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
A30105	Chirologia, or, The naturall language of the hand composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures thereof : whereunto is added Chironomia, or, The art of manuall rhetoricke, consisting of the naturall expressions, digested by art in the hand, as the chiefest instrument of eloquence, by historicall manifesto's exemplified out of the authentique registers of common life and civill conversation : with types, or chyrograms, a long-wish'd for illustration of this argument / by J.B. ...	J. B. (John Bulwer), fl. 1648-1654.	1644 (1644)	Wing B5462A; ESTC R208625	185,856	386

them ¶ The speech of Reuben to his father Jacob about Benjamins delivering into his Hands hath reference to this signification of trust And that speech of Judah unto his Father about the same busines I will be surety for him of my Hand shalt thou require him ¶ In the sense of fidelity all the Princes men of power and all the sons of David GAVE THE HAND unto King Salomon And the Prophet Ezekiel emphatically declaring the perjury and infidelity of the King of Jerusalem who had broken the oath made with the King of Babel which he had confirmed BY GIVING HIS HAND denounceth these punishments That he should dye in the midst of Babel in the place of the King that had made him King whose oath hee had despised and whose covenant made with him he brake Neither should Pharaoh King of Aegypt in whom he trusted deliver him For hee hath despised the Oath and broken the Covenant YET LOE HE HAD GIVEN HIS HAND And verily all Nations have ever had a naturall respect unto the mystery of Faith which hath her firme existence in the Hand and have so esteemed the Right Hand they thought the touch thereof to be the most lively significant and expresse pawne or pledge of faithfulnesse whence all compacts leagues Grants combinations truces proviso's bargaines covenants and entercourses whatsoever are held to be inviolably ratified and to stand in full power force and virtue by the TOUCH of the insuring Hand For when we GIVE OUR HAND we doe seal● as it were an obligation or reall contract by which presents we deeply ingage our selves to a punctuall accomplishment of that which our Hand had protested to the Hand being bound as a surety that our deeds shall bee forth-comming and be found answerable to our words for whosoever forfeits the Recognizance of his Hand he breaks the most sacred and strongest band of of Truth and by falsifying his manuall faith proves a kinde of Renegado to himselfe Caelius Rhodiginus thinkes there is some Pythagoricall mystery in this authenticke guise of the Hand in warrantizing faithfull dealings and that the gesture flowes from a secret and religious reverence to that comprehensive number Ten for while each Hand doth extend five fingers which move to the comprehension of each other they premit a resemblance of the Decades mystery since meeting in their formall close they seem to greet one another in that number Callymachus and Varro endeavour to render another reason drawne from the naturall authority and command that consists in the virtue of the Right Hand And verily Faith consists wholly in the Right Hand and the left hath no obligatory force or virtue in it For to give the left hand or to take anothers given Right Hand with the left is not binding in point of naturall Faith And therefore when Josippus Gorio the Jew desired a Roman Souldier to give him his Right Hand in signe of Faith he gave him his left and drawing his sword with his Right Hand slew him and yet he cannot properly be said to have falsified his promise since he gave him but his left hand whose touch hath no assurance but was ever held deceitfull and ominous Therefore the oath of Faith in all adjurations was taken and required by the Right Hand Hence Plautus Haec per dextram tuam dextrate retinente manu obsecro infidelior mihi ne sis quam ego sum tibi To which may be referred that adjuration of Cicero per dextram ipsam quam hospes hospiti porrexisti For the Ancients were wont by this gesture of faith to put their last will and commandement into the obliged Hand of their heirs or executors To which intent Masinissa sent to Manilius Proconsull of Africa requesting him to send unto him then at the point of death Scipio Aemilianus who then served under his command as a Souldier supposing his death to prove more happy if he dyed embracing his Right Hand and adjured him thereby to performe his last wil and testament Tarquinius Priscus sent for Servius to this purpose Thus the friends of Germanicus touching his Right Hand swore to revenge his death And Micipsa King of Numidia after he had adopted Jugurth upon his death-bed used these words unto him I adjure thee by this Right Hand which he held and by the allegigiance thou owest to thy Country that thou estrange not thy love and service from these thy kinsmen whom by favour and adoption I have created thy brethren To this Virgil alluding to the generall custome Fata per Aeneae juro dextramque potentem Tibullus alludes to this gesture Te teneam moriens deficiente manu The wilde Irish doe ordinarily use to sweare by this seat of faith and minister of virtue the Right Hand who at every third word are wont to lash out an oath and among the rest these By my God fathers Hand by my gossips Hand or by thy Hand and for the performance of promise and that a man may beleeve them these are of greatest weight to binde them If one sweare by the Hand of an Earle or of his owne Lord or some mighty person for if he be forsworne and convict of perjury the said mighty man will wring from him perforce a great summe of money and a number of cowes as if by that perjury the greatest abuse and injury that might be were offered to his name And the Hebridian Scots and Mountainiers in their contracts sweare by the Hand of their Captaine an ordinance observed among them ever since Evenus the first King that exacted the oath of Faith at their Hands ¶ But the indissoluble soder and inviolable bond of society which old sincerity instructed by reason in the tacit force thereof thought the great oath and the strongest hold the Re-publick hath to keep the honour of her estate is Faith then which there was never any thing held to be of greater credit or antiquity Hence Xenophon hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est publicam fidem And Numa by his dedication of the Hand to Faith and commanding the Flamins to execute their functions with their Hands covered and wrapped close to their fingers ends gave a notable testimony that he held Faith for holy and sacred after touching of the Right Hand that it ought be kept and preserved and that her seate was sacred and consecrated even upon the Right Hands and therefore that it ought by no meanes to be violated wherefore in particular contracts among the Romans there was not any oath more religious and holy then the oath of Faith a point of naturall doctrine that Numa did but enforce with his rituall additions But the authority reputation consequence and dignity of the Publicke Faith was had in such singular estimation that men held their money no where so safe as in the Hands of the Publicke State Hence it is that we may see many ancient

a Hand which is the sourse of so many charities Reservatione saluto Gestus LXII TO OFFER THE BACKE OF THE RIGHT HAND TO BE KISSED by others which Plinie calls a religious ceremony used by all Nations is an expression of state used by proud and scornfull persons who affect the garbe of great ones and are willing to afford a sleight respect to one they thinke unworthy of a higher touch Martiall very acutely jeers at the condition of such over-weening magnifico's Basia das aliis aliis das posthume dextram Dicis utrum mavis elige malo manum Many such apes of sovereignty our times afford who arrogate to themselves more honour then either their birth or fortunes can chalenge such may see a copy of their improper expression in Marcellinus who describing the corrupt state of Rome in the dayes of Valentinian and Valens shews how the Nobility some of them when they began to be saluted or greeted breast to breast turned their heads awry when they should have been kissed and bridling it like unto curst and fierce bulls offered unto their flattering favourites their knees or Hands to kisse supposing that favour sufficient for them to live happily and be made for ever Indeed the favourites of fortune and great Commanders of the world with a little more reason have thought them much to wrong their majesty who in kissing presumed above their Hands Examples of which imperious expression we have in Caligula who as Dion reporteth of him was very sparing of his Hand except it were to Senatours and to whom he offered this favour they gave him publicke thanks in the Senate for it whereas all men saw him daily allowing this favour to dancers and tumblers And Domitian to Caenis his fathers concubine newly returned out of Istria and offering to kisse his lippes hee PUT FORTH HIS HAND And the younger Maximin is noted to have used the said stately expression in his demeanour towards them that came to salute him and not to have admitted any above his Hand A piece of state that hath been as improperly usurped by the proud Prelates of the Church who have expected the same symbol of subjection from the humble mouths of their adorers A reserved carriage which begat envy in the people to the greatest Emperours Wherefore Pliny comending Trajan the Emperor in forbearing this expression of state condemning it in those that used it saith I am quo assensu senatus quo gaudio exceptus es cum canditatis ut quemque nomina veras osculo occurres devexus in planum quasi unus ex gratulantibus te miror magis an improbem illos qui efficerunt ut illud magnum videretur cum velut affixi curulibus suis manum tantum hanc cunctanter pigrè imputantibus similes promerent Yet in Princes whose tempers did enrich them with their peoples love this demonstration of the Hand was held to be a note of Royall plausibility Of this kinde of benigne and courteous Princes was Marcus Aurelius as Herodian noteth who was of so sweet a temper and debonaire behaviour towards all men that he would GIVE HIS HAND 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to every man that came to him commanding his guard to keepe backe none that came unto him The same Author speaking of the Emperour Severus his entrance into Rome with his Army and noting his plausibility the next day when he came to the Senate where he made a smooth and plausible speech and then saith he he GAVE HIS HAND to all the company where he useth the same Greeke word as before Absolon used this popular action of his Hand as a bait to entice and steale away the hearts of the people from his father David for the text saies it was so that when any man came nigh him to doe him obeysance he put forth his Hand and tooke him and kissed him Otho was of the same courtly complexion and as Tacitus observeth was well skilled in the facit force of this popular insinuation very ready to STRETCH FORTH HIS HAND and to bow himselfe to every meane person neither did he reject any though comming single The humanity of Alexander the Great King of Macedon a Prince of an invincible spirit and noble temper is most renowned in Histories who although he was weakned with the violence of a disease a thing most incredible to be spoken or heard raising himselfe upon his couch PUT FORTH HIS DYING HAND to all his souldiers that would to touch it and holding it in that posture untill all his Army had kissed not untill then taking in his wearied arme Upon which unimitable act of Alexander Valerius Maximus breaks forth into a most patheticall interrogatory Quis autem manum osculari non curreret quae jam fato oppressa maximi exercitus complexui humanitate quam spiritu vividiore suffecit Nor was the affability of Cyrus King of Persia much lesse remarkable who declaring upon his death-bed how they should dispose of his body after his a to wit to bury it presently in the earth and not to inclose it in any gold or silver urne wherefore saith he if there be any of you that would either touch my Right Hand or behold my eye while I am yet alive let them come neare but when mine eyes are once closed I crave of you my sonnes that my body may be seene of no man nor of you your selves and having spoken these and other things when he had given them all his Hand he closed his eyes and so dyed Great Princes at this day expose not their Right Hand to be kissed but to such whom they would welcome with some especiall grace For when great Potentates intend to admit a friend into protection or in their Royall goodnesse are pleased to re-admit some exile from their love and would dispense with greater majesty a pardon royall for some passed offence they use openly to offer and PRESENT THE BACKE OF THEIR RIGHT HAND permitting them by that favour to reverence their power and high command or the signification of that touch and honourable favour is as much as a firme signe of reconciliation and a gracious league obtained at their Hand Furacitatem noto Gestus LXIII TO PUT FORTH THE LEFT HAND AS IT WERE BY STEALTH is their significant endeavour who have an intent unséene to purloine and convey away something From which fellonious action the Adage is derived Utitur manu sinistra which translated in the proverbiall sense is tooke up against cheates and pilfering fellowes who by a théevish sleight of Hand and slie way of robbery can bereave one of a thing unperceived for such Mercurialists who addresse themselves to filch and lurching closely assay under-Hand to steale a thing Hand-smooth away doe in the cursed Handicraft of theft out of a kinde of cunning choice imploy the left hand which is the hand that lyes more out of sight and

also observed in the Inauguration of Kings And the finger was used in all dippings and sprinklings of the Leviticall Law The ground and foundation of this typicall expression seems to be laid in nature for the Hand is conceived to be as it were a shadow or image of the Trinity for the arme that proceeds from the body doth represent the second Person who proceeds from the Eternall Father who is as it were the body and spring of the Trinity and the fingers which flow both from the body and the arme doe represent the Holy Ghost who proceeds both from the Father and the Sonne Hence Hierom upon the passage of Isaiah To whom is the Arme of the Lord revealed saies that the Arme of the Lord is mystically the Son proceeding from the Father To which some refer that of the Psalmist He made strong his Arme. And the arme shadowes out the second Person in the Trinity in these respects in coessentiality with the body coevallity Ability Utility Agility and Flexibility The fingers give an umbrage of the Holy Spirit in regard of their procession proceeding from the Arm and Hand operation the body working by the Hand and fingers conjunction taction ostention aspertion distinction of joynts equall numeration c. Hence the Finger of God in Scripture signifies the Holy Spirit If in the Finger of God I cast out divells but then the word Finger must be in the singular number for in the plurall it hath other senses ¶ It is also their gesture who would solemnly confer some spirituall or temporall honour upon some person This in the sacred language of Scripture is Chirothesia and is a matriculating gesture and the formall preposition proper to those who are to be openly installed or inaugurate in some new place of duty or of command all creations relying on the honorarie touch of the giving Hand as the enduing ensigne that by evidence ensures the priviledges of investiture And this manuall expression is so naturally important that it proves in honorarie initiations a fitter vestment to cloath the intention in then the airy texture of words for it hath ever had a sacred efficacy to move the understanding by the sense and to facilitate the overture of sacred affaires as being of good note and consequence conducing and inviting to the knowledge of things abstruce there being no other part of man that can so lively and emphatically present by gesture the solemne images of ●is intention since by the motion of the Hand there is wrought in the minde of the beholder something that is ex congru● significant unto a thought as that which suggests more unto the minde then what is expressed unto the outer sense for it hath more sollidity and weight then appeares in the bare 〈◊〉 relation And all gestures of the Hand being known to be of their very nature signs of imitation the mystique property close intention of this gesture is not alone to represent it self but to conduct and insinuate something else into the thought which being as it must ever be an intelligible notion as it is a signe or token it falls short and abates of the perfection of the thing that is implied by its outward signification wherefore a Hand is but improperly said to be the shadow of its counterfeit which is wrought by a pencill in imitation of the life although upon sight thereof we know and conclude it to have the semblance of a Hand to be a draught or copy of the originall so this gesture is but a manuall vision of the mind most conformable to expresse divine notions which else would lose much of their lustre and remaine invisible to the conceit of man This forme of expression in ordination as it is agreeable to the canon of Nature so it hath received confirmation by the Hand of God since it first appeared in the Hand of the Patriarchs the first dispensers of personall benediction who used it to betoken the restrained intention of their votes unto them on whom they conferred their blessings For we finde Moses by command PUTTING HIS HAND UPON Joshua the sonne of Nun to appoint him governour who is said to be full of the Spirit for Moses had LAID HIS HANDS UPON him And when Moses and Joshua had prayed and LAID THEIR HANDS ON the seventy Elders the Holy Spirit came upon them In choosing of Deacons this gesture was used by the Apostles And in the separation of Barnabas and Saul to be the Apostles of the Gentiles this gesture is againe used And Timothy is put in minde by St. Paul of the gift he received by this IMPOSITION OF HANDS for not only the office but the ability were together conferred upon many by this gesture of which acquist we must not conceive the solemne gesture to be a naturall but a morall cause as being the true manner form of impetration God assenting and by successe crowning the prayers of religious Hands and shewed that what they did was by prayer and blessing in his name they being indeed Gods Hands by which he reacheth Counsell and Religion which as through their Hands are conveyed unto men Christ having promised to open and shut them to stretch them out and draw them in as the Hand of man is guided by the spirit that is in man This Chirothesia vel Chirotonia for both occur in the new Testament is used as an Ecclesiasticall gesture at this day in token of elevation or ordination election and separation And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est manus tendo seu attollo in signum suffragii To which appertains that cautionary symboll of St. Paul Lay the Hand suddenly on no man which Interpreters expound of the care that is to be used that none should be admitted into roomes of divine calling but such who are called and are fit Tam doctrina quam moribus For no man can lay the Hand upon himselfe and be as Basil tearmes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his own ordeiner for that is parallel unto the crime of Jeroboam who filled his owne Hand that is ordained himselfe ¶ To the signification and externall effects of IMPOSITION OF HANDS in confirmation Tertullian elegantly Caro * manus impositione adumbratur ut anima spiritu illuminetur ¶ In sanation or conferring a corporall benefit on any IMPOSITION OF HANDS is very naturall significant and agreeable to the mysterious intention for the Hand is the generall salve that is applied and applies all remedies for naturally ubi dolor ibi digitus and necessarily in point of topicall application whose very approach doth most sensibly import reliefe and ease Our Blessed Saviour the great Physitian of soule and body who did most of his miracles for restauration of bodily health though he were the truth and substance who gave an end to all legall shadowes yet he most commonly used the shadow of this naturall

him and he sate upon it and Aaron and Hur stayd up his Hands the one on the one side and the other on the other side so his Hands were steady untill the going downe of the Sunne and Josuah discomfited Amalech Upon which Philo allegorizing shewes that victorious gesture of Moses Hands doth signifie that by the vertue and intention of prayer all things are overcome or it implyes the elevation of the intellect to sublime contemplations and then Amalech that is the affections are overcome Origen descanting upon the posture of Moses Hands observes that hee did elevate not extend his Hands that is his workes and actions to God and had not his HANDS DEIECTED He LIFTS UP HIS HANDS that layes up treasure in heaven For where we love thither resorts the eye and the Hand He that keepes the Law orecomes he that doth not lets Amalech prevaile Elias Cretensis thus This gesture of Moses Hands if you looke to that which falls under the aspect of the eye signifies prayer Hence in an old Scheme of Clodovaeus there are two armes erected to Heaven supported by two others with this Motto TUTISSIMUS with reference to the conquering Hands of Moses To teach Commanders that piety strikes the greatest stroke in all battailes G●ropius who with an over strained phancie following his owne conceit makes use of the naturall expressions of the Hand for the exalting the Cimbrian or old Teutonique tongue into the preheminencies of the originall language presen●s his superstitious observations thus To joyne the hands in prayer and so to applie their upper parts to the mouth doth signifie that men in prayer should seeke to be conjoyn'd to one that is most High and because prayer proceeds from the mouth and the Hands upright with the mouth transverse seeme to delineate a Roman T he hath another inference from that similitude The STRETCHING OUT THE HANDS TO GOD is sometimes taken in Scripture for the acknowledgement of an offence as in the prayer of Solomon at the consecration of the Temple and Solomon praying STRETCHED FORTH HIS HANDS TO HEAVEN after this manner And thus Moses praying STRSETCHED OUT HIS HANDS UNTO THE LORD Thus Judas Macchabeus encountring the army of Nicanor STRETCHED OUT HIS HANDS TOWARDS HEAVEN and called upon the Lord that worketh wonders ¶ To the signification of anguish and affliction belongs that of the Prophet Jeremiah Zion SPREADETH FORTH HER HANDS and there is none to comfort her For they who pray sometimes STRETCH OUT THEIR HANDS somtimes LIFT THEM UP Hence Lauretus to SPREAD OUT or EXTEND THE HAND is to open dilate and unfold that which was straitned and folded in To SPREAD OUT THE HAND is also to lift it up but to EXTEND is to erect and raise them up So he expoundin● the sacred sense of these speaking gestures of prayer S. Hillarie very elegantly distinguisheth betweene the EXPANSION and ELEVATION of the Hands which in this matter of prayer are promiscuously used in Scripture So upon that of the Psalmist I will LIFT UP MY HANDS in thy Name hee doth not take it for the habit of praying but for a declaration of a worke of a high elevation So likewise upon such a passage of another Psalme Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the LIFTING UP OF MY HANDS as the evening Sacrifice He shewes that the Apostle where he exhorts them to LIFT UP pure Hands hee does not appoint a habit of praying but addes a rule of divine operation So the noble Prophet when you SPREAD FORTH YOUR HANDS I will hide mine eyes from you yea when you make many prayers I will not heare if you EXTEND YOUR HANDS not if you LIFT THEM UP but if you EXTEND YOUR HANDS because the habit of praier is in the SPREAD OUT HANDS but the power of a perfect worke is in the ELEVATION Therefore the LIFTING UP THE HANDS is an Evening Sacrifice But this for all I can finde is but the peculiar fancie of this Father For surely the ELEVATION as well as the EXPANSION or STRETCHING OUT OF THE HANDS are both significantly naturall in this sense Indeed St. Hierome drawes these two gestures of prayer into Allegories not much unlike thus TO SEND FORTH THE HAND to God as it were to seeke out for reliefe is to direct our actions to him and not to worke for vain glory He also SPREADS FORTH HIS HANDS to God who dilates in the evaporation of a vain mouth and who against the grace of the Giver is proud of the virtue of his workes Calvin in his Comment upon Timothy upon which place Cornelius à Lapide hath also noted many things observing that the Apostle hath put the signe of prayer for the thing signified sayes that this expression of gesture is very agreeable to true piety so the verity that is figured thereby doe answer the signification to wit that being by nature admonished that God is to be sought for in heaven that first wee should put off all terrene and carnall imaginations of Him that nothing may hinder us in the raising of our selves above the world Idolaters and Hypocrites in LIFTING UP THEIR HANDS in prayer are but Apes who while they by the outward Symbol professe to have their mindes erected upwards the first of them sticke in the wood and stone as if God were inclosed there the second sort intangled in vaine cares or wicked cogitations lye groveling on the earth and by a contradiction of gesture beare witnesse against themselves The Ancients are very copious in expressing these outward formes of devotion in the Hands for they say the HANDS STRETCHED OUT PUT FORTH HOLDEN ABROAD EXPANSED and ERECTED and all to imply the naturall piety of the Hand in this expression With Tertullian the Hands thus affected are EX●ANS'D with Virgil HOLDEN ABROAD as Nonnius interpreteth the action they are the OPEN AND EXTENDED HANDS And in this gesture many things are contained Maldonat conceives the meaning of this naturall ELEVATION OF THE HANDS is to teach us that Heaven is the throne and as it were the Cathedrall Temple of God Pintus thinkes this gesture shewes that God is on high and that all things are to be hoped for at His Hands Cresollius sayes that this deportment of our Hands declares that we affectionately fly unto the protection of God our heavenly Father Even as little children disabled by some fright with stretcht out Hands run into the lap of their parents or as men in the midst of shipwracke stretch out their Hands to some friendly Saviour For since the force of this Organum organorum the Hand the most excellent instrument of common life doth chiefly consist in three things in Giving Doing and Repelling who LIFTS UP HIS HANDS seems wholy to deliver and commit himself and all that he is into the sacred power of the Godhead as if with David he had his soule

in his Hand from the Right-hand of Charity and the Left-hand of Zeale both joyn'd together to make their intentions more acceptable as from the living censer or incense-pan of prayer there ascends in a sweet kind of articulated silence the speaking savour of these significations O Parent of the World God the maker of all things this soule all that I am a thousand times due to thy majesty and gracious Goodnesse I render and refer to its Fountaine and Originall What e're my Hands can doe or my tacite understanding and industry endeavour let it be Thine Thee seduced by ill counsell I have withstood and like a wretch rejected thy Gifts and by wicked machinations repelled and throwne them from mee Behold my Hands which it thou please command to be bound and mee an unworthy Traytor who have sinn'd with a high hand to be drawne to punishment who had not liv'd unlesse Thou hadst lent mee life which I have abus'd and rebelliously stretched out my Hand against Thee to my owne destruction and the reproach and dishonour of Thy Name All these significant expressions as Cresollius hath happily observ'd are contain'd in this Gesture S. Augustine very elegantly and sweetly gives us the retionality and religious conveniency of this manuall expression When men in prayer STRETCHT OUT THEIR HANDS or use any visible expressions they doe that which is agreeable to the case of a suppliant although their invisible will intention of their heart be known to God neither doth hee stand in need of such declarations that the minde of man should bee laid open before him but by this gesture man doth more rouze up himselfe to pray and groane more humbly and fervently And I know not how whereas these motions of the body cannot be done unlesse the inward motions of the mind precede the same thing againe being made externally visible that interiour invisible which caused them is increased and by this the affection of the heart which preceded as the cause before the effect for so much as they are done doth encrease And indeed this outward addition or adjunct of Piety the OPENING and LIFTING UP OF THE HANDS is a naturall manifestation of the uprightnesse and integrity of the heart and of the sincerity of the affections For deceit naturally hath no wil though hypocrisie sometimes may affect to dilate and extend the Hand And the sympathy is so strong betweene the Heart and the Hand that a holy thought can no sooner inlarge the erected Heart but it workes upon the Hands which are RAISED to this expression and EXTENDED OUT TO THE UTTERMOST OF THEIR CAPACITIES Upon this naturall motion or exposition of the minde Saint Chrysostome sets a morall glosse This LIFTING UP OF OUR HANDS should put us in mind to take heed of sin lest we defile our Hands therewith Since it is very absurd that those who are to bee the Trouchmen and Interpretours of prayer and divine administrations should also be the instruments of wickednesse for if we say it is not honest for a man to pray with dirty and unwashen Hands how much more naughtinesse will that expression be tainted with to LIFT UP HANDS not dirty but defiled with the pollutions of sin And in this sense washing of Hands was used by most Nations before prayer This Manuall of Prayer as a helpe at Hand the Christians in all ages have diversly used for the furthering their devotion as may be collected out of the Ecclesiasticall records of Time Tertullian renders a reason thereof thus Christians pray with SPREAD OUT HANDS because our Hands are harmlesse bare-headed because we are not ashamed and without a monitor because we pray from the breast For the most part they LIFTED TH●M UP Which Tertullian would have modestly done not as mad-men who pray Hand over Head For this grave Father reporting and praising the modesty and humility of the Primitive Christians hath left this caution for a rule in prayer Adoring with modestie and humilitie we doe more commend our prayers to God not so much as our Hands more loftily held up but temperately and honestly erected Sometimes Christians did not indeed lift up their Hands on high but did EXTEND THEM OUT HERE AND THERE into the figure of Christs suffering Hence in a Medall of Gordian the godly there is an Image LIFTING UP THE SPREAD OUT HANDS TO HEAVEN with this inscription fitted to the device Piet as Augusta And Eusebius hath left a memoriall that Constantine was wont to be figur'd in Coines and painted Tables with his HANDS HOLDEN ABROAD and his eyes lift up to Heaven which he calls The habit and composition of Prayer Doctor Donne in reference to the Symbolicall signification of the Gesture calls it Constantines Catechisticall Coyne The same Author in a Sermon upon Iob 16. 17 c. upon these words Not for any injustice in my Hands also my Prayer is pure according to his elegant way of descanting upon the emphaticall expressions of holy Writ hath many notions about nocturnall and diurnall cleannesse and foulnesse of Hands and observing that the holy Ghost hath so marshalled and disposed the qualifications of prayer in that place as that there is no pure prayer without cleane Hands which denote righteousnesse towards man comming to speake of the gesture and observing that Moses prayer had no effect longer then his HANDS WERE LIFTED u● All this saith he perchance therefore especially that this LIFTING UP OF THE HANDS brings them into our sight then we can see them and see whether they be cleane or no and consider that if we see impurity in our Hands God sees impurity in our prayer Can we thinke to receive ease from God with that Hand that oppresses another mercy from God with that Hand that exercises cruelty upon another or bounty from God with that Hand that with-holds right from another And to adde by a little enlarging his owne words in another place How can we expect God should open with his Hands of benediction who shut up our Hands and that which is due to another in them How much more then if we strike with those Hands by oppression or as Esaiah we lift up the bloudy Hands of cruelty At this day the common habit of praying in the Church is as pertaining to the Hands TO IOYN THE HANDS MODERATELY LIFT THEM up or religiously cut them by ten parts into the forme of the letter X holding them in that manner before the breast which manner of prayer Cresollius calls Manus decussatas In the Romish Church which doth superabound in the externall adjuncts of Devotion and where the Rubriques direct to varying formes of manuall expressions at the word Oremus there is alwayes annexed some emphaticall behaviour of the Hand Hence in the Masse when the Priest saith Oremus hee EXTENDETH and then IOYNS HIS HANDS By the extension of his Hands he gathereth as it were the hearts of the people by the joyning of