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
A65701	A discourse of the love of God shewing that it is well consistent with some love or desire of the creature, and answering all the arguments of Mr. Norris in his sermon on Matth. 22, 37, and of the letters philosohical and divine to the contrary / by Daniel Whitby ...	Whitby, Daniel, 1638-1726.	1697 (1697)	Wing W1724; ESTC R1639	108,266	186

in the City blessed in the Field blessed in the Fruit of thy Body of thy Ground of thy Cattle in the encrease of thy Kins and the Flocks of thy Sheep in thy Basket and thy Store The Lord shall command the Blessing upon thee in thy Store-Houses and all that thou settest thy hand unto The Lord shall make thee plenteous in Goods in the Fruit of thy Body of thy Cattle and thy Ground The Lord shall open to thee his good Treasure the Heaven to give thee Rain unto thy Land in its season and to bless all the work of thine hand If thou obey the voice of the Lord he will make thee plenteous in every work of thine Hand in the Fruit of thy Body of thy Cattle and of thy Land for Good for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for Good as he rejoiced over thy Fathers These temporal good things he declares to be his Gifts for these he requires them to bless the Donor saying When thou hast eaten and art full then shalt thou bless the Lord thy God for the good Land he hath given thee commanding them to rejoice in every good thing he hath given them Moreover upon their Disobedience he threatneth the removal of all these Blessings and to strip them of all these good things that he would shut up the Heavens that there be no Rain that the Land yield not her Fruit and that they should perish quickly from the good Land that God had given them that they should be cursed in their Basket and Store in the Fruit of their Body of their Land of their Kine and Sheep that he would send upon them Cursing Vexation and Rebuke in all they put their hand unto and that they should serve their Enemies in Hunger and in Thirst and in Nakedness and in want of all things Now if God by requiring them to love the Lord with all their Hearts and Souls had enjoined them not to desire or affect any of these outward things to what purpose doth he promise what he forbids them to desire Or what Encouragement can such Promises afford them thus to love him If these things were in no sense their good why are they stiled God's Blessings and his Gifts And why are they commanded to rejoice in them and so bless him for them Yea why are they said to be blessed in them But if they were their good things why might they not desire or effect them proportionably to the Goodness that was in them Yea lastly if they were not good and desirable things wherein consists the hurt and Curse in being stripped and deprived of them 'T is therefore manifest that this Interpretation as it casts a slur and a reproach on all God's temporal Blessings as having in them nothing good nothing fit to be desired or worthy to be loved and therefore tends to rob him of the Praises due unto him for them so doth it also impair the force of all the Promises by which God did endeavour to engage his People thus to love him and of those threats by which he did deter them from their Disobedience this therefore cannot be the genuine import of these words Again from this Consideration That this Command was given to the Iewish Nation it follows that it ought to bear the Sense which is the certain import of it in all those other places of the Old Testament where it only doth occur it being only found in the New Testament as a Citation thence 'T is therefore certain that it doth not require us to love God in perfection of degrees or in the elevated Sense contended for but only to love him with a sincere and a prevailing love For First God's Servants entred into a Covenant to serve the Lord after this manner Thus Asa gathered all Benjamin and Iudah and they entred into Covenant to seek the Lord God with all their Heart and with all their Soul And good Iosiah with all his People made a Covenant before the Lord to walk after the Lord and to keep his Commandments with all their Heart and with all their Soul Now if in this Covenant they promised to love God with every degree of every Power with the whole possibility of the Soul to bestow on him not only the highest Degree of it but every Degree of it the whole and to make him not only the Principal but the only Object of their love they promised what they knew they never could what to be sure they never did perform And why then is it said That the People stood to the Covenant and that God wus found of them But if they only promised love of Sincerity and love to God above all other things and that they would adhere to him and his Service then may this Phrase Import no more Secondly This God required them to do to render them the Objects of his Grace and Favour promising to have Mercy on them in their Captivity on this Condition If from thence saith Moses thou shalt seek the Lord thy God thou shalt find him if thou seek him with all thy Heart and all thy Soul And again if thou shalt return to the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul then the Lord thy God will turn thy Captivity and have Compassion on thee and will bring thee into the Land which thy Fathers possessed and thou shalt possess it and he will do thee Good And upon this Condition only doth Solomon desire this Mercy saying If they turn to thee with all their Heart and all their Soul in the Land of their Enemies then hear thou their Prayer and their Supplication Now is it reasonable to conceive that God required such an absolute Perfection of Degrees in their Affection and Obedience to qualifie them for his Favour under their Captivity If so they must for ever have continued Captives Would he promise to restore them to their good Land and to do them Good upon a Condition that would not permit them either to desire that pleasant Land or any other Temporal Enjoyment as their Good Sure the Suspension of his Favour upon this Condition is a clear Evidence that this Phrase bears a milder Sense Thirdly God doth acknowledge that some of them did actually love him thus That King David had kept his Commandments and followed him with all his heart saving in the matter of Uriah and yet we find him Guilty of Mistrust of God's own Promise by saying I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul of Lying to Abimelech of a rash Oath in Swearing to cut off the House of Nabal of Injustice in giving a deceitful Ziba half the Goods of Mephibosheth and of Pride in numbering the People God also testifies of good Iosiah That he turned to the Lord with all his Soul and all his Heart and all his Might since therefore God himself declares of Men thus subject to Imperfection that they