A39675:686
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.
Let a Soul but seriously meditate what a change death will make shortly upon his person, and condition; and the natural effects of such a meditation,1 through the blessing of God upon it, will be a flatting and quenching of its keen and raging appetite after the ensnaring vanities of this World, which draw men into so much guilt, a conscientious fear of sin, and an awakened care of duty. It was once demanded of a very holy man (who spent much more than the ordinary allowance of time in Prayer, and searching his own heart) why he so macerated his own Body by such frequent, and long continued Duties? His answer was, O I must dye, I must dye: Nothing could separate him from duty, who had already separated his Soul from his Body, and all this World by fixed and deep thoughts of death.
- 1Qui considerat q•alis e•it in morte, semper pavidus erit in operatione, atque, inde in oculis sui Condi•oris vivet. Nihil quod transit, appetit; & pene mortuum se considerat, quia se moriturum non ignorat. Greg. Mor. 12.
2. Hereby we gain a more inward knowledge and acquaintance with the Nature of death: and the more we are acquainted with it, the less it terrifies us. A Lion is much more dreadful to him that never saw him, than he is to his Keeper who feedeth him every day. A pitched Battle is more frightful and scaring to a new listed Soldier that never took his place in the Field before, nor saw the dreadful countenance of an Army ready to engage, nor heard the thundering noise of Cannon, and Volleys of Shot, the shouts of Armies, and groans of dying men on every side; than it is to an old Soldier who hath been used to such things. The like we may observe in Seamen, who it may be trembled at first, and now can sing in a Storm.
2. Hereby we gain a more inward knowledge and acquaintance with the Nature of death: and the more we are acquainted with it, the less it terrifies us. A Lion is much more dreadful to him that never saw him, than he is to his Keeper who feedeth him every day. A pitcht Battle is more frightful and scaring to a new listed Souldier that never took his place in the Field before, nor saw the dreadful countenance of an Army ready to engage, nor heard the thundering noise of Cannon, and Vollies of Shot, the shouts of Armies, and groans of dying men on every side; than it is to an old Souldier who hath been used to such things. The like we may observe in Seamen, who it may be trembled at first, and now can sing in a Storm.