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 ...

PROP. VI. That the separated Souls of the just, having finished all their work of obedience on earth, and the Spirit ha∣ving finished all his work of Sanctification upon them, they do ascend to God, with all the habits of Grace in∣herent in them; and all the comfortable improve∣ments of their Graces, accompanying and following them.

THis Proposition is to be opened and confirmed in these four Branches.

(1) When a gracious Soul is separated from the Body, all its work of obedience in this World is finished. There∣fore death is called the finishing of our course, Acts 20.24. the night when man works no more, Iohn 9.4. There is no working in the grave, Eccles. 9.10. for death dissolves the Compositum, and removes the Soul immediately to another World; where it can act for it self only, but not for others, as it was wont to do on earth. I shall see man no more (saith Hezekiah) with the Inhabitants of the World, Isaiah 38.11. that which was said of David's death, is as true of every Christian, that having served his Generation according to the Will of God, he fell asleep, Acts 13.36.

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 Reli∣gion in any new acts or examples of theirs: (which is that I mean by saying they have finished all their work of obedi∣ence 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.

This way indeed abundance of service will be done for the Souls of men upon earth, long after they are gone to Hea∣ven. 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 expe∣cted. 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 af∣terward, which appears as well by the immediate succession of the life of glory, (whereof I shall speak in another Pro∣position) 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 attain'd. 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 up∣on it, which God ever intended should be wrought in this World, and there is no preparation-work in the other World.

(3) But though the Soul leave all the means of grace be∣hind it, yet it carries away with it to Heaven all those ha∣bits of grace which were planted and improved in it in this World, by the blessing of the Spirit upon those means: though it leave the Ordinances, it loseth not the effects and fruits of them; though they cease, their effects still live. The truth dwelleth in us, and shall be in us for ever, 1 John 2.17. The Seed of God remaineth in us, 1 John 3.9.

Common gifts fall at death, but saving grace sticks fast in the Soul, and ascends with it into glory. Gracious habits are inseparable; Glory doth not destroy but perfect them. They are the Souls meetness for Heaven, Col. 1.12, and

therefore it shall not come into his presence, leaving its meetness behind it. In vain is all the work of the Spirit upon us in this World, if we carry it not along with us into that World, seeing all his works upon us in this life, have a respect and relation to the life to come.

Look therefore as the same natural Faculties and Powers which the Soul had, (though it could not use them) in its imperfect Body in the Womb, came with it into this World where they freely exerted themselves in the most noble actions of natural life; so the habits of Grace which by Regeneration are here implanted in a weak and imperfect Soul, go with it to glory, where they exert themselves in a more high and perfect way of acting, than ever they did here below. The languishing spark of love, is there a vehe∣ment flame; the saint, remiss, and infrequent delight in God, is there at a constant ravishing and transporting height.

(4) To conclude, As all implanted habits of grace ascend with the sanctified Soul to Heaven; (for the Soul ascends not thither, as a natural, but as a new Creature) so all the effects, results, and sweet improvements of those Graces which we gathered as the pleasant fruits of them on earth; these accompany and follow the Soul into the other World also; Their Works follow them, Rev. 14.13. They go not be∣fore in the notion of merits, to make way for them, but they follow or accompany them, as Evidences, and com∣fortable Experiences. I doubt not, but the very remem∣brance of what past betwixt God and the Soul here betwixt the day of its Espousals to Christ, and its Divorce from the Body, will be one sweet ingredient into their blessedness and joy, when they shall be singing in the upper Region, the Song of Moses, and of the Lamb. They were never given, to be lost, or left behind us. And thus you see with what a rich Cargo the Soul sails to the other World, though if it had no other, it would never drop Anchor there.