Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	word_n	world_n	writing_n	173	3	8.6777	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

sight and more arid and slight then the faintest shade I tell you once more Anthroposophus that Ternaries and Qu●ternaries and Decads and Monads and such like words of number have no usefull sense nor signification nor virtue if unapplied to some determinate substance or thing But our great Theomagician having no project in this writing that I see but to amaze the world contents himself onely to rattle his chain and to astonish the rude and simple as if some Spirit or Conjurer was at hand and so those words that are most sonorous and consist of the greatest number of syllables please him better then what have more solid signification and a more setled and sober sense Observation 18. Pag. 24. Lin. 17. He with the black Spaniell As for your ador'd Magus with the black Spaniell and that dark Disciple of Libanius Gallus what I have said to you already will serve here too But my controversie is with you onely Philalethes a sworn enemy of Reason and Aristotle and me thinks you are very like your self still in the twenty seventh page Observation 19. Pag. 27. Lin. 22. I am certain the world will wonder I should make use of Scripture to establish Philosophy c. Here Philalethes you seem self-condemned even from your own speech being conscious to your self that all the world will be against you in this superstitious abuse of the Scripture For are you wiser then all the world beside in this matter because you have pray'd away all your Logick in St. Augustines Letanie What profane boldnesse is this to distort that high Majesty of the holy Scripture to such poor and pitiful services as to decide the controversies of the World and of Nature As well becoming it is as to set pies and pasties into the oven with the sacred leaves of the Bible This is but a fetch of imperious Melancholy and Hypocriticall superstition that under pretense of being more holy would prove more Tyrannicall and leave the understanding of man free in nothing at all but bring in a philosophy too Iure Divine And I can further demonstrate to you beside what I have intimated from the transcendency of the Scripture and high scope and aim thereof that the Scripture teacheth no secret or principle of Philosophy of which there is any doubt amongst men in their wits For either as where it seems to speak ex professo of any such things it do's it so obscurely that men rather father their own notions fetch'd from elsewhere upon the Scripture or else if it speak more plainly and litterally yet it being allow'd by all sober men as well Jews as Christians as it is indeed undeniably evident from the passages themselves in Scripture that it speaks so ordinarily according to the rude and vulgar use apprehension of men there can be no deciding collections in matters of Philosophy safely gathered out of it Though I will not deny but that some Philosophick truths may have an happy and useful illustration and countenance from passages in Scripture and their industry is not to be vilified that take any pains therein But I do not believe that any man that has drove the proper use of the Scripture home to the most full and most genuine effect of it in himself but will be so wise and so discreet that he will be ashamed in good earnest to allow any such Philosophick abuse of it But questionless the Scripture is the beginner nourisher and emprover of that life and light which is better then all the Philosophy in the world And he that stands in this light the firmer and fuller he is possessed of it he is the more able to judge both of Nature Reason and Scripture it self But he that will speak out of his own rash heat must needs run the hazard of talking at randum And this I make the bolder in charity to pronounce because I observe that the reverentiall abuse and religious misapplication of the holy Writ to matters of Philosophy for which it was not intended do's in many well-meaning men eat out the use of their Reason for the exercise whereof Philosophy was intended And hence so much spurious and fantastick knowledge multiplies now adayes to the prejudice of mans understanding and to the intangling him in vain and groundlesse imaginations fortuitously sprung up from uncircumspect Melancholy dazled and stounded with the streamings and flashes of Its own pertinacious fancy Which sometime is so powerful as to over-master the Melancholist into a credulity that these flarings of false light in his dark Spirit are not from himself but from a Divine Principle the Holy Ghost And then bidding a due to Reason as having got some Principle above it measures all truth merely by the greatnesse and powerfulnesse of the Stroke of the Phantasme What ever fills the imagination fullest must be the ●ruest And thus a rable of tumultuary and crasse representations must go for so many Revelations and every heaving up by an Hypochondriacall flatulency must be conceited a rapture of the Spirit they professing themselves to receive things immediately from God when they are but the casuall figurations of their anxious fancy busily fluttering about the Text which they alwayes eye though they dissemble it as Hauks and Buzzards flie they never so high have their sight bent upon the Earth And indeed if they should not forge their fancies into some tolerable suteablenesse with the letter of the Scripture they would never be able to believe themselves or at least to beget belief in others that they are inspired And so that high conceit insinuated into them by that wonderfull yet ordinary imposterous power of Melancholy would fall to nothing and they appear not so much as to themselves either Prophe●s or inspired But this I have touched elsewhere I will let it go Onely let me cast in thus much That he that mis-believes and layes aside clear and cautious reason in things that fall under the discussion of Reason upon the praetence of hankering after some higher prinple which a thousand to one proves but the infatuation of Melancholy and a superstitious hallucination is as ridiculous as if he would not use his naturall eyes about their proper object till the presence of some supernaturall light or till he had got a pair of Spectacles made of the Crystalline Heaven or of the Coelum Empyreum to hang upon his Nose for him to look through The truth is He that layes aside Reason casts away one of the most Soveraign Remedies against all melancholick impostures For I conceive it would be very hard for men either to be deluded themselves or to delude others by their conceited inspirations if they would expect that every Revelation should be made good either by sound Reason or a palpable and conspicuous Miracle Which things if they were demanded of the inspired people when they come to seduce surely they would sneak a way like the common Fidlers being asked to play a Lesson on the Organs

themselves persons of honour Dukes Princes Kings Popes and what not Much to this purpose may you see in Sennertus and more in Democritus junior 13. That which is most observable and most usefull for the present matter in hand is That notwithstanding there is such an enormous lapse of the fancy aud judgement in some one thing yet the party should be of a sound mind in all other according to his naturall capacities and abilities which all Physicians acknowledge to be true and are ready to make good by innumerable examples Which I conceive to be of great moment more thorowly to consider I do not mean how it may come to passe for that we have already declared but what excellent use it may be of for to prevent that easie and ordinary Sophisme which imposes upon many who if an Enthusiast speak eloquently and it may be rationally and piously you may be sure zealously and fervently enough and with the greatest confidence can be imagined are so credulous that because of this visible dresse of such laudable accomplishments they will believe him even in that which is not onely not probable but vain and foolish nay sometime very mischievous and impious to believe as That the party is immediately and extraordinarily inspired of God that he is a speciall Messenger sent by him the last and best Prophet the holy Ghost come in the flesh and such like stuff as this which has been ever and anon set on foot in all ages by some Enthusiast or other Amongst whom I do not deny but there may be some who for the main practicall light of Christianity might have their judgments as consistent as those Melancholists above named had in the ordinary prudentiall affairs of the world but as for this one particular of being supernaturally inspired of being the last Prophet the last Trumpet the Angel in the midst of Heaven with the eternall Gospel in his hand the holy Ghost incorporated God come to judgement and the like this certainly in them is as true but farre worse dotage then to fancy a mans self either a Cock or Bull when it is plain to the senses of all that he is a Man 14. But it being of so weighty a concernment I shall not satisfie my self in this more generall account of Enthusiasme that it may very well be resolved into that property of Melancholy whereby men become to be delirous in some one point their judgement standing untouched in others For I shall easily further demonstrate that the very nature of Melancholy is such that it may more fairly and plausibly tempt a man into such conceits of inspiration and supernaturall light from God then it can possibly do into those more extravagant conceits of being Glasse Butter a Bird a Beast or any such thing 15. For besides that which is most generall of all that Melancholy enclines a man very strongly and peremptorily to either believe or misbelieve a thing as is plain in that passion of Suspicion and Iealousie which upon little or no occasion will winne so full assent of the mind that it will engage a man to act as vigorously as if he were certain that his jealousies were true it is very well known that this Complexion is the most religious complexion that is and will be as naturally tampering with divine matters though in no better light then that of her own as Apes and Monkies will be imitating the actions and manners of men Neither is there any true spirituall grace from God but this meer naturall constitution according to the severall tempers and workings of it will not onely resemble but sometimes seem to outstrip by reason of the fury and excesse of it and that not onely in Actions but very ordinarily in Eloquence and Expressions as if here alone were to be had that live sense and understanding of all holy things or at least as if there were no other state to be paralleld to it The event of which must be if a very great measure of the true grace of God do's not intervene that such a Melancholist as this must be very highly puffed up and not onely fancy himself inspired but believe himself such a speciall piece of Light and Holinesse that God has sent into the world that he will take upon him to reform or rather annull the very Law and Religion he is born under and make himself not at all inferiour to either Moses or Christ though he have neither any sound Reason nor visible miracle to extort belief 16. But this is still too generall we shall yet more particularly point out the Causes of this Imposture Things that are great or vehement People are subject to suspect they rise from some supernaturall cause insomuch that the wind cannot be more then ordinary high but they are prone to imagine the Devil raised it nor any sore Plague or Disease but God in an extraordinary manner to be the Authour of it So rude Antiquity conceiv'd a kind of Divinity in almost any thing that was extraordinarily great Whence some have worshipped very tall Trees others large Rivers some a great Stone or Rock othersome high and vast mountains whence the Greeks confound great and holy in that one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies both And the Hebrews by the Cedars of God the mountains of God the Spirit of God and the like understand high Cedars great Mountains and a mighty Spirit or Wind. We may adde also what is more familiar how old Women and Nurses use to tell little Children when they ask concerning the Moon ●●●ting at it with their fingers that it is Gods Candle because it is so great a Light in the night All which are arguments or intimations that mans nature is v●●y prone to suspe●t some speciall presence of God in any thing that is great or vehement Whence it is a stro●g temptation with a Melancholist when he feels a storm of devotion or zeal come upon him like a mighty wind his heart being full of affection his head pregnant with clear and sensible representations and his mouth flowing and streaming with fit and powerfull expressions such as would astonish an ordinary Auditorie to hear it is I say a shrewd temptation to him to think that it is the very Spirit of God that then moves supernaturally in him when as all that excesse of zeal and affection and fluencie of words is most palpably to be resolved into the power of Melancholy which is a kind of naturall inebriation And that there is nothing better then nature in it it is evident both from the experience of good and discreet men who have found themselves strangely vary in their zeal devotion and elocution as Melancholy has been more or lesse predominant in them and also from what all may observe in those that have been wicked mad and blasphemous and yet have surpassed in this mistaken gift of prayer as is notorious in Hacket who was so besotted with a conceit of his own

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

neither to be felt nor understood But if they sacred be because not sense To Bedlam Sirs the best Divines come thence Your new-found Lights may like a falling Starre Seem heavenly Lamps when they but Gellies are An high swoln Wombs bid fair but time grown nigh The promis●d birth proves but a Tympanie Should Superstition what it most doth fly Seek to take shelter in Philosophy And Sacred Writ sole image of sure Truth Be pull'd by th'nose by every idle youth And made to bend as seeming to incline To all the fooleries hee 'l call Divine Find out the Word in Scripture all is found Swarms of Conceits buzze up from this one ground As if the Cobler all his trade would show From mention made of Gibeon's clouted shooe Or Bakers their whole Art at large would read From the short record of the mouldy Bread Is this the spirit thus confus'dly mad Antipodal to him the Chaos had Fell boistrous blast ● that with one Magick puff Turns the Schools Glory to a Farthing snuff● And 'gainst that ancient Sage the World adores Like to a Lapland whirlewind loudly roares Yet from thy travels in the search of things Ridiculous Swain what shallow stuff thou bring'st What cloaths they wear Vails Tiff'nies dost relate Thou art Philosophies Tom Coriat Else brave Des Cartes whom fools cannot admire Had nere been sindg'd by thy wild Whimzie fire Poor Galen's Antichrist● though one Purge of his Might so unmagick thee as make thee wise Physick cures phrenzie knows inspired wit O●t proves a meer Hypochondriack fit Agrippa's Cur sure kennels in thy weamb Thou yelpest so and barkest in a dream Or if awake thou dost on him so fawn And bite all else that hence his Dog th' art known But I will spare the lash t' was my friends task Who rescuing Truth engag'd put on this mask Thus do's some careful Prince disguised goe To keep his Subjects from the intended blow Nor could his lofty soul so low descend But to uncheat the World a noble end And now the night is gone we plainly find 'T was not a Light but rotten Wood that shin'd We owe this day my dearest friend to thee All eyes but Night-birds now th' Imposture see I. F. FINIS THE SECOND LASH OF Alazonomastix Conteining a Solid and Serious REPLY to a very uncivill Answer to certain OBSERVATIONSUpon Anthroposophia Theomagica And Anima Magica Abscondita Proverb He that reproves a scorner gets to himself a blot Ecclesiastic Be not proud in the device of thine own mind lest thy soul rend thee as a Bull. LONDON Printed by I. Flesher 1655. To his singularly accomplish'd friend Mr. Iohn Finch SIR I Know that your modesty cannot but be much amazed at this unexpected Dedication But the causes once discovered admiration will cease Eugenius as children use to do who fallen into the dirt by their own folly commonly make a lamentable complaint to their Father or Mother against them that help them up as if they had flung them down has told a hideous story to his Tutour as if I had soyl'd him and dirtied him when as I onely reminded him that he lay in the dirt which in this case is all one as to help him out of it Wherefore that I might hold up the humour every way of opposing my Adversary as I must for fashion-sake call him he making his false and grievous Accusation to his Tutour I thought fit to direct this my true and pleasant Reply to you my Pupil But if I should say that this is so much as the least part of what moved me to this act I confesse I should dissemble For to say nothing of the Noblenesse of your Descent which is held ordinarily a sufficient ground for such a respect as this it is indeed the Sweetness and Candour of your nature your great Civility and Pleasantnesse of Conversation your miraculous Proficiencie in the choicest parts of Philosophy your egregious Perspicacity and kindly Wit your generous Freedome of spirit and true Noblenesse of mind whom the surly countenance of sad Superstition cannot aw but the lovely face of Virtue and radiant Beauty of Divine Knowlodge do most potently command to approve and prosecute what is really best that has extorted this Testimony of love and respect from Your affectionate friend to serve you ALAZ PHILALETHES To his learned Friend Alazonomastix Philalethes Upon his Reply DEar friend as oft as I with care peruse This strange Reply of thine I cannot chuse But wonder at thy rare Complexion Where Wit Mirth Iudgement thus conspire in one Where Inspirations which make others mad Unto thy Reason grace and credit add And Passion that like dungeon dark do's blind Proves the free fiery chariot of thy mind Go surly Stoick with deep furrowed brow Natures rude Pruner that wilt not allow What 's right and good Here nought too much appears Unlesse on thy shorn head thine own large ears Since Mastix merry rage all now believe Passion 's an arm of man no hanging sleeve Brave generous Choler whose quick motions pierce Swift like the lightning through the Universe And in their hasty course as on they fare Do clense mens souls of vice as that the Air. Noble Contention which like brushing winds That sweep both Land and Sea doth purge our minds It is thy free and ever-active fire That rooseth men from snorting in the mire And roos'd thy aw makes them to tread the stage In a due Order and right Equipage Thy hiss more dreadfull is then wounding sting Of serpents teeth that certain death do bring And conscious souls start at thy laughter loud As at a Thunder-clap broke from a cloud When Jove some flash of world rebuking wit Le ts flie and faultlesse Gods all laugh at it For so ridiculous vice in ugly guize Is made the sport and pastime of the wise But when fond men themselves to their own face Have their foul shapes reflected the disgrace And conscience of deformity so stings Their gauled minds and fretted entrayls wrings That even grown wild with pain in vain they tire Themselves to shake off this close searching fire That sticks like burning pitch and makes them wood As Hercules wrapt in the Centaurs blood This is thy fate Eugenius Thy odde look Reflected to thy self from Mastix book Has so amaz'd thee with the sudden glance That all thy wits be struck into a trance But Grief and Vengeance thou dost so revive As if to them alone thou wert alive And onely takest care with language foul To soil his person that would clense thy soul. Thus the free chearfull Sun with his bright rayes Shines upon dunghils fens and foul high wayes While they return nought back for his pure beams But thick unwholsome mysts and stinking steams But yet at length near his Meridian height Dispells the Morning-fogs by fuller light Go on brave Mastix then those noysome fumes Thy first appearance rais'd sure this consumes Johannnes Philomastix To the Reader Reader IF thou hast