A39675:508
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 Souls Love to the Body is so strong, natural, and inseparable, that it is made the Rule and Measure by which we dispense and proportion our Love to others, Matth. 19.19. Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self. And the Apostle, Gal. 5.14. tells us, that the whole Law, (i.e.) the Second Table of the Law, is fulfilled, or summed up, in this Precept, Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy Self. The meaning is not, that all and every one who is our Neighbour, must be equally near to us, as our own Bodies; but it intends, (1.) The Sincerity of our Love to others, which must be without Di•••mulation, for we dissemble not in Self-love. (2.) That we be as careful to avoid injuring others, as we would our selves, Matth. 7.12. To do by others, or measure to them, as we would have done, or measured unto us; for which Rule, Severus the Heathen Emperor honoured Christ and Christianity, and caused it to be written in Capital Letters of Gold. (3.) That we take direction from this Principle of Self-Love, to measure out our Care, Love and Respects to others, according to the different degrees of nearness in which we stand to them. As, (1.) The Wife of our Bosom, to whom by this Rule, is due our first Care and Love, as in the Text. (2.) Our Children and Family, 1 Tim. 5.8. (3.) To all in general, whether we have any Bond of Natural Relation upon them or no: but especially those to whom we are Spiritually related, as Gal. 6.10. ⟨p. 136⟩And indeed, as every Christian hath a right to our Love and Care, above other Men, so in some Cases, we are to exceed this Rule of Self-love, by a transcendent act of Self-denial for them, 1 John 3.16. And Paul went higher than that, in a glorious excess of Charity, to the Community or Body of Gods People, preferring their Salvation, not only to his own Body, but to his Soul also,