Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	command_n	right_a	word_n	4,845	5	5.2166	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26808	The soveraign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain it by William Bates ...	Bates, William, 1625-1699.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1126; ESTC R2589	110,196	278

Heart and accepts of Christ intirely as Prophet Priest and King The parts of the Mediator's Office are inseparably connected and all the Effects of them are communicated to the same Persons Jesus Christ is made of God to Believers Wisdom to cure their Ignorance and Folly Righteousness to abolish their Guilt Sanctification to renew their Natures and Redemption to free them at last from the Grave and bring them to Glory From hence 't is clear that the Faith which is justifying and saving includes in its Nature as dependance and trust in Christ as a powerful and merciful Mediator that is able and willing to reconcile us to God and make us for ever happy in his Favour so a sincere resolution of Obedience and Subjection to all his holy Commands even to the plucking out of the right Eye and the cutting off the right hand the parting with the most pleasing or profitable Sins For the Promises of God that are the Rule of Faith make an offer of Christ upon these Conditions to us Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins And only the Justified shall be glorified Those therefore who desire a partial interest in him as a Saviour out of absolute necessity to escape Hell and will not out of Love submit to him as their Prince have not that Faith that is unfeigned and gives a title to Eternal Life by the Promises of the Gospel 2. We must chuse Heaven as our supream Happiness and regard it as the main end of our Lives Man fell from his Duty and Felicity by preferring sensual Pleasure before the Favour of God and became guilty of the greatest Disobedience and Dishonour to his Maker and is restored by the holy change of his Will the setting his Affections on a pure Spiritual Blessedness This subliming the Will and turning its Love and Choice from the Creatures to God is the effect of Divine Grace and wrought in a rational way For Man is not moved as artificial Engines by force nor as Brutes from necessity their Faculties being determined by the outward application of Objects he is not drawn up to Heaven by such a natural impression as Steel by the Load-stone nor forc'd by a violent motion as a Stone ascends but as an understanding free Agent by the direction of the enlightned Mind and the consent of the Will an elective unconstrained Faculty And herein the Wisdom Goodness and Equity of God's Transactions with Man appears His Wisdom in that as he has ordered in the whole sphere of Nature that the active Powers of every Creature be drawn forth into exercise for their preservation and accordingly he is pleased to work in and by them so the Understanding and Will the Principles of Operation in Man are to deliberate and choose in order to his Happiness Otherwise the rational Faculties would be in vain His Goodness and Equity in that he sets before them Eternal Life as the Reward of Obedience God will be glorified by him as a Law-giver and a Benefactor and has ordained in the Gospel that all who chuse and diligently seek the Kingdom of Heaven shall infallibly obtain it and none be deprived of it but for their neglect The Decree of a final state of Misery though not in time yet is consequent in the order of causes to the obstinate reluctancy of Sinners against restoring Grace and the wilful forsaking their own Mercies Therefore God vindicates the Equity of his Proceedings with Men by their own Principles and with tender pity expostulates Why will ye dye The corrupt Will declining from God and adhering to the Creature as its Happiness is the true cause of Mans ruin This will infinitely clear the Wisdom and Justice the Purity and Goodness of God from all Imputation The choice of Heaven for our Felicity is primarily to be determined for 't is from the prospect of it that all holy Counsels derive their Life and Vigour As in drawing the Picture of a Man the first work is to delineate the Head not only as the part that in dignity and eminence is above the rest but as it regulates the drawing of the other parts and gives a just proportion and correspondence between them without which the whole Figure becomes disordered and monstrous Thus in the moral consideration of Man that which is primarily to be considered is the Soul and its final Felicity as incomparably more excellent than the Body and its Pleasures for this will have a powerful influence upon the whole Life directing to avoid what is inconsistent and impertinent and to do what is conducive to it Now this being a matter of unspeakable importance I will first shew what the regular choice of Heaven includes as to its Qualities and Effects Secondly direct how to make this Choice Thirdly present some powerful Motives to excite us to it The Qualities of this Choice are three First it must be sincere and cordial Secondly early in our first and best days Thirdly firm and constant 1. It must be sincere and cordial The most essential and active desire in human Nature is to Happiness but there being two kinds of good things presented to the Will that solicit the Affections the pleasures of Sense and spiritual Joys from hence it is that that which makes Men happy is the object of Election And although there is nothing more uniform and inviolable than the natural inclination to Happiness yet the great distinction of Mankind arises from this source the regular or perverse use of this inclination the wise or mistaking choice of Happiness Now the Sincerity of our Choice is discovered when 't is clear and entire arising from a transcendent esteem of the favour and enjoyment of God as our chief Good and absolutely requisite for us The Choice of true Happiness necessarily includes the despising and rejecting of the false Happiness that stands in competition with it There cannot be two reigning Principles in the Soul for it cannot vigorously apply it self to two Objects at the same time Our Saviour has decided it No Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon The Masters are irreconcileable and their commands are directly opposite It was as possible to place upon the same Altar the Ark of God and the Idol of the Philistins as that Heaven and the World should compound and take equal shares in our Affections Indeed if the conceptions in the Mind are but faint and floating of the universal satisfying Goodness of the Object proposed to make us happy the Will remains in suspence but when 't is clearly and strongly represented the Heart is drawn intirely to embrace it Divine Grace by the illumination of the Understanding purifies and changes the depraved Will and heals the distempered Affections The wise Merchant that had

in the highest degrees that a finite Creature is capable to receive from Love it self and we shall love him with all the strength of our glorified powers 3. Compleat satisfaction flows from union with God by Knowledg and Love In his Presence is fulness of Joy at his right-Right-hand are Pleasures for ever The Causes and Excellencies of the Heavenly Life are in those words exprest The Causes are the influxive Presence of God the revelation of his attractive Perfections the beholding his Face the declaration of his peculiar Favour This our blessed Lord himself had a respect to as the compleat Reward of his Sufferings Thou shalt make me full of Joy with thy Countenance And his Right-Hand his Bounty that dispenses and Power that secures that Felicity The Excellencies of this state are fulness of Joy and that without diminution or end When the Soul opens its eyes to the clear discoveries of the first Truth and its breast to the dear and intimate imbraces of the Supream Good beyond which nothing remains to be known nothing to be enjoy'd what a deluge of the purest Pleasures will overflow it We cannot ascend in our thoughts so high as to conceive the excess of Joy that attends those operations of the glorified Soul upon its proper object But something we may conjecture Those who are possest with a noble Passion for Knowledg how do they despise all lower Pleasures in comparison of it How do they forget themselves neglect the Body and retire into the Mind the highest part of Man and nearest to God The bare apprehension of such things that by their internal nature have no attractive influence upon the Affections is pleasant to the Understanding As the appearance of Light though not attended with any other visible beauties refreshes the Eye after long darkness so the clear discovery of Truths how abstract so ever that were before unknown is grateful to the intellective Faculty Thus some have been strangely transported with the pleasure of a Mathematical Demonstration when the evidence not the importance of the thing was so ravishing for what is more dry and barren of delight than the speculation of Figures and Numbers Solon when near his end and some of his Friends that visited him were speaking softly of a Point of Philosophy by that sound of Wisdom was awaken'd from the sleep of Death that was just seizing on him and opening his eyes and raising his head to give attention being ask'd the reason of it answered That when I understand what you are discoursing of I may die Such was his delight in Knowledg that a little of it made his Agony insensible But here are many Imperfections that lessen this intellectual Pleasure which shall cease in Heaven Here the acquisition of Knowledg is often with the expence of Health the flower of the Spirits necessary for Natural Operations is wasted by intense thoughts How often are the Learned sickly As the Flint when 't is struck gives not a spark without consuming it self So Knowledg is obtain'd by Studies that wast our faint sensitive faculties But then our Knowledg shall be a free emanation from the spring of Truth without our labour and pains Here we learn by circuit and discern by comparing things our Ignorance is dispell'd by a gradual succession of Light But then Universal Knowledg shall be infused in a moment Here after all our labour and toyl how little Knowledg do we gain Every Question is a Labyrinth out of which the nimblest and most searching Minds cannot extricate themselves How many specious Errors impose upon our Understandings We look on things by false Lights through deceiving Spectacles But then our Knowledg shall be certain and compleat There is no forbidden Tree in the Celestial Paradise as no inordinate Affection But suppose that all things in the compass of the World were known yet still there would be emptiness and anguish in the Mind for the most comprehensive knowledg of things that are insufficient to make us happy cannot afford true Satisfaction But then we shall see God in all his Excellencies the supream Object and End the only Felicity of the Soul How will the sight of his Glory personally shining in our Redeemer in the first moment quench our extream thirst and fill us with joy and admiration 'T is not as the naked conception of Treasures that only makes rich in ideas but that Divine sight gives a real Interest in him The Angels are so ravish'd with the Beauties and Wonders of his Face that they never divert a moment from the contemplation of it 2. The pure Love of the Saints to God is then fully satisfied Love considered as an affection of Friendship is always attended with two desires to be assured of Reciprocal Love and to enjoy the Conversation of the Person beloved the testimony of his esteem and good-will This kind of affection seems to be inconsistent with that infinite distance that is between God and the Creature But though 't is disproportionable to the Divine Majesty 't is proportionable to his Goodness Accordingly our Saviour promises He that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And to confirm our belief of this astonishing Condescention repeats it If a Man love me my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him In the present state the signs of God's special Favour are exhibited to his Friends Now he bestows on them the honour of being his Sons the Graces and Comforts of his Spirit the precious Earnests of his Love and Seal of their Redemption But in eminency of degrees the effects of his Love are incomparably more glorious in Heaven Here the Saints are adopted there crown'd There he opens all the bright Treasures of his Wisdom the Riches of his Goodness the Beauties of his Holiness the Glories of his Power and by the intimate application of his Presence makes his Love most sensible to them O the mutual delights between God and glorified Souls God looks on them with an engaged Eye as his own by many dear titles and is well pleased in his own Goodness to them and ravish'd with the Reflex of his own Excellencies shining in them As the Bridegroom rejoyces over the Bride 't is the language of Divine Love so their God rejoyces over thom And what a blessed Rest do they find in the compleat fruition of their Beloved All their desires quietly expire in his Bosom What triumphs of Joy follow Can we frame a fuller Conception of Happiness than to be perfectly loved by infinite Goodness and perfectly to love him 3. The supream Joy of the Saints is for the Felicity and Glory of God himself For as the holy Soul feels no more powerful motive to love God than because he is most worthy of it as he is God a Being of infinite Excellencies and therefore to be loved above the dearest Persons and Things even it self so the