Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	left_a	right_a	turn_v	28,868	5	7.6673	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66025	A discourse concerning the beauty of providence in all the rugged passages of it very seasonable to quiet and support the heart in these times of publick confusion / by John Wilkins ...; Sermons. Selections	Wilkins, John, 1614-1672.	1649 (1649)	Wing W2177; ESTC R1664	26,998	144

to day is and to morrow is cast into the oven Sparrows you know are but cheap birds Are not two of them sold for a farthing Matth. 10. 29. And yet not one of these doth fall to the ground without your Father He must give the Fowler leave to kill them nay when they are upon the wing in their frequent and often repeated motions yet then it is he that must appoint them the time and place when and where they shall settle and in this sence also not one of them doth fall to the ground without your Father The hairs of our head are yet lesse observable contemptible even to a Proverb Pili non facio Ne pilo quidem melius And yet these with God are inter numerata amongst those things whereof he takes an exact account That place 1 Cor. 9. 9. Doth God take care for oxen doth not simply exempt such things from thelaw of his Providence but t is Argumentum a minori and doth imply his more especiall care of that higher rank of creatures to whom these are subordinate The plain meaning of it is That if God hath by a particular law provided that the Ox should not be muzled which treads out the corn He will be much more carefull of the labourers in his Harvest T is recorded to the glory of some Ancient Generals that they were able to call every common Souldier by his own name and carefull to provide not onely pay for their Captains but litter also for the meanest beast that did serve the Camp Now you know there is not any creature but is a souldier to the Lord of hosts he doth sometimes muster up an Army of lice flies and therefore t is but reason that his Providence should take care for such things also Why should it not be as great an argument of his power to preserve and order these lesser creatures as it was at first to make them The creation of a glorious Angel did not cost him more then that of a despicable fly Was it not he that out of the same primitive nothing put that difference which there is amongst severall natures And if the Painter in the same peece draw a silken a woollen garment why should he value the one above the other since it was the same art that did both make and distinguish them 2. As his Providence doth extend to al things so likewise does his wisedome As he is exactly carefull so is he infinitely wise therefore as able for the contrivance of every the least particular thing as he would be if he had nothing but that to look after If the Providence of God had but one project on foot we could easily conceive how he might be able to drive that through all the windings and circumstances of it with care and wisedom Nay we would trust any wise man with the managing of a single busines when he had nothing else to distract his endeavours But for all those multitude of affairs amongst men and Angels nay for the very circumstances and manner of all those severall actions and motions which are performed in every moment of time through the whole world we cannot conceive but that in such a tumult of businesse the eye of Providence may be sometimes over-seen But this arises from our mistake of the Divine nature we measure God by our own finite abilities whereas we should consider that that which is infinite cannot be confined by time or number or place but is as well able at all times to look to all things in all places as if there were only one businesse to be cared for You may see some imperfect resemblance of this amongst the Creatures Do but consider the Sun how that at the same time without labour or confusion is imployed in divers services for all the creatures under heaven The distinctions of seasons the growth of severall plants its various influence upon Minerals the cherishing of living creatures with sundrie other such variety of imployments which we are not able so much as to take notice of Or else do but mark the nature of the Soul which at the same time perhaps doth contemplate heaven direct the body in its sundrie motions distribute the food in a wise proportion to the severall parts not neglecting so much as the least hair about it but supplying that with sutable nourishment And all this it does without wearinesse or distraction And if a creature can do thus much more then the Creator who gives to every thing its proper abilitie and doth actuate all things by a more immediate assistance then the Soul it self So that though we suppose infinite occasions which notwithstanding creatures are not capable of yet the Providence and wisedome of God is infinite also and there is the same proportion of infinite to infinite as of one to one Now put both these Reasons together if the Providence of God be thus exactly carefull of every the least particular If he be thus infinitely wise for the disposall of all to the best no wonder then though every event in the world be both beautiful and in its time For the further clearing of this truth there are two doubts or quaeries to be resolved that seem to oppose it 1. What 's the reason why this Beauty of Providence doth not appear to us but that many things seem so full of disorder and confusion in the world 2. How may this consist with the permission of finfull actions which can neither be beautifull nor seasonable I begin with the first to shew the reason why in so many things we cannot discern this beautie of Providence The verse of the text tels us That man cannot finde out the work of God from the beginning to the end that is t is above humane capacity to comprehend the reason of all divine proceedings we cannot finde them fully out from the beginning to the end And so Job 9. 10. He doth great things past finding out Lo he goeth by me and I see him not He passeth on also but I perceive him not And again Chap. 23. 8 9. Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him on the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himself on the right hand that I cannot see him The meaning is that where ever Job turned his eyes there were still some passages of Providence which he could not apprehend the meaning of God hath reserved this as a peculiar prerogative to himself It is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power Act. 1. 7. There may be a twofold reason of this 1. The obscuritie of the things themselves There are treasures of wisedome Col. 2. 3. Not onely for their preciousnesse but for their privatenesse too Hidden wisedome 2 Cor. 1. 7. Secrets of wisdom And these are double to that which is as Zophar speaks Job 11. 6.