A39675:1399
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.
By losing the Soul, we are not to understand the destruction of its Being, but of its happiness and comfort, the cutting it off from God, and all the hopes of his favour and enjoyment for ever. This is the loss here intended, a loss never to be repaired. The whole world can be no recompense for a loss to the Soul; if it be but the loss of its purity or peace for a time, much less can it recompense the loss of the Soul in the loss of all its happiness for ever. When a mans chief happiness is finally lost, then is his Soul lost; for what benefit can it be, nay, how great a misery must it be, to have a Being perpetuated in torments for ever?1 This is the fine or mulct which is set upon sin, as some render the word. What shall a man gain by such pleasures, for which God will mulct or fine him at the rate or price of his own Soul? that is, of all the happiness, joy and comfort of it to all Eternity.
By losing the Soul, we are not to understand the destruction of its Being, but of its happiness and comfort, the cutting it off from God, and all the hopes of his favour and enjoyment for ever. This is the loss here intended, a loss never to be repaired. The whole world can be no recompence for a loss to the Soul; if it be but the loss of its purity or peace for a time, much less can it recompense the loss of the Soul in the loss of all its happiness for ever. When a mans chief happiness is finally lost, then is his Soul lost; for what benefit can it be, nay, how great a misery must it be, to have a Being perpetuated in torments for ever?1 This is the fine or mulct which is set upon sin, as some render the word. What shall a man gain by such pleasures, for which God will mulct or fine him at the rate or price of his own Soul? that is, of all the happiness, joy and comfort of it to all Eternity.
- 1Animâ vero suâ mulctetur. BezMaldon.