A39675:54
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.
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.
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; remembring 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 Cargoe and loading. The quality of this Subject necessitates in many places the use of Scholastick 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.
The principal fruits I especially aim at, both to my own and the Readers Soul, are, that whilst we contemplate the freedom, pleasure, and satisfaction of that Spiritual, Incorporeal People who dwell in the Region of light and joy; and are hereby forming to our selves a true Scriptural Idea of the blessed state of those disembodied Spirits with whom we are to serve and converse, in the Temple-worship in