Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	bless_v	lord_n	zion_n	2,766	5	12.0182	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

convenient enough to expresse a certaine anxious and turbulent heat of cogitation of an Oratour that cannot sufficiently explaine his minde or doe as he would Cresollius conceives that infringere articulos that Qintillian speaks of as an elegant and comely action in the Hands of the ancient Rhetoricians and so commendable that they used it as a Manuall introduction to their Orations was no other but this Action Canon XLII THe Hands gently set together by a sweet approach causing a low sound by their light encounter or complosion make an opportune cadence of Action to attend the close or period of a sentence This Action was commended by the practice of Proaeresius that accomplished Oratour of old time the Master of brave speech and grace in ready speaking who publickly pleaded his cause at Athens to the great admiration of all men of whom one of his Auditours Eunapius thus speaks Proaeresius orditur flumen quodaam orationis singulos periodos pulsu manum finiens Canon XLIII BOth Hands smitten together with a certaine kinde of gravity doth affirme with Rhetoricall asseveration Canon XLIV BOth the Palmes held respective to the body declare benevolence Canon XLV BOth Palms held averse before the Breast denote commiseration This Action with this signification I have observed in some ancient painted tables the Hands of cunning Motists And verily without the knowledge of the naturall and artificiall properties of the Hand as Franciscus Junius well observes it is impossible for any Painter or Carver or Plastique to give right motions to his works or Hand for as the History runnes and ascribes passions to the Hand gestures and motions must come in with their accommodation The notions therfore of this Hand may bee of good use for the advancement of those curious Arts. Canon XLVI THe Hands addrest to both sides are well disposed to satisfie or to request Canon XLVII IF both Hands by turnes behave themselves with equall Art they fitly move to set off any matter that goes by way of Antithesis or opposition Canon XLVIII VVE may use likewise the advantage of both Hands when wee would present by some ample gesture the immensity of things some spaces far and wide extent a great number almost infinite large affections or when the voyce is reiterate by conduplication Canon XLIX BOth Hands modestly extended and erected unto the shoulder points is a proper forme of publicke benediction for the Hands of an Ecclesiasticall Oratour when hee would dismisse his Auditours It was the custome of the Hebrew Divines to observe this Decorum in elevation of the Hands for solemne Benediction And the Romanists who in matter of ceremony much emulate the externall devotion of the Jew in all their extensions and elevations of the Hand which they use in blessing keepe them within these prescribed bounds Not that there is any mystery in this point only the elevation of the Hand declares that we have chosen heavenly things according to Origen and the extension or spreading out of the Hands signifies the effectuall force of prayers as Basil expounds it Tertullian therefore regulating the Hands in this rite to a decencie of motion would have them temperately and modestly erected whereupon it seems to me the Papists conforming their Rubrique to the Jewish Talmud limit the Priests Hands not to overtop or exceed the distance of the shoulders This solemne Action according to some modern Expositors implies the solemnity of a presentation of the Auditours to God in prayer and doth denote unto them Gods favourable goodnesse protection and spirituall Benediction desires God to confirme the blessing given who opens with his Hands and fills all creatures with his blessings and seems to wish the accomplishment of all that is comprised in their Manuall vote That Priestly Blessing or solemne Benediction with which the Priests under the Law blessed the People was apparantly uttered and pronounced by this advancement of Gesture because they could not lay their Hands on all the Congregation they lifted them up onely to the shoulder-points the ordinary forme that was then in use was to impose the Hand which could not be done with any decent expedition and this the Levites conferred face to face from the place where they stood Such a solemne Benediction was that where with Melchisedech is said to have blessed Abraham when he met him in his returne from the slaughter of the Kings and blessed him The like was practised by the Hand of Aaron when he lift up his Hands towards the people and blessed them And Symon the High Priest the sonne of Onias in finishing the solemne service lifted up his Hands over the whole Congregation of the children of Israel to give the blessing of the Lord with his lips The people bowing themselves that they might receive a blessing from the most High The forme of which solemne Benediction the Psalmist gives us Lift up your Hands to the Sanctuary and praise the Lord. The Lord that hath made heaven and earth Blesse thee out of Sion For thus the Levites used to praise the Lord and blesse the People Spirituall Benediction having been ever accompanied with this sacred Manifesto of the Hands Hence we finde it observed that among the Hebrewes of old when the Priest blessed the People they used to erect three fingers to wit the Thumbe the Index and middle finger by which number of their fingers they tacitely implyed a Secret of the Trinitie P●trus Blessensis seemes to allude to this action of the Hand His Benedictionibus sacerdos alios Benedicens protrusas ante vultum suum Palmas utrasque tenebat Cum vero dicebat Dominus quod Hebraico illo trino uno nomine exprimebant Tres digitos priores id est Policem Indicem Medium utriusque manus rectum altius erigebat dicto it à Domino digitos remittebat ut prius Addit statim Quid per trium digitorum elevationem melius quâm Trinitatis excellentia mysticè intelligi potest a qua scilicet vera plena Benedictio A Gesture of the Hand used in the same sense and signification by the Pope at this day who when he is carried upon mens shoulders in solemne procession with the same posture of his Right Hand and number of his fingers bestowes his Canonicall Benedictions upon the people onely waving them into a Crosse. Buxtorfius sayes that the moderne Jews at the feast of their Passeover when the Priest at the end of their Prayers Blesseth the people he extends and spreads abroad his Hands and Fingers which they call Ch●●umim whereupon Schechina or the Glorie and Majestie of God doth rest upon the Hands of the Priest wherefore they give a strict charge that none of the people presume to looke upon their Hands at that time unlesse he would be imitten with blindnesse And in the Feast of Reconciliation when the Priest pronounceth the Blessing he extends out his Hands towards the

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

hath been practised in Ecclesiasticall absolution Parisiensis for this reason would have it a sacrament because it hath a sacring and sanctifying signe to wit a sign having a naturall resemblance with inward sanctification it self which is the Hand To this gesture as it is cunningly made an Appenage to the Papall policie of auricular confession I have nothing to say only I finde that the ancient form of absolution was to hold both the Hands conjoyned over the parties head which was to be absolved which may be also exhibited by one Hand laid in sequence of the other or both conjoyned and held above the head so appearing in the aire without any residence at all upon the head The manner of performance at this day it seems is to lay on both the extended Hands upon the head so that they touch the crowne and rest and settle downe thereon ¶ As this gesture is significant in benediction it was used by Isaac upon his death-bed when he blessed his sonne Jacob who supplanted Esau of his blessing by counterfeiting the rough Hands of his elder brother And thus Jacob about to dye blessed his twelve sonnes every one of them with a severall blessing Our Blessed Saviour who with the sacred gestures of his Hand hath sanctified the expressions of ours and made them a holy language was often seen to use this expression of the Hand whence the Church commenting upon his action saith He by his outward gesture and deed declared his good will to little children in that He embraced them in His Armes LAID HIS HANDS UPON THEM and blessed them And the very last expression that flowed from His sacred Hand was blessing for at the time of His ascention He LIFTED UP HIS HANDS and blessed His Apostles and while they beheld Him in this posture blessing them He departed bodily from them ascending up into Heaven Hence in all tacit posies of His ascention this figure of the sacred property of His Hand is most emphatically significant ¶ That in conferring the blessings of primogeniture and adoption this gesture of the Right Hand is more peculiarly significant is excellently illustrated by the adoption of Ephraim unto the birthright of Manasseth by Jacob when he blessed Joseph sons For Joseph bringing his sonnes to be blessed of his father tooke Ephraim in his Right Hand towards Israels left hand and Manasses in his left hand towards Israels Right Hand so he brought them unto him But Israel STRETCHED OUT HIS RIGHT HAND and laid it on Ephraims head which was the younger and his left hand upon Manasses head directing his Hands on purpose for Manasses was the elder But when Joseph saw that his father laid his Right Hand on the head of Ephraim it displeased him and he staid his fathers Hand to remove it from Ephraims head to Manasses head And Joseph said unto his father not so my father for this is the eldest put thy Right Hand upon his head But his father refused and said I know well my sonne I know well he shall be also a people and shall be great likewise But his younger brother shall be greater then he and his seed shall be full of Nations So he blessed them that day and said In thee Israel shall blesse and say God make thee as Ephraim and Manasseth And he set Ephraim before Manasseth For the Historicall sense of this expression see Tiraquel and Dr. Field Pererius Rupertus and Isidorus affirme that in a mysticall sense this cancelling or crossing of the Patriarchs Hands in exhibiting his blessing and transferring the right of primogeniture to the younger was representatively done to prefigure a mystery of the calling of the Gentiles and the preferring of them before the Jewes and that this was the first type or prefiguration of the manner of the promised Messiahs passion in the decreed way of redemption ¶ The same gesture we use in gracing our meals an expression very proper and significant For the Hands reverently erected without any other forme of speech annexed seem naturally to pronounce this Grace O Thou supreame Power the giver of all good things who openest with thy Hand and fillest every living thing with thy blessings vouchsafe O Lord benedicendo benedicere to let thy Right Hand blesse sanctifie and confirme unto us the blessings of thy left And it is a brand of prophane unmannerlines in the rough Hand of Esau that he was readier to strike Hand with a chapman to sell Gods blessing for his meat then with his Hand to invite it to his meate Whereas our Blessed Saviour thought blessing bid by this reverend invitation of the Hand a considerable guest at a feast who to shew that man liveth not by bread only upon all such occasions used the signification of this gesture Thus He blessed the five loaves and two fishes wherewith he wrought his feeding miracle And from this Chireulogia or act of blessing and giving thanks the Sacrament used at His last supper is called the Eucharist And in the tearmes and stile of School-men or naturall Divines to speake to the fundamentall point of this gesture now in Hand The Hands and Blessing seem to be conjugates in the Schoole both of Nature and Grace Benediction being a naturall rite neare allied unto the Hand and of spirituall affinity with prayer For Religion and Grace disa●●●● not the powers of naturall expressions but advance them to a full and purer perfection improving the corporeall sense of those manifestations to a more spirituall and sanctified signification That inexhaustible fountaine therefore of Blessing our Blessed Saviour having ordained himselfe a Hand and having taken upon Him the corporeall nature of man was constantly pleased to honour the nature He had so taken and to enforce by the precept and authority of His owne example the significant convenience religious use and decent importance of this property of blessing annexed to the Hand ¶ In consecration this gesture hath the like congruity of signification for there was never any thing by the expresse command of any legislator to be hallowed by a dedication but the Hand was called to and injoyned to attend as a proper addition to confirm and sanctifie all other rites not that there is any inherent holinesse in the Hand or solemne forme of expression but an adherent only The very heathens have acknowledged a significant vertue in this expression of the Hand for we read that Numa was consecrated upon mount Tarpeian by the chiefe of the southsayers called Augures laying his Right Hand upon his head a piece of superstitious apishnesse they learned from the grand spirituall Impostor Moses a man skilfull in all the learning of the Aegyptians among which some secrets of our Chirosophie were judiciously veyled by inspiration commanded the Right Hand of the high Priest to wit the thumbe thereof or vice-hand to be hallowed with the oyle in his left palme from thence called the Holy Finger a forme