Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	body_n	soul_n	spirit_n	5,254	5	5.2345	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97125	God iudging among the gods. Opened in a sermon before the Honourable House of Commons assembled in Parliament, upon the solemn day of monethly fast, March 26. 1645. / By Iohn Ward, minister of the gospel in Ipswich, and a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Ward, John, d. 1665.	1645 (1645)	Wing W773; Thomason E279_5; ESTC R200028	47,681	68

1. 4. They doe his worke when they goe against his word as Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the Jewes Acts 4. 27 28. with their wicked wills they effect his good will as those that crucified the Lord Iesus Christ Acts 2. 28. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine To clear this truth and prevent objections we must know First that the God of the spirits of all flesh can flow in upon the spirits of men both imperceivably without observation as the soul acts in the body or as the light entreth the aire or the shadow passeth on the dyall without any noise and irresistibly in a way congruous to their nature without any violence to the liberty of the will in any particular action or election as a wise man can make the winde which bloweth where it listeth to convey his ship or grinde his corne or use the sagacity of the dog to seek what he hath lost or fetch what he hath cast aside And this is the excellency of his wisdom Secondly we must consider that God and man may concurre in the same actions and neither his holinesse have fellowship with their wickednesse nor their injustice be excused by his righteousnesse God and man work upon different principles in divers wayes to severall ends each his own and in such a case every mans reason will tell him the same action receives not the same censure or judgement The holy God doth not at any time infuse any lust into any mans heart but brings to light and brings to judgement what is in man ordering well what they do ill as in the hardning of Pharaohs heart he offereth occasions which may as well be tak●n by the right ear as the left withholdeth the grace which he is not bound to give excites and confirms that animosity which is naturall gives them up to a minde void of judgement to do things which are not convenient who have pleasure in unrighteousnes that they may be filled with the fruit of their own doings which is just all this while as Christ saith by the devils when they speak a lie so it must be said of the children of wickednes when they do wickedly They do it of their own His working is not confounded with theirs and therefore his purity not blended with their ungodlinesse nor their unrighteousnesse blanched by his justice more then the beams of the sunne and the steame and stinch of the dunghill in the exhalation His work is perfect for all his wayes are Iudgement A God of truth and without iniquity iust and right is he They have currupted themselves And this is the glory of his holinesse And in this case the manner and course of government in the kingdomes of the Earth may not unfitly be compared to the musick of an Organ where the men like the pipes yeeld the sound the inspiration of the almighty like the winde in the sound-board gives the life or the activity and the harmony or the beauty of the order is by his disposing and if there be a false or an harsh note the fault is in the pipe and not in him who sets and playes And even these disorders in goverment like some discords in musick are by him ordered well and for good For though we sometimes imagine that things would be better if God were in the judgement yet the contrary would be confessed if either we did not of ignorance or unskilfulnesse mistake evil for good and good for evil we daily weight at the common beam of opinion and see with eyes of flesh as man seeth whereas if we went into the sanctuary and measured all things by their conformity to the will of God and judged of them by their referrence to his ends in stead of quarrelling and complaining we would acknowledge that every thing in providence were good and nothing could be better but whatsoever God doth is best Or secondly if we had the patience to waite the end of the Lord or tarry till the fift Act and a Scene or two passe in that when things begin to concenter towards their issues would not ye condemn him of folly that upon the first motion of a businesse or catching at some passage in a debate should go away and censure your proceedings before the matter were ripe for the question why so is he that judgeth before the time Surely if we understood the purpose of the onely wise God or could behold things in their tendency thitherward whereas now in our hast we are apt to charge God with folly and say to him What doest thou we would condemn our selves or brutish foolishnesse and adore the depths of that wisdom and those wayes that we are not able to comprehend Or thirdly if we had the largenesse of heart to behold in one view the whole systeme of government or if like Lucian his Icaromenippus we could get on high and have a prospect of the whole series of order all together possibly now while we look upon some one particular man or some one cause and some few providences about those abstracted or divided from the rest we may think it were better for them if it were otherwise with them but if we knew all or could consider that which is done in the reference to the whole we would discern and agree that the present state were the best it might be better for every common souldier as to his individuall if he were a Commander but it cannot be so for the Army for as in the naturall body so in the body politique if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing c. there must be disproportion inequality difference of dispensations diversity of gifts administratiōs that there may be order We must therefore otherwise judge of him that commandeth in chief and him that hath but a particular charge He that composeth a song of many parts must not carry on the musick so full in every part as he that sets but for one voyce if a gardener had but the care of some one plant to husband it to perfection he were bound to tend it for the fullest advantage of its growth but when he hath the keeping of a garden or an orchard he must slip and prune and cut some plants and foster and manure and suffer others to luxuriate and run out as much as they can that there may be order in the whole Or lastly if we would distinguish of times Before the sin and fall of man while there was no breach between God and our first parents there was a quiet uniformity in all the world like the glory of Heaven shadowed in the serenity of the upper region of the Air and if men had continued in their innocency there would have been in all the World as there was in Paradise a very heaven

the inhabitants of the earth did fashion their hearts alike or alone by himself without others and considered all their works Lastly the reducing of Kingdomes and the affairs of men into Order when they are once out of course When the spirits of Princes and people are prejudiced estranged divided imbittered enraged and engaged against one another and there is envy and strife and confusion and every evil work and they bite and devoure and consume one onother whence shall a reconciliation and redemption arise if He that stilleth the raging of the waters that commands the windes and the Seas and they they him doe not also rebuke the Beast of the ●●…ds the multitude of the B●…lls with the Calves of the people till every one submit himself One may as wel suppose an instrumēt out of frame to come into tune of it self without the hand of an Artist as that a Kingdome divided within it self should return into order and be setled again in peace and quietnes without the hand of the Lord We may loose our selves in the multiplying of arguments of this nature I have named a few amongst an infinitie possibly many others far more pregnant and pertinent may offer themselves to your thoughts the multitude of them makes the choyce difficult to me nothing is harder then when one walkes on the beache by the sea side to finde the fairest shore Take all or any of them and there is enough to convince an Atheist not onely that there is a God but that He iudgeth among the Gods If ye now require the ground of this dispensation viz Why the Lord should rule in and by men rather then prepare his own throne and judge in his own Majestie alone by himself like that Miracle of Nature which doth more by the Iron wherewith it is armed then by its own body without it The reason is not any necessity of Nature or defect of power in God as in Princes but meerly the good pleasure of his will the superabundance of his goodnesse in favour and condescension to man If God should judge immediately the judgement would be more dreadfull and terrible we could not bear the glory we should be swallowed up of the Majesty we may guesse as much by some passages in story of old when God kept the matter of government more in his own hand then now particularly by that which we read in the 19 of Exodus and 5 of Deut. when He gave the Law on mount Sinai there were thundrings and lightnings and a thick cloud and darknesse and the whole mount did quake and burn with fire insomuch as the people trembled and the Elders drew neer to Moses and said Behold the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his greatnesse this great fire will consume us If we hear the voyce of the Lord our God any more then shall we die And so terrible was the sight as Moses said I quake and fear Now if the pomp of the promulgation of the Law was so dreadfull and lesse it could not be considering the Majesty of the King the Law-giver and the Judge what may we think would be the terrours of the Assises and Sessions while God should frequently arise to judgement and execution If God should not judge by men there could not be expected that connivence and moderation in the judgement that now is by the indulgence of men of like passions and compassions towards one another and I think the Scripture speaks something to this purpose in that passage in Exodus 33. 3. I will send an Angel before thee but I will not go up in the midst of thee for thou art a stiff-neeked people lest I destroy thee Certainly the Government thus carried is much more convenient and accommoded to our present condition and relations we could not meet and close and passe and part on all occasions with so little disadvantage to our nature and society if they that bear rule and they that are in subjection were not all of a kinde as the greater and lesser wheels in an Engine all of a metall whereas now the communion is is smoothed and sweetned and love and charity the easier brought in and made the more to abound among all men by the mutuall submission dependance and care of each another unto which they are obliged and ingaged by this administration I have been the longer in the clearing and confirming of the doctrine both because it is scarcely beleeved or but lightly regarded though commonly confessed and almost hourly spoken of and because there is hardly another truth in all the Bible of more common concernment or more generall use while we live in this world then this of my Text Like a picture drawn to the life it casts an eye every way upon every person in any relation and almost upon every occasion and businesse And it is very big and full of matter profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction and for instruction in righteousnesse Among other things it layes a sure foundation for the honour and power of Magistracy even in the matters of God and plainely holds forth as sacred and divine and not to be touched with common or profane hands that Ordinance of God which is the cement and pillar of humane things the life and soule of all order in society and communion the vitall spirits by which so many Millions of men consist comfortably And directs me to put men in minde to be subiect to be subiect to Principalities and Powers and obey Magistrates that with well-doing they may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men and gives faire occasion to grapple with the Anabaptists and Familists and other Sectaries whose Principles betray them to the despising of Dominion and speaking evill of Dignities presumptuous are they and selfe-willed such as the Apostles of our Lord fore-described and foretold us should arise in these latter perillous times These be they who separate themselves sensuall not having the Spirit They boast indeed much of the Spirit but they manifestly doe the workes of the flesh They plead for libertie but it is licentiousnesse libertie of conscience they terme it but it is libertie of practise that every man may do what is good and right in his owne eyes They pretend to nothing but pietie and godlines and seeme as if they would be content if they might but have a bare subsistence in the profession of it So did the Iesuites to learning when they they first appeared upon the stage but when they had once insinuated themselves into the good opinion of Princes and States how well they answered the expectations and requited the kindnesse of those who nursed them up all the Christian world sees and feels to their cost at this day They aske but connivence and toleration but if they once meet in a confluence and finde themselves strong enough to run in a streame let but a damme be pitcht downe to