God made the earth and heavens," (Gen. ii. 4.) saith Moses. So that the creation or production of any thing by which it is, and before was not, is a kind of generation, and consequently the creator or producer of it a kind of Father. "Hath the rain a Father? Or who hath begotten the drops of dew?" (Job xxxviii. 28.) by which words Job signifies, that as there is no other cause assignable of the rain but God, so may he as the cause be called the Father of it, though not in the most proper sense, as he is the Father of his Son: and so the + philosophers of old, who thought that God did make the world, called him expressly, as the Maker, so the Father of it. And thus "to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things;" (1 Cor. viii. 6.) to which the words following in the CREED may seem to have relation, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth. But in this mass of creatures and body of the Universe, some works of the creation more properly call him Father, as being more rightly sons: such are all the rational and intellectual offspring of the Deity. Of merely natural beings and irrational agents he is the creator; of rational, as so, the Father also: they are his creatures, these his sons. Hence he is styled the "Father of spirits." (Heb. xii. 9.) and the blessed angels, when he laid the foundations of the earth, his sons; "When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy:" (Job xxxviii. 7.) hence man, whom he created after his own image, is called his "offspring," (Acts xvii. 28.) and Adam, the immediate work of his hands, "the son of God:" (Luke iii. 38.) hence may we all cry out with the Israelites taught by the prophet so to speak, "Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?" (Malac. ii. 10.) Thus the first and most universal notion of God's paternity in a borrowed or metaphorical sense is founded rather upon creation than procreation. Unto this act of creation is annexed that of conservation, by which God doth uphold and preserve in being that which at first he made, and to which he gave its being. As there * Ετέρως γάρ τις ἱετοῦ πατέρα Θεόν ἀκούει, καὶ ἑτέρως υἱοῦ. Severus, Cat. Patr. in Job. c. 26. p. 551. + Plutarch of Plato, calling God ñаτέρα πάντων καὶ ποιητὴν, says: τη μεταφορά χρώμενος, ὥσπερ εἴωθε, τὸν αἴτιον πατέρα τοῦ nioμou xixλnnes. Platon. Quæst. ii. And Alcimus: πατὴρ δέ ἐστι τῷ αἴτιος εἶναι πάντων. So Plutarch answers the question, why Plato terms God the Maker and Fa ther of all things: Ἡ τῶν μὲν Θεῶν τῶν γεννητῶν καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πατής ἐστι· ποιητῆς δὲ τῶν ἀλόγων καὶ ἀψύχων. Father of gods and men, Maker of all things inanimate and irrational. Οὐ γὰρ χορίου, φησὶ Χρύσ σιππος, πατέρα καλεῖσθαι τὸν παρασχόντα τὸ σπέρμα, καίπερ ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος γεγονότος. Non enim agri pater, si Chrysippo credimus, is dicitur qui eum consevit, quanquam e semine deinde fruges nascuntur: as the Latin translation most absurdly. Ibid. For there is neither corn, nor field, nor any seed belonging to them, in the words of Plutarch. But χόριον (not χωρίον) is the secunda, the coat (or rather coats in the acceptation of Chrysippus, and the language of those times) in which the fatus is involved in the mother's womb. Though therefore both the secunda and the fœtus be made of the seed of the male in the philosophy of Chrysippus, yet he is not called the father of the after-birth, bit of the child; the one being endued with life and reason, and the other not. fore it is the duty of the parent to educate and preserve the child as that which had its being from him; so this paternal education doth give the name of * Father unto man, and conservation gives the same to God. Again, redemption from a state of misery, by which a people hath become worse than nothing, unto a happy condition, is a kind of generation, which joined with love, care, and indulgence in the Redeemer, is sufficient to found a new paternity, and give him another title of a Father. Well might Moses tell the people of Israel, now brought out of the land of Egypt from their brick and straw, unto their quails and manna, unto their milk and honey, "Is not he thy Father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?" (Deut. xxxii. 6.) Well might God speak unto the same people as to "his son, even his first-born," (Exod. iv. 22.) "Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb." (Isa. xliv. 24. xlvi. 3.) And just is the acknowledgment made by that people instructed by the prophet," Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is thy name." (Isa. lxiii. 16.) And thus another kind of paternal relation of God unto the sons of men is founded on a restitution or temporal redemption. Besides, if to be born causeth relation to a father, then to be born again maketh an addition of another: and if to generate foundeth, then to regenerate addeth a paternity. Now though we cannot "enter the second time into our mother's womb," nor pass through the same door into the scene of life again; yet we believe and are persuaded that " except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 4. 3.) A double birth there is, and the worldt consists of two, the first and the second man. And though the incorruptible seed be the word of God, and the dispensers of it in some sense may say, as St. Paul spake unto the Corinthians, "I have begotten you through the Gospel:" (1 Cor. iv. 15.) yet he is the true Father, whose word it is, and that is God, even "the Father of lights, who of his own will begat us with the word of truth." (James i. 17, 18.) Thus" whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God;" (1 John v. 1.) which regeneration is as it were a second creation: "for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." (Ephes. ii. 10.) And he alone who did create us out of nothing, can beget us again, and So Eustathius observes out of an ingenious etymologist: Πατὴρ Θεὸς μὲν, ὡς τὸ πᾶν τηρῶν· ἄνθρωπος δὲ, ὡς τοὺς παῖδας της pav. 11. e. + Totum hominum genus quodam modo sunt homines duo, primus et se cundus,' Prosp. lib. Sententiar.ex August. sent. 299. make us of the new creation. When Rachel called to Jacob, "Give me children, or else I die;" he answered her sufficiently with this question, "Am I in God's stead?" (Gen. xxx. 1, 2.) And if he only openeth the womb, who else can make the soul* to bear? Hence hath he the name of Father, and they of sons who are born of him; and so from that internal act of spiritual regeneration another title of paternity redoundeth unto the Divinity. Nor is this the only second birth or sole regeneration in a Christian sense; the soul, which after its natural being requires a birth into the life of grace, is also after that born again into a life of glory. Our Saviour puts us in mind of "the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory." (Matt. xix. 28.) The resurrection of our bodies is a kind of coming out of the womb of the earth, and entering upon immortality, a nativity into another life. For "they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection," (Luke xx. 35, 36.) and then as sons, "they become heirs, coheirs with Christ," (Rom. viii. 17.) "receiving the promise and reward of eternal inheritance." (Heb. ix. 15. Col. iii. 24.) "Beloved, now are we the sons of God," saith St. John, even in this life by regeneration, "and it doth not yet appear, or, it hath not been yet made manifest,+ what we shall be; but we know, that if he appear, we shall be like him" (1 John iii. 2.) the manifestation of the Father being a sufficient declaration of the condition of the sons, when the sonship itself consisteth in a similitude of the Father. And "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead; to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us." (1 Pet. i. 3, 4.) Why may not then a second kind of regeneration be thought a fit addition of this paternal relation? Neither is there only a natural, but also a voluntary and civil foundation of paternity; for the laws have found a way by which a man may become a father without procreation: and this imitation of nature is called adoption, taken in the general signification.§ Although, therefore, many ways God be a Father; yet, lest any way might seem to exclude us from being his sons, he hath made us so also by adoption. Others are * Οὐ γὰρ ἀντὶ Θεοῦ ἐγώ εἰμι, τοῦ μήνου δυ να μένου τὰς ψυχῶν μήτρας ἀνοιγοῦναι, καὶ σπεί ρειν ἐν αὐταῖς ἀρετὰς, καὶ ποιεῖν ἐγκύμονας καὶ τίκτουσας τὰ καλά. Philo de Alleg. l. iii. p. 122. ed. Mang. 1742. † Καὶ οὔπω ἐφανερώθη. Adoptio naturæ similitudo est, ut aliquis filium habere possit, quem non generavit.' Caii Inst. 1. tit. 5. §. 1. Ti ἔστιν υἱοθεσία ; νομίμη πρᾶξις μιμουμένη τὴν φύσιν πρὸς παίδων παραμυθίαν ἐπινενοημένη. Theoph. Inst. 1. t. 11. § Η υἱοθεσία Ρωμαϊκή φωνή λέγεται ἀδοπο τίων· αὕτη οὖσα γενικὸν ὄνομα εἰς δύω διαιρεῖται, εἰς ἀδρογατίονα, καὶ τὴν ὁμώνυμον ἀδοπτίονα. Theoph. ibid. wont to fly to this, as to a comfort of their solitary condition, when either nature had denied them, or death bereft them of their offspring. Whereas God doth it not for his own, but for our sakes; nor is the advantage his, but ours. "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God;" (1 John iii. 1.) that we, the sons of disobedient and condemned Adam by natural generation, should be translated into the glorious liberty of the sons of God by adoption; that we, who were aliens, strangers, and enemies, should be assumed "unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all the family+ of heaven and earth is named," (Eph. iii. 14, 15.) and be made partakers of "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints." (Eph. i. 18.) For as in the legal adoption, the father hath as full and absolute power over his adopted son as over his own issue;‡ so in the spiritual, the adopted sons have a clear and undoubted right of inheritance. He, then, who hath "predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself," (Eph. i. 5.) hath thereby another kind of paternal relation, and so we receive the "Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." (Rom. viii. 15.) The necessity of this faith in God as our Father appeareth, first, in that it is the ground of all our filial fear, honour, and obedience due unto him upon this relation. "Honour thy father is the first commandment with promise," (Eph. vi. 2.) written in tables of stone with the finger of God; and, “children obey your parents in the Lord," is an evangelical precept, but founded upon principles of reason and justice; " for this is right," saith St. Paul. (Ephes. vi. 1.) And if there be such a rational and legal obligation of honour and obedience to the fathers of our flesh, how much more must we think ourselves obliged to him whom we believe to be our heavenly and everlasting Father? A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master. If then I be a father, where is my honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts." 'Spadones autem qui generare non possunt, adoptare possunt; et, licet filios generare non possint, quos adoptaverunt filios habere possunt.' Caii Inst. 1. tit. 5. §. 3. Hi qui generare non possunt, velut spado, utroque modo possunt adoptare. Idem juris est in cœlibe.' Ulp. tit. 9. §. 5. Τυχὸν οὐκ ἔχοι τις παῖδας διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ γάμων, ἢ ἐλθεῖν μὲν, μὴ παι δοποιῆσαι δὲ, ἢ παιδοποιῆσαι μὲν, ἀποβάλλε σθαι δὲ τούτους, τὸ ἐκ τῆς φύσεως ἐλάττωμα ἢ τὸ συμβὰν δυστύχημα βουλόμενος ἐπικουφί σαι, ἔλαβεν εἰς υἱοθεσίαν τινά. Theoph. Inst, i. tit. 11. Τοῖς ἀτυχοῦσιν ἀπαιδίαν λύειν βουλόμενος τὸ δυστύχημα νόμος υἱοθετεῖσθαι προστάσσει, καὶ γνώμῃ ἐκεῖνο κτᾶσθαι, ὃ μὲ οὔπορον λαβεῖν παρὰ τῆς φύσεως. Leonis Novel. 27. t In alienam familiam transitus,' is the description in Agellius, i. 5. 19. 'Cum in alienam familiam inque liberorum locum extranei sumuntur, aut per prætorem fit, aut per populum: quod per prætorem fit, adoptio dicitur; quod per populum, arrogatio.' Ibid. As appears out of the form of Roga tion yet extant in this manner: Velitis jubeatis, Quirites, uti Lucius Valerius Lucio Titio, tam jure legeque filius sibi siet, quam si ex eo patre matreque familias ejus natus esset, utique ei vitæ necisque in eo potestas siet, uti patri endo filio est?' Ibid. (Malac. i. 6.) If we be heirs, we must be coheirs with Christ; if sons, we must be brethren to the only-begotten: but being he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him, he acknowledgeth no fraternity but with such as do the same; as he hath said, "Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother." (Matt. xii. 50.) If it be required of a bishop in the church of God, to be" one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;" (1 Tim. iii. 4.) what obedience must be due, what subjection must be paid, unto the Father of the family? The same relation in the object of our faith is the life of our devotions, the expectation of all our petitions. Christ, who taught his disciples, and us in them, how to pray, propounded not the knowledge of God, though without that he could not hear us; neither represented he his power, though without that he cannot help us; but comprehended all in this relation, "When ye pray, say, Our Father." (Luke xi.2.) This prevents all vain repetitions of our most earnest desires, and gives us full security to cut off all tautology, for " Our Father knoweth what things we have need of before we ask him." (Matt. vi. 8.) This creates a clear assurance of a grant without mistake of our petition: "What man is there of us, who if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If we then who are evil know how to give good gifts unto our children; how much more shall our Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him." (Matt. vii. 9-11.)* Again, this paternity is the proper foundation of our Christian patience, sweetening all afflictions with the name and nature of fatherly corrections. "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?" especially considering, that "they chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness:" (Heb. xii. 9, 10.)t they, as an argument of their authority; he, as an assurance of his love: they, that we might acknowledge them to be our parents; he, that he might persuade us that we are his sons: " for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." (Heb. xii. 6.) And what greater incitement unto the exercise of patience is imaginable unto a suffering soul, than to see in every stroke the hand of a Father, in every afflic ̓Αντὶ πέρκης σκορπίον· παροιμία ἐπὶ τῶν τα χείρω αἱρουμένων ἀντὶ τῶν βελτιόνων. Zenot. ̔Ο δ' ἀντὶ πιποῦς σκορπίον σπάσας. Lycophron. Cassand. ver. 476. + Quod si a Domino nonnulla credimus incuti, cui magis patientiam quam Domino præbeamus? Quin insuper gra tulari et gaudere nos docet dignatione divinæ castigationis. Ego, inquit, quos diligo castigo. O servum illum beatum, cujus emendationi Dominus instat, cui dignatur irasci, quem admonendi dissimulatione non decipit!' Tertull, de Par. c. 11. |