia in renatis sit naturà & essentià suà interminabilis? Whether these Principles of Grace in the Regenerate be everlasting and interminable in their own nature and essence? For my own part I think that God only is naturally, essentially, and absolutely interminable and immortal. But these gracious Habits, planted by him in the Soul, are so by vertue of Gods Appointment, Promise and Covenant. And sure it is that by reason hereof they are interminate, which is e∣nough for my purpose, if they be not essentially intermi∣nable. Though Grace be but a Creature, and therefore hath a pesse mori, yet it is a Creature begotten by the Word and Spirit of God, which live and abide for ever, and a Creature within the Promise and Covenant of God, by reason whereof it can never actually dye.

And then, as for the inseparableness of these Graces from the Souls in whom they are planted, how clear is this from 1 Iohn 2.27. where sanctifying Grace is compared to an Unction, and this Unction is said to abide in them: And 1 Iohn, 3.9. 'tis called the Seed of God, which remaineth in the Soul. All our natural and moral Excellencies and Endowments go away when we dye, Iob 4.21. Doth not their Excellency that is in them go away? Men may out-live their acquired Gifts, but not their supernatural Graces: These stick by the Soul as Ruth to Naomi, and where it goes, they go too; so that when the Soul is dislodged by Death, all its Graces ascend up with it into Glory: it carries away all its Faith, Love, Delight in God, all its comfortable ex∣periences, and fruits of Communion with God, along with it to Heaven. For Death is so far from divesting the Soul of its Graces, that it perfects in a Moment all that was de∣fective in them; 1 Cor. 13.10. When that which is perfect shall come, then that which is in part shall be done away, as the Twi∣light is done away when the Sun is up, and at its Zenith. So then, Grace never dyeth, and this never-dying Grace is inseparable from its Subject; by which it is plain to him that considers, That as Graces, so Souls abide for ever.

But this only proves the Immortality of regenerate Souls.* 1.1

It doth so,* 1.2 but then consider, as there be gracious habits in the regenerate that never dye; so there are vicious habits in the unregenerate, that can never be separated from them in the world to come. Hence Iohn 8.21. They are said to dye in their sins, and Iob 20.11. Their iniquities ly down with them in the dust, and Ezek. 24.13. They shall never be purged. Remarkable is that place, Revel. 22. v. 11. Let him that is filthy, be filthy still. And if guilt stick so fast, and sin be so deeply engraven in impenitent Souls, they also must remain for ever, to bear the punishment of them.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Object.
• * 1.2

  Sol.