A39675:932
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.
These are the Arguments of this learned Author for the Affirmative, which he closes with two necessary Cautions; First, That this lays no foundation for religious Worship or Invocation of departed Souls. Those that are helpful to us, are not therefore to be worshipped. Secondly, That we must acknowledge our selves to be under much darkness as to the way and manner of the converse of Spirits with us.
These are the Arguments of this learned Author for the Affirmative, which he closes with two necessary Cautions; First, That this layes no foundation for religious Worship or Invocation of departed Souls. Those that are helpful to us, are not therefore to be worshipped. Secondly, That we must acknowledg our selves to be under much darkness as to the way and manner of the converse of Spirits with us.
1The most acute and learned Dr. More I find of the same Opinion. He affirms that departed Souls are capable of a vital Union with an airy vehicle, (or Body) in which they can easily move from place to place, and appear to the Living; and act in their own affairs, as in detecting Murders, rebuking injurious Executors, visiting, and counselling their Wives and Children, forewarning them of such and such courses, &c. To which we may add the profession of the Spirit thus appearing, of being the Soul of such a one; as also the similitude of the person: And all this ado is in things very just and serious, ⟨p. 263⟩unfit for a Devil with that care and kindness to promote; and as unfit for a good Genius, it being below so noble a nature to tell a lye. All these things put together, and rightly weighed; the violence of prejudice not pulling down the balance, I dare appeal (saith he) to any, Whether it will not be certainly carried for the present cause, and whether any indifferent Judge ought not to conclude, if these stories which are so frequent every where, and in all Ages concerning the Ghosts of men appearing, be but true, That it is true also that they are their Ghosts, &c.