A39675:182
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 that the Objector may not take this for an handsome slide, or go-by to this great Objection, I return to it in a few particulars: ⟨p. 41⟩(1.) That I think not original sin follows either part singly,1 it comes in neither by the Soul alone, nor by the body alone, a part from the Soul; but upon the union and conjunction of both in one person. 'Tis the union of these two which constitutes a child of Adam, and as such only, we are capable of being infected with his sin. (2.) And whereas it is so confidently asserted in the Objection, That sin cannot come into the Soul by or from the body, because it being matter, cannot act upon a Spirit: I say, this is gratis dictum, easily spoken, but difficultly proved. Cannot the Body act upon, or influence the Soul? Pray then how comes it to pass, that so many souls become foolish, forgetful, injudicious, &c. by their union with ill disposed Bodies? Nothing is more sensibly plain and evident than that ••ere is a reciprocal Communication betwixt the Soul and Body. The Body doth as really (though we know not how) affect the Soul with its dispositions, as the Soul influences it with life and motion. The more excellent any form is, the more intimate is its union and conjunction with the matter. The Soul of man hath therefore a more intimate and perfect union with the Body, than light hath with the Air: Which is made by some, the best Emblem and Similitude to shadow forth this union. But the union betwixt them is too intimate to be conceived by the help of any such Similitudes. That this infection is by way of Physical agency, as a rusty Scabbard infects and defiles a bright Sword when sheathed therein; I will not confidently affirm, as some do. It may be by way of Natural Concomitancy, as Estius will have it; or to speak, as Dr. Reynolds (modestly, and as becomes men that are conscious of darkness and weakness) by way of ineffable resultancy and emanation. ⟨p. 42⟩(3.) In sum, Original Sin consists in two things, viz. 1. In the privation of that original rectitude which ought to be in us. 2. In that habitual Concupiscence which carrieth nature to inordinate motions.
But that the Objector may not take this for an handsome slide, or go-by to this great Objection, I return to it in a few particulars: