A39675:687
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.
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.
Scarce any thing is more necessary for weak and timorous Believers to meditate on, than the time of their Separation. Our hearts will be apt to start and boggle at the first view of death, but it is good to do by them as men use to do by young Colts, ride them up to that which they fright at, and make them smell to it, which is the way to cure them.1 Look as Bread (saith one) is more necessary than other Food, so the meditation of death is more necessary than many other meditations. Every time we change our habitations, we should realize therein our great change. Our Souls must shortly leave this, and be lodged for a longer season in another mansion: when we put off our clothes at night, we have a fit occasion to consider, that we must strip nearer one of these days, and put off not our clothes only, but the Body that wears them too.