A39675:1512
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.
Then do we live like Christians, when the cares of our bodies are swallowed up and subdued by the cares of our Souls, and all Creature-loves by the love of Christ: those blessed Souls hated their own bodies, and counted them their enemies, when they would draw them from Christ and his Truths, and plunge their Souls into guilt and danger. This was the result of all their debates with the flesh in the hour of temptation, Cannot we live but to the dishonour of Christ, and ruin of our own Souls by sinful compliance against our Conscience•, then welcome the worst of deaths rather than such a life.
Then do we live like Christians, when the cares of our bodies are swallowed up and subdued by the cares of our Souls, and all Creature-loves by the love of Christ: those blessed Souls hated their own bodies, and counted them their enemies, when they would draw them from Christ and his Truths, and plunge their Souls into guilt and danger. This was the result of all their debates with the flesh in the hour of temptation, Cannot we live but to the dishonour of Christ, and ruine of our own Souls by sinful compliance against our Conscience•, then welcome the worst of deaths rather than such a life.
Look into the stories of the Martyrs, and you shall find this was the rule they still governed themselves by; a Dungeon, a Stake, a Gibbet, any thing rather than guilt upon the inner man: death was welcome even in its most dreadful form, to escape ruin to their precious and immortal Souls. One kissed the Apparitor that brought him the tidings of his death. Another being advised, when he came to the critical point on which his life depended, to have a care of ⟨image 213⟩himself; So I will, said he, I will be as careful as I can of my best self, my Soul. These men understood the value and precious worth of their own Souls; and certainly we shall never prove courageous and constant in sufferings, till we understand the worth of our Souls, as they did. Consider and compare these sufferings in a few obvious particulars, and then determine the matter in thine own breast.