A39675:1271
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
1 Pet. iii. ver. 19. By which also he went and preached unto the SP… › DOCT.
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.
And in the Text it's called a prison,1 where the Spirits of ungodly men are both detained and punished. This notion of a Prison gives us a lively representation of the miserable state of damned Souls, and that especially in the following particulars.
- 1A prison.
First, Prisoners are arrested and seized by authority of Law; 'tis the Law which sends them thither, and keeps them there. The Mittimus of a Justice is but the instrument of the Law whereby they are deprived of liberty, and taken into custody. The Law of God which sinners have both violated and despised, at death takes hold of them and arrests them. 'Tis the Law which claps up their Spirits in Prison, and in the name and authority of the great and terrible God commits them to Hell. All that are out of Christ are under the curse and damning sentence of the Law which now comes to be executed on them, Gal. 3.10.
Secondly, Prisoners are carried or haled to prison by force and constraint. Natural force backs legal authority. The Law is executed by rough and resolute Bailiffs who compel them to go, though never so much against their will. This also is the case of the wicked at death. Satan is Gods Bailiff to hurry away the Law-condemned Soul to the infernal Prison. The Devil hath the power of death, Heb. 2.14 as the Executioner hath of the Body of a condemned man.
Secondly, Prisoners are carried or haled to prison by force and constraint. Natural force backs legal authority. The Law is executed by rough and resolute Bayliffs who compel them to go, though never so much against their will. This also is the case of the wicked at death. Satan is Gods Bayliff to hurry away the Law-condemned Soul to the infernal Prison. The Devil hath the power of death,