A39675:164
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.
(2.) A Second opinion was, that they were procreated by Angels; and that which gave the ground (such as it is) to this Opinion, or Fancy, is the similitude or resemblance which is found betwixt Angels and the Souls of Men. *But this fancy needs not any industry to overthrow it, for though it be certain there is a similitude and ⟨p. 33⟩resemblance betwixt Angels and Souls, both being immaterial and spiritual Substances: yet Angels neither propagate by generation, nor is it in their power to create the least Fly or Worm in the world, much less the Soul of man, the highest, noblest and most excellent Being Great power they have, but no creating power, that is Gods incommunicable property; and procreate our souls they did not, for they are spirits, yet spirits of another species.
- *Perfectum est q•od aliud sibi si•ile producit, sed immat•iales substantiae •ulto perfectiores sunt quam corporatae: ergo cum •ic alias sibi secundum speciem similes eff••iant, potiori ratione poterunt Angeli substantiam aliquam incorpoream inferio is natarae procreare, id est, Animam humanam. D. Dionys. cap. 4. de divinis nominibus.
(3.) A Third sort there are who deny not that Souls are created Substances,1 and proceeded from God; but affirm withal, that he created them simul, & semel, together and at once, as the Angels were, and that not one by one, as men are born into the world. Of this opinion was Plato who thought all