Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	blood_n	body_n	heat_n	1,625	5	7.9919	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65590	The enthusiasm of the church of Rome demonstrated in some observations upon the life of Ignatius Loyola.	Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.	1688 (1688)	Wing W1562; ESTC R29269	103,143	170

prayed earnestly against his Wish and by good fortune the Confessor died before him Alas What a loss did the immature Death of Eguia bring to Christendom Such a loss no doubt the World had before suffered in the case of Don Quixot a great part of whose most noble Adventures were not mentioned in the Records of Mancha Ambition is the chief and fundamental Quality of an affected Enthusiast that Ignatius was eminently endued with it we have now proved Other accedaneous Qualities are required to constitute a compleat Fanatick which were not wanting in our Saint I shall instance only in two weakness of Body and want of Judgment The first is commonly antecedent to and in some measure the cause of Enthusiasm but must necessarily be contracted by those immoderate Fermentations and Commotions of the Blood which attend the Extasies of Enthusiasts which may for a time confer an unusual Vigour upon the Body but when the Heat is expired and the Tempest calmed leave it languid and dejected The Production and Conservation of a strong and irregular Imagination by gross and impure Spirits supposeth a vehement Indisposition of the Body and general Corruption of Blood which also that very Imagination promotes and augments And this alone might unanswerably detect all the Illusions and Impostures of Enthusiasts who pretend to intellectual Visions and divine Raptures For if those Visions were indeed purely intellectual no extraordinary motion of the Body would attend them whereas the violent Ebullition of the Spirits which accompany these pretended Visions of Enthusiasts demonstrate them to be wholly owing to their Imaginations and disturbed Brains Thus St. Phillip Neri being often overflowed with celestial Pleasures was forced to fall flat upon the Ground and rowl himself to and fro And in praying his whole Body was wont so much to Quake and Tremble as would cause the Chamber to shake and the Stools in it to dance about Nay once this shaking proceeded so far that the poor Saint broke two of his Ribs by it Ignatius began his fits of Devotion in a violent Fever and ever after maintained them in a weak and crazy Body In his Retirement into the Vale of Paradice where he enjoyed such extraordinary Raptures he impaired his Health so far in a few days that his Friends searching for him found him in a Swound which wmmediately followed by a desperate Fever In his Meditations and Raptures he poured forth so great an abundance of Tears that he was often very near blinded by it In all his Extasies his Body was wonderfully weakned By reciting Mass wherin he always pretended to receive a flood of Consolations he often became so languid that he was forced to be carried to his Chamber upon the Shoulders of other Men not being able to stand upon his own Legs for weakness Sometimes in praying or celebrating Mass he burned with such vehement Heat that all the Parts of his Body seemed to be on Fire his Face grew red as Scarlet his Pulse beat violently and all his Veins swelled through the extraordinary Fermentation of his Blood and the hair of his Head stood upright Or as another Author expresseth it His Countenance was inflamed in praying and commonly in the heat of his Devotion he had very violent Palpitations of Heart and frequent Raptures withal he poured out a Torrent of Tears till he obtained of God by Prayer that he might be able to restrain his Tears but when they were kept in he felt in his Soul an Inundation of spiritual Delight From which last words it is manifest That he mistook the extraordinary motion of his Blood which commonly produceth a grateful sentiment of Pleasure for spiritual Delights since from the restrainment of his Tears no other effect could follow than that the motion not being allayed by an Evacuation of Tears should continue longer in its first Vigour To mention no more our Saint Whensoever he thought of Death and the Love of God had such furious motions in his Heart that his Health was exceedingly injured for a long while after After so many manifest Indications of a violent and disturbed Imagination we cannot with any shew of reason ascribe his spiritual Delights and Visions to the serene and calm Operation of the Holy Ghost but must impute them to the Phantomes of his Brain an effect which naturally followed his method of Devotion and Meditation insomuch as Peter Faber having wholly resigned up himself to his Conduct and to the Rules prescribed in his Book of Spiritual Exercises felt such fervour in his Meditations that he was forced often to go down from his Chamber into a little Court to take fresh Air and cool his Brains Ignorance and Weakness of Understanding is so necessary a quality to those Enthusiasts who are perswaded of the truth and reality of their Dreams and Visions such as Ignatius seems to have been at least in the former part of his Life that without it Enthusiasm could gain neither Admission nor Belief even in their own Breasts For this reason St. Philip Neri Above all things endeavoured that his Disciples should suppress in themselves the too nice Inquisitions of the rational Intellect and often said it was the Abridgment of all Spiritual Life to lay aside Reason and Arguings This affected Ignorance not only disposeth them to submit their Judgment to the Direction of an irrational Imagination and resign up their Conduct to the fortuitous Impulse of irregular Motions in the Body but also disables them from discovering the Folly and false Ideas of Enthusiasm from perceiving that nothing can be more contrary to the genius of Christianity than Fanaticism that right Reason is the greatest Ornament as well as Perfection of Mankind that whatsoever violates the Laws of Decency and Sobriety cannot be Divine and instead of merit that God is dishonoured by ridiculous Actions and irrational Austerities The great Founders of Monastick Orders are observed to have been Ignorant and Stupid to a Prodigy and Ignatius far from being Ambitious to surpass them in Learning thought it meritorious to be more ignorant than them all He judged it a great Perfection to be esteemed a Fool and made it one of his chief Maxims that whoever would do great things in Gods Cause must have a care of being too wise Nature it seems had taken care that he should not be too wise if the Writers of his Life do not foully misrepresent him Vitelleschi saith plainly That he was an Ideot Bouhours That he was but meanly instructed in the Mysteries of the Faith. Maffeius That he had scarce learning enough to preserve him from Heresy Orlandinus That he was devoid of all Learning He was so far indeed conscious of his own Ignorance that he put himself to School and bestowed many years in learning Philosophy and the Latin Tongue but all his Labour met with small success his natural Stupidity was too prevalent for the greatest Industry In the