Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	scripture_n	write_v	2,669	5	5.3981	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54590	A faithful narrative of the wonderful and extraordinary fits which Mr. Tho. Spatchet (late of Dunwich and Cookly) was under by witchcraft, or, A mysterious providence in his even unparallel'd fits with an account of his first falling into, behaviour under, and (in part) deliverance out of them : wherein are several remarkable instances of the gracious effects of fervent prayer / the whole drawn up and written by Samuel Petto ... who was an eye-witness of a great part ; with a necessary preface.	Petto, Samuel, 1624?-1711.	1693 (1693)	Wing P1897; ESTC R181742	29,299	38

with a sharp shaking Fit At the beginning of the shaking he could neither eat nor drink nor all the day long till it was off at night about six a Clock afterward he could eat if he would walk up and down in the House eating If he felt those nippings in his head he must keep it in his Mouth untill the fear and amazement was over and then chew aud swallow it down and thus by degrees he could eat a Supper but if he ceased walking and sate down as many times he did for tryal by that time he had eaten 8 or 9 Morsels either he could not rise off the Seat he fate on or could not speak or else could not keep the Seat by reason of Violent shaking and thus it continued about 16 or 17 Weeks Some that sympa●hized with him in this condition did set some time apart to wait upon God in Prayer on his behalf and then was there a cessation of these Fits as an Eminent return of Prayer After that for the space of ten days he had a respite an intermission or breathing time a little reviving in this Bondage and then they came to their former course again as to stamping shaking and skipping in the usual manner but not exceeding 8 Fits in a Week whereas before he had 8 or 10 or 12 or more in a day this was in the Summer time Afterwards they ceased from shaking Fits and came to Wringing Fits His Hands lying one upon or in another would Wring one out of the other and then the fore finger would rise up first and so the rest one after another till all met viz. the Fore-finger of one hand with the fore-finger of the other hand the Second finger of one hand with the second of the other and so for the rest at some times they would be spread abroad finger from finger of the same hand so wide as if one would have been rent from the other When they were all met as aforesaid then they would gradually by a slow motion be raised above the Crown of his hat till his hands clasped both together fast about his Neck and then were Immovable till they did of their own accord remove and then they were wrung Backward and the Palms of his hands turned upward at his Back and then were carried by degrees under his Arm-holes till they met right behind and were carried up to his Shoulders with much Pain and so as a Crashing about the Joynts hath been heard by standers by these Fits are so Terrible as he felt them a great while after and doth to this Day then they were brought back again the one hand to his Mouth then to his Eye and the other stretched out as if he had been shooting in a Bow drawing it to the utmost after tha● one hand would be carried right up as high as possible spread open and the other right down at the same time till it hath woun'd about part of the Chair afterward that which was upward came downward and that which was downward went upward as before then sometimes wrung about with various motions unutterable as if his Arms would have been wre●ted re●t and torn from his Body After ●his his hands would be still unless he forced them to his Thighs and then they would fly out and beat one against another very smartly and he dur●● not seek to alter the motion Or if one hand did at any time get hold of the other it was so wrung as if it would tear it in pieces If any did seek to hold him in a Chair though he were a man of strength yet he was easily cast off and it added to his affliction made it the more fierce if any attempted to stop the Motion Above half an hour would these Wringing Fits continue and all that while no shaking When his hands had done then his head was wrung the one way and his mouth the other contrary way the former so far till he did see right behind him and there stood a Considerable time then his head would be turned the other way till he saw right behind and his Mouth not so drawn and thus backward and forward Five or Six times after that his head would be still and his Body wrung almost off the Chair and then the Fit ceased His Legs have some times been drawn under the Foot of the Chair and there set fast for a Considerable time Every Day he had one of these Fits Some Christian Friends being deeply affected with his Condition did betake themselves again to Prayer where he was present and was in all those Motions in the time of Prayer he was put upon kneeling down and did so for some time and had as he phraseth it a Nip in his Head whereupon he started up and almost struck one down which stood by yet the work of Prayer went on He was then put upon bowing his Body without pulling off his Hat and moving his Hand like a great Complimenter also upon drawing as at a Bow Skipping Wringing and such like being set on a Chair endeavoured to gather up his Legs being turned sidewise and his Head was Bowed backward his Mouth strained wide open at such a distance as if his Jaws should have been ●ent asunder his Tongue being doubled in his Mouth his whole Body was hoysed up being set down again in the Chair he brake forth into Roaring out in a hideous and Dreadful manner till he was almost spent and like a dying-man and another while he made a blowing with his Mouth and Nostrils that the noise thereof was like that of the Smiths Bellows when stirred which Actions were a gre●t disturbance yet they went on in seeking the Lord till he sate still and quietly among them and although he heard but the sound of the Words could not give attention or use affection by reason of his Extremities in his Fits Yet the Lord appeared here also as a God hearing prayers and was intreated by others for him so far as that from that very day for the spac● of two and twenty weeks he had a freedom from Shaking Wringing fits ●nly when he hath adventured to joyn with others in Prayer or such exercises he hath found such disablement and shatterings as were first mentioned but injoyed immunity f●om those dreadful fits which before he was molested with Also he had an enlargement of his Spiritual Liberty in some degree from this time for whereas for a great while together he could not read four verses of a Chapter nor hardly write his o●n name without dreadful affrightments and amazements loss of Speech and other sad symptoms that Summer and especially since that two and twenty weeks he hath been able to rea● either the Scriptures or other Books sometimes an hour together and could also write mostly without weariness Before I pass on I shall briefly hint what the frame of his Spirit was as to matter of experience under these terrible dispensations He was