A39675:146
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.
12. Its dignity consists in its Dominion as well as in its liberty. The Will hath an Empire and Sceptre belonging to it; Yea, a double Empire, for it rules, ⟨p. 25⟩1. Over the Body, imperio desp•tico, by way of absolute Command. 2. Over the other powers and passions of the Soul, imperio politico, by way of suasion.
12. Its dignity consists in its Dominion as well as in its liberty. The Will hath an Empire and Scepter belonging to it; Yea, a double Empire, for it rules, ⟨p. 25⟩1. Over the Body, imperio desp•tico, by way of absolute Command. 2. Over the other powers and passions of the Soul, imperio politico, by way of suasion.
- 1Imperium 1. D•spotic•m. 2. Politicum.
(1.) The Will, like an absolute Sovereign, *reigns over the body, (i.e.) its external members, by way of absolute command. It saith, as the Centurion did, I am in authority, and God hath put the many members of the body in subjection to me. I say to one, Move, and it moves; to another, Stop, and it stops; and to a third, Do this, and it doth it. The obsequious members like so many Servants have their eyes waiting on the imperial Commands of the Will, and it is admirable to behold, with what dispatch and speed they execute its Commands, as if their obedient motions were rather concomitant, than subsequent acts to the Wills mandates. Let it but command to have the windows of the body open, or shut, and its done in a moment, in the twink of an eye. And so for the rest of the external senses and members, they pay it most ready Obedience. Yet when I say, the Will hath a despotical and absolute Sovereignty over the members, it must be understood with a double limitation. First, They are only at its beck for use and service, it can use them whilst well, and rightly disposed; but it cannot perpetuate them, or restore them when indisposed. If the Soul will the health and life of the body never so intensely and vehemently, it cannot keep off Death one moment the longer from it. And, Secondly, Its Sovereignty no way intrenches upon, not interferes with the Dominion of Providence over the members of the body, and the various motions of them. God hath reserved a Sovereign negative voice to himself, whatever Decrees the Will passes. Jeroboam stretches out his hand against the man of God to smite him, but God puts a remora in the very instant to the loco-motive faculty, that though he would never so fain, he could not pull in his hand again to him;