Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	fervour_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	23	3	9.0629	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51300	Enthusiasmus triumphatus, or, A discourse of the nature, causes, kinds, and cure, of enthusiasme; written by Philophilus Parresiastes, and prefixed to Alazonomastix his observations and reply: whereunto is added a letter of his to a private friend, wherein certain passages in his reply are vindicated, and severall matters relating to enthusiasme more fully cleared.	More, Henry, 1614-1687.; More, Henry, 1614-1687.	1656 (1656)	Wing M2655; ESTC R202933	187,237	340

zeal and eloquence that he fancyed himself the Holy-Ghost 17. And when men talk so much of the Spirit if they take notice what they ordinarily mean by it it is nothing else but a strong and impetuous motion whereby they are zealously and fervently carried in matters of Religion so that Fervour Zeal and Spirit is in effect all one Now no Complexion is so hot as Mel●●●oly when it is heated being like boiling water as Aristotle observs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that it transcends the flame of fire or it is 〈◊〉 heated stone or iron when they are red hot for they are then more hot by far then a burning Coal We shall omit here to play the Grammarian and to take notice how well Aristotles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suites with the very word zeale of which we speake but shall cast our eyes more carefully upon the things themselves and parallel out of the same Philosopher what they call Spirit to what he affirmes to be contained in Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The spirit then that wings the Enthusiast in such a wonderful ●anner is nothing else but that flatulency which is in the melancholy complexion rises out of the Hypochondriacal humour upon some occasionall heat as winde out of an AEolipila applied to the fire Which fume mounting into the head being first actuated and spirited and somewhat refined by the warmth of the heart fills the mind with variety of imaginations and so quickens and inlarges invention that it makes the Enthusiast to admiration fluent and eloquent he being as it were drunk with new wine drawn from that Cellar of his own that lies in the lowest region of his body though he be not aware of it but takes it to be pure Nectar and those waters of life that spring from above Aristotle makes a long Parallelisme betwixt the nature and effects of wine and Melancholy to which both Fernelius and Sennertus do referre 18. But this is not all the advantage that Melancholy affords towards Enthusiasme thus unexpectedly and suddenly to surprise the minde with such vehement fits of zeal such streams torents of Eloquence in either exhorting others to piety or in devotions towards God but it addes a greater weight of beliefe that there is something supernatural in the business in that the same complexion discovers it selfe to them that lie under it in such contrary effects For as it is thus vehemently hot so it is as stupidly cold whence the Melancholist becomes faithlesse hopelesse heartlesse and almost witlesse Which Ebbs of his constitution must needs make the overflowing of it seem more miraculous and supernatural But those cold and abject fits of his make him also very sensibly and winningly Rhetorical when he speaks of disconsolation desertion humilitie mortification and the like as if he were truely and voluntarily carried through such things when as onely the fatal necessity of his complexion has violently drag'd him thorow the meer shadows and resemblances of them But he finding himselfe afterwards beyond all hope or any sense or presage of any power in himselfe lifted aloft again he does not doubt that any thing less was the cause of this unexspected joy and triumph then the immediate arme of God from heaven that has thus exalted him when it is nothing indeed but a Paroxysme of Melancholy which is like the breaking out of a flame after a long smoaking and reeking of new rubbish laid upon the fire But because such returnes as these come not at set times nor make men sick but rather delight them they think there is something divine therein and that it is not from natural causes 19. There is also another notorious Mockery in this Complexion Nature confidently avouching her self to be God whom the Apostle calls Love as if it were his very essence when as indeed it is here nothing else but Melancholy that has put on the garments of an Angel of light There is nothing more true then that Love is the fulfilling of the Law and the highest perfection that is competible to the soul of man and that this also is so plain and unavoidable that a man may be in a very high degree mad and yet not fail to assent unto it Nay I dare say Melancholy it self would be his monitour to reminde him of it if there were any possibility that he should forget so manifest and palpable a Truth For the sense of Love at large is eminently comprehended in the temper of the Melancholist Melancholy and wine being of so near a nature one to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But wine makes men amorous which the Philosopher proves in that a man in wine will kisse such persons as a sober man would scarce touch with a pair of tongs by reason of their age and uglinesse And assuredly it was the fumes of Melancholy that infatuated the fancie of a late new fangled Religionist when he sat so kindly by a Gipsie under an hedge and put his hand into her bosome in a fit of devotion and vaunted afterwards of it as if it had been a very pious and meritorious action 20. But now that Melancholy partakes much of the nature of Wine he evinces from that it is so spiritous and that it is so spiritous from that it is so spumeous and that Melancholy is flatuous or spiritous he appeals to the Physitians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore the Philosopher assignes another companion to Venus besides the plump youth Bacchus which the Poets bestow upon her who though more seemingly sad yet will prove as faithfull an attendant as that other and this is Melancholy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now besides this Flatulencie that solicits to lust there may be such a due dash of Sanguine in the Melancholy that the complexion may prove stupendiously enravishing For that more sluggish Du●cour of the blood will be sometime so quickned and actuated by the fiercenesse and sharpnesse of the Melancholy humour as the fulsomnesse of sugar is by the acrimony of Lemons that it will afford farre more sensible pleasure and all the imaginations of love of what kind soever will be ●arre more lively and vigorous more piercing and rapturous then they can be in pure Sanguine it self From this complexion are Poets and the more highly pretending Enthusiasts Betwixt whom this is the great difference that a Poet is an Enthusiast in jest and an Enthusiast is a Poet in good earnest Melancholy prevailing so much with him that he takes his no better then Poeticall fits and figments for divine inspiration and reall truth 21. But that it is a meer naturall flatuous and spiritous temper with a proportionable Dosis of Sanguine added to their Melancholy not the pure Spirit of God that thus inacts them is plainly to be discovered not onely in their language which is very sweet and melting as if sugar plums lay under their tongue but from notorious circumstances of their lives And in my apprehension it will be

else that moves in the blood and Spirits and comes very neer to the nature of the highest Cordialls that are Which Aristotle also witnesses asserting that Melancholy while it is cold causes sadnesse and despondency of minde but once heated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Extasies and Raptures with triumphant joy and singing 24. There are Three delusions yet behinde which because they come into my memory I will not omit to speak of viz. Mystical interpretations of Scripture Quakings and Visions all which are easily resolved into effects of Melancholy For as for the first we have already shown that Melancholy as well as Wine makes a man Rhetoricall or Poetical and that Genius how fancieful it is and full of allusions and Metaphors and fine resemblances every one knows And what greater matter is there in applying moral and spiritual meanings to the history of the Bible then to the History of Nature and there is no Rhetorician nor Poet but does that perpetually Or how much easier is it to make a story to set out a moral meaning then to apply a moral sense to such stories as are already a foot And for the former AEsop was old excellent at it without any suspicion of inspiration and the later Sir Francis Bacon has admirably wel performed in his Sapientia Veterum without any such peculiar or extraordinary illapses of a divine Spirit into him a business I dare say he never dreamt of and any man that understands him will willingly be his Compurgatour 25. And for Quaking which deluded soules take to be an infallible sign they are in actuated by the Spirit of God that it may be onely an effect of their Melancholy is apparent for none have so high passions as Melancholists and that Fear Love or Veneration in the height will cause great Trembling cannot be denied And to these passions none are any thing nigh so obnoxious as those of the Melancholy Complexion because of the deepness of their resentments and apprehensions That Fear causes trembling there is nothing more obvious and it is as true of Love which the Comoedian had judiciously noted in that passage where Phaedria upon the sight of his Thais speaking to Parmeno Totus tremo say's he horreóque post quam aspexi hanc And for Veneration which consists in a maner of these two mixt together it is a passion that Melancholy men are soundly plunged in whether they will or no when they are to make their addresses to any person of honour or worth or to go about some solemn or weighty performance in publick they wil quake tremble like an Aspinleaf some have bin struck silent others have faln down to the ground And that Fancy in other cases wil work upon the Spirits and cause a tumultuous and disorderly comotion in them or so suffocate the heart that motion will be in a manner quite extinct and the party fall down dead are things so familiarly known that it is enough onely to mention them Wherefore it is no wonder the Enthusiast fancying these natural Paroxysms with which he is surprised to be extraordinary visits of the Deity and illapses of the holy Ghost into his Soul which he cannot but then receive with the highest Veneration imaginable it is no wonder I say that Fear and Ioy and Love should make such a confusion in his spirits as to put him into a fit of trembling and quaking In which case the fervour of his spirits and heat of imagination may be wrought-up to that pitch that it may amount to a perfect Epilepsie as it often happens in that sect they call Quakers who undoubtedly are the most Melancholy Sect that ever was yet in the world 26. Now that Melancholy disposes a man to Apoplexies and Epilepsies is acknowledged both by Philosophers and Physicians For what is Narcotical and deads the motion of the Spirits if it be highly such proves also Apoplectical Besides grosse vapours stopping the Arteriae Carotides and Plexus Coroides and so hindring the recourse and supply of Spirits may doe the same Some would illustrate the matter from the fumes of Charcoale that has often made men fall down dead But take any or all of these Melancholy is as like to afford such noxious vapours as any other temper whatsoever And that an Epilepsie may arise from such like causes these two diseases being so neer a kin as Galen writes is very reasonable and that the morbifick matter is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his Master Pelops expresses it it is evident from the suddain and easy discussion of the fit 27. But in both these there being a ligation of the outward senses what ever is then represented to the mind is of the nature of a dream But these fits being not so ordinary as our naturall sleep these dreams the praecipitant and unskilfull are forward to conceit to be Representations extraordinary and supernatural which they call Revelations or Visions of which there can be no certainty at all no more then of a Dream 28. The mention of Dreams puts me in mind of another Melancholy Symptome which Physitians call Extasie which is nothing else but Somnus praeter naturam profundus the causes whereof are none other then those of natural sleep but more intense and excessive the effect is the deliration of the party after he awakes for he takes his dreams for true Histories and real Transactions The reason whereof I conceive is the extraordinary clearness and fulness of the representations in his sleep arising from a more perfect privation of all communion with this outward world and so there being no interfareings or cross-strokes of motion from his body so deeply overwhelmed and bedeaded with sleep what the imagination then puts forth of her self is as clear as broad day and the perception of the soul is at least as strong and vigorous as it is at any time in beholding things awake and therefore Memory as thoroughly sealed therewith as from the sense of any external Object The vigour and clearness of these Visions differs from those in ordinary sleep as much as the liveliness of the images let in artificially into a dark room accurately darkned from those in one carelesly made dark some chinks or crevises letting in light where they should not But strength of perception is no sure ground of truth And such visions as these let them be never so clear yet they are still in the nature of dreams And he that regardeth dreams is like him that catcheth at a shadow or followeth after the wind as Syracides speaks 29. Whether it be in any mans power to fall into these Epilepsies Apoplexies or Extasies when he pleases is neither an useless nor a desperate question For we may find a probable solution from what has been already intimated for the Enthusiast in one of his Melancholy intoxications which he may accelerate by solemn silence and intense and earnest meditation finding himself therein so much beyond himselfe conceits it a sensible presence

Which if I understand any thing is no better then Atheisme For it implies that God is nothing else but the Vniversall Matter of the world dressed up in severall shapes and forms in sundry properties and qualities some gratefull some ungratefull some holy some profane some wise some senselesse some weak some strong and the like But to slice God into so many parts is to wound him and kill him and to make no God at all 48. Again how does Paracelsus justifie the Heathens worshipping the Starres he making them such knowing powerfull and compassionate spectatours of humane affairs And why might they not pray to them as Anne Bodenham the Witch did to the Planet Iupiter for the curing diseases if they have so much power and knowledge as to generate men here below and conferre gifts upon them For it would be no more then asking a mans Father or Godfather blessing For if it be admitted that any one nation is begot by the Starres the Atheist will assuredly assume that they are all so Moreover how shall we repair the losse and damage done to the authority of our blessed Saviour his miracles whereby not onely Christianitie but the first Fundamentalls of all true Religion are eminently established viz. the discovery of a Speciall and Particular Providence of God and an hope of a Life to come For if the Starres can make such living creatures of prepared matter that have sense and understanding which yet have no immortal souls but wholy return into dead mater again why is it not so with men as well as them And if they can contribute the power of such wonder-working wisdome as was in Moses and in Christ or what is so very nigh to it what footsteps does there remain of proof that there is any God or Spirits For all is thus resolvable into the power of the stars A thing that that zealous and industrious Atheist Caesar Vaninus triumphs in exceedingly in his Amphitheatrum aeternae Providentiae Where he cites several Astrological passages out of Cardan under pretence to refute them in which he fetches the original of those three eminent Law-givers Moses Christ and Mahomet from the influence of the stars The law of Moses is from Saturn saies Cardan that of Christ from Iupiter and Mercury that of Mahomet from Sol and Mars The Law of the Idolaters from the Moon and Mars And in another place Cardan imputes that sweetness and meeknesse and wisdome and eloquence that was in our Saviour whereby he was able to dispute in the Temple at twelve yeers of age to the influence of Iupiter Pomponatius also acknowledges the wisdome and miracles of Christ but refers all to the starrs a man as far laps't into Atheisme I conceive as Vaninus himselfe so that these wilde fancies of the Enthusiasts are in truth the chiefe Props or Shelters that Atheists uphold or defend themselves by But how fancieful and confounded an account there is of Astrology let any man that has patience as well as sobriety of reason judge 49. I do not speak these things as if I thought either Paracelsus or his followers thus Atheistical but to shew their Phantastrie and Enthusiasme they so hotly pretending to matters of Christianity and Religion and yet handling them so grosly and indiscreetly blurting out any garish foolery that comes into their mind though it be quite contrary to the Analogie of Faith nor has any shew of ground in solid Reason onely to make themselves to be stared upon and wondred at by the world But the event of it is that as some admire them so others execrate them as men of an impious and diabolical spirit Which I confesse I think too harsh a censure well meaning men being lyable to Melancholy and Lunacies as well as to Agues and burning Feavers Yet a man should be so far off from thinking the better of any discovery of Truth by an Enthusiastick spirit that he should rather for that very cause suspect it because that temper that makes men Enthusiastical is the greatest enemy to Reason it being more thick and muddy and therefore once heated intoxicates them like wine in the must and is more likely to fill their brains full of odde fancies then with any true notions of Philosophy But men of a purer blood and finer spirits are not so obnoxious to this distemper For this is the most natural seat of sublimer Reason when as that more mechanical kind of Genius that loves to be tumbling of and trying tricks with the matter which they call making experiments when desire of knowledge has so heated it that it takes upon it to become Architectonical and flie above its sphere it commits the wildest hallucinations imaginable that material or corporeal fancie egregiously fumbling in more subtile and spiritual speculations This is that that commonly makes the Chymist so pitiful a Philosopher who from the narrow inspection of some few toys in his own art conceives himself able to give a reason of all things in Divinity and Nature as ridiculous a project in my judgment as that of his that finding a piece of a broken oar on the sand busied his brains above all measure to contrive it into an entire ship 50. What I have hitherto spoken I would have so understood as coming from one that neither contemns the well-meaning of the Theosophist or disallows of the industry of the Chymist but I shall ever excuse my selfe from giving any credit to either any further then some lusty miracle transcendent medicine or solid Reason shall extort from me 51. We have spoken of the kindes of Enthusiasme so far as we held it serviceable for our design we shall now touch upon the Cure of this Disease Where waving all pretense to the knowledge of Physick or acquaintance with the Apothecaries shop we shall set down onely such things as fall under a moral or Theological consideration giving onely instructions for the guidance of a mans life in reference to this grand errour of Enthusiasme which a sober man cannot well determine whether it be more ridiculous or deplorable and mischievous Now the most soveraign medicine that I know against it is this Diatrion or Composition of Three excellent Ingredients to wit Temperance Humility and Reason which as I doe not despair but that it may recover those that are somewhat farre gone in this Enthusiastick distemper so I am confident that it will not fail to prevent it in them that are not as yet considerably smitten 52. By Temperance I understand a measurable Abstinence from all hot or heightning meats or drinks as also from all venereous pleasures and tactual delights of the body from all softnesse and effeminacy a constant and peremptory adhesion to the perfectest degree of chastity in the single life and of Continency in wedlock that can be attain'd to For it is plain in sundry examples of Enthusiasme above named that the more hidden and lurking fumes of lust had tainted the fancies of those Pretenders to