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 of losing the Soul opened.

V. The fifth way by which an innumerable multitude of Souls are eternally lost, is by the bait•• of sensual sinful plea∣sures.

Some customary sins have little or no pleasure in them, as swearing, malice, &c. but others a••sure and entice the Soul by the sensual delight that is in them. This is the bait with which multitudes are enticed, ensnared, and ruined to all Eternity.* 1.1 It is a true and grave observation 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Philoso∣pher, That we are impelled as it were to that which is evil, by the alluring blandishments of pleasure. This was the first bait by which Satan caught the Souls of our first Parents in Innocency, Gen. 3.6. The tree was pleasant to the eye. Plea∣sure quickens the principles of sin in us, and inflames the de¦sires of the heart after it. Every pleasant sin hath a world of Customers, and cost what it will, they resolve to have it. I have read of a certain Fruit which the Spaniards found in the Indies, which was exceeding pleasant to the taste; but Nature had so fenced it and double-guarded it with sharp and dangerous thorns, that it was very difficult to come at it. They tore their cloaths, yea their flesh to get it; and therefore called the Fruit, Comfits in Hell. Such are all the pleasures of sin, Comfits in Hell. Damnation is the price of them, and yet the sensitive appetite is so outragious and mad after them, that at the price of their Souls they will have them. Thus the wicked are described, Iob 21.13. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave: that is, their whole stock of time is spent in cares and labours to get wealth, and when they have gotten it, the rest of their life is spent in those sensual pleasures that wealth brings in, or in making provision for the flesh, to ful∣fil the lusts of it. The Rich man, in the Parable, fared deli∣ciously every day, Luke 16. where his voluptuous life is de∣scribed, and in that description the occasion of his damnation is insinuated: in a pampered and indulged body is usually found a neglected, starved Soul. But how shall the ruine of Souls this way be prevented?

Notes

• * 1.1

  Voluptatum blanditiis de∣liniti, ad ea ga∣renda omnia qua prava sunt impellimur. A∣rist. l. 2. Eth. c. 3.