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.

MUst we put off these Tabernacles of Flesh?* 1.1 How neces∣sary is it that every Soul look out in season, and make pro∣vision for another habitation. If you must be turned out of one house, you must provide another or lie in the streets. This the Apostle comforted himself with, that if uncloath∣ed, he should not be found naked, 2 Cor. 5.1. a building of God, an house not made with hands. You must turn out, and that shortly, from these earthly Habitations; O what provision have you made for your Souls against that day? The Soul of Adrian was at a sad loss, when he saw he must be turn'd out of this World. O Animula vagula, blandula, heu quo vadis? But it was Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob's Priviledge, that God had pre••••••••d for them a City, Heb. 11.16.

I know it's a common presumption of most men, that they shall be in Heaven, when they can be no longer on earth. Praesumendo sperant, & sperando pereunt. But a few moments will convince them of their fatal mistake; their poor Souls will meet with a confounding repulse like that, Matth. 7.22. There is indeed a City full of heavenly Man∣sions prepared for some, but who are they that are intitled to it, and may confidently expect to be received into it? To be sure, not the presumptuous, who make a Bridge of their own Shadows, and so fall and perish in the waters. Brethren it is one of the most solemn enquiries you were ever put upon: And therefore I beseech you see whether your Characters set you among those men or no.

1. First, Those that are new-born shall be cloathed with their new house from Heaven, when death uncloathes them of these Tabernacles: The New Ierusalem hath 〈◊〉〈◊〉 but new-born Inhabitants, 1 Pet. 1.3, 4. and Christ tells us, Iohn 3.3. all others are excluded. Glory is the Priviledge of Grace. Let nature be adorned and cultivated how it will,

if not renewed by grace, there's no hope of Glory. You must be born again, or turned back again from the Gates of Heaven disappointed. You must be regenerated or damn∣ed. This alters the temper of thy heart, and suits it to the life of God, which is indispensably necessary to them that shall live with him. Else Heaven would be no Heaven to us, Rom. 8.7. and therefore we must be wrought this way to it, 2 Cor. 5 5. No Priviledge of Nature, no Duties of Religion avail without this, Gal. 6.15. If Morality without Regeneration could bring men to Heaven, Why are not the Heathens there? If strictness in Duty without Regenera∣tion, Why not the Pharisees there? Believe it, neither Names, nor Duties, no nor the Blood of Christ, ever did, or shall bring one Soul to glory without it. O then thou that boastest of an house in Heaven, lay thine hand on thy heart and ask it; Am I a new Creature, (i.e.) Am I renewed (1) in my state and condition? 1 Iohn 3.14. past from death to life. (2) In my frame and temper? Eph. 5.8. once darkness, now light in the Lord. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 In my Practice and Conversa∣tion? Eph. 2.12, 13.1 Cor. 6.11. if not, my Soul is desti∣tute of an habitation in the City of God, and when I die, my Body must lie in the lonely house of the Grave, that dark Vault and Prison, and my Soul be shut out from God into outer darkness.

2. Secondly, Those that live as Strangers and Pilgrims on earth, seeking a better place and state than this World affords them, for them God hath made preparations in glory. Hebr. 11.13, 16. If you be strangers on earth, you are the Inhabitants of Heaven: Now there be six things included in this Character.

• (1.) They look not on this World as their own home, nor on the people of it, as their own people, 2 Cor. 5.8. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to be unpeopled. These are none of my fellow Citi∣zens, we must go two ways at death.
• (2.) They set not their affections on things present as their portion, 2 Cor. 4.18. Psal. 17.13, 14. Their Bodies are here, their Hearts in Heaven.
• ...

• (3) Their carriage and manner of life not like the men of this World, 1 Pet. 4.4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. So the Rule guides them, Rom. 12.2. and so their course is steered, at least intended, Philip. 3.20. our 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, our Trade is in Heaven.
• (4) Their Dialect and Language differs from the Natives of this World. Their Language is earthly, 1 Iohn 4.5, 6. but these have a pure lip. Zeph. 3.9.
• (5) Their Society and chosen Companions are not of this World, Psal. 16.3. They are a Company of themselves, Act. 4 21.
• (6) Their Spirit and temper of heart is not after the World, 1 Cor. 2.12. They have another Spirit, Numb. 14. 24. These things discover us to be strangers on earth, and consequently the men for whom God hath prepared heaven∣ly Habitations when we die.

3. Thirdly, Those that live and die by faith, shall not fail to be received into a better Habitation by death. This is another Character of them that shall be rec••••ved into glo∣ry, laid down in the same place, Hebr. 11.13. They lived by faith, and when they died, they died embracing the pro∣mises which is Characteristical of those that shall dwell in that heavenly City, and implies

• (1) Intimate acquaintance with the promises, they are things well known and familiarized to them. The word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Salutantes, Saluting them, is a Metaphor from the manner of parting betwixt two dear and intimate Friends. The Faith of a Christian embraces the promises in its arms, as dear friends use to do at parting; and saith fare∣well, sweet promises, from which I have sucked out so much relief and refreshment in all the troubles of my life; I must now live no more by faith on you; but by sight: O you have often cheared my Soul, and been my Song in the house of my Pilgrimage.
• ...

• (2.) It implies the firm credit that a Believer gives to things unseen, upon the grounds of the promises, as if he did sen∣sibly take and grasp them in his very arms and bosome. They take Christ, and all the invisible things in the promi∣ses into their sensible embraces, 1 Pet. 1.8. faith is to them instead of eyes.
• (3) It implies the sincerity of a Believers profession, who dare trust to that at last gasp, which he professed to believe in the midst of life, and the Comforts of this World. As he professed to believe in health, so you shall find his Actings, when his eye and heart strings are cracking, Rom. 14.9. Christ in the promises was his professed joy in life, and this is what he grasps at death, and lays his last hold on.
• (4) It shews you whence all a Believers comfort comes in life and death. O 'tis from the promises, Christ in the pro∣mises is the Spring of their Consolation. This they fetch their comfort from, when the World cannot administer one drop of refreshment to them. There be two great works faith performs for the Saints, one in life, the other in death. In life, it is the Principle of Mortification to their sins, in death, it is the spring of Consolation to their hearts: It makes them die whilst they live, and live when they die.

4. Fourthly, Those that love the Person and Appearance of Christ, have a mark that sets them among the Inhabitants of Heaven and Glory, 2 Tim. 4.8. but then this love must be (1) Sincere, and without Hypocrisie. (2) Supream, and above all other beloveds. (3) Conforming the Soul to Christ; if sincere and supream, it will be transforma∣tive. (4) Longing to be with him. Such love is a mark of Souls for whom Heaven is prepared.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Many cry out on a death-bed, O ••end for Ministers and Christi∣ans to pray! Alas! What can they do then? Is that a time for so great a work to be shuffled up in a hurry amidst distra∣ctions and Agonies?