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 ...

Inference IV.

III 1.1IF God be the immediate Creator and Former of the Soul of Man, Then sin must needs involve the most unnatural evil in it, as it is an horrid violation of the very law of nature. No title can be so full, so absolute, as that which Creation gives. How clear is this in the light of reason? If God created my Soul, then my Soul had once no Being at all: That it had still remained nothing, had not the pleasure of its Creator chosen and called it into the Being it hath, out of the milli∣ons of meer possible Beings. For as there are millions of possible Beings, which yet are nothing; so there are milli∣ons of possible Beings which never shall be at all. So that since the pleasure and power of God, was the only foun∣tain of my Being, he needs must be the rightful owner of it. What can be more his own, than that whose very Being flowed meerly from him; and which had never been at all, had he not called it out of nothing.

And seeing the same pleasure of God, which gave it a Being, gave it also a reasonable Being, capable of, and fitted for moral Government by laws, which other infe∣riour natures are incapable of; it must needs follow, that he is the supream Governour, as well as the rightful owner of this Soul.

Moreover, it is plain, that he who gave my Soul it's Being, and such a Being, gave it also all the good it ever had, hath, or shall have; and that it neither is, nor hath any thing but what is purely from him: And therefore he 〈◊〉〈◊〉 needs ••e my most bountiful benefactor, as well as 〈◊〉〈◊〉

owner and supream Governour. There is not a Soul which he hath created, but stands bound to him, in all these ties and titles. Now for such a creature, to turn rebelliously upon its absolute owner, whose only and wholly it is: upon its supream Governour, to whom it owes intire and absolute Obedience: upon its bountiful ••enefactor, from whom it hath received all, and every mercy, it ever had, or hath; to violate his laws, slight his Soveraignty, despise his good∣ness, contemn his threatnings, pierce his very heart with grief, darken the glory of all his Attributes, confederate with Satan, his ••alicious enemy; and strike, as far as a crea∣ture can strike, •••• his very Being, (for in a sense, Omne pe••∣catum est Deicidium, every sin strikes at the life and very existence of God). Blush O Heavens at this, and be ye horribly afraid! O cursed sin, the evil of all evils, which no Epithere can match; no name worse than its own can be invented, sinful sin. This is as if some venemous branch should drop poyson upon the root that bears it. Love and gratitude to Benefactors, is an indelible principle ingraven▪ by nature, upon the hearts of all men. It teacheth chil∣dren to love and honour their Parents, who yet are but mee•• instruments of their Beings. O how just must their perdi∣tion be, who casting off the very bonds of nature; turn again with emnity against that God, in whom they both live, and move, and have their Being. O think, and think again on what an holy * 1.2 Man once said, What a sad charge will this be against many a man▪ at the great day, when God shall say, Hadst thou been made a Dog, I never had had so much dishonour as I have had. 'Tis pity God should not have honour from the meanest creature that ever he made, from every pile of grass in the field, or stone in the street; much more that he should not have glory from a Soul more precious and excellent than all the other works of his hands. Surely, 'tis better for us, our Souls had still remained only in the number of possible Beings, and had never had an actual existence in the second rank of Beings, but a very little lower than the Angels; than that we should still be dishonouring God by them. O that he should be put to levy his glory from us passively, that it should be with us as it was with Nebuchadnezzar, from whom God

had more glory when he was driven out amongst the beasts of the field, than when he sat on the Throne. In like manner his glory will rise passively from us, when driven out among Devils, and not actively and voluntarily, as from the Saints.

Notes

• III 1.1

  The Soul a created Substance.
• * 1.2

  Mr. B••••∣rou••••s ex∣c••llency of the Soul of Man; p. 232.