A39675:402
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.
Argument VI.
THE Souls of Men must be Immortal, or else the desires of Immortality are planted in their Souls in vain.
That there are desires of Immortality found in the hearts of all men, is a truth too evident to be denied or doubted. Man cannot bound and terminate his desires within the narrow limits of this world,1 and the time that measures it. Nothing that can be measured by time, is commensurate to the desires of Mans Soul. No Motto better suits it than this, Non est mortale quod opto. I seek for that which will not die. Rom. 2. v. 7. and his great relief against death lies in this, Non omnis moriar: That he shall not totally perish. Yea we find in all men, even in those that seem to be most drowned and lost in the loves and delights of this present World, a natural desire to continue their Names and Memories to posterity after death. Hence it is said, Psal. 49.11. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations, they call their lands after their own Names.
- 1I beseech men for Gods sake that if at any time there arise in them a desire, or a wish that others should speak well of them rather than evil after their death, then at that time they would seriously consider whether those motions are not from some Spirit to continue a Spirit after it leaves its earthly habitation, rather than from an earthly Spirit, a vapour, which cannot act, or imagine, or desire, or far things beyond its continuance. Halt de Anim. p. 73.