A39675:401
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 wherein is his Dignity and excellency above all other Creatures, if not in respect of the capacity and immortality of his Soul? Sure it can be found no where else, for as to the Body, many of the Creatures excel man in the perfections of Sense, greatness of Strength, agility of Members, &c. Nos Aper auditu praecellit, aranea tactu, vulture odoratu, linx visu, simia gustu: And for beauty, Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of the Lilies of the Field. The Beasts, and Fowls enjoy more pleasure, and live divested of those cares and cumbers which perplex and wear ⟨p. 106⟩out the lives of men. It cannot be in respect of bodily perfections or pleasures that man excels other Creatures.
But wherein is his Dignity and excellency above all other Creatures, if not in respect of the capacity and immortality of his Soul? Sure it can be found no where else, for as to the Body, many of the Creatures excel man in the perfections of Sense, greatness of Strength, agility of Members, &c. Nos Aper auditu praecellit, aranea tactu, vultur odoratu, linx visu, simia gustu: And for beauty, Solomon in all his Glory was not arrayed like one of the Lilies of the Field. The Beasts, and Fowls enjoy more pleasure, and live divested of those cares and cumbers which perplex and wear ⟨p. 106⟩out the lives of men. It cannot be in respect of bodily perfections or pleasures that man excels other Creatures.
If you say, he excels them all in respect of that noble endowment of Reason, which is peculiar to man, and his singular excellency above them all.
'Tis true, this is his glory, but if you deprive the reasonable Soul of Immortality, you despoil it of all, both its glory and comfort, and put the reasonable into a worse condition than the unreasonable and brutish Creatures; for if the Soul may dye with the Body, and man perish as the Beast, happier is the life of the Beast, which is perplexed with no cares nor fears about futurities: our Reason serves to little other purpose, but to be an engine of Torture, a mere Rack to our Souls.