A39675:603
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.
1There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that War. By Spirit understand the natural Spirit, or breath of life, which as I showed before, connects or ties the Soul and Body together; this Spirit no man can retain in the day of death: we can, (as one speaks) as well stop the Chariot of the Sun when posting to night, and chase away the shadows of the evening,2 as escape this hour of darkness that is coming upon us. A man may escape the Wars by pleading privilege of years, or weakness of Body, or the Kings protection, or by sending another in his room; but in this War, the press is so strict, that it admits no dispensation, young or old, weak or strong, willing or unwilling, all's one, into the field we must go, and look that last and most dreadful Enemy in the face. 'Tis in vain to think of sending another in our room, for no man dyeth by Proxy: or to think of compounding with death, as those self-deluding Fools did, Isai. 28.15. Who thought they had been ⟨p. 167⟩discharged of the debt by seeing the Sergeant: no, no, there is no discharge in that War. Nihil prodest ora concludere, & vitam fugientem retinere, saith Hierom on that Text; Let us shut our mouths never so close, struggle against death never so hard, there is no more retaining the Spirit, than a woman can retain the fruit of her Womb, when the full time of her deliverance is come. Suppose a man were sitting upon a Throne of Majesty, surrounded with armed Guards, or in the midst of a College of expert and learned Physicians, death will pass all these Guards to deliver thee the fatal message: neither can Art help thee, when Nature it self gives thee up.
1There is no man that hath power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit, neither hath he power in the day of death, and there is no discharge in that War. By Spirit understand the natural Spirit, or breath of life, which as I shewed before, connects or tyes the Soul and Body together; this Spirit no man can retain in the day of death: we can, (as one speaks) as well stop the Chariot of the Sun when posting to night, and chase away the shadows of the evening,