A39675:1414
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
MATTH. 16.26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole… › Doctrine 1: DOCT. I.
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.
But there is an higher game at which this Eagle plays, it reckons it self all thi••• ••ile employed as much beneath its capacity, as Domitian in catching flies: though these be lawful and pleasant exercises, when it hath leisure for them, yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise, even to penetrate the glorious Mysteries of Redemption, to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods, and manifold discoveries of it, and yet higher than all this, it is capable of an immediate sight or facial vision of the blessed God, short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble powers and infinite appetite.
But there is an higher game at which this Eagle plays, it reckons it self all thi••• ••ile imploy'd as much beneath its capacity, as Domitian in catching flies: though these be lawful and pleasant exercises, when it hath leisure for them, yet it is fitted for a much nobler exercise, even to penetrate the glorious Mysteries of Redemption, to trace redeeming love through all the astonishing methods, and manifold discoveries of it, and yet higher than all this, it is capable of an immediate sight or facial vision of the blessed God, short of which it receives no pleasure that is fully agreeable to its noble powers and infinite appetite.
View its Will, and you shall find it like a Queen upon the Throne of the Soul, swaying the Sceptre of Liberty in her hand,1 (as one expresseth it) with all the affections waiting and attending upon her. No Tyrant can force it, no torment can wrest the golden Sceptre of Liberty out of its hand, the keys of all the Chambers of the Soul hang at its girdle, these it delivers to Christ in the day of his power; victorious Grace sweetly determines it by gaining its consent, but commits no rape upon it by unnatural coaction. God accepts its offering, though full of imperfections; but no service is accepted without it, how excellent soever the matter of it.