Selected quad for the lemma: death_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	body_n	dissolution_n	soul_n	4,521	5	5.4874	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57186	A discourse upon prodigious abstinence occasioned by the twelve moneths fasting of Martha Taylor, the famed Derbyshire damosell : proving that without any miracle, the texture of humane bodies may be so altered, that life may be long continued without the supplies of meat & drink : with an account of the heart, and how far it is interessed in the business of fermentation / by John Reynolds ...	Reynolds, John, of Kings-Norton.	1669 (1669)	Wing R1314; ESTC R10543	24,717	44

Sulphur also Likewise it must be granted that there is an actual heat abiding in us whilest we live and somewhile after death this is obvious to the sence of feeling it self this is the heat as I conceive joyn'd with the primogenite humour to which Aristotle ascribes life it self But yet Sir I am somewhat doubtfull whether this heat be properly cal'd calor vivens though the great Riverius term it so or an immediate cause of life though an Aristotle himself pronounce it so For certainly Holy Writ ascribes life to the blood the blood is the life thereof and death to a dissolution of the compositum the body returns to the dust and the spirit to God that gave it But of this dissolution I suppose the soul is not ordinarily the cause but the body and what part of the body may more justly be challenged to be the Parent if I may so phrase it of death than the blood which is in a famous sense the parent of life So then most killing distempers must arise from the excessive multiplication consumption or depravation of the blood and the pernicious effects thereof yet mistake me not this hinders not other parts of the body bowels and humours to be often peccant as undoubtedly they are by infecting the blood and receiving infections morbifick from it Moreover this heat continues some hours without life even after the dissolution and as it is without life so is life often found without it as not only in some Vegetables as Lettuce Hemlock Cucumbers c. but in Animals as Frogs and Fish which are said to be actually cold and the Salamander reputed cold in a high degree This heat may possibly be but the effect of matter and motion i. e. of the blood or before it of the seed impregnated with active principles which through their activity and heterogeneity suffer mutual collisions or fermentations whence ebullition and thence this heat which is by circulation not only promoted but also convey'd to all parts of the body and by the same causes preserved which possibly may prove the summe of Riverius's implanted and influent heat These things presupposed 't will not be impossible to guess that this heat is no such Coelestial fire as the most famous Fernelius would have it but only the igneous result of the combinations and commotions of the most active elementary Principles and if there be any other heat it may prove to be according to the conjecture of great Riverius the product of the immateriate soul but of that I understand little only this is unquestionable that the caelestial Soul chooseth for its more immediate organs the most subtiliated spirituous and active parts of matter such as the vital and animal spirits and the heat before mentioned which seems to be of the same Genius and all but the mechanick productions of various fermentations percolations and distillations in the humane Engine Wherefore I shall crave leave to dismiss this fire till we come to discourse of Fermentations And so I pass on the next flame which is the Biolychnium or the actual flame of the blood kindled in the heart asserted both by Antients and Moderns of astonishing titles and tremendous veneration which devouring flame if once kindled will quickly depredate all the oleaginous aliment if not renewed by frequent and plentifull assumptions but therefore 't is greatly suspected to have no existence in our bodyes because in these Jejunants it must needs extinguish for want of Sulphureous supplyes and produce death to those that have liv'd long enough to help to entombe it 'T is strange to me that provident Nature should require such vast supplyes both of meat and drink out of which to extract a small quantity nutritious juice which with divers Ferments Colatures Emunctories and rapid motions it endeavours to exalt and defecate and yet after all should expose what she hath attain'd of purity and activity and consequently of noblest use by her unparallel'd artifices cost and toil to the improvident disposal of wastfull flames for indeed flames are great wasters as appears in the preparation of the Balsom of Sugar c. no less wonderfull it is that a flame should continually burn in the heart and yet the fleshy walls thereof not boiled roasted nor so much as a fuliginous or cineritious colour imparted But lest Sir you should be confident that this perennial slame scorns an extinction by these few drops I therefore commend to your observation those numerous and plentifull buckets that are poured thereupon by the dexterous hand of the very learned and candid Dr. Needham But yet lest you should be so far praepossessed by the determinations of venerable antiquity as to reject this new Doctrine and avowedly maintain this unseen fire I shall therefore adde 1. That this Flame can be but small through the defect of bodily exercise and freer ventilations these fasters being mostly close Prisoners as also of strong fermentations therefore the less the Lamp the less Oyl will sustain it 2. Through the defect of heat the pores are bolted and transpiration restrained whence a scarce credible quantity of moisture is retained which returning both by Veins and Lymphaticks gives no contemptible quantity of food to this fire 3. Through the restraint of Transpiration the igneous particles are secur'd from their excursions to the great increase of intestine heat for in feeders the loss of transpiration often kindles in the blood a feaverish fire 4. The Air as impregnated sometimes especially entring by the mouth the nose and pores in parts passing the various concoctions may be converted into a humour not altogether inept to preserve the lingring life of this dying flame 5. In pituitous bodies the abundance of flegme through the various concoctions which it undergoes in the body may become usefull in the room of more proper aliment to this analogous Lamp in its Table-supplyes which flegme though some reject as excrementitious yet I suppose they do it only when consideration is from home of its usefulness in the mastication of our food wherein as some say lyes the first concoction at least therein lyes the main preparation for the grand concoction in the ventricle the constant mixture of our food with our spittle in the Jaw-mill may enforce some considering men to think that 't is nearer of kin to our natural moisture than hath been formerly acknowledged 6. The colliquation of the parts of these emaciated bodies may yield Oyl to these Lamps as 't is usually affirmed in Hectick feavers besides if fire be nothing but an innumerable host of sulphurous atomes breaking the Prisons of their former compositions with other heterogeneities then certainly all fire is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for nothing of that Sulphur remains it leaves only the heterogenious Principles with which it was combin'd 7. 'T is probable that the moisture of these jejune bodies is much not only condens'd by their cold but also loaded with terrestreities through the

hurt thereby and of another that lived 10 years waking Seneca reports that Maecenas lived three years without sleep and at last was recovered by musick 2. But I affirm not that our Jejunants are Vigilants and therefore adde that though these persons receive no external food yet airy condensations and concretions the flegmatick humours colliquations of the parts c. afford matter for such vapours and so much the more plentifully because they are environ'd with a thick wall whose very ●revises and much more gates and publick out-lets are so close shut up and barricado'd that these troops of Exhalations that were wont to be dispersed are now crouded together which assaulting the brain may do much to bind up her common sense 3. It seems probable by Apoplectical Dormitators that a cold humour lodged in the brain is a great causer of sleep and why such a humour may not lodge in a sufficient proportion in these constipated brains to procure intermitting sleeps I see not 4. 'T is apparent that Narcoticks as Opium and in their measure Wines Tobacco c. provoke sleep not by any cold quality for they are all prov'd to be hot but 't is probable by adding such a ferment to the blood as renders the spirits separated in the brain more torpid ignave and consequently inept to motion and the execution of their offices or which is almost the same thing as renders the blood inept for separation of spirits in the brains Alembick whence the wearied spirits for want of fresh supplies are be●almed and quiescent So then if the humours in the bodies of these Abstinents should haply partake of these Narcotick sulphurs they may prove somniferous without the elevation of fumes from digesting food But Sir lest you should be startled at this unphilosophical discourse in representing sleep rather as a non-emission of spirits from the brains than a non-immission of them to the brain from the external sences and consequently as a negation of action rather than of passion I crave leave to minde you that I am not only deficient in the beard but much more in the brain of some very great Philosophers who rank not only the external sences but the first internal or common sence in the predicament of passions which I confess I cannot understand because I know that when devout persons are taken up in divine services though their eyes be wide open and presented with various objects yet they see them not because they mind them not likewise when diligent Students are intent on their books they hear not the Clock that strikes at their ears and sound sleepers with lethargical persons feel not the pulling and haling of their friends that would awake them c. From whence I conjecture that though objects act ad ultimum virium upon the external sences in imprinting their species yet that causeth not sensation except there be an actual attendance of the sensitive spirits upon the sensible objects a framing of their effigies or species and a conveyance thereof to the understanding Can you imagine that Columbus his journey to the Indies his surveying that unknown World and returning a map thereof to his own Countrey-men was a meer passion of his and only the action of a novel Jig of American Atoms or Camden's perambulation through all the Coasts of this Island with his observations thereon which he digested into a valuable volume was meerly his suffering but wholly the doing of subtile spirits and aethereal globules magically charm'd into a once happy combination But to return 5. Cold juices as of Housleek Lettuce Violets c. will conduce to our sleep and 't is not to be doubted but the Juices in these bodies may be cold enough to effect the same 6. The animal spirits in these persons being but languid are the less active and consequently can give the fewer repulses to the insinuating courtships of somniferous causes 7. The spirits of these languishers 't is probable are scant and defective and therefore easily tyred by their constant operations and consequently easily perswaded either by a command of the Heaven-born Soul or an Exhalation from the earthy body to yield to this temporary death 8. Great security of minde pleasing Fancies either from Imagination such as some of these are said to be swell'd withall or from the sences affected by Musick dropping waters gliding Rivers whistling winds c. are usuall promoters of insensation By all which you may perceive that there are more doors 〈◊〉 our Bedchambers than one Thus Sir to satisfie your curiosity I have travel'd somewhat an unbeaten yet not altogether unpleasant path and that I might not return these fruits of my travels as jejune and sterile as the Countrey visited I have therefore taken a slight view of some of the Monuments of Antiquity as also of the stately superstructures of the new modell that occurred in our Journey yet there is one thing remaining that should have been premised and that is an exact history of our Damosell but that you cannot expect because you did not demand and I suppose you did not demand because you knew I was unable to perform yet that I might not seem to build on the sands I shall present you with a short Narrative receiv'd since I began this Discourse from a person of known ingenuity and honesty and therefore most worthy of credit This Abstinent is one Martha Taylor a young Damosell born of mean Parentage inhabiting not far from Bakewell in Darbyshire who receiving a blow on the back from a Milner became a prisoner to her bed for several dayes which being expired she obtained some enlargement for a time but by encreasing distempers was quickly remanded to her bed-prison again where continuing some time she found at last a defect in her Gula and quickly after a dejection of appetite so that about the 22. of December Anno 1667. she began to abstain from all solid food and so hath continued except something so small at the seldome ebbings of her distemper as is altogether inconsiderable till within a fortnight before the date hereof which amounts to thirteen months and upwards as also from all other sorts both of meats and drinks except now and then a few drops of the Syrup of stew'd Prunes Water and Sugar or the juice of a roasted Raisin c. but these repasts are used so seldom and in such very small quantities as are prodigiously insufficient for sustentation she evacuates nothing by urine or stool she spits not that I can hear of but her lips are often dry for which cause she takes water and sugar with a feather or some other Liquids but the palms of her hands are often moist her countenance fresh and lively her voice cleer and audible in discourse she 's free her belly ●●ap'd to her back-bone so that it may be felt through her Intestines whence a great cavity is admitted from the Gartilago ensiformis to the Navil and though her upper parts be less emaciated