A39675:53
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 helps Philosophy affords in some parts of this Discourse, are too great to be despised, and too small to be admired. I confess I read the Definitions of the Soul given by the Ancient Philosophers, with a Compassionate smile. When Thales calls it a Nature without Repose. Asclepiades, an Exercitation of sense. Hesiod, a thing composed of Earth and Water. Parmenides, a thing composed of Earth and Fire. Galen saith it is heat. Hippocrates, a Spirit diffused throughout the Body. Plato, a Self-moving Substance. Aristotle calls it, Entelechia, that by which the Body is moved. If my Opinion should be asked, which of all these Definitions I like best? I should give the same Answer which Theocritus gave to an ill Poet, repeating many of his Verses, and asking which he liked best, Those (said he) which you have omitted. Or if they must have the ⟨image 12⟩Garland as the prize they have shot for, let them have it upon the same reason that was once given to him that always shot wide, Difficilius est toties non attingere, Because it was the greatest difficulty to aim so often at the Mark, and never come near it. One Word of God gives me more light than a thousand such laborious trifles. As Caesar was best able to write his own Commentaries, so God only can give the best account of this his own Creature, on which he hath impressed his own Image.
- *Cui •ni• veritas com•erta sine Deo? Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo? Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu? Cui Spiritus •ccommodatus sine fide Tertul. de Anima.
Modern Philosophers assisted by the Divine Oracles, must needs come closer to the Mark, and give us a far better account of the nature of the Soul. Yet I have endeavoured not to cloud this Subject with their Controversies, or abstruse Notions; remembering what a smart, but deserved check Tertullian gives those, Qui Platonicum & Aristotelicum Christianismum procudunt Christianis. Words are but the Servants of Matter. I value them as Merchants do their Ships, not by the gilded Head and Stern; the neatness of their Mould; or curious Flags and Streamers; but by the soundness of their Bottoms, largeness of their Capacity, and richness of their Cargo and loading. The quality of this Subject necessitates in many places the use of Scholastic terms, which will be obscure to the Vulgar Reader; but apt and proper words must not be rejected for their obscurity, except plainer words could be found that fit the Subject as well, and are as fully expressive of the matter. The unnecessary I have avoided, and the rest explained as I could.