A39675:517
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 Sorrows of Death are in Scripture set forth unto us, by the bearing-Throes of a Travelling Woman, Acts 2.24. [Greek or Hebrew] and what those mean, many can tell; the Soul is in labour, it will not let go its hold of the Body, but by Constraint; Death is a close Siege, and when the Soul is beaten out of its Body, it disputes the passage with Death, as Soldiers use to do with an Enemy that enters by Storm, and fights and strives to the last. It's also compared to a Battle, or sharp Fight, Eccles. 8.8. that war: That war with an Emphasis. No Conflict so sharp, each labour to the utmost to drive the other from the ground they stand on, and win the field. And tho' Grace much ⟨p. 140⟩over-power Nature in this matter, and reconcile it to Death, and make it desire to be dissolved, yet Saints wholly put not off this Reluctation of Nature, 2 Cor. 5.2. Not that we would be unclothed; as it is with one willing to wade over a Brook to his Fathers House, puts his Foot into the Water, and feels it cold, starts back, and is loth to venture in. Not that we would be unclothed. And if it be so with Sanctified Souls, how is it, think you, with others? Mark the Scripture-Language, Job 27.8. God taketh away their Souls, saith our Translation; but the Root is, [Greek or Hebrew] extrahere, and signifies, to put out by plain Force and Violence. A Graceless Soul dieth not by Consent, but Force. Thus Adrian bewailed his Departure, O Animula, vagula, blandula, hen quo vadis? Yea, though the Soul have never so long a time been in the Body, though it should live as long as any of the Antediluvian Father's did for many Hundred Years, yet still it would be loth to part; yea, though it endure abundance of Misery in the Body, and have little Rest or Comfort, but time spent in Griefs and Fears, yet for all that, loth to part with it. All this shows a strong inclination and affection to it.
The Sorrows of Death are in Scripture set forth unto us, by the bearing-Throes of a Travelling Woman, Acts 2.24