Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	soul_n	whole_a	13,673	5	5.8632	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38573	Witt against wisdom, or, A panegyrick upon folly penn'd in Latin by Desiderius Erasmus ; render'd into English.; Moriae encomium. English	Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536.; Kennett, White, 1660-1728.	1683 (1683)	Wing E3215; ESTC R15011	99,706	204

death till his second coming we are hereby to represent by the vanquishing and burying our vile affections that they may arise to a newness of Life and be united first each to other then all to Christ. These are the actions and meditations of the truly pious person while the Vulgar place all their Religion in crowding up close to the Altar in listning to the words of the Priest and in being very circumspect at the observance of each trifling Ceremony Nor is it in such cases only as we have here given for Instances but through his whole course of Life that the Pious man without any regard to the baser materials of the body spends himself wholly in a fix'd intentness upon Spiritual invisible and eternal objects Now since these persons stand off and keep at so wide a distance between themselves it is customary for them both to think each other mad And were I to give my opinion to which of the two the name does most properly belong I should I confess adjudge it to the Religious of the reasonableness whereof you may be farther convinced if I proceed to demonstrate what I formerly hinted at namely that That ultimate happiness which Religion proposes is no other than some sort of Madness First therefore Plato dreamt somewhat of this nature when he tells us that the Madness of Lovers was of all other dispositions of the body most desireable for he who is once throughly smitten with this Passion lives no longer within himself but has removed his soul to the same place where he has settled his affections and looses himself to find the object he so much dotes upon This straying now and wandring of a soul from its own mansion what is it better than a plain transport of Madness What else can be the meaning of those Proverbial phrases Non est apud se He is not Himself Ad te redi Recover your self and Sibi redditus est He is come again to Himself And accordingly as Love is more hot and eager so is the Madness thence ensuing more incurable and yet more happy Now what shall be that future happiness of glorified Saints which pious Souls here on Earth so earnestly groan for but only that the Spirit as the more potent and prevalent victor shall over-master and swallow up the body and that the more easily because while here below the several members by being mortified and kept in subjection were the better prepared for this saparating change and afterward the Spirit it self shall be lost and drown'd in the abyss of Beatisick Vision so as the whole Man will be then perfectly beyond all its own bounds and be no otherwise happy than as transported into Extasie and wonder it feels some unspeakable influence from that Omnipotent Being which makes all things completely blessed by assimilating them to its own likeness Now although this happiness be then only consummated when Souls at the general Resurrection shall be re-united to their Bodies and both be cloathed with Immortality Yet because a Religious life is but a continued meditation upon and as it were a Transcript of the Joys of Heaven therefore to such persons there is allowed some rellish and foretast of that pleasure here which is to be their reward hereafter And although This indeed be but a small pittance of satisfaction compared with that future inexhaustible fountain of Blessedness yet does it abundantly overballance all world ly delights were they all in conjunction set off to their best advantage so great is the precedency of Spiritual things before Corporeal of Invisible before Material and Visible This is what the Apostle gives an eloquent description of where he says by way of encouragement That Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive those things which God hath prepared for them that love him This likewise is that better part which Mary chose which shall not be taken from her but perfected and completed by her mortal putting on immortality Now those who are thus devoutly affected though few there are so undergo somewhat of strange alteration which very nearly approaches to Madness They speak many things at an abrupt and incoherent rate as if they were actuated by some possessing Daemon they make an inarticulate noise without any distinguishable sense or meaning they sometimes skrew and distort their faces to uncouth and antick looks at one time beyond measure chearful then as immoderately sullen now sobbing then laughing and soon after sighing as if they were perfectly distracted and out of their senses If they have any sober intervals of coming to themselves again like St. Paul they then confess that they were caught up they know not where whether in the body or out of the body they cannot tell as if they had been in a dead sleep or trance they remember nothing of what they have heard seen said or done This they only know that their past delusion was a most desirable happiness that therefore they bewail nothing more than the loss of it nor wish for any greater joy than the quick return of it and more durable abode for ever and this as I have said is the foretast or anticipation of future Blessedness But I doubt I have forgot my self and have already transgress'd the bounds of modesty However if I have said any thing too confidently or impertinently be pleased to consider that it was spoke by Folly and that under the person of a Woman yet at the same time remember the applicableness of that Greek Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Fool oft speaks a seasonable Truth Unless you will be so witty as to object that this makes no Apology for Me because the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Man not a Woman and consequently my Sex debars me from the benefit of that observation I perceive now that for a concluding Treat you expect a formal Epilogue and the summing up of all in a brief recitation but I 'le assure you you are grosly mistaken if you suppose that after such a Hodg-podg medley of Speech I should be able to recollect any thing I have delivered Beside as it is an old Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hate a Pot-companion with a good memory so indeed I may as truly say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hate a hearer that will carry any thing away with him Wherefore in short Farewell Be Jolly Live long Drink deep ye most Illustrious Votaries of FOLLY FINIS * Done by Sir Thomas Chaloner and printed at London 1549 in 4 0. * Denham * Mwelae Nic Lyra.

and fetter'd by the gross particles of Matter so that she can neither freely range after nor when haply overtook can quietly contemplate her proper Object of Truth Farther Plato defines Philosophy to be the meditation of Death because the one performs the same office with the other namely withdraws the mind from all visible and corporeal objects therefore while the Soul does patiently actuate the several organs and members of the Body so long is a man accounted of a good and sound disposition but when the Soul weary of her confinement struggles to break Jail and flie beyond her cage of flesh and bloud then a man is censured at least for being maggoty and crack-braind nay if there be any defect in the external organs it is then termed down-right madness And yet many times persons thus affected shall have Prophetick Extasies of foretelling things to come shall in a Rapture talk languages they never before learned and seem in all things actuated by somewhat Divine and Extraordinary And all This no doubt is only the effect of the Soul's being more released from its engagement to the Body whereby it can with less impediment exert the energy of Life and Motion From hence no question has sprung an observation of like nature confirmed now into a settled Opinion That some long experienced Souls in the world before their dislodging arrive to the height of Prophetick spirits If this disorder arise from an intemperance in Religion and too high a strain of Devotion though it be of a somewhat differing sort yet it is so near a kin to the former that a great part of mankind apprehend it as a meer Madness especially when persons of that superstitious humour are so pragmatical and singular as to separate and live apart as it were from all the world beside So as they seem to have experienc'd what Plato dreams to have happened between some who inclosed in a dark cave did only ruminate on the Ideas and Abstracted speculations of Entities and one other of their company who had got abroad into the open light and at his return tells them what a blind mistake they had lain under that he had seen the substance of what their dotage of imagination reach'd only in shadow that therefore he could not but pity and condole their deluding dreams while they on the other side no less bewail his phrensie and turn him out of their society for a Lunatick and Madman Thus the vulgar are wholly taken up with those objects that are most familiar to their senses beyond which they are apt to think All is but Fairy-land while those that are devoutly Religious scorn to set their thoughts or affections on any things below but mount their soul to the pursuit of incorporeal and invisible Beings The former in their marshalling the requisites of Happiness place Riches in the front the endowments of the Body in the next rank and leave the accomplishments of the Soul to bring up the rear nay some will scarce believe there is any such thing at all as the Soul because they cannot literally see a reason of their faith while the other pay their first-fruits of service to that most simple and imcomprehensible Being God employ themselves next in providing for the happiness of that which comes nearest to their immortal Soul being not at all mindful of their corrupt bodily carcasses and slighting money as the dirt and rubbage of the world Or if at any time some urging occasions require them to become intangled in secular affairs they do it with regret and a kind of ill will observing what St. Paul advises his Corinthians Having wives and yet being as though they had none Buying and yet remaining as though they possessed not There are between these two sorts of persons many differences in several other respects As first though all the Senses have the same mutual relation to the Body yet some are more gross than others as those five corporeal ones of Touching Hearing Smelling Seeing Tasting whereas some again are more refined and less adulterated with Matter such are the Memory the Understanding and the Will Now the Mind will be alway most ready and expedite at that to which it is naturally most inclined Hence is it that a pious soul imploying all its power and abilities in the pressing after such things as are farthest removed from Sense is perfectly stupid and brutish in the management of any worldly affairs while on the other side the vulgar are so intent upon their business and imployment that they have not time to bestow one poor thought upon a future Eternity From such ardour of Divine meditation was it that St. Bernard in his study drank Oyl instead of Wine and yet his thoughts were so taken up that he never observ'd the Mistake Farther among the Passions of the Soul some have a greater communication with the Body than others as Lust the desire of meat and sleep Anger Pride and Envy with these the Pious man is in continual war and irreconcileable enmity while the Vulgar cherish and soment them as the best comforts of Life There are other affections of a middle nature common and innate to every man such are Love to ones Country Duty to Parents Love to Children Kindness to Friends and such like to these the Vulgar pay some respect but the Religious endeavour to supplant and eradicate from their Soul except they can raise and sublimate them to the most refined pitch of Virtue so as to love or honour their Parents not barely under that character for what did they do more than generate a Body nay even for that we are primarily beholden to God the first Parent of all Mankind but as Good men only upon whom is imprinted the lively image of that Divine nature which they esteem as the chief and only Good beyond whom nothing deserves to be beloved nothing desired By the same Rule they measure all the other offices or Duties of Life in each of which whatever is earthly and corporeal shall if not wholly rejected yet at least be put behind what Faith makes the substance of things not seen Thus in the Sacraments and all other Acts of Religion they make a difference between the outward appearance or body of them and the more inward Soul or Spirit As to instance in Fasting they think it very ineffectual to abstain from flesh or debar themselves of a meals meat which yet is all the vulgar understand by this duty unless they likewise restrain their passions subdue their anger and mortifie their pride that the Soul being thus disingaged from the intanglement of the body may have a better rellish to Spiritual Objects and take an Antepast of Heaven Thus say they in the holy Eucharist though the outward Form and Ceremonies are not wholly to be despised yet are these prejudicial at least unprofitable if as bare Signs only they are not accompanied with the thing signified which is the body and bloud of Christ whose