A39675:1027
Pneumatologia, a treatise of the soul of man
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 applied, 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 ...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 ...
London: printed for Francis Tyton, 1685
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
We read, that when a good man in time of his sickness was told by his friends, that some hopeful signs of his recovery began now to appear; he answered, And must I ⟨p. 283⟩then return to this Body? I was as a sheep driven out of the Storm, almost to the Fold; and then driven back into the storm again: Or as a weary Traveller near his home, who must go back again to fetch something he had neglected: or as an Apprentice whose time was almost out, and then must begin a new Term. Of some others it hath been also noted, that the greatest infirmities they discovered upon their death-bed have been their too passionate desires to be dissolved, and their unsubmissiveness to Gods will in their longer stay in the Body. Now, the Bodies of the Saints being so cheerfully forsaken, and that only upon a foretaste of Heaven by Faith; how can it be thought they should find any inclination to a re-union, when they are so abundantly satisfied with the joys of his face in Heaven? Certainly the Body hath been no such pleasant habitation to the Soul that it should cast an eye or thought that way, when it is once delivered out of it. If it were burdensome here, a thought of it would be loathsome there.
2. We have showed before, that the separate Soul wants not the help of the Body, but lives and acts at a more free and comfortable rate than ever before. 'Tis true, it is not now delighted with meat and drink, with smells and sounds as it was wont to be: but then it must be considered, that it is happiness and perfection not to need them. It is now become equal to the Angels in the way and manner of its living; and what it enjoyed by the ministry of the Body, it eminently and more perfectly enjoys without it. What perfections can the Soul receive from matter?1 What can a lump of flesh, add to a Spirit? And if it can add nothing to it, there is no reason why it should hanker after it, and incline to a re-union with it. It added nothing of happiness to it, but much of trouble, and therefore becomes justly undesirable to it.