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 ...

Argument III.

THE regret, reluctancy, and sorrows expressed by the Soul at parting, do strongly argue its inclination to a re-union with it, when it is actually separated from it. For why should we surmise that the Soul which mourn'd and groan'd so deeply at parting; which clasp'd and embraced it so dearly and affectionately; which fought, strugled and dis∣puted the passage with death every foot and inch of ground it got; and would not part with the Body till by plain force it was rent out of its arms: should not when absent, desire to see and enjoy its old and endeared friend again? Hath it lost its affection, though it continue its relation? thats ve∣ry improbable. Or doth its advancement in Heaven make it regardless of its Body which lies in contempt and misery? that's an effect which Christs personal glory never produced in him towards us, nor a good mans perferment would pro∣duce in him to his poor and miserable friends in this World, as we see in the case of Ioseph but now instanced in. It is therefore harsh and incongruous to suppose the Souls love to the Body was extinguished in the parting hour, and that now, out of sight, out of mind.

* 1.1But was it not urged before in opposition to this asser∣tion, that the Souls of the righteous looked upon their Bodies as their Prisons, and sighed for deliverance by death, and greatly rejoiced in the hope and foresight of that liberty death would restore them to? How doth this consist with such reluctancies at parting, and inclinations to re-union?

* 1.2The objection doth not suppose any man to be totally free from all reluctancies and unwillingness to die. The holi∣est Souls that ever lived in Bodies of flesh will give an un∣willing shrug when it comes to the parting point, 2 Cor. 5.2. But this their willingness to be gone arises from two other grounds, which make i•• consistent enough with its reluctan∣cies at parting, and inclination to a second meeting.

• (1) This willingness to die, doth not suppose the Souls love to the Body to be utterly extinguished, but mastered and overpowered by another and stronger love. There is in every Christian a double love, one natural, to the Body, and the things below; the other supernatural, to Christ, and the things above; the latter doth not extinguish, though it con∣quer and subdue the other. Love to the Body pulls back∣ward, love to Christ pulls forward, and finally prevails. This is so consistent with it, that it supposes natural reluctation and unwillingness to part.
• (2) The willingness of Gods people to be dissolved, must not be understood absolutely, but comparatively: In that sense the Apostle will be understood, 2 Cor. 5.8. We are confident I say, and willing rather to be absent from the Body, and present with the Lord. (i. e.) Rather than to live always a life of sin, sor∣row, and absence from God. Death is not desireable in and for it self, but only as it is the Souls outlet from sin, and its inlet to God.

So that the very best desire it but comparatively, and it is but few who find the love of this animal life subacted and overpowered by high raised acts of faith and love. The gene∣rality even of good Souls feel strong renitencies, and suffer sharp conflicts at their dissolution. All which discovers with what lothness and unwillingness the Soul unclasps its arms to let go its Body. Now as Divines argue the frame of Christs heart in Heaven, toward his people on earth, from all those endearing passages and demonstrations of love he gave them at parting; so we here argue the continued love and inclina∣tion of the Soul to its Body after it is in Heaven, from the manifold demonstrations it gave of its affection to it in this World; especially in the parting hour. No conside∣rations in all the World, less than the more full fruition of God, and freedom from sin, could possibly have prevailed with it to quit the Body, though but for a time, and leave it in the dust. Which is our third Argument.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Object.
• * 1.2

  Sol.