A39675:167
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.
But to me it's clear, that the Soul receives not its being by Traduction or Generation; for that which is generable is also corruptible: but the spiritual immortal Soul (as it hath been proved to be) is not subject to Corruption. Nor is it imaginable how a Soul should be produced out of matter, which is not endued with reason: Or how a bodily Substance can impart that to another, which it hath not in it self. If it be said, the Soul of the child proceeds from the Soul of the Parents: that cannot be; for spiritual Substances are impartible, and nothing can be discinded from them. 1And it is absurd to think the Soul of Adam should spring from one Original, and the souls of all his off-spring from another, whilst both his and theirs are of one and the same Nature and species. To all which let me add, that as this Assertion of their Creation is most reasonable, so it is most scriptural. It is reasonable to think and say, †that no active power can act beyond or above the proper Sphere of its activity and ability. But if the Soul be elicited out of the power of matter, here would be an effect produced abundantly more noble and excellent than his cause. And as it is most reasonable, so it is most Scriptural. To this purpose divers Testimonies of Scripture are cited and produced by our Divines, amongst which we may single out these four, which are of special remark and use, Heb. 12.9. Furthermore, we had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection to [the Father of Spirits] and live? Here God is ⟨p. 35⟩called the Father of Spirits, or of Souls, and that in an emphatical Antithesis or contradistinction to our natural Fathers, who are called the Fathers of our Flesh, or Bodies only. The true scope and sense of this Text is with great judgment and clearness given us by that learned and judicious Divine Mr. *Pemble, in these words: Nothing is more plain and emphatical than this Antithesis, We receive our flesh or body from our Parents, but our souls from God; if then we patiently bear the chastisements of our Parents who are Authors of the vilest part, and have the least right or power over us, with how much more equal a mind should we bear his chastisements, who hath the supreme right to us, as he is the Father and only giver of that which is most excellent in us, viz. our souls or spirits.