A39675:212
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.
The Soul of the poorest Beggar that cries at the door for a crust, is in its own nature of equal dignity and value, with the Soul of the most glorious Monarch that sits upon the Throne. And this appears to be so, 1. First, because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain, viz. the creating power of God. They were not made better or worse, finer or courser matter, but [Greek or Hebrew], out of nothing at all. The same Almighty power was put forth, to the forming of one, as of another. All Souls are mine, saith he that created them; Ezek. 18 4. The Soul of the Child, as well as the Father, the Soul of the Beggar, as well as the King; Those that had no preexistent matter, but received their beings from the same efficient cause, must needs be equal in their original nature and value. The bodies of men which are formed out of matter, do greatly differ from one another: some are moulded (as we say) è meliori luto, out of better and finer Clay; some are more exact, elegant, vigorous, and beautiful than others: ⟨p. 51⟩but Souls having no matter of which they consist, are not so differenced. 2. Secondly, All souls are created with a capacity of enjoying the infinite and blessed God. They need no other powers, faculties, or capacities than they are by nature endued with (if these be but sanctified and devoted to God) to make them equally happy and blessed with them that are now before the Throne of God in Heaven, and with unspeakable delight and joy behold his blessed face. We pass through the fields, and take up an Egg which lies under a clod, and see nothing in it but a little squalid matter; yea, but in that Egg is seminally and potentially contained such a melodious Lark, as it may be at the same time, we see mounting Heavenward, and singing delicious notes above. So 'tis here. Those poor despised souls, that are now lodged in crazy despicable bodies on Earth, have in their Natures a capacity for the same employments, and enjoyments with those in Heaven. They have no higher Original than these have, and these have the same capacity and ability with them. They are Beings improvable by grace, to the highest perfections attainable by any Creature.
The Soul of the poorest Beggar that cries at the door for a crust, is in its own nature of equal dignity and value, with the Soul of the most glorious Monarch that sits upon the Throne. And this appears to be so, 1. First, because all souls flow out of one and the same fountain, viz. the creating power of God. They were not made better or worse, finer or courser matter, but , out of nothing at all. The same Almighty power was put forth, to the forming of one, as of another. All Souls are mine, saith he that created them;