A39675:179
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.
If the question be,1 whether souls be pure or impure as soon as they are united with their bodies, the answer is, They are impure, and tainted as soon as united. For the union constitutes a child of Adam, and consequently a sinful impure creature. But if it respect the condition and state, in which God created them, I answer with Baronius, †They are created neither morally pure, nor impure; they receive ⟨p. 40⟩neither purity, nor impurity from him, but only their naked essence, and the natural powers and properties flowing therefrom. He inspires not any impurity into them, for he cannot be the Author of Sin, who is the Revenger of it. Nor doth he create them in their original purity and rectitude; for the sin of Adam lost that, and God justly withholds it from his posterity. Who wonders (saith one3) to see the Children, the Palaces, and Gardens of Traitors to droop and decay, and the Arms of his House and badge of his nobility to be defaced and reversed? That which is abused by man to the dishonour of God, may justly be destroyed, (I add in this case) or withheld by God, to the detriment of man. Adam voluntarily and actually deprived himself, and meritoriously deprived all his posterity of that original righteousness and purity in which he was created. As an holy God, he cannot inspire any impurity, and as a just and righteous God, he may and doth withhold, or create them void and destitute of that holiness and righteousness, which was once their Happiness and Glory.
- 1Sol
- †Ani•• •• strae à Deo creante […] a•cipiunt puritatem, s•u justitiam; neque imparitatem & propensionem ad malum: Se• tant•m essentiam spiritualem, & proprieates ab essentia dimantes. Baron. exerci. p. 103.