Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	david_n	king_n	saul_n	6,232	5	10.0779	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03494	A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, August the 5. 1623. By Barten Holyday, now archdeacon of Oxford	Holyday, Barten, 1593-1661.	1626 (1626)	STC 13615; ESTC S104169	16,484	48

how farre hee is aboue the hand of the subiect which is to be employed not to touch a King but to defend him from being touch'd The knee is a better subiect then the hand this may bee alwayes loyall that alwayes is safe this may protect with a shield that with a prayer which the Lord doth more often preuent then heare the secret expedition of violence prouoking as secret an expedition of deliuerance The deliuerance of a King is the greatest Epocha in the Chronicle of Gods mercies and releeues the curiositie of expectation with a gratefull period Thus though in the Eternall there be properly no distinction of times yet there is of wonders which most prefer themselues to obseruation when by a courteous almightinesse they command vs to reioyce as much as to admire and are indulgent to our necessary ingratitude which lookes more vpon the benefit then on the wonder Yet is there one degree more of deliuerance when God makes himselfe reioyce as much as vs when he deliuer's a good King by the same act of mercie protecting innocencie with as much ioy as he does maiestie with indignation He was content to deliuer Manasses but hee did delight to deliuer Ezechias the repetition of the deliuerance being the profession of the delight as if it had not beene enough to saue him but once Disease laid a neerer siege vnto him then Sennacherib yet disease fledde like Sennacherib who ought to haue fledde more from his owne blasphemy then from the Angel Against the Assyrian an Angel was made a souldier but against death God himselfe came to the rescue And yet has honorable mercy no higher degree to bestow vpō a superlatiue friēd vpon God's Dauid Yes God did visit others but liu'd with him He was with him when he tore the Lion as the Lion would haue torne the Lambe making the destruction as famous as the strength He prouided the peeble for his sling whose actiue preuention gaue not the Philistine the respite of feare or anger but making his strength as vaine as it was great with triumph committed him to death and scorne Now these were Dauid's deliuerances when he was a sheepheard yet when God was his sheepheard but will you see his protections in his royalty as illustrious as his royaltie So peraduenture we may find out among his many traitours his violent man from whom hee had equall glorie and feare If wee looke vpon Abner wee may obserue more power then violence Strengthned he was with Saul's armie and sonne but an easie quarrell betweene him and his Lord bestowed him vpon Dauid who receiuing at once peace and strength from his enemy by a rare felicity saw his danger made his safety And thus we haue not yet found out Dauid's violent man If wee looke vpon Absalom wee may obserue more subtilty then violence Arm'd hee was with Achitophel against whose wisdome Dauid had nothing equall but his innocence which inuited God's mercy to such reuenge that by a compendious iustice it made the wise traitour become his owne executioner and vaine Absalom was onely happie by being aduanc'd to a deliberate destruction And thus wee haue not yet sound out Dauids violent man If wee looke vpon Sheba the sonne of Bichri wee may obserue more vanitie then violence Hee fought more with the trumpet then the sword and raising rather a tumult then a rebellion almost as soone lost his head as his loyaltie And thus wee haue not as yet found out Dauids violent man Wee will not looke vpon Adoniah and yet he was a goodly person in whom wee may obserue more desire then violence But notwithstanding if wee would looke vpon him hee will take sanctuarie before wee can see him and from the hornes of the altar make his pardon as soone knowne as his offence And thus wee haue not as yet found out Dauids violent man But if we will looke backe in storie wee shall finde an enemie of Dauids before all these both in time and furie Wee shall behold Saul beginning a persecution with his owne hand which throwes a iauelin at him but it is guided by a better hand to a mercifull errour Wee shall behold him sending messengers to kill him in the morning as if they expected the light only to guide them to the certaintie of the execution least peraduenture by an vnpardonable mistake they should commit a lesse villanie But Dauids wife by a better light foreseeing the intent shewes that the night is as conuenient for an escape as for a murder and letting him downe at a windowe makes the same darknesse conceale their treacherie and delude it Wee shall behold Saul himselfe hunting after him as if hee would driue him out of his countrie and wits but Dauid in the extremitie of wit and banishment disguises himselfe in a safe madnesse making it the best vse of his reason to seeme to haue lost the vse of his reason Wee shall behold this violent man driuing him againe after his returne into caues and deserts by a new crueltie banishing him thus in his owne countrie We shall behold him at last so out-runne his owne furie and companie that he is left alone to his mercie whom hee teaches to be vnmercifull Wee shall see him become rather Dauids armour-bearer then his enemie losing vnto him the speare that hee hunts him with arming him thus at once with the opportunitie and instrument of reuenge And might not Dauid at this rare leisure of affliction iustly cry out vnto violent Saul Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Thus haue you seene Dauids violent man but now will you see his violent God Behold the art of diuine vengeance The losse of Saul's life must not cost Dauid the losse of his innocence Hee has for a long time persecuted Dauid and now hee returnes to persecute himselfe Dauid found a wildernesse to hide himselfe from Saul but Saul can finde no wildernesse to hide himselfe from himselfe His owne feare and his sword quickly dispatch him It had beene too much glorie to fall by the riotorious hand of Dauid it had beene too much content to fall by the commanded hand of his owne seruant Dauid was reueng'd when Saul was slaine but God was reueng'd when Saul slew himselfe The heart of the King is in the hand of God and is not the hand of the King in the hand of God Saul fell by his owne hand and by Gods His owne hand acts the murder but God's the reuenge Thus God deliuers Dauid from Saul by Saul A deliuerance almost as admirable for the instrument as for the Authour You see then what God has done for Dauid now heare what Dauid will doe for God And I may iustly bid you heare because hee will giue thankes vnto the Lord because hee does giue thankes vnto the Lord. Hee does giue thankes whiles hee does promise them whiles he confesses his debt he payes it Which payment by words is not more easie then true it being a gift which

accompanied a blessing is one God neuer giues vnto a good man a single blessing but at the same time makes him both happy and gracefull And it is societie of blessings our vnderstanding may obserue in those creatures that are without vnderstanding each good tree giuing thankes for his goodnesse by his fruitfulnesse Goodnesse is the looking glasse and gratitude the reflexion whereby the Creatour beholds and applaudes his owne worke Which worke was in Dauid so vnfainedly exact that God's goodnesse seem'd to bee reflected with as much similitude as delight and with as much expedition as similitude God deliuers him from death and straight hee deliuers himselfe from ingratitude He does not giue thanks vnto his speare or rather vnto Saul's speare which hee vsed not vnto victorie yet vnto triumph His happinesse made Saul his captiue but his mercie did onely take his speare captiue The speare in holy reuerence did not touch Saul but the dutifull mercie gaue him a loyall wound Hee does not giue thankes to the swiftnesse of his beast which might make his flight more speedy then his danger We know of no horse hee had but his feare Hee does not giue thankes vnto his sword He fled without one till hee came to Ahimelech the Priest of whom hee was faine to borrow one that was his one the sword which hee formerly wonne from Goliah Yet Dauid did no more hurt to Saul with it then Goliah did to Dauid with it Hee does not giue thankes vnto his wit which without strength may put a man in hope but seldome in safetie He does giue thankes vnto the Lord that in his flight affoorded him direction and defence and hee delights to disgrace himselfe to thankfulnesse whiles he makes himselfe no more part of the deliuerance then the argument If some politique Discourser were to censure this businesse hee would inuade it with the licence of phansie and deliuer vnto vs a new story of the same actions making Dauid as great a Politician as himselfe He would tell vs of his courtship with Ahimelech by whom he was both sed and arm'd He would tell vs of his iudicious and wel-expressed madnesse before Achish the King of Gath He would tell vs of his foure hundred Bankcrupts and discontents whole despaire he raised into courage by making himselfe Captaine ouer them at Adullam He would tell vs how hee wrought vpon the King by nothing vpon his children Ionathan and Michel making him his friend and her his wife by whom hee made a discouerie aduantage of the King's hate and feare He would tell vs that hee spared Saul not for Saul's sake but his owne since hee might expect most certaine 〈◊〉 from the guilt and as certaine pardon by the loyaltie Lastly he would draw out such a necessitie of deliuerance in all his troubles from the vnited causes circumstances and dependances of the actions that both the danger and the glory would be all Dauid's and he would tell vs that to oppose this were to deny the principles of the great Patriarch Achitophel and Saint Machiauel and thus would make God almighty so vnacquainted with the businesse as if hee were wholy imployed about some other piece of prouidence But Dauid's gratitude does abhorre this guiltie wisedome and hee is so farre from not rendring thankes vnto God that he proclaimes them making them of as great extent as the libertie God brings him into Hee counts it an ingratitude to prayse God without witnesse and he makes himselfe more thankfull whiles hee makes others thankfull Their silence is a part and an increase of his speech which is pointed by the respites of their admiration No lesse then the whole people can bee an auditor equall to Dauid's ioy wherein you may behold a happy contradiction of Philosophie extending an accident beyond a subiect Dauid's ioy is larger then his heart and yet his heart is larger then all the people's and his thankes likewise must not haue the same bounds with his Dominions He will commit his Psalmes to fame and deuotion which shall faithfully deliuer them vnto the Nations And the Nations shall reioyce to studie God in Dauid and God shall reioyce to heare Dauid in the Nations and Dauid shall reioyce to fore-know the ioy of God and the Nations This day in the Christian posteritie of the Heathen Dauid's Prophesie is made storie and his Psalme is made our Psalme whiles Dauid giues vs the words wherewith we giue thankes for him vnto the Lord. But Dauid cannot rest content with the tame thankes of words Hee is not made more actiue by his feare then by his ioy which sometimes moues his hand vnto his Harpe as if it would make the soule by the finger impart harmony to the instrument and by arte not adulterate yet multiply thankes Sometimes it moues his whole body which by the obedience of a deuout Daunce keepes time with the excitations of his soule And sometimes it moues his voyce by a song by which the soule whiles in the body seemes to mount higher then the bodie Dauid could not alwayes carry the pleasant burden of his Harpe with him but his voyce was an easie and faithfull companion The most instructed pensill that can expresse all passions cannot yet expresse a voice but the voice by a naturall cunning can without the pensill expresse all passions It can prolong it self into the slow not of sorrow and teach the eare to suffer with the heart It can sharpen it selfe into the cleere accent of joy and by purifying motion seeme to make the spirits of the heart as light as the soule When we sing we commit an innocent flattery of our selues our owne melodie being the gratefull coozenage of our minds without abuse But when we sing a Psalme we chastize the errour of delight and so please our selues that we please God To sing Psalmes is to preuent the joyes of Heauen but to sing Psalmes of prayse is to increase the joyes in Heauen The Angels rejoyce at out godly sorrow how much more doe they rejoyce at our godly joy The Church triumphant makes vp the antheme of the Church militant Yet all our songs doe not make God more great but more gracious Hee makes his prayses our blessings Thus we can then onely with a modest and lawfull wisdome prayse our selues when we prayse God And this was an art wherein Dauid was no lesse skilfull then happy his whole life was but a blessing and a Psalme If he kill a Lion or a Beare hee will straight be as thankfull as strong and confesse that though it were by the arme of Dauid yet it was by the strength of God If he kill a Gyant with the weapons of a sheepheard he will straight confesse that God was the sheepheard which gaue the weight course vnto the sling-stone If in the Wildernesse hee lie hid from Saul by the protection of a rocke hee will straight confesse that God is the rocke and rather want an auditory then a Psalme