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	foot_n	member_n	6,594	5	8.0095	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29925	Vlastēma ex hypsous, or, The best vvisdome propounded to the gentry of Suffolk in a sermon at Ipswich : prepared for the 9th of April, 1660, the day of election of Knights of the shire for the afore-said county, but preached the morning after / by Benjamin Bruning ...	Bruning, Benjamin, 1623?-1688.	1660 (1660)	Wing B5231; ESTC R2801	32,130	63

confusion and tumult would there be in the body It would be no wonder in such a case to see one foot spurning or one hand chopping off another but one common appetite craving for the whole body that so every Member may have its due proportion this is it that keeps the members of the body in peace The Application of this to Politick bodies is easily made I shall leave it to you to do it The Apostle Paul exhorting to love and unity Phil. 2.2 Fulfil my joy that ye be like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind and in the 3d. vers Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory Now as an effectual means to further this mark what followeth in the fourth verse Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Were but this well digested in the Nation its work were more then three quarters done as to the establishment of Peace 'T is base self-interest and party interest that undoeth our Peace Where shall we meet a Moses who being largely proffered if the Israelitish Nation were destroy'd to become a great Nation himself chose rather to be nothing then to be made a great Nation upon such tearms Exod. 32.10,11 Where shall we find a true Mordecai seeking the wealth of his People Ester 10.3 A Nehemiah that left the pomp and pleasure of the greatest Princes Court then on Earth and took a tedious and hazardous journey that he might seek the welfare of the children of Israel Nehemiah 2.10 Where shall we find a Nanianzen that would not grutch Jonas-like to be cast into the Sea so that all might be calm in the publick And if the heathen was as good as his words when he said Ne immortalitatem contrà Remp. acciperem I would not be hired with immortality to wrong the Common-wealth How rare is it to find amongst Christians a man so bravely spirited The Parliament-house filled with suuh spirited men would be one of the rarest sights that could be seen in the Eeglish Nation And how quickly may a self-seeking Parliament lose itsself and the Nation too 6. Sixthly Another dictate of Wisdom in order to peace is this A malitious desire of revenge is so much beneath a Christian that 't is the baseness of a Man Doth any trespass against me let him look to that he hath the worst on 't thus much could a heathen say Vengeance is mine these are the Lords words and alledg'd by the Appostle as a reason why we should not avenge our selves Rom. 12.19 Thou canst not execute a private revenge without wronging the Lord infinitely more then 't is possible for any creature to wrong thee for herein thou invadest one of Gods prerogatives namely Vengeance The Lord vouches it as his and in effect thou tellest him to his face 't is thine There is a proverb concerning the Lion That he is not so fierce as men paint him But as for this sin of malicious revenge no tongue can paint it so foul as it is I may well term it profundam nequitiam one of the profoundest depths of Satan that can be imagin'd to be in the heart of man If we consider it abstractly in its naked self we find the very quintessence of sin abounding in it Would we take a true measure of the goodness or badness of actions one of the surest rules we go by is to observe how much there is of the Will in the Action as closing more entirely and immediately with good or evill for its own sake So far as credit and profit and such like sensual accessaries attending the practice of holiness and vertue are influential upon the will to alure it so much is the action blended there 's so much the less of pure goodness in it But now when holiness stript of such accessaries obtains the consent and embrace of the will for the sake of its naked self this argueth an eminent sincerity and heighth of Grace It holds proportionably in evil habits and practises and what is malice but a meer ulcer or gangreen of a depraved will It argues a person so much debauch'd into a greedy compliance with sin that he swallows the bare hook St. John tels us 1 John 3. He that hateth his brother is a murtherer and he that murthers another meerly for evil wills sake is worse in the sight of God then he that doth it for moneys sake And may it not be for a lamentation that so cursed a thing should fill the hearts of so many as it doth Were ye to deal with some in order to peace and reconciliation ye would be ready to imagine that to be true of malice which Flaccius Illyricus conceited of Original sin That 't is no accident or quality but the very essence and substance of the man You would find it as easy work to remove a mountain as to remove a grudge out of some mens hearts Instead of being rooted and grounded in Love Eph. 3. they are rooted and grounded in Malice instead of being stedfast and unmoveable in Grace 1 Cor. 15. ult always abounding in the work of the Lord they are stedfast and unmoveable in wrath as if they were under an oath to abound always in this work of the Devil When Nilus over floweth it leaves a slime in which some say Crecodiles breed a malicious spirit of revenge is the Crecodile that hath bred in the shine of our wars and troubles the Lord send us well ●id of it Are there any that study more how to do an opposite party a mischiefe then to further the publick good Pray God keep such out of the Parliament Should such a spirit as this be in the Parliament 't would be a hundred times worse then 36 barrels of gunpowder under it I hope God will keep them clear of this Where there is but the ingenuity of a well-bred Gentleman I do not much fear it To wrong the community for self-advantage sake 't is the spirit of a Wolf rather then a Christian but to disturb peace for revenge sake 't is the spirit of a Devil rather then a Gentleman The Lord give the Parliament Gentry and People of this Nation a holy spite in their hearts against the sin of Malice 7. Seventhly Another dictate of Wisdome in order to Peace is this 'T is every mans duty to abide in the duties of his place and station and the use of just and lawful means and therein to wait upon God for events and issues The Apostles were once accused for preaching such Doctrin as this Let us de evil that good may come Rom. 3.8 But see with what vehemency this is defied of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ●aith he be slanderously reported and some affirm that we say Let us do evil that good may come And mark what followeth whose damnation is just Whether this be to be understood of them that rais'd this slander or of them which held

order to Peace Seperation is not to be made from a Church upon any other ground then that which makes a seperation between God and that Church If any demand what that is I answer either the Apostasie of a Church into gross and right down Idolatry or in point of Doctrine into damnable Heresie either of these will cause a seperation of God from a Church and much more both of them But by all that I can learn by my Bible we can be assured of nothing else I readily acknowledg that the Lord may be highly offended with a Church for other miscarriages And a wanton dallying with him in matters of a lighter nature may provoke him to give up a Church by degrees 'till at last it falls into the dreggs of grossest Apostasie As the City of Rome was not built so the Church of Rome did not fall in a day Let us hear and fear and not do presumptuously But still I know nothing that proves the Lords divorcing from and utter forsaking of a Church 'till it's Apostasie come to such a height as I have already mentioned Now for any person willingly to seperate and refuse Communion with a Church so long as God vouchsafes Communion how this can be justified or how it will be answered I know not The Lords words Isaiah 52.11 which with a small variation are cited by the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.17 Come out from amongst them and be ye seperate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you 'T is not unknown how much these words have been abused for the encouragement of of seperation from the publick Assemblies of the Church of England I say abused for who is it but such as are forlornly void of all christian charity that dare say concerning the hundred years past that the Assemb●ies of the Church of England have had nothing of the Lords gracious presence with them That Ordinances have been empty things and the publick Ministry a meer sound of words He that affirms this bears false witness against thousands of glorifyed souls in Heaven and gracious souls on Earth who have found to their everlasting comfort the presence of God in his Ordinances amongst us Now suppose there have been miscarriages in the mannagement of Gods Worship and Ordinances yet if they be not such as drive God away I see no reason why they should drive us away And had the Lord ever intended which cannot be imagined to send any going whilst he affordeth his own presence Come from amongst them would have been improper language in such a case It must have been Go from among them not Come As for touching no unclean thing I grant it concerns us neerly in all times and places as much as to say we must beware of sin and that not only by forbearing the acting of it but likewise by taking heed that we partake not of other mens sins But now let us put the case that our lot be cast in a Church that hath its corruptions and miscarriages too much remarkable whilst it holdeth to the substantials of true Doctrine and Worship Do any think that in this case a person cannot hold Communion with such a Church without being accessary to its miscarriages and incurring the guilt of it's corruptions I am clearly of another judgment And am confirm'd in it by the practise of our Lord and Master who was a Member of the Jewish Church whilst it was corrupt enough in Doctrine Worship and Conversation 'T is true he was far from owning its corruptions he lamented and reprov'd them and labour'd a redress but still held Communion with it as a member of it And I hope none will say that in so doing he became accessary to the guilt of its corruptions And after his ascention when he was about to write by his Amanuensis St. John his Epistles to the seven Churches he represents himself as walking amongst the seven Candlesticks Some of them were sufficiently besmear'd but yet favour'd with Christs presence and acknowledg'd for golden Candle sticks He sharply reproves some of them for what was amiss and severely threatneth them if there were no amendment But all this while not the least blame laid upon any Member of those Churches for not withdrawing or suspending their Communion Revel 3. We find that the Church of Sardis had dirt enough in it to defile the Garments of all its Members except a very few Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defil'd their Garment v. 4. By this it appeareth that these few were in actual Communion with that Church Now did their Communion barely confider'd render them accessory to the defilements of it How then could our Saviour have truly said of them that they had not defiled their Garments The like we may observe in St. Paul his dealings with the Church of Corinth what sharp rebukes doth he give that Church for miscarriages and that very notorious both in the matter of Gods Ordinances and in point of Conversation 'T is true he would have every one lament what was amiss and in his place endeavour a reformation but where doth he hint the least encouragement to a separation doth he not on the contrary severely reprove what ever tended to it In a word would any man take it well to have a Plague-mark clapt upon his door because of some uncleanness in his House This is the usage that Christ meets withall when any seperate from a Church as Antichristian upon any grounds short of such gross Apostasie as I mentioned in the beginning of this head 5. Fifthly another dictate of wisdome in order to Peace is this The interests of parties and private concornments must give place to publick Interest 2 Tim. 3. At the beginning the Apostle in giving an account of the Perilous Times that were to come in the last dayes he begins with this men shall be lovers of themselves An inordinate ravenous self-love 't is in the world an abomination making desolate it throws firebrands arrowes and death Such lovers of themselves they must needs be covetous they 'l quickly appear without natural affection truce breakers false accusers fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded and what not what the Apostle saith of him that provides not for his Family may it not fit that sort of men that raise their Families by the ruines of the publick They have denyed the Faith and are worse then Infidels And the World was ever too full of such cruel Hodmandods that care not though they suck a Commonwealth to death so they fill their own shells with juice Well might one say That next to their repentance and reformation the best that one can wish concerning this gang of men is that God would give them little wit and less authority All that are Sons of Peace may say Amen to it In the natural body had every Member a distinct appetite alwayes coveting and drawing greedily to it self what a strange