Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36827	A new voyage to the Levant containing an account of the most remarkable curiosities in Germany, France, Italy, Malta, and Turkey : with historical observations relating to the present and ancient state of those countries / by the Sieur du Mont ; done into English, and adorn'd with figures.; Nouveau voyage du Levant. English	Dumont, Jean, baron de Carlscroon, 1667-1727.	1696 (1696)	Wing D2526; ESTC R9818	264,606	436

the second Prophet whose Dispensation was to continue till the coming of JESUS CHRIST whom they call the Breath of God acknowledging that he was Conceiv'd by Divine Operation in the Womb of his Mother who remain'd a Virgin even after his Birth He alter'd and reform'd the Law according to the Power with which God had entrusted him and for that reason incurr'd the hatred of the Jews who sought to put him to Death and hir'd the Traytor Judas to betray him But when he came to the Oliv●-Garden they were seiz'd with so strange an Illusion that they Crucifi'd Judas instead of his Master who was in the mean time translated to Heaven where he remains with the two former Prophets They say this Opinion serves much better to display the Glory of CHRIST than the Christian Doctrine and brand us with Folly and Impiety for believing that He whom we adore as God was shamefully Crucify'd The very sight of a Crucifix fills 'em with Anger and Rage pretending that 't is a horrid Injury to CHRIST to represent him in a State of Ignominy and Suffering They believe also that He will come to judge the World at the last Day but that He will first Reign upon the Earth and Marry and beget Children They affirm that He was a Holy Man and a chosen Vessel but they will not be perswaded to acknowledge a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead saying That such an Opinion wou'd absolutely destroy the Unity of that Sovereign Being without which He cou'd not be GOD. CHRIST was succeeded by Mahomet after whom there shall come no other Prophet ' Twou'd be an endless Task to reckon up all the Glorious Titles they bestow upon him They differ not much from us in their Opinions concerning the Divine Attributes Only they have such a peculiar Fondness for Predestination that they extend it even to the most Indifferent Actions yet with some Limitations and Circumstances which 't wou'd be very difficult to explain and which they themselves do not well understand Thus they are firmly perswaded that under the Reign of such an Emperor the State will infallibly and perpetually have either a disast'rous or happy Fate And 't is this Persuasion that makes 'em so inclinable to dethrone their Sultans They believe that there is an infinite number of Angels some Good and others Bad. The first are call'd White and the others Black Angels or Devils They imagine that every Man has two Angels that attend him continually and that one of 'em writes down all his Good and the other all his Bad Actions They address their Prayers to the Black Angels as well as to the White that they may secure the Friendship both of the Inhabitants of Paradice and Hell tho' in their Opinion the Souls of the Damn'd enter not into the last of these Places till the Day of Judgment For 't is an Article of the Turkish Faith that the Spirits of the Wicked remain in their Graves where they are tormented by the Black Angels till the last Day when they shall be sent to Hell together with their Bodies and suffer very cruel Punishments for the space of One or Two Thousand Years according to the Crimes they committed in this Life after which they shall be releas'd and admitted into Paradice where they shall enjoy the same Happiness that is appointed for the Souls of Good Men. They think 't is inconsistent with the Divine Goodness and blame us for believing that GOD will punish a Man Eternally for the Offences of so short a Life Yet since they are extremely afraid of Hell they pray very devoutly to the Black Angels that they wou'd be pleas'd not to write down all their Ill Actions Since you will doubtless look upon their Opinion of the Soul 's resting in the Grave after Death to be very Absurd and Ridiculous I shall endeavour to give you a clearer Idea of their Thoughts on that Subject They differ from us in the account they give of the manner how the Soul Informs and Animates the Body For whereas we believe that these two Substances are Hypostatically united and that Death consists in their Separation they imagine that the Soul and Body have no dependance on one another and that the absence of the Spirit which for Example may take a Journey to Paradice is not necessarily attended with the Destruction of the Corporeal Machine tho' they acknowledge that the Body is always depriv'd of Reason during its Separation from the Soul Thus they believe that the only reason why a Fool or Ideot acts and speaks absurdly is because his Soul and consequently his Reason has forsaken him As for Lunatic and Hypochondriacal Persons who have some lucid Intervals and are only depriv'd of their Reason by Fits they endeavour to solve the Difficulty by maintaining that the Soul leaves her Mansion at certain times and returns again after a short Absence And this they say is an effect of Providence either for the Punishment of the Distemper'd Person or for some other hidden Design When a Christian tells 'em that these Fits of Madness proceed from the Disorder and Indisposition of the Organs which hinders the Soul from performing her Functions they upbraid him with the absurdity of his Opinion for say they the Soul of Man is a Spirit and therefore cannot be stopt or obstructed in the exercise of her Faculties by Matter which is a Substance of another and absolutely different Nature From this Principle they infer that neither the Presence nor Absence of the Soul can produce any alteration in the Machinal course of the Body which is only mov'd by Springs And that when one of the principal Springs fails or is spoil'd the Soul cannot prevent the Ruine of the whole Engine This they pretend is an obvious Truth and confirm'd by daily Experience And therefore we must not be surpriz'd that a dead Body neither Walks Breathes nor performs any Operation tho' the Soul be still lodg'd in it For since she is not the Author of the Machine which she Inhabits 't is beyond her Power either to keep it entire or to repair it after it falls to decay GOD alone who made and contriv'd it can restore it and renew its motion as he will do at the last Day To confirm this Hypothesis they cite with a great deal of Confidence what Pliny relates of a Man whose Soul and Body were wont to be separated every day so that the Body remain'd without any appearance of Life or Motion till the return of the Soul which afterwards us'd to give an Account of all the wonderful things she had seen in the remotest Countries This you know is one of that Author 's fabulous Stories and yet the Turks pretend to draw from thence an evident and irrefutable Proof of their Opinion Besides they give the Soul a Figure exactly like that of the Body and upon this Principle maintain that the Souls of the Damned are beaten in the Grave and suffer Torments

and the Linen is chang'd pretty often And besides the diseas'd are so plentifully furnish'd with all things that are proper for their Entertainment and Cure that the Knights themselves scruple not to lodge here when they are sick 'T is true they are not laid in the same Rooms with so many dead and dying Persons whose Company alone wou'd infect the soundest Man in the World with their Distempers For they lie in separate Halls and are serv'd apart Catholicks of all Nations without exception are receiv'd into the Hospital but these Acts of Charity are not very Chargeable to the Order since their Guests are seldom very Numerous These few Observations may suffice to give you an Idea of the Order of Malta My next shall contain an Account of the Island in general and of the Manners and Customs of its Inhabitants In the mean time I wish you good Night and am SIR Your c. Malta June 1690. LETTER XI SIR MAlta is so low an Island that 't is scarce discernible above twenty Miles off at Sea even in the clearest Weather so that many Ships pass by without perceiving it There are no Woods in it by reason of the shallowness of the Ground for the whole Island is only a dry Rock which with much ado may be made to produce something And the scarcity of Earth makes it so precious that if a Man were found stealing it out of his Neighbours Grounds he wou'd be punish'd with the utmost Severity The only Trees that grow there are Oranges Citrons Apricocks Peaches and Pomgranates which require no great depth of Earth and even these grow only in certain parts of the Island the rest being planted with Vines which bear a very delicious Grape There are also Strawberries Pastaiques and excellent Figs and a prodigious quantity of the best M●lo●s in the World which we eat as often as we please They are almost all white but sweet as Sugar and melt in the Mouth The Pastaique is a Fruit very much resembling a Citrul but not quite so big 'T is eaten raw like a Melon and melts in the Mouth Tho' it be expos'd a whole Day to the Sun-Beams it remains as fresh as if it had been kept in Snow There are two sorts of it one red and the other white The first is the best but the Buyer must take 'em at a venture as well as Melons 'T is the usual Custom when five or six Citizens meet on the publick Place to open a Score of 'em and those who have the fortune to meet with none but white ones are oblig'd to pay for the rest which they call playing at Pastaiques Malta is hotter than Rome or any other place in Europe and the stifling Heat of the Climate is so much the more insupportable because there are no cool Breezes to temper it and the Brow of the Hill is expos'd directly to the South The Peasants are as black as Egyptians for they take no care to preserve themselves from the Sun and the most scorching Heat is not able to drive 'em into their Houses or even make 'em leave off working This is an evident Demonstration of the Power of Nature in performing things that seem to be impossible For there are few things which a Man may not suffer if he be accustom'd to 'em from his Infancy as the Maltese are in this case who inure the Bodies of their Children to Heat by making 'em go stark naked without Shirt Drawers or Cap as soon as they are taken from their Mother s Breast to the Age of Ten Years so that their Skin grows as hard as Leather You will easily perceive that I speak of the Peasants and Meaner sort of the Inhabitants for all the rest cloath their Children as they do in other Countries Only to preserve themselves from the Heat they never go abroad during the hottest part of the Day and besides they cloath themselves very slightly and sleep from Noon till four a-clock The richer sort make use of a kind of Fans which are very much in fashion among Persons of Quality in Italy I mean certain Machines hung at the Ceiling about three Foot broad and usually made of some Silk Stuff stretch●d upon small and very thin Laths surrounded with Ostrich-Feathers There is also a small silken Cord fasten'd to it and drawn thro' a Hole into the Anti-chamber where a Servant is plac'd to keep the Machine playing by pulling the Cord. These Fans are usually hung over a Couch or Bed of Repose where a Man may lie and enjoy the Pleasure of Fanning as long as he pleases And sometimes one of 'em is plac'd on the Table both for Coolness and to drive away the Flies If you consider also the Sorbet Straw-berries Raspherries and all the cooling Waters us'd in Italy you will not blame me for affirming that a Rich Man may live comfortably in any Climate and easily avoid all the Inconveniencies of excessive Heat or Cold. I need not go farther than Malta for a convincing Proof of this Assertion since the violent Heat that reigns here serves only to encrease the Pleasure of being fann'd and of drinking cold Liquors with which this Island is always furnish d tho' the Winter produces neither Snow nor Ice For the Great Master takes care to supply that defect by letting out the Sale of these Commodities by way of Farm to a Man who sends every Winter to Sicily for a sufficient quantity to fill the Ice-Houses and is oblig d to furnish the Island all the Summer under pain of paying a Fine of Ten Crowns a Day in case of failure The Island of Malta is very populous and reckon'd to contain 15000 Men who are all divided into Companies They are oblig'd to wear Swords but forbidden to draw 'em under such rigorous Penalties that the natural Malice of the Inhabitants is very effectually curb●d by their Fear of Punishment Yet they sometimes venture to execute their Fury with a little Poniard or Stiletto after the Italian fashion I cannot better express the barbarity of their Temper and Inclinations than by telling you that their Humour is not different from that of the Sicilians that like them they are Treacherous and Bloody Jealous even to Madness and capable of attempting the most horrid Villanies when they are animated by that cruel Passion To convince you of the Justness of this Character 't will be sufficient to relate two Accidents that happen'd very lately for the two Principle Actors are still alive and remain in the Churches of St. Lewis and St. John whither they f●ed to avoid the just Punishment of their Crimes The first had a young handsom and loving Wife yet according to the Custom of all his Countrymen both Batchelors and marry'd Men he kept a Whore who possess'd his Heart and Soul and was so absolutely the Mistress of his Affection that without regarding his Duty to his Wife he lay every Night at her House This malicious Woman made use of the

which a pure Spirit seems incapable of feeling They believe also that the Beasts shall not be depriv'd of the benefit of the Resurrection and that at the Day of Judgment they will give an Account before CHRIST of all the Kindnesses and Injuries they have receiv'd from Men. And this Conceit makes 'em so charitable to Irrational Creatures that some of 'em buy little Birds and live Fishes that they may afterwards set 'em at liberty They fansie themselves polluted by several Things such as Sleeping the touching of a Woman and of all sorts of Excrements and therefore after any such Accident they perform their Ablution or Abdest washing their Face Hands Ears and Feet and looking towards Mecca In the Day they content themselves with washing their Mouth which they repeat as often as they have occasion to obey the necessities of Nature But after Copulation their Ablutions are much more Ceremonious for they wash their whole Body in a Bath as they do also when a drop of Wine falls upon their Garments I have seen some of 'em so extreamly Superstitious that they wou'd never afterwards wear a Vest that was pulluted with Wine tho' there are others of less scrupulous Tempers who never refuse to taste that spirituous Liquor and even some that continue Tipling till they have quite lost their Senses They Pray five times a Day in the Morning at the break of Day at Noon at Three a Clock in the Afternoon at Six in the Evening and an hour after the close of the Evening But they go only twice to the Mosquee to the Sabah in the Morning and to the Quindy at Three in the Afternoon And even many of 'em perform their public Devotions only on Friday which is their Festival-Day as Sunday is ours On that day an Iman or Priest of the Law says a Prayer and delivers a kind of Sermon or Exhortation to the Hearers But the Men are too jealous to suffer any of the Fair Sex to come to the Public Places of Worship The Turkish Lent is shorter but much more severe than that which the Catholicks observe for they neither Eat Drink nor Smoak Tobacco while the Day lasts so that this may be justly reckon'd a very mortifying Season especially when it happens to fall out it Summer considering the violent Heat that reigns throughout all Asia This Fast is call'd Ramadan and lasts Thirty Days during which time the Turks are oblig'd by the Alchoran to begin their Fast every Morning assoon as they can discern a Black Thread from a White and to continue their Abstinence till the same Hour at Night which is proclaim'd by the Muezins and Marabouts from the top of the Minare●s Then they let loose the Reins to their wild Desires spending the whole Night in Gluttony and Drunkenness and roaming about the Streets For during this Month they turn the Day into Night and the Night into Day and greedily hunt after all sorts of Pleasures to allay the severity of the Fast which notwithstanding all the Pains they take to sweeten it is very disagreeable to Flesh and Blood It ends with the Moon and every one is so impatient to see the New-Moon that releases 'em from this loath'd Constraint that they run up to the Tops of Houses and Mountains to see their Deliverer rise and assoon as they perceive her gilding the Horizon they salute her with several Bows and the Castles proclaim the glad Tidings with repeated Discharges of their Artillery The Three succeeding Days are spent in Mirth and Jollity every Man puts on his best Cloaths and entertains his Friends This is properly the Turkish Easter and is call'd the Great Bairam to distinguish it from several Feasts or Bairams of less consequence such as that of the Birth of Mahomet c. ' Twou'd be needless to tell you that they neither eat Hog's-Flesh nor drink Wine and that they cannot endure Images for these are things so commonly known and so often repeated by all the Crowd of Travellers that I cannot suppose you to be ignoront of ' em But perhaps you have not so distinct an Idea of the Charity that reigns among ' em Since they believe Alms to be the surest Atonement for Sins they neglect no occasion of buying their future Peace 'T is this Principle that excites 'em to leave considerable Legacies at their Death which according to the Will of the Deceas'd are employ'd in repairing public Fountains building Bridges or paying the Portions of Indigent Maidens I have already told you that their Charity extends even to Beasts and I shall take this occasion to add that they are particularly kind to Dogs tho' naturally they do not love 'em and keep none in their Houses Yet the Cities are full of 'em where they wander about the Streets and perpetuate their Kind like Wild Beasts They are so mangy lean and miserable that one wou'd think they cou'd not live a day and I have seen some of 'em at Constantinople so near Starving that they wou'd jump into the Sea for some Bits of Carrion which they perceiv'd at the bottom However since they cou'd not possibly live on what they find in the Streets the richer sort of Turks buy Provisions for 'em and feed 'em every Morning at their Doors with Eleemosinary Bread and Flesh They reckon it a heinous Crime to kill a Dog Cat Horse or any other Creature that is not appointed for the Food and Nourishment of Mankind For they pretend that since Man is not the Author of their Life he ought not to deprive 'em of it I shall take this occasion to relate the Story of an Accident that happen'd in this place not above eight days ago There was a Dog that us'd always to howl when he heard the Muezin calling the People to Prayers from the Minaret The Turks who are Superstitious even beyond Imagination cou'd not behold their most Holy Rites profan'd by an Impudent Cur without an extream Indignation Yet they durst not kill him for fear of offending GOD. However they found out a way to chastise the daring Criminal without provoking the Wrath of Heaven For notwithstanding all their Veneration for his Person they were loath to allow him greater Privileges than they claim for themselves After mature deliberation on such a weighty and important Case they ventur'd at last to seize him and carry him before the Cadi where they Indicted him as a Dgiahour or Christian who derided the Law of the Prophet The Evidence was so plain that after a full Hearing poor Towzer was condemn'd to be Cudgel'd to Death and the Sentence was immediately executed Perhaps the oddness of this Relation may make you suspect my Veracity so far as to imagine that I Invented it on purpose to divert you But in short you must either believe it or in plain Terms give me the Lye 'T is true I dare not warrant the truth of the Story I 'm going to tell you but since it relates to the same