Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	1,656	5	10.4255	5	true

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17888	A spirituall combat a tryall of a faithfull soule or consolation in temptation. Written in French by I.P. Camus Bishope of Belley, and translated into English by M.C. P. of the Eng. Coll. of Doway.; Lutte spirituelle, ou encouragement à une âme tentée de l'esprit de blasphème et d'infidélité. English.	Camus, Jean-Pierre, 1584-1652.; Carre, Thomas, 1599-1674.	1632 (1632)	STC 4553; ESTC S107507	60,746	308

betooke your selfe to pious bookes especially those which doe treate of temptations and of the meanes to put them to flight or to vanquish them As the PHILOTHEE of our B. Father the Spirituall workes of Grenado Point ALVEREZ RODRIGVEZ and the like And as great fires are enkindled by the same wind which doth extinguish litle weake ones so you apprehend that your greife gathers strength from the very meanes which you vse ether to lessen or loose it Following your Directours Counsell you haue multiplied the hearbe Borith which is that whereof the Fullers make vse to take spotts out of cloth I meane you haue had recurse to the sacred exercises of Penance and mortification knowing that a contrite and humble hart * is the greatest present which can be offered vnto God You haue extraordinarily frequented the vse of prayer reading spiritualitie of the Sacraments of Confession and the Euchariste with due attention to the word of God being all of them soueraigne Antidotes to strengtheÌ„ assaulted Faith In a word there is no practise of deuotion whether counselled by writing or word of mouth whether inspired or found out by your owne vnderstanding being opened by vexation which you haue not imployed opportunely importunely to make those horrible thoughts vanish away which like a broode of vipers doe threaten their parents death according to that which the Psalmist saith of him who hath conceaued iniquitie ingendred greife and brought forth iniustice To what Saintes did you not make vowes to be deliuered of those importune motions which keepe a continuall bussing in the Temple of your hart which being consecrated vnto God by Pietie that raignes therin ought onely to be adorned with Sanctitie not admitting any thing that is profane or defiled since the Temple of the Citie of God had a priuiledge that it should not be disturbed with any of those lothsome beastes What violent endeauours haue you not vsed like another ABRAHAM to driue away those rauinous birds from aboue your interiour sacrifices How oft haue you taken your hart as it were in both your hands to force it to produce Actes of a liuely Faith and quickned with Charitie to repelle the firie dartes of the midday-Diuell who doth dazle your eyes with his execrable illusioÌ„s Me thinkes I see my Theopiste vseing all kind of defence in this skrimish imploying as it were his whole man vpon it inuokeing Heauen and earth to this succour Heauen which seemes to be Brasse to him and the earth iron and God pittifull and rich in mercy becomes cruell and inexorable to him Being thus abandoned he is burdensome to himselfe his sinnes as he thinkes multiplied beyond number doe oppresse him as a heauie loade Euen Giants would grone vnder so many waters of anguish And his greatest torture is the verie same which affected Iob who complayned of nothing so much as to find himselfe contrarie to God euen while God himselfe a thing farre from his conceipt calld him iust vpwaight and a man full of a chaste feare Happy estate and signe of Gods fauour CHAP. VI. MY deare THEOPISTE the ey which seeth all things sees not it selfe so blind we are in our owne deedes Whence Phicitions and Aduocates doe rather referre their owne deseases and suites to the iudgement of some other of the same professions then to their owne directions I doe not wonder that the wayes of of God which are Mercy Truth and Iudgement are as farre beyond our reach and capacity as the Heauen is distant from the earth And if the thoughtes of our imaginations be so different sithens in that which you now propose vnto me the opinion which I constantly imbrace of you is so far different from your owne and that which you tearme Gods Iustice Rigour and abondoning of you I consider as Gods Grace Benignity Bounty and Mercy to your soule O my dearest THEOPIST if you knew the gift of God * his hand which now seemes so heauy vnto you would appeare light and you would perceaue that that sweete and fauorable hand doth sustaine you by the right hand and doth leade you in the way of his will to conduct you to his Glory These temptations which doe essay and affray you and which you take for torents that doe violently beare away your Faith are to me as so many honorable argument of your loyalty and your wounds in this good Combat of Faith as the Apostle calls it appeare in mine eyes so many glorious markes and euen this also vnlesse I deceaue my selfe will be the iudgement of all those that loue and setue God and who haue any experience in this interiour commotion and Combat which is raysed not against flesh and blood but against the powres of darkenesse and spirituall malice You curse and I blesse it and though I would curse it yet should it be no more in my power then it was in Balaam's to fasten his imprecations vpon the Armie of Israel Why are we ignorant that he who like vnto your selfe doth range himselfe in the discipline of God is to prepare his soule against temptation * as the wise man said and the Angell to the good Tobie because thou wast aggreable to God it was necessary marke this word that temptation should trie thee * Who knowes not that the trees which are most shaken with the winds doe spread their rootes more deeply into the ground that incense doth not smell but when it is burnt that the Vine is not fruitfull vnlesse it be prun'd that a souldiers vallour doth onely appeare in dangerous exploites nor doth vertue shew its solidity but by resisting its contrarie Take courage THEOPISTE thou walkest in good companie No saincte doth serue for a liuely stone in the celestiall Citie which was not squared cut carued in the quarrie of this world by temptatioÌ„ And the Saint of Saintes was he not tempted in the desert Yea and that in all things as saith his great Apostle euen to that great abandoning whereof he complaines and with a loude voice cries out vpon the Crosse And the same Apostle speaking of the members of his misticall body to witt the faithfull saith he not after the great wonders of Faith which he racounts in the eleaueÌ„th chapter of his Epistle to the Hebrewes some were stoned others hewed all were tempted and many put to death by diuers sorts of punishmeÌ„ts or banished dispersed into diuers parts of the world forsaken afflicted tormented wandering in deserts and mountaines and rockie dennes the world being vnworthy of their presence and by their sundrie tribulations they bore testimonie to Faith and gaue a triall of their fidelitie You apprehend peraduenture THEOPISTE that I flatter your griefe and that to asswage it by the leuitiue of consolation I vse these discourses more delightfull then true and that mine aime is to inchante that Aspe * with pleasing passages which notwithstanding you apprehend doth kill you and doth extinguish the light of your faith with her could poison and the

dreadfull Giant who in his brauadoes threatened to make him haulkes meate I doe not affirme that the Actes of Meditation are not good weapons weapons as S. PAVLE saith of our spirituall warefare able to ouerthrow the enemy * But as it happens often that those that are ouerburthened with too heauie armour doe fall downe vnder the waight of them and are lesse able and actiue in the fight theÌ„ though they were but armed with light armour so in spirituall Combates the multiplicitie of actes contrarie to the vice wherwith we are tempted doe more oppresse then succour the soule and with the simple acte of Contemplation it giues a more victorious blow then with the varietie of others All those litle Actes are like vnto the dew dropes or perles which the nighte's freshnesse vpon the Aurora's approach doth spread ouer the face of the earth wherwith it is but superficially watered but the act of Contemplation resembles a full flood which ouerflowing it's baÌ„kes doth throughly water the whole feilds and sinkes euen into the tree rootes The Father of a possessed person as S. MARKE doth teach vs in his Ghospell brought his soÌ„ne vnto our Sauiour beseeching him to deliuer his child from the wicked spirit which did torment him and said vnto him I beleeue Ã´ Lord helpe myne incredulitie This word of Faith inuoking the Diuine assistaÌ„ce inuited our Sauiour's sweetnesse to be mercyfull vnto him If you could but once THE OPISTE recollect all the powers of your soule in the vnitie of your spirit and with a louly and louing aspect expresse before God this onely word I beleeue with as much heate of the will as light of the vnderstanding I doubt not but ether this Spirit of Blasphemie would depart froÌ„ you or if by the Diuine permission he should persiste to persecute you it would be to bring the verie vertue which he seekes to ruinate to a greater perfection in you Exercise your selfe therfor with care and attention in this interiour recollection and in this act of simple Contemplation which is that eye of the doue washed in the milke of meekenesse and mourneing ouer the floodes of afflictions and you shall see God will restore you your wished Peace and will place you in a plentifull deepe repose * calling you into the holes of the rocke into the holow places of the wall An act of Contemplation CHAP. XI BVt what is this holow place Marrie Contemplation but in a higher degree then the former and which doth extend it selfe not to the hight of passiue Contemplation which depends not of him that doth plante and water but of the onely mercy of God * who giues that grace to whom he pleaseth the Spirit being free to blow whet it will * a hight which I will in no sort striue to touch THEOPISTE but such an one as will beare you vp vpon the wings of the Doue * that is of Grace to the highest point to which that actiue ContemplatioÌ„ can raise a truely faithfull soule one that is holily inamoured of the soueraigne good * Now which is this high point this supreame degree but that whereof the diuine S. DENIS the Areopagite the Apostle of France speakes in these tearmes to the Bishope of Ephesus TIMOTHEE in the first Chap. of his booke of misticall Diuinity As for you my deare Timothee applying your selfe with an attentiue and recollected study to misticall speculations forsake both sense and intellectuall operations all sensible and intelligible things all things that are and those that are not too and after an vnknowen manner rayse vp your selfe words that doe point out an actiue CoÌ„templation proceeding from our owne endeuours assisted by Gods grace without which we are able to doe nothing rayse vp your selfe as much as you can possibly to his vnion who is beyond all essence and knowledge for being disintangled from your-selfe all things all which you haue forsaken and cleared your selfe of with a purely free issue you shall be carried vp to the super-essentiall raye of the diuine darknesses * Hitherto are the words of this great Sainte whom all the misticall diuines behold as their light Words of gold and which would not onely merit to be written in marble but vpon the harts of all those that make profession of a spirituall and contemplatiue life Here is no place to explicate them I doe but onely represent them to your eye or rather to your mynd THEOPISTE to th'eÌ„d that you might note by the way the high and inaccessible couert or hole where you are to take vp your refuge if your desire with the doue to saue your selfe from the Hawkes tallon which by the teÌ„ptation of infidelity doth so eagerly pursue you You shall find out this refuge if during the storme renouÌ„cing all the operations of your sense reason of the inferiour superiour part of the soule as well sensitiue as reasonable you retire and betake your selfe into your inmost chaÌ„ber the Center bottome point and vnity of your Spirit into the essence of your soule for all these termes signifie the same thing amongst the misticall Diuines And there in the high silence and repose of all your exteriour and interiour faculties you be quiete see that God is God* you taste and see how sweete he is * And if in a close vnion you adheare to him by a liuely faith this adhesion will make you one same spirit with him according to that of the Apostle he that adheares vnto God is made one spirit with him * Thus shall you imitate the shells of the Sea which that they may not be the billowes game cleaue to the Rocke as soone as they perceaue the teÌ„pest approch remaining there immoueable and vnuariable and you shall cleaue to God you shall hold him and not let him goe like to the Spouse in the Canticles you shall tye your selfe to the pillar firmameÌ„t of Truth * the holy Church which doth propose vnto vs his oracles a pillar against which all the Gates and Powers of Hell shall neuer be able to preuaile * This is that secrete to you * or rather which is in you wherof the Prophete speaketh whither you may retire your selfe neere vnto God who is present to the most inward corner of your hart as all the Contemplatiues hold in a most peculiar manner This is the couert of his countenance vnder which we may shelter our selues froÌ„ the violence of contradictions and temptations no otherwise then litle sucking children who doe thrust into and hide themselues in their mothers bosome wheÌ„ any thing feares them This is the denne where DAVID persecuted by SAVLE hidde himselfe and where his very enemy fell into his power This it that great City of Refuge that Sanctuary where you may free your selfe from your inuisible enemies and where they are not permitted entrie This is that high place that sharpe toppe of the Rocke where the Eagles build their nest * as IOB saith And that most high

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