A39675:502
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.
And from both these, as excellent Examples and Patterns, he with great strength of Argument urgeth the Duty of Love, v. 28. So ought Men to love their Wives as their own Bodies; he that loveth his Wife, loveth himself. Self-love is naturally implanted in all Men, and it is the Rule by which we measure out and dispense our Love to others.— Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self.
This Self-love he opens in this place, by (1.) The Universality of it. (2.) The effects that evidence it.
(1) The Universality of it, No Man ever yet hated his own Flesh. By Flesh, understand the Body, by a usual Metonymy of a part for the whole, called Flesh. By hating it, understand simple hatred, or for hatred it self 'Tis usual for Men to hate the Deformities and Diseases of their own Bodies, and upon that account, to deal with the Members of their own Bodies, as if they hated them; hence it is, they willingly stretch forth a gangrened Leg or Arm to be cut off, for the preservation of the rest; but this is not simple hatred of a Mans Self, but rather an Argument of the strength of the Souls Love to the Body, that it will be content to endure so much Pain and Anguish for its sake. And if the Soul be at any time weary of, and willing to part, not with a single Member only, but with the whole Body, and loathes its Union with it any longer, yet it hates and loathes it not simply, in and for it self, but because it is so filled with Diseases all over, and loads the Soul daily with so much Grief▪ that how well soever the Soul loves it in it self, yet upon such sad Terms and Conditions, it would not be tied to it. This was Job's Case, Job 10.1. My Soul is weary of my Life; yet not simply of his Life, but such a Life in Pain and Trouble. Except it be in such Respects and Cases, No Man, saith he, ever yet hated his own Flesh; i. e. No Man in his right Mind, and in the Exercise of his Reason and Sense; for we must except Distracted and Delirious Men, who know not what they do, as also Men under the Terrors of Conscience, when God suffers it to rage in Extremity, as Spira, and others, who would have been glad with their own Hands, to have cut the Thread that tied their miserable Souls to their Bodies: Supposing that way, and by that Change, to find some relief. Either of these Cases forces Men to act beside the stated Rule of Nature and Reason.