A39675:131
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.
This is the noble leading faculty of the Soul: we are not distinguished from Brutes by our senses, but by our understanding. As grace sets one man above another, so understanding sets the meanest man, above the best of Brutes. Strange and wonderful things are performed by the natural instinct and sagacity of Beasts; but yet, what is said of one is true of them all, God hath not imparted understanding to them, Job 39.17. This is a Jewel which adorns none, but rational Creatures, Men, and Angels.
It is a Faculty of the reasonable Soul, 1by which a man apprehends and judgeth all intelligible things.
- 1What the Understanding is.
The Object of it is every Being, so far as it is true in it self, and apprehensible by Man. It hath a twofold use in the life of man, viz. (1.) To Distinguish truth from error and falsehood: by this candle of the Lord, lighted up in the Soul of man, he may discern betwixt duty and sin, good and evil: 'tis the eye of the Soul, by which it seeth the way in which we should go, and the dangerous precipices that are on either side. It is the souls Taster, and discerns wholesome food from baneful ⟨p. 20⟩poison, Job 12, 11. D•th not the […] (i.e. the understanding by the ear) try words, as the mouth tasteth meat? It brings all things as it were, in the lump before it, and then sorts them, and orderly ranks them into their proper Classes of lawful and unlawful, necessary and indifferent, expedient and inexpedient, that the Soul may not be damnified by mistaking one for another. And this judgement of Discretion every man must be allowed for himself. No man is obliged to shut the eyes of his own Understanding, and follow another man blindfold. (2.) To direct and guide us in our practice. This faculty is by Philosophers rightly called [Greek or Hebrew], the leading faculty, because the will follows its practical dictates. It sits at helm, and guides the course of the Soul: Not impelling or rigorously enforcing its dictates upon the will; for the Will cannot be so imposed upon; but by giving it a directive light, or pointing as it were with its finger, at what it ought to choose, and what to refuse.