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A41567 The true character of the spirit and principles of Socinianism, drawn out of their writings With some additional proofs of the Most Holy Trinity, of our Lord's and of the Holy Ghost's divinity. By J. Gailhard, Gent. Gailhard, J. (Jean) 1699 (1699) Wing G130; ESTC R213338 180,830 207

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guilty as if they had done it Now in Moses's time the Son of God in his human Nature either in Soul or Body could not be sensible of any Reproaches for he then had it not actually but according to Scripture there are two Bodies of Christ his Natural which he took long after and the Mystical which at that time was in being the Church is this Mystical Body From Eternity the Son of God had his Commission to be Head of the Church thereby to bring many Sons into Glory this Commission after the beginning of the World he began to execute in the Exercise of his Royal and Prophetical Offices with ruling and disposing things for the good of his Church the Father having put into his hands and made over to him the whole Administration of that Occumenical Kingdom he is the King spoken of Psal 2.6 set upon the holy hill of Sion who rules over and preserves his People from the Attempts of their Enemies and taught them by the Prophets in whom his Spirit was and this mediately and actually till the time came when himself was to perform the Work of Mediation and Redemption in the passive part thereof which was his Priestly Office in offering himself a Sacrifice and shedding his precious Blood for a proper satisfaction to Divine Justice and Remission of Sins This was the part of human Nature to suffer but all the while before the Work was going on not by means of human Soul and Body which at that time he had not how then could the Mystical Body the Church live and be acted if there had been no Head and how there be a Head if there had been no Being Seeing then there could be no such Body without a Head and that no Man nor Angel could be that Head who then but a God could be it Therefore all the while before the Incarnation Divine Nature in the Second Person of the most Holy Trinity was acting in the ordering and delivering his People out of the Flood out of Sodom out of Egypt and punishing their Enemies as we see them opposed in the Persons of Abel and Cain of Noah and his Family to the rest of the World of Shem and Ham of Lot and those of Sodom and in this Text of his Church under the Name of People of God in opposition to the Egyptians as the Apostle opposes the afflictions of the people of God unto the pleasures of sin in Egypt which Moses might have enjoyed when called Son of Pharaoh's Daughter and the Reproach of Christ to the Treasures in Egypt Scripture doth in several places certifie That Christ is the Head of the Church Eph. 5.23 but he who now is the Head of the Church was ever so before or else there would have been two Heads of the Church which is as absurd as 't is monstrous to talk of a Body with two Heads Therefore as there was a Body of the Church from the beginning of the World so from that time hath Christ been the Head of that Body and at that time he was as sensible of Injuries done to his Members as we read he was after his Ascension when he from Heaven said to Saul Acts 9.4 5. why persecutest thou me that is the Members of his Mystical Body for his Natural one was far enough out of his reach Here with a sad heart I must say how since the Lord Jesus's Ascension he never was more reproached or suffered more than now we have a Generation of Men who with the Rebels spoken of in the Gospel say Luke 19.14 Ps 22.6 We will not have this man to reign over us as much as in them lies they would make him a reproach of men and despised of the people and would as the Prophet speaks make him again a man of sorrow acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 despised and rejected of men The Jews when upon Earth depriv'd him of his Life and Socinians now when he is in Heaven would strip him of the Dignity of his Person that chiefly consists in his Divinity which they would rob him of and because they cannot understand that high Mystery they will not believe it so against what the Apostle saith they walk by sense not by faith 2 Cor. 5.7 Is it a reasonable Consequence to say a thing is not because they cannot comprehend it as if because I am not able to know well how Bread which hath neither Life Heat or Motion can preserve my Life and Vital Faculties procure heat and enable me to move I should cast it off They also attempt to reproach Christ in his Person so in his Offices of Mediator he came to destroy sin and save Sinners to seek and save that which was lost he came to destroy the Devil's Work Heb. 7.27 9.14 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 4.25 Gal. 2.20 and that 's Sin this hath been the Way and Means to save Sinners which was effected as Scripture saith by making himself an offering for sin by being made sin for us though he knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him with being deliverd for our offences with loving us and giving himself for us Yet all this they daily speak and blaspheme against as already we have abundantly demonstrated Before I proceed farther to what I formerly said against their denying that there are any Mysteries in Religion or above the reach of human Reason this I shall add That there are Mysteries in the Work of Creation as we read in the 37 38 39 40 and 41 Chapters of Job how many intricate and mysterious things therein which Job a knowing Man and who had his Reason about him could not answer and calls them things too wonderful for him Job 42.3 which he knew not And chap. 5.9 't is said of God which doth great things and unsearchable And chap. 9.10 which doth great things past finding out yet presumptuously these Men will be searching into those unsearchable things and pretend they can find those things that are past finding out But if there be unknown Mysteries in the Creation of the World why then should there be none of the Wisdom of God in the Redemption of it There are in Nature such mysterious Puzlings as can sometimes as much stagger some Mens Faith of God's creating the World as that of the most Holy Trinity and Incarnation can shake the Faith of others about the Redeeming it yet 't is as certain that God redeemed the World as that he created it And as God hath let us see so much of the Creation as to convince us he made us of nothing and when we were nothing so in the Work of Redemption he hath shewed us he redeemed us when we were lost with clear and sufficient Evidences of his Power Wisdom and Mercy and what therein he hath revealed we ought to believe as our Saviour said to Thomas about his Resurrection Be not faithless Joh. 20.27 Luk. 8.50 but believing
God in the Sanctuary Where the Prophet speaks of the Son of God Who went up before his People in the Wilderness and at whose presence the Earth shook the Heavens dropped and Sinai it self was moved The third Age of the Church is from Moses to Christ's coming which was fill'd up with variety of considerable Dispensations And this fourth which is her present Age hath been is and shall be attended with very notable Periods began at the coming in the Flesh of the Son of God and it we may call her Manhood when the Food of Milk and Ceremonial Ordinances ceased and she began to be fed with strong and substantial Meat when the Manna discontinued and the true Bread came from Heaven to nourish us the Shadows yielded the place to the true Body and all legal Stars disappear'd at the rising of the Sun of Righteousness And this Age of the Christian Church shall continue till the last Day when the fifth Age shall begin never to have an end this shall be the Age of Perfection and of Eternal Glory He who now is the Head and King of the Church was so from the beginning and shall be such for ever Now the Apostle saith that Christ is the head of the Church Eph. 5.23 and the Saviour of the body and none else and that Body which was from the beginning of the World never was without a Head for without it it could not be a Body both to animate and rule it for that is the Head's Office according to that famous Prophecy of the Meisiah's Birth Mic. 5.2 in Bethlehem Out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler of Israel To come forth Gen. 17.6 Gen. 25.25 and 38.28 signifies to be begotten and born either by the Father or by the Mother and unto me that is for me to reveal my Glory saith the Father who there speaks Now absolutely the King and Ruler of Israel is the God of Israel such is the Son I heretofore mention'd the Text in Zechariah 2.8 For thus saith the Lord of Hosts after the glory hath he sent me unto the Nations c. which affords matter of observation more than I took notice of at that time Here speaks the Lord of Hosts which is a Title never attributed to any but to the Essential Infinite and Eternal God The Lord of Hosts in the place declares he is sent a thing in Scripture never said of God the Father but in many places 't is asserted of God the Son and by the Son himself for how often doth our Saviour say that the Father sent him so that to be sent is a Property of the Son therefore the Son must be the Lord of Hosts here said to be sent And as to come answers to being sent so in consequence of that Mission the Lord saith I come Sing and rejoyce v. 10. O Daughter of Zion for lo I come and I will dwell in the midst of thee saith the Lord which was literally fulfilled after the Birth of the Son of God These words Lo I come are a confirmation and farther declaration of what David had said long before when God desired no more Sacrifice and Offering nor required Burnt-Offering Ps 40.6 7. nor Sin-Offering that is when the Ceremonial Law was drawing to an end Then said I the Son Lo I come and Christ declared He came from the Father and in the Father's Name As to the other part I will dwell in the midst of thee it was fulfilled at that time when John said of the Son The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us Joh. 1.14 Let us admire at that Holy Scripture Harmony earthly Jerusalem was the Figure of the Church whose Head King Saviour and Preserver the Lord Jesus is and ever was For I saith the Lord will be unto her a Wall of Fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her v. 5. This coming of the Lord of Hosts shall not only be cause of Song and Joy to the Daughter of Zion but also many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord in that Day and shall be my People and I will dwell in the midst of thee v. 11. and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto thee This is a Prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles at or a little after the time when the Lord of Hosts should come to dwell in Sion which was fulfilled when after the Son of God's coming into the Flesh and his dwelling among the Jews after his Death and Resurrection the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles and the Christian Church formed Here we must take notice of how this Prophet Zechariah was one of the two whom God made use of to exhort and encourage the Children of Israel Ezr. 5.1 2. returned from the Babylonian Captivity to build the second Temple which was to stand till the coming of the Lord of Hosts and King of Zion as this Prophet calls him chap. 9.9 As also did Haggai the other Prophet who besides named him the desire of all Nations Hag. 2.7 And I will shake all Nations and the desire of all Nations shall come And I will fill this House with glory saith the Lord of Hosts that is the Presence of the Messiah Son of God was to fill with Glory the second Temple which at that time they were about building upon which account the glory of that latter House was to be greater than that of the former the Lord Jesus who called it his House having with his Presence often sanctified it and been the chief glory thereof which soon after it lost by his Death when the Vail of the Temple was rent and about forty Years after the whole was quite destroyed by the Romans when according to our Blessed Saviour's Prophecy there was not one Stone left upon another that was not thrown down and what he said was attended with a Character and Evidence of his Divine Authority and infallible Truth in these Words Matth. 24.35 Heaven and Earth shall pass away but my Words shall not pass away but most certainly shall be fulfilled This same Prophet in the next Chapter as indeed in many other places of his Vision doth yield Matter enough upon this point As in Job we read of Satan coming before God with malicious Insinuations against that Holy Man and to obtain leave to do him mischief so here we find the Angel of the Lord to judge between Joshua the High-priest and his Adversary Satan who appeared there to oppose and resist him This Angel of the Lord whom elsewhere I at several times have had occasion to speak of is the Lord himself for in the 2d verse 't is said And the Lord said unto Satan Zech. 3.1 2 the Lord rebuke thee O Satan Twice the Lord answers this other Expression And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah Gen. 9.24 Brimstone and Fire from the Lord and certainly
should take Mark with them But 't is fit I should say something in vindication of that Famous and first Christian General Council summon'd by a Christian Emperour now when by this occasion I am put upon it We must not wonder if some Heretick condemned by the Council such as Sabinus at that time the head Man of the Macedonian Heresy and now our Samaritan would reflect upon it but the account we have of the qualifications of those who were in the Council is much different and contrary to what he would insinuate there were Men of great Learning Piety Exemplary Life Wise Eloquent Sober Discreet Modest and of Courteous Behaviour some considerable for their sufferings and others respected for their great age and as that Assembly was notable for Quality so for number there being above 300 Bishops of which number were Paphnutins Spiridion Eusebius of Cesarea c. Men of great Fame with a vast number of other Divines with several Lay-Men good Philosophers to assist them therefore not so despicable as unworthily and falsly he would traduce it so consisted not of wrangling Greeks but if we may believe * Constant l. 3. Eusebius there were Divines out of Egypt Lybia Theboea Arabia Palestina Phoenicia Syria Cilicia Galatia Pamphilia Cappadocia Pontus Persia Asia and Phrygia one from Scythia and Hosius Bishop of Corduba in Spain much esteem'd by the Emperour also there were some from Macedonia Thracia as out of Achaia and Epirus This I mention not only to shew his want of Sincerity and Truth and that the Council was not contemptible as to the quality and number of Persons as he would make it but to demonstrate how weighty upon several accounts was Arius's condemnation by so Eminent an Assembly with the Emperour at the head who was a Pious and Wise Prince as his Carriage during the whole time of the Council declared him to be Besides that every one was allowed to say and defend his Opinion so things were not rashly carried on but seriously sifted and debated as for instance in the explanation of the word homoousius of the same substance which admitted of great debates wherein the cautious Eusebius Pamphilus appeared much it was agreed that the Son is of the Father but not part of the Father after all the Council at last by a free and unanimous consent agreed upon the Creed from the place call'd Nicene which was signed by no less then 318 Bishops well by that Council so lawfully assembled and after the debates which upon such occasions are usual was Arius and all of his Opinion Anathematized he in particular forbidden to go into Alexandria where he lived before and by the Emperour banish'd Now People may see what kind of Assembly was that famous Council which our present Samaritan would revile had it been Socinus's case as 't was Arius's he should have undergone the same Condemnation who in one point chiefly is worse than Arius who said our Saviour had by way of Creation a Being before the Virgin 's time and was the first of the Creatures which after Paulus Samosatenus Socinians deny The Council in their Synodical Epistle to the Church of Alexandria calls Arius's Tenets his impious opinions or rather madness and blasphemous expressions So do Socinian Heresies deserve to be call'd Here I shall add how the Council condemned not only the Heretick and his Opinions but also a Book of his call'd Thalia to shew how one of the ways to suppress Heresy is also to suppress Heretical Books after this came in the civil Authority and acted its part first the Emperour did upon the business write an excellent Letter to the Church of Alexandria and after into other parts also he ordered that if any of Arius's Books could be met with they presently should be burnt and farther declared that if any Person happened to have any of his Books and did not immediately produce and burn it he should upon his being found guilty presently suffer death and 't is to be observed how herein the Emperour acted in his civil Capacity and in the last Letter with no relation to the Council which he doth not so much as name And to carry on his Zeal farther Arius and Arians to make them more odious and detestable he branded them ordering they should be called Porphyrians from Porphyrius an impious and utter enemy to the Christian Religion herein we see a happy union between Church and State to punish and suppress Blasphemy and Heresy and when that wicked Man by means of intrigues had been readmitted into the Emperour's Presence upon condition to subscribe and swear to the determinations of the Council which both he did and thereupon thought all safe for himself from Man's side whom he had deluded and to have again been admitted into the Church God who cannot be deceived and will not be mocked executed Judgment upon him for the day before he should have been restored in Constantinople in a House of Office where he was gone to ease himself his Bowels fell out of his Body which before had been Judas's Punishment as being crushed to death by the fall of an House had been that of Corinthus So let all the Son of God's enemies be confounded if they will not be converted After their malicious aspersions cast upon Councils one must not wonder if they do what they can to abuse private Men 't is their ill nature which they neither can nor will part with they are in their element when they revile and speak ill of others and when Poison lies in the Heart Men must expect to see it break out what I now say of them I speak it out of my own experience witness their Apology and in one * The Grounds and Reasons of the Controversy concerning the Vnity of God of their late Pamphlets the Author is pleased to mention me in three places in the first pag. 15 he saith I reburnt Barth legat and goeth on thus it is a better Argument for that poor Man's seriousness in his religious perswasion then it is for the sincerity of Mr. Gailhard and the honour of Calvinism that he thirsts after the blood of Thousands He much pittieth that poor Martyr for the Socinian cause so no question but that tender heart of his doth poor Vanninus who was burnt for denying there is a God 't is pity Legat should suffer for his Religious Perswasion a very Religious Opinion to deny the most Holy Trinity with the Divinity of the Son and of the Holy Ghost why upon every account do they over-hand and shoulders bring in Calvin who is not concerned in our Dispute I did not so much as name him only to vindicate him from their false and slanderous aspersions how doth also my sincerity come in The matter of fact I related is plain enough and sincere too let them gainsay it if they can and because I say'd he was burnt for Socinianism is it a sufficient ground to entitle me to the name
Greek nor Hebrew so could make no such Quotations and Observations as we read therein There he questions the Text of 1 John 4.3 Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is not of God where he adds a Parenthesis when there is none thereby to exclude the words Jesus Christ is come in the flesh from being in the Original farther he saith in Jude 4. where are these words denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ The word God is not in the Alexandrine Manuscript this tends as they think fit to make Scripture subservient to their ends and to make things therein doubtful by adding taking away Rev. 22.18.19 1 John 5.7 or altering whereupon I give him warning to mind what is said in the word But because the Text of John about the three in Heaven is what he most insists upon though I elsewhere have spoken of it here I shall again say something about it although many Learned Men before have so examined the place See my Book again Socin p. 273. and my answer to the I. letter p. 36. that hardly any thing can be added to what hath been said They argue the Verse is not in some Antient Greek Manuscripts nor in the Syriac but this is not Argumentative for though it be not in some it is in others and if we should go only upon that bottom the reason is equally as good for us as for them * De Vnitate Eccles Cyprian who lived about the middle of the third Century made use of the Text and Jerome or the Vulgata hath it Erasmus upon better Thoughts and after a more mature Deliberation had it in his new Edition of the New Testament and at this day the Greeks have it in their book call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must needs be in Conformity to some Antient Greek Copies If it be not in some of the Antient Copies we may well suspect some Anti-Trinitarians of those times according to the usual way of Hereticks who went about corrupting by Additions Diminutions or Alterations those Texts which hit them to the quick to have expunged and taken it out it might also happen through the mistake of the Copist for whom as at this time 't is found by experience 't was not impossible through carelessness or unfaithfulness to leave out a whole Verse and there is a particular Reason why it may be so in this for there are two Verses one after another 7 and 8. which begin with the same words There are three which bear record in c. which might easily cause a mistake in the Copist and take the last Verse for the first and so omitting one to go on in the other besides that the Sense leads us to see there must be such a Verse to make three in Heaven answer three upon Earth without which there would be a breach left in the place and something defective to answer the Apostles design who already in Verse 5 and 6. hath mention'd the three for he saith Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believes that Jesus is the son of God That is of God the Father so here are two of the three Persons and in the next Verse the third Person namely the Holy Ghost is named It is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth So that this Verse 7. is a deduction of what hath been said in the foregoing and the expression beareth witness used in the Verse in question confirms it as the Spirit is one of the Witnesses so are the Father and the Son besides that as the beginning of Verse 7. contains a Reason of what is said in Verse 6. how the Spirit beareth witness which is expressed thus For there are three c. so the Copulative Particle and which is the first word in Verse 8. joyns and makes it answer the foregoing But because I find the Man makes use of Simon Crit. v. t. c. 2. the Oratorian's Critick a Man who of his own Head in several things speaks over-boldly and who seems to be of his Opinion he should know that his Writings are by Protestants to be read with Caution for in all those kinds of things especially in this case he goes upon his Popish bottom how the Authority of Scripture depends upon the Testimony of the Church so that nothing is Canonical and to be believed as such but what the Church saith to be so therefore upon that account they believe the Apocrypha and their Traditions to be of an equal Authority with the Canonical Books thus all such Papists according to their Principles will say ye must believe that Verse to be in because the Church saith it But to come to * Simon 's Critick upon 1. John 5.7 p. 8. Simon he mentions some Manuscripts he hath seen in the French King's and Colbert's Librarys which saith he have not the Verse in question not in the body of the Book but in the Margin they have Yet mark what he writes The writing of the Addition appears to be no less Antient than that of the Text the like he saith there of some Manuscripts in the Benedictines Library of St. Germain's Abby and the Addition therein is as old therein as the Text it self since the Additions in the Margin are as old as the Text it self there is ground left to believe that they were at or about the same time when the body of the Copy was and that the Copist saw he had forgotten it and having no room left to insert it in he did it in the Margin but Father Simon hath omitted a very material thing for he ought to have said whether the Copy and the Addition in the Margin appeared to be written by the same Hand for if so then the Copist intended thereby to mend his Omission In matter of Manuscripts some things must be observed like as we do in the case of Medals for both relate to Antiquity we go by some certain Rules to find whether or not the Medal be true or false stampt or cast and the time when it was so we have Coins of Roman Emperours of Kings of Macedonia Syria c. which though of a good Workmanship yet we value them not because posteriour to the time when such an Emperour and such a King lived and this we know by the nature of the Metal the edges of the Piece the form and disposition of the Letter how round how long and how close one with another for all those differences we find in Medals which to learn requires indeed much Experience for want whereof some Men who have a great Erudition about those things and are excellent in the Theorical part of that noble curiosity yet when it comes to the Practical they easily are imposed upon and cannot discern the Genuine from the Counterfeit Nay about these things there is sometimes such a Dexterity used by those who make a Trade of it
as at one time to take off every Letter of the Inscription at another only some and make new ones in the place and many more such things which those who are skill'd in the Art know that thereby Men who somewhat understand those things are often cheated the like may be said concerning Manuscripts several either wholly or in part are Spurious therefore several things ought to be observ'd and a great care used when we examine them wherein also are some certain Rules but not known to every one that goes about it and even some who know these Rules may happen to be grosly mistaken when they come to the Application these Truths known to those whose Genius and Practice hath qualified them to enter upon such Matters if at leisure I could enlarge upon but as there are so many particular cases which would require several instances for brevity sake I now shall forbear saying any more to 't and return to the point But suppose the Text was not in the Original as it is Socinians would not thereby get so great an advantage as they imagine if we had only that Text to prove the Holy Trinity they might boast indeed but we have others besides which were never questioned in the least as are that of our Saviour's Baptism where from Heaven the Father calls Jesus Christ his beloved Son and at the same time the Holy Ghost appeared in the shape of a Dove and can any thing in the World be more formal plain and positive than these words of our Saviour to his Apostles Matth. 28.19 To Baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Certainly he who therein cannot read the Trinity must be desperately blind but I † The Blasphemous Socin Heresie Confuted elsewhere have given Reasons enough out of the Old and New Testaments to prove that Fundamental Article of our Religion about the most Holy Trinity which all the wicked endeavours of Hell and its Instruments cannot prejudice but the more to confirm what I already said upon the point I shall add what follows a place is remarkable Hear O Israel Deut. 6.4 the Lord our God is one Lord. Or as in the Original Jehovah our God Jehovah is one Twice the Lord and once our God the word our is joyn'd neither to the first the Father nor to the third the Holy Ghost but to the second Person our God who is become ours by taking our Humane Nature upon him and thus God is become Man may be in that prospect God said Gen. 3.22 Man is become as one of us That is as he of us who is to be Man or the Son as indeed the second Person is the Angel who went with and led them thro' the Wilderness that was made man this is not as some would have it to be understood as a distinction of the God of the Jews from the false Gods of the Gentiles for if this had been all therein intended the name of Jehovah needed not to have been repeated a second time and the words Jehovah our God is one had fully expressed the impiety of the Heathen for making themselves many Gods but this was to shew three Persons in that one Godhead for he that was the God of the Jews is as truly the God of the Gentiles so of both Jews and Gentiles therefore saith the Apostle Is he the God of the Jews only Rom. 3.29 Mark 12.26 out of Exod. 3.6 Is he not also of the Gentiles yea of the Gentiles also This manner of speech is by our Saviour used I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. The name God is thrice in one God who Created Redeemed and Sanctified which Works of Creation Redemption and Sanctification are in Scripture in a special manner attributed the first to the Father the second to the Son and the third to the Holy Ghost Withall seeing the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob are not three but one and the same God something seeing Scripture saith nothing in vain must thereby be intended if it had been in relation to the Father Son and Grand-Son it would sufficiently have been express'd with once naming God as the God of Abraham of Isaac and Jacob but God being named thrice yet there being but one God it must needs relate to some Trinity therein which being not in the Nature can be Relative only to the three Persons of the Godhead For a greater confirmation of this let us read that Blessing which by God's immediate command Moses in God's own words appointed Aaron and his Sons to pronounce to the People Numb 6.24 25 26. we have it thus The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace The Lord or Jehovah is thrice named yet Jehovah being an Essential name of God in that sense there can be but one Jehovah seeing there is but one God yet since God saith and doth nothing in vain some reason there must be why in this place 't is thrice mention'd which we may find if with attention we read the Text the first Verse doth contain Attributes properly belonging to the Father as to bless and keep 't is proper for the Father to bless his Children and God the Father is specially call'd the Maker and Preserver of the Creatures as being chiefly stiled the Creatour therefore we read God created man Gen. 1.27 28. male and female and blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply here the Blessing answers Aaron's Prayer that God would bless so to be fruitful and multiply them what Aaron pronounc'd that God would keep and preserve them both generally and individually Besides that the Greek Etymology of the name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Father from the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I keep or preserve shews plainly how a Father is he who preserves those whose Father he is so a Father of a Family keeps his whole Family and he who takes care of all is a common Father to all therefore the blessing The Lord bless and keep thee doth specially and properly belong to God the Father though it excludes none of the other two Persons of the most Holy Trinity The second Verse contains that which is particularly attributed to the Son as to make his face shine upon and be gracious unto them Exod. 33.14 The Face is a part of Humane Body but none of the Persons of the most Holy Trinity only the Son hath a Humane Body so 't is proper to the Son Now the Son is the Face and Image of the Father in whom only God is seen and visible we must remember how God said to Moses my face for so 't is i● the Original shall go with thee and who is he that