Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	cause_n	curious_a	good_a	28	3	2.1572	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41955	A brief account of Mr. Valentine Greatraks, and divers of the strange cures by him lately performed written by himself in a letter addressed to the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. ; whereunto are annexed the testimonials of several eminent and worthy persons of the chief matters of fact therein related.	Greatrakes, Valentine, 1629-1683.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1666 (1666)	Wing G1789; ESTC R6820	52,956	98

early in the morning and the Wednesday ensuing I went to Cornet Deans about some occasions I had with him to Lismore where there came into his House to me a poor man that with a violent pain in his loins and flank went almost double and had also a most grievous Ulcerous Leg very black wherein were five Ulcers who desired me for Gods sake that I would lay my hands on him and do him what good I could But by the way take notice That as God gave me the several gifts from time to time he alwayes sent Patients that applyed themselves to me for I never sought after any from the first moment to this very instant Whereupon I put my hand on his loins and flank and immediately run the pains out of him so that he was released and could stand upright without the least trouble Then I put my hand on his Ulcerous Leg which the Chirurgeons after they had shewed all their skill on him told him it was perished at the bone and so must be cut off but that he wanted 3l to give one of them for his pains as he informed me which forthwith changed colour and became red and 3 of the 5 Ulcers closed up and the rest within a few hours afterwards so that he went out well that could hardly by the help of his staff craul in and within two dayes afterwards he fell to his Labour being a Mason by Trade and so continued several Months afterwards to my knowledge and to this instant for ought I know The man was a York-shire man one that the Right Honourable the Earl of Cork brought from thence and employed about the making of his Park-Wall nigh Lismore This and the former instances I relate unto you That you may not seek far for the confirmation of the Truth if you or others should distrust my Report The Thursday following I went to see Colonel Phaire at Cahirmony in the County of Cork who when I came told me he was vexed with an Ague my Reply was that through Gods blessing I could cure him He told me that I was welcome and within an hour it would seize him who thought it impossible for him to live two fits more for after the cold fit his hot one continued for fourteen hours in that extremity that no Fever could be more violent accordingly as he had said his cold fit arrested him and then I bid him to give me his hand which he did and it pleased God that from that time his Fit left him so that he had it no more Then there came several People to his House troubled with several Diseases desiring me for Gods sake to cure them at which passage I was much amazed not having told him nor any one but my Wife and Brother of the Impulse I had which was but the Sunday before some had the Ague several others the Falling-sickness others the Kings-Evil one the Fever some pains some Aches and lameness on whom I put my hands little thinking that the Pains would skip and fly from place to place till they did run out but that the persons might be cured without any such motion by the laying on of my hands and several nay most of all Diseases were immediately cured and those that came exceeding lame and so had continued for many years by their own Reports and others went well home rejoicing and praising God At which extraordinary appearance of God the Lord knows my soul was wrapt up with wonder and amazement and my heart filled with praises and thanksgivings to the Almighty and most merciful Lord God to whom be the Glory Power and Praise for evermore ascribed and certainly my heart melted into tears and has often since with this consideration That the Holy One of Israel among so many millions of men more pious more wise and more learned should make choice and use of so poor so vile and so contemptible a wretch as I am to be so peculiar an Instrument in his hand of shewing mercy and deliverance to afflicted poor creatures Thus much I can say it was for no worth or sanctity of mine for I acknowledge mine iniquities and my sins are not hid from me and confess it is thy mercy in Jesus my blessed Saviour that I have not been consumed long since but preserved to this moment to the praises and glory of thy Name to whom my soul doth offer up daily as is most just and due new songs of Mercy and Deliverance on my own account and others to whom thou extendest thy bountiful favours These considerations Sir transport me carrying me from the Relation of what has been done by the Instrument to the commemoration and admiration of the first and principal Agent Jehovah But I know this Digression will not seem harsh in your ears whose heart like a well tun'd Instrument is strung with Prayer and Praises and therefore I will take yet a further latitude before I return to the Narrative part of my discourse as to matter of fact by answering some few Queries or Objections which I have often heard from many which may not seem impertinent to be placed here That it may prove a Bridle to their tongues for the future The first Quaery is What need had God to cure Diseases in this Age of the world by any extraordinary means when as there is no new Doctrine to be expected or promulgated and many the like fond and confident assertions tending to this purpose To which I answer First They are not of God Almighties Privy Council neither have they so much reason or Religion as confidence for if they had they would be more sober and less presumptuous then to interrogate what his mind or will is in doing what they see de facto done and so rather with humble thoughts admire and praise him whose mercy endureth for ever then expostulate the cause of things why and wherefore he has done it or made use of such Instruments as one quaeried of me at a Great Mans Table and would have reason wherefore God did make choice of me sooner then another to do things in an extraordinary manner or what it was he saw in me more then another man and many such Questions my Reply was a smile which was the best I could use in answering such fond Enquirers But by the way Sir Give me leave to presuppose 2 or 3 Reasons why or wherefore God should now cure diseases in an extraordinary manner The first is to convince this Age of Atheism which I am sorry to say it many of our pretended Wits I fear are falling into who make it their pastime to deride at Jesus and Christianity who cannot yet but believe Jesus to be God when they see pains and diseases to vanish and evil Spirits flye his Power as I have good cause to believe the Falling-sickness and other Distempers I have met withal sometimes to be which I intend upon another occasion to prove by such Reasons drawn from my own

experience as may convince any man that is but a curious Observer and trusts not the Writings of men that speak but their thoughts in cases of this nature more then his own eyes or the eyes of faithful witnesses Next the goodness of God out of compassion to poor distressed man may make use of never so worthless an Instrument to magnifie his own mercy and power as he did of a brazen Serpent in the wilderness that the glory and praise of all may be solely ascribed unto him who by a little dust and clay can cure and cause diseases to run through men which no Physick could move Next God may to abate the pride of the Papists that make Miracles the undeniable Manifesto of the truth of their Church make use of a Protestant to do such strange things in the face of the Sun which they pretend to do in Cells There may also other Reasons be given and such as may tend to Gods glory but I shall decline mentioning of them lest I fall under the lash of unmerciful Pens and the censure of Criticks knowing that Truth it self is sometimes better concealed than published In the next place many demand of me Why some are cured and not all and if this work were of God all would be cured To which Question I make this Answer That God may please to make use of such means by me as shall operate according to the disposition of the Patient and therefore cannot be expected to be like effectual in all They also demand further Why some are cured at once coming and not all and why the pains should flye immediately out of some and take such ambages in others and why it should go out of some at their eyes some at their fingers some at their toes some at their noses others at their ears or mouths To which I say If all these things could have a plain and rational account given of them then would there be no reason to account them strange Let them but tell me what substance that is which removes and goes out with so great expedition and it will be more easie to resolve their Questions but till then let them be silent and admire the works of God whose ways are past finding out and whose Majesty is not confined to time manner or measure Some will know of me why or how I do pursue some pains from place to place till I have chased them out of the Body by laying my hands on the outside of the cloaths only as is usual and not all pains To which I answer That I and others have by frequent experience been abundantly satisfied that it is so though I am not able to give a reason why it should be so although I am apt to believe there are some pains which afflict men after the manner of Evil-Spirits which kind of pains cannot endure my hand nay not my glove but flye immediately though 6 or 8 Coats and Cloaks be put betwixt the parties body and my hand as at York-house the Lady Ranaloughs and divers other places since I came to London where many wise and learned men have been present as well as frequently in Ireland has been manifested Sir I hope you will pardon me when I relate to you my own Observations and what my Experience inclines me to believe in saying that I have met with several Instances which seemed to me to be Possessions by dumb Devils deaf Devils and talking Devils and that to my apprehension and others present several evil Spirits one after the other have been pursu'd out of a Woman and every one of them have been like to choak her when it came up to her Throat before it went forth and when the last was gone she was perfectly well and so continued There have been others that have faln down immediately as soon as they have seen me which the Mayor of Worcester Colonel Birch Major Wilde and many hundreds both at Worcester and here and other places were eye-witnesses of many when they have but heard my voice and have been tormented in so strange a manner that no one that has been present could conceive it less then a Possession as I will instance in one at York-house where Sir John Hinton Colonel Talbot aed many others were present who had somewhat within her which would swell her Body to that excessive degree on a sudden as if it would burst her and then as soon as I put my hand on that part of her Body where it did rise up it would fly up to her Throat or some other place and then it would cause her neck to swell half so big again and then almost choak her then blind her and make her dumb and foam and sometimes fly into her hand and so contract and fasten it that neither Sir J. Hinton or any else that did try as there were many could with all their strength open one finger of her hand nor would it fly his hand in the least nor any other persons there till I put my hand on it or my glove nay I oftentimes brought it up into her Tongue by running my hand on her Body on the out-side of her Cloathes up to her Throat which it has swoln in an instant nigh as big again and has been seen plainly to play from place to place and at length with great violence of belching which did almost choak her and force her eyes to start out of her head it went forth and so the Woman went away well Whether this were a natural Distemper let any one judg that is either a Divine a Philosopher or Physitian I could instance you in fourty as strange or stranger but I will go no further then London and places adjoyning for instances of this nature Now Sir another Question hereon will arise which I have often times heard from others before I proceed and that is Whether this operation of my Hand proceeds from the Temperature of my Body or from a Divine Gift or from both To which I say That I have reason to believe that there is something in it of an extraordinary Gift of God The Reasons and Arguments which incline me to this belief are That I am very sensible of the particular time when this Gift was first bestowed on me before which time I had it not because having my self for several years together been most violently troubled with the head-ach though I have put my hand a thousand times to my head and held it it would neither remove nor run out the pains but since God gave my hand this Gift I have no sooner put it on my head where it was troubled but I have removed and run it out I have also oftentimes held my Friends heads formerly when they have been in violent pains with the head-ach but I never could hear them say their pain removed or ceased which now immediately it do's in very many What the natural efficacy of effluvias may be I leave others to judge