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 ...

The fifth way to Hell shut up by three Considerations.

1. Consider how the Morality of Heathens hath bridled their sensual lusts and appetites, and caused them with a generous disdain to repel those brutish pleasures as things below a man.* 1.1 What more foolish, what more base, saith Seneca, than to patch up the good of a reasonable Soul out of things unreasonable. That is the pleasure worthy of a man, not to glut his body, not to irritate those lusts, in whose qui••••••ess is our safety. This is the constant Doctrine of all the Stoicks.

* 1.2O what a shame is it to hear Heathenism out-brave Chri∣stianity, and Principles of meer Morality enable men to live more soberly, temperately and abstemiously, than those who enjoy the greatest Pattern and highest Motives in the Chri∣stian Religion are found to do? Thou embracest pleasure, saith the Heathen, but I bridle it: thou enjoyest it, I only use it: thou thinkest it thy chief good, I esteem it not so much as good: thou dost all things for pleasure sake, but I nothing at all on that ac∣count. These therefore shall be your Judges.

2. Always remember sensual pleasures are but the baits with which Satan angles for the precious Soul: there is a fa∣tal hook under them. O if men were but aware of this, they would never purchase pleasure at so dear a rate: Stoln wa∣ters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant; but he know∣eth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depth of hell, Prov. 9 17, 18. Pliny tells us, That the Mare∣maids have most enchanting charming voices, and frequent pleasant green Meadows, but heaps of dead mens bones are always found where they haunt: that which tickles the fan∣cy, stabs the Soul. If the pain (as Anacreon well observes) were before the pleasure, no man would be tempted by it; but the pleasure being first, and sensible, and the torment coming after, and as yet invisible, this allures so many to destruction. At last it biteth like a Serpent, and stingeth like an Adder, Prov. 23.32. If sin did sting and bite at first, none would touch it; but it tickles first, and wounds after∣ward. O what man that is in his wits would purchase eter∣nal

torments for the sensual,* 1.3 brutish pleasures of a moment! But the pleasu••••s of sin bewitch the affections, blind the judgment, stupefie the heart, so that sober and impartial thoughts find no place. The heart is enticed, the lusts are enraged, cost what it will, sinners will gratifie their lusts.

3. If you are for pleasure, certainly you are out of the way to it, who seek it in the fulfilling of your lusts. If your hear••s were once sanctified, and brought under the go∣vernment of the Spirit, you would quickly find a far more excellent pleasure in the crucifying of your lusts, than now you seek in the gratification and fulfilling of them: Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body▪ ye shall live: (i. e.) ye shall live the most joyful, peaceful, com∣fortable life of all persons in the world, a life of highest de∣light and true pleasure: For so far as your lusts are morti∣fied, the vigorous healthful frame and due temper of your Souls is restored, and your evidences for Heaven cleared, both which are the springs of all spiritual delight and plea∣sure. Can any Creature-enjoyment, or any beastly lust af∣ford a pleasure like this? Don't you find the life you live in sinful pleasures quite beneath the dignity of a man? And are they not followed with bitter after-reckonings, gripes, and flashes of Conscience? Even in the midst of laughter the heart is sad, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. O pon∣der seriously what a trifle it is you sell your precious Souls for: Is it not a goodly price you value them at? the fugitive, empty, beastly pleasures of a moment for the torments of Eternity!

Notes

• * 1.1

  Quid staltius, turpi••••ve quàm bonum rationa∣lis animi, ex ir∣rationalibus ne∣ctere? Sen. Epist. 92.
• * 1.2

  Illa est voluptas & bomine & viro digna, non implere corpus, & saginare, nec cupiditates ir∣ritare, quarum tutissima est quies. De Be∣nef. l. 7. c. 11.
• * 1.3

  Breve est quod delectat, aet••r∣num quod cru∣ciat.