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 eighth way of losing the Soul opened.

VIII. The eighth way of ruining the precious Soul, is by drinking in the Principles of Atheism, and living without God in the World.

Atheism stabs the Soul to death at one stroke, and puts it quite out of the way of Salvation. Other Sinners are worse than Beasts, but Atheists are worse than Devils, for they believe and tremble: these banish God out of their thoughts, and what they can out of the world, living as without God in the world, Eph. 2.12. It is a sin that quencheth all Religion in the Soul: he that knows not his Landlord, cannot pay his Rent: he that assents not to the Being of a God, destroys the foundation of all religious Worship; he cannot fear, love, or obey him, whose Being be believes not: this sin strikes at the Life of God, and destroys the life of the Soul.

Some are Atheists in opinion, but multitudes are so in pra∣ctice: The fool hath said in his heart there is no God, Psal. 14.1. Though he hath engraven his N••me upon every Creature, and written it upon the Table of their own Hearts, yet they will not read it: or if they have a slight fluctua••••••g notion, or a secret suspicion of a Deity, yet they neither acknow∣ledge his Presence nor his Providence: Fingunt Deum talem qui nec videt, nec punit: They say, How doth God know? can

he judge through the dark clouds? thick clouds are a covering to him, that he seeth not, Job 22.14.

Others profess to believe his Being, but their lives daily give their lips the lye; for they give no evidence in practice of his fear, love, or dependence on him. If they believe his Being, they plainly shew they value not his favour, delight not in his presence, love not his ways or people; but lye down and rise, eat and drink, live and die without the wor∣ship or acknowledgment of him, except so much as the Law of the Country, or Custom of the place extorts from them. These dregs of time produce abundance of Atheists of both sorts: many ridicule and hiss Religion out of all Companies into which they come; and others live down all sense of Re∣lion: they customarily attend indeed upon the external Du∣ties of it, hear the Word; but when the greatest and most im∣portant Duties are urged upon them, their inward thought is, this is the Preachers Calling, and the man must say some∣thing to fill up his hour, and get his living. If they dare not put their thoughts into words, and call the Gospel Fabula Christi, the Fable of Christ, as a wicked Pope once did, or say of Hell and the dreadful Sufferings of the Damned, as Calderinus the Jesuit did, tunc credam cum illuc venero, I will believe it when I see it: yet their hearts and lives are of the same complexion with these mens words. They do not heartily assent to the Truth of the Gospel which they hear; and though bare assent would not save them, yet their dis∣sent or non-assent will certainly damn them, except the Lord heal their understandings and hearts by the light and life of Religion. To this last sort I shall offer a few things.