A39675:1465
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.
Now there can never be that difference and vast odds betwixt one man and another, as there is betwixt the Soul and the body of every man. A King upon the Throne is not so much above a Beggar that cries at our doors for a crust, as the Soul is above a body; for the Soul of a Beggar is of the same Species, Original, and Capacity of happiness with the Soul of the most illustrious Prince: and sometimes greater Excellencies of mind are found in the lowest rank and order of men; Better is a poor and wise child, than an old and foolish King, Eccles. 4.13. but the Soul of the meanest person in the World, is better than all the bodies in it; and therefore to make the noble and high-born Soul a slave, a mere drudge to the vile body; as the Apostle calls it, Phil. 3.21. The body of this vileness; what is it but to set the Beggar on Horse-back, and make the King lackey after him on foot.
Now there can never be that difference and vast odds betwixt one man and another, as there is betwixt the Soul and the body of every man. A King upon the Throne is not so much above a Begger that cryes at our doors for a crust, as the Soul is above a body; for the Soul of a Begger is of the same Species, Original, and Capacity of happiness with the Soul of the most illustrious Prince: and sometimes greater Excellencies of mind are found in the lowest rank and order of men; Better is a poor and wise child, than an old and foolish King, Eccles. 4.13. but the Soul of the meanest person in the World, is better than all the bodies in it; and therefore to make the noble and high-born Soul a slave, a meer drudge to the vile body; as the Apostle calls it, Phil. 3.21. The body of this vileness; what is it but to set the Begger on Horse-back, and make the King lacquey after him on foot.
It was a generous resentment that an Heathen had of the dignity of his own Soul,