Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	adoption_n	cry_v	father_n	9,732	5	5.0154	4	false

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

him At first he had but two or three of these fits in a day then they came to Four in a day constantly and so continued week by week and month by month and when Four in a day than each of them were two Hours in a day and sometimes he had half an hours respite between at other times a quarter of an hour and it m●y be one day in a Month or Five weeks without a Fit Then they altered from 4 to 5 in a day and than to 6 or 7 or 8 and so on to 20 or more in a day but then came to be shorter when more in number yet in the same manner for actions as aforesaid After he comming to be tyred out with being in the Chair he did lie down on a Bed and rising to come off his Bed both leggs would go sidewise or not at all and then his whole Body raised up two Foot Capering about in the Chamber till he fell down and then the fit left him Also he had Skipping or Iumping Fits wherein sometimes his Feet being close together his whole Body hath been lifted up and his Feet from the ground as hath been said two Foot or more sometimes right up down often at other times hath been lifted up and both his legs carried sidewise at a great distance as if he had jumped and then back again as far sidewise thus a great while together till his strength hath failed and Spirits have been spent all this time bearing himself upon a strong staff If he hath been beaten against a Wall or after his strength hath failed if a Chair hath been set behind him and he helped into it then he hath rested there untill he hath been a little revived Some Fits did begin first benumming him than shaking than skiping and some of these have lasted 4 some 5 6 or 7 hours from the beginning to the end and as some part hath been playing or stamping so the end hath been with great Violence Thus his Fits continued many Months In all these things there was occasion to Sing of Mercy and Judgment Here is Judgment not only upon the account of the Terribleness of the Fits themselves which rendered him an Object of Pity and Compassion to all who were Spectators of him therein whose hearts were not harder than Flint but also by an aggravation of this dispensation through a disablement for Religious exercises which did attend it For the first year he had some liberty to wait upon God in Prayer at some times and could hear the word Preached afterward could hear but one part of the day then could hear the Prayer and part of the Sermon and so by degrees could not hear at all Within a year and half or thereabout after his being first taken with the Fits he lost his liberty for any such act of Worship he could not attend upon God in any Religious Service● so much as a quarter of an hour without falling into Benumming Shaking and other violent Fits He could not● Pray or joyn with others in Prayer not exercise himself about the word of God or hear others Preach the word not crave a Blessing himself before eating his Meat or give thanks after it nor be present when others acted therein ●unless they were very Brief but presently he was cast into those aforementioned Torturing Fits thereby This was such a dark dispensation as put the Wisest men and those of greatest experience and understanding in the ways of God to a stand they were at a loss how to interpret these dealings of God with him that a man whose heart was so deeply ingaged for God and his Services should now be uncapable of rising up thereunto or be hindred not by a decree of Man but by the Providence of God That he who had been so many years under a new Birth yet should now be thus disabled for crying unto God that he who had so much of the Spirit of adoption as a Spiri● of Prayer should now be disabled for crying Abba to his Heavenly Father this was such a Mysterious Providence so cross to his ordinary proceeding as it was am●zing to the beholders of it But here was Mercy still in that when no such Spiritual breathings might be discerned by slanders by yet his Pulse was beating Heaven-ward in inward workings and groanings of Spirit after God and in that sedate quiet and chearful frame of Spirit that was found with him under this stupendious dispensation which manifested it self when he had any intermission that it may be said of him as of Iob of old Iob 1. v. 22. So in all this he sinned not nor charged God foolishly I might here give some account of his Experience but I shall defer that a little longer There was Mercy not only in sustaining his Soul but his body also for so soon as the Fits were off he could now eat his meat whether the fits were long or short Also he had a partial ●not a total freedom from his Fits in the latter end of the year 1662 For the space of near ten weeks and this was a great Mercy Chap. III. Of ot●er Swingling and Wringing Fits IF he were upon his Feet in the time of th● moderate shaking and made any offer to go he could go no way but backward and so he could go and hardly keep from running he could not readily stay himself if he sought to set a step forward either his trouble would strike inward and then he should look gashly as a Dead Man yet not sensible of sickness his Spirits exceedingly quenched failing and yielding as when a Man is giving up the Ghost or else he was necessitated to go sidewise in the manner aforementioned Or else he was Swing●ed round round round till he fell down if none were by him to hold him up If any attempted to stay him when he was in the said motion and before he was ready to fall he so attempting though a strong man would also be swingled round round like a Feather untill he fell off Yet at some times before Swingling if he would force himself to stand still he could but if he would go it must be those ways stirring sometimes to go forward two or three steps he should be forced as many more backward and sometimes his leggs crossed thus he hath tryed half an hour together and could not get forward the breadth of a house but giving liberty to himself then to go backward he could go with great swiftness that way Sometimes lifting up his foot to go streight on his leg hath been lifted up a great height and must stand there he could not get it down again whilst one might go near forty paces this was but seldom the other often In the Winter 1693. then it came to a Continual shaking like a Palsy head and body and not many violent Fits but shaking all the day long from the time of his rising till night six or seven a Clock and then went off