A39675:1038
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.
1But was it not urged before in opposition to this assertion, that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons, and sighed for deliverance by death, and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to? How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting, and inclinations to re-union?
- 1Object.
1The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die. The holiest Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an unwilling shrug when it comes to the parting point, 2 Cor. 5.2. But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds, which make i• consistent enough with its reluctancies at parting, and inclination to a second meeting.
- 1Sol.
(1) This willingness to die, doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished, but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love. There is in every Christian a double love, one natural, to the Body, and the things below; the other supernatural, to Christ, and the things above; the latter doth not extinguish, though it conquer and subdue the other. Love to the Body pulls backward, love to Christ pulls forward, and finally prevails. This is so consistent with it, that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part. (2) The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved, must not be understood absolutely, but comparatively: In that sense the Apostle will be understood,