A39675:274
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.
God hath therefore prepared the Lungs for this service, which being of a thin, porous, and spongy substance, can easily be dilated, and contracted. By dilating themselves, they attract and suck in the air into themselves; first, duly to prepare and temper it, and then communicate it to the heart for its refreshment; which being quickly heated in the heart, is again breathed out by the Lungs, by contracting themselves again. This double motion of inspiration and expiration, we call Respiration, and this Respiration is the bond that holds our Souls and bodies together.
God hath therefore prepared the Lungs for this service, which being of a thin, porous, and spungy substance, can easily be dilated, and contracted. By dilating themselves, they attract and suck in the air into themselves; first, duely to prepare and temper it, and then communicate it to the heart for its refreshment; which being quickly heated in the heart, is again breathed out by the Lungs, by contracting themselves again. This double motion of inspiration and expiration, we call Respiration, and this Respiration is the bond that holds our Souls and bodies together.
And indeed, this is but a feeble bond, a very slender and weak thread which holds our Souls and Bodies in union. What more volatile, evanid and uncertain, than a puff of breath? The nostrils are the outer door of the body, our breath is continually in our nostrils, and how soon may that depart, which is day and night at the door, as if it were still taking its leave of us. Our breath is always going, and what is still going, will be gone at last. How small a difference is there betwixt Respiration and Expiration? A breathing, and a breathless lump of clay? Breath cannot continue long, and life cannot stay a moment behind it. Psal. 104.29. Thou takest away their breath, they dye; and return to their dust. Life is breath given, and Death is breath taken away. The breath of Man is like a written sentence in which there are diverse Comma's, or short pauses; after which speedily follows a full stop, and there's an end of it.