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 ...

Consideration I.

Whatsoever Pleasure any man receives in this World, he receives it by means of his Soul. Even all corporeal and sensitive delights have no other relish and sweetness, but what the Soul gives them; which is demonstrable by this, that if a man be pla∣ced amidst all the pleasing Objects and Circumstances in the World, if he were in that Centre where he might have the confluence of all the delights of this World; yet if the Spi∣rit be wounded, there is no more relish or savour in them, than in the White of an Egg. What pleasure had Spira in his Liberty, Estate, Wife and Children? These things were indeed proposed and urged again and again to relieve him; but instead of pleasure, they became his horrour: let but the mind be wounded, and all the mirth is marr'd; one touch from God upon the Spirit, destroys all the joy of this World. Nay,

Let but the intention of the mind be strongly carried ano∣ther way, and for that time, (though there be no guilt or wound upon the Soul) the most pleasant enjoyments lose their pleasure. What Delight, think you, would bags of Gold, sumptuous Feasts, or exquisite melody have afforded to Archimedes, when he was wholly intent upon his Mathe∣matical lines? By this then it is evident, that the rise of all pleasure is in the mind, and the most agreeable and pleasing Objects and Enjoyments, signifie nothing without it: The mind must be found in it self, and at leisure to attend them, or we can have no pleasure from them.