I. As for the fubject, fuch is the fubtilty and fublimity of its nature, and fuch the knotty controverfies in which it is involved, that it much better deferves that infcription, than Minerva's temple at Saum did,* « Never did any mortal reveal me plainly."

"It is but little that the most clear and sharp-fighted to difcern "of their own fouls, now in the state of compofition; and what can "we pofitively and diftinctly know of the life they live in the ftate "of feparation? The darkness in which these things are involved "doth greatly exercise, even the greatest wits, and frequently elude "and fruftrate the moft generous attempts+." Many great scholars whofe natural and acquired abilities fingularly furnished and qualified them to make a clearer discovery, have laboured in this field, ufque ad fudorem et pallorem, even to fweat and palenefs, and done little more but entangle themselves, and the subject more than before; this cannot but difcourage new attempts.

And yet, without fome knowledge of the bability, and subjective capacity of our fouls to enjoy the good of the world to come, even in a state of abfence from the body, a principal relief must be cut off from them, under the great and manifold trials they are to encounter in this evil world.

As for myself, I affure you, I am deeply fenfible of the inequality of my shoulders to this burden; and have often thought (fince I undertook it) of that grave and neceffary caution of the poet, to wield and poife the burden as porters ufe to do, before I undertook it. Zuinglius blamed Caroloftadius (as fome may do me) for undertaking the controverfy of that age; becaufe, faith he, Non habet fatis humerorum; his fhoulders are too weak for it.

And yet I know men's labours prosper, not according to the art and elegancy of the compofure, but according to the divine bleffing which pleaseth to accompany them. Ruffinus tells us of a learned philofopher at the Council of Nice, who ftoutly defended his thefis against the greatest wits and scholars there, and yet was at laft fairly vanquished by a man of no extraordinary parts of which conqueft the philofopher gave this candid and ingenuous account ;Against words (faid he) I oppofed words; and what was spoken I over

* Τον εμον πεπλον εδεις πωθνητος απεκάλυψεν.

+ Animam præfentem mentis acie vix, aut ne vix quidem affequimur ; fed qualis fit futura. quomodo indagabimus? Laborant hic maxima ingenia, et caligo conatus etiam generofos non raro eludit. Jof. Stern. de morte, cap. 20.

Sumite materiam veftris, qui fcribitis, æquam,
Viribus: et verfate diu, quid ferre recufent,
Quid valeant bumeri-

Horat. de arte poet. I. 37

Examine well, ye writers, weigh with care

What fuits your genius, what your ftrength can bear;
For when a well-proportion'd theme you chufe,
Nor words nor method will their aid refufe.

threw by the art of Speaking: But when, inftead of words, potver came out of the mouth of the fpeaker, words could no longer withstand truth; nor man oppofe the power of God.

O that my weak endeavours might profper under the influence of the like Spirit, upon the hearts of them that fhall read this inartificial, but well-meant difcourfe.

I am little concerned about the contempts and cenfures of faftidious readers. I have refolved to fay nothing that exceeds fobriety, nor to provoke any man, except my diffent from his unproved dictates must be his provocation.

Perhaps there are fome doubts and difficulties relating to this fubject, which will never fully be folved till we come to heaven. For man, by the fall, being lefs than himself, doth not underftand himfelf, nor will ever perfectly do fo until he be fully restored to himself; which will not be whilst he dwells in a body of fin and death. And yet it is to me paft doubt, that this, as well as other fubjects, might have been much more cleared than it is, if inftead of the proud contendings of masterly wits for victory, all had humbly and peaceably applied themselves to the impartial search of truth.

Truth, like an orient pearl in the bottom of a river, would have discovered itself by its native luftre and radiancy, had not the feet of Heathen philofophers, cunning Atheists, and daring school divines difturbed and fouled the ftream.

II. And as the difficulties of the fubject are many, fo many have been the interruptions and avocations I have met with, whilft ir was under my hand: Which I mention for no other end but to procure a more favourable cenfure from you, if it appear lefs exact than you expected to find. Such as it is, I do, with much refpect and affection, tender to your hands, humbly requesting the bleffing of the Spirit may accompany it to your hearts. If you will but allow yourfelves to think clofe to the matter before you, I doubt not but you may find fomewhat in it apt both to inform your minds and quicken your affections. I know you have a multiplicity of bufinefs under your hands, but yet I hope your great concern makes all others daily to give place; and that how clamorous and importunate foever the affairs of the world be, you both can and do find time to fit alone, and bethink yourselves of a much more important business you have to do.

My friends, we are borderers upon eternity, we live upon the confines of the fpiritual and immaterial world: we must fhortly be affociated with bodilefs beings, and fhall have, after a few days are past, no more concerns for meat, drink, and fleep, buying and felling, habitations and relations, than the angels of God now have. Befides, we live here in a flate of trial: Man, (as Scaliger fitly calls

him), is utriufque mendi nexus, One in whom both worlds do meet; his body participates of the lower, his foul of the upper world; hence it is that he finds fuch tugging and pulling this way and that way, upward and downward; both worlds, as it were, contending for this invaluable prize, the precious foul. All Chrift's ordinances are instituted, and his officers ordained for no other ufe or end but the falvation of fouls. Books are valuable according to their conducibility to this end: how rich a reward of my labours fhall I account it, if this treatife of the foul may but promote the sanctifi→ cation and falvation of any reader's foul.

To your hands I firft tender it: it becomes your property, not only as a debt of justice, the fulfilling of a promife made you long fince, upon your joint and earneft defires for the publication of it; but, as an acknowledgment of the many favours I have received from you: To one of you I ftand obliged in the bond of relation, and under the fenfe of many kindness, beyond whatever such a degree of relation can be supposed to exact.

You have here a fuccinct account of the nature, faculties and original of the foul of man, as alfo of its infufion into the body by God, without intitling himself to the guilt and fin refulting from that their union.

You will alfo find the breath of your noftrils to be the nexus, tie, or bond, which holds our fouls and bodies in perfonal union; and that, whilft the due crafis and temperament of the body remains, and breath continues, your fouls hang, as by a weak and flender thread, over the state of a vaft eternity in heaven or in hell; which will inform you both of the value of your breath, and the best way of improving it, whilft you enjoy it.

The immortality of the foul is here afferted, proved, and vindicated from the moft confiderable objections; so that it will evidently appear to you, by this difcourfe, you do not ceafe to be, when you ceafe to breathe: and, feeing they will overlive all temporal enjoyments, they muft neceffarily perifh as to all their joys, comforts, and hopes, (which is all the death that can be incident to an immortal fpirit), if they be not in the proper feafon fecured and provided of that never-perifhing food of fouls, God in Chrift, their portion for ever.

Here you will find the grounds and reasons of that strong inclination, which you all feel them to have to your bodies, and the neceffity notwithstanding that, of their divorce and feparation from their beloved bodies; and that it would manifeftly be to their prejudice, if it fhould be otherwife and to overcome the unreafonable averfations of believers, and to bring them to a more becoming cheerful fubmiffion to the laws of death, whenfoever the writ of VOL. II. 3 P

ejection fhall be ferved upon them; you will here find a reprefen tation of that bleffed life, comely order, and moft delightful em ployment of the incorporeal people inhabiting the city of God; wherein, befide thofe fweet meditations which are proper to feaft your hungry affections, you will meet with divers unusual, though not vain or unufeful, queftions ftated and refolved, which will be a grateful entertainment to your inquifitive and searching minds.

It is poffible they may be cenfured by fome as underminable and unprofitable curiofities; but as I hate a prefumptuous intrufion into unrevealed fecrets, fo I think it is a weakness to be difcouraged in the fearch of truth, fo far as it is fit to trace it, by fuch damping and caufelefs cenfures. Nor am I fenfible I have in any thing tranfgreffed the bounds of Christian sobriety, to gratify the palate of a nice and delicate reader.

I have alfo here fet before the reader an idea or representation of the state and cafe of damned fouls, that, if it be the will of God, a feasonable discovery of hell may be the means of fome men's recovery out of the danger of it; and clofed up the whole with a demonftration of the invaluable precioufnefs of fouls, and the feveral dangerous fnares and artifices of Satan, their profeffed enemy, to destroy and caft them away for ever.

This is the defign and general scope of the whole, and of the principal parts of this treatise. And, O that God would grant me my hearts defire on your behalf, in the perufal of it! Even that it. may prove a fanctified inftrument in his hand both to prepare you for, and bring you in love with the unbodied life, to make you look with pleasure into your graves, and die by confent of will, as well as neceffity of nature. I remember Dr Stoughton, in a fermon preached before king James, relates a strange story of a little child in a fhipwreck, fast asleep upon its mother's lap, as fhe fat upon a piece of the wreck amidst the waves; the child being awaked with the noife, afked the mother what thofe things were? She told it, They were drowning waves to fwallow them up. The child, with a pretty fmiling countenance, beg'd a ftroke from its mother to beat away thofe naughty waves, and chide them as if they had been its play-mates. Death will shortly shipwreck your bodies; your fouls will fit upon your lips ready to expire, as they upon the wreck ready to go down. Would it not be a comfortable and moft becoming frame of mind, to fit there with as little dread, as this little one did among the terrible waves? Surely, if our faith hath but firft united us with Chrict, and then loofed our hearts off from this enchanting and enfnaring world, we might make a fair step towards this most defirable temper; but unbelief and earthly-mindedness make us loth to venture.

I blush to think, what bold adventures those men made, who,

upon the contemplation of the properties of a despicable stone first adventured quite out of fight of land, under its conduct and direction, and fecurely trufted both their lives and eftates to it, when all the eyes of heaven were veiled from them, amidst the dark waters, and thick clouds of the sky, when I either start, or at least give an unwilling fhrug, when I think of adventuring out of the fight of this world, under the more fure and steady direction and conduct of faith and the promises. To cure thefe evils, in my own and the reader's heart these things are written, and in much respect and love tendered to your hands, as a teftimony of my gratitude, and deep fenfe of the many obligations you have put me under. That the bleffing of the Spirit may accompany these difcourses to your fouls, afford you fome affiftance in your last and difficult work, of putting them off at death with a becoming cheerfulness, faying in that hour, Can I not fee God till this flesh be laid afide in the grave? muft I die before I can live like myself? then die my body, and go to thy duft, that I may be with Chrift. With this defign, and with these hearty wishes, dear and honoured coufin, and worthy friends, I put thefe difcourfes into your hands, and remain,

Your most obliged

kinfman ond fervant,

JOHN FLAVEL.