Lecture VII
LECTURE VII.
ON GOD, THE FATHER.
Ep. iii. 14, 15.
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family of heaven and earth ts named.
1. Or God as the One Principle of all things I said enough wig) eis yesterday ; enough, I mean, not in respect to the subject, (for me" mortal nature cannot reach this,) but in the measure of. our of the weakness; and I trod the bye paths which have been variously gg air ot struck out by profane heretics: now, shaking from us their foul and soul-destroying doctrine, and remembering it not to our hurt, but for their detestation, let us revert to ourselves, and receive the salutary articles of the true Faith, joining to the dignity of God's sole sovereignty, the attribute of Father, and believing in One God the Father.
It is not enough to believe in One God: we must receive with reverence this also, that He is the Father of the Only-begotten, our Lord
Jesus Christ.
2. For thus our view of religion will rise above the Jewish.
(2.) For the Jews receive indeed the doctrine of the One God; (though they have often denied this too by committing idolatry;) but they deny that He is also the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, differing from their own Prophets, who say in Holy Scripture, The Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Ps.3,7.
Son, this day have I begotten Thee.
Even to this day they rage and gather against the Lord and against His Christ, Pe 2,1. thinking that the Father may be made their friend, apart® from devotion towards the Son; knowing not that no man John14, cometh to the Father, but by the Son, who saith, J am the ®
Jonnl0, door, and I am the way.
He then who declines the Ways. which leads to the Father, and denies the Door, how shall he Jobn14, be vouchsafed entrance to God?
They contradict too the bs words of the eighty-eighth® Psalm: He shall cry unio Me, Ps. 89,
Thou art My Father, My God, and the rock of My salvation ; °°"
® ¢.e. Psalm 89. In the Greek and said, the Psalms are ee difLatin Versions, as need scarcely beferently from the English
The name of Father implies the Son.
Lecr. also, J will make Him My first-born, higher than the kings of VIt. the earth.
If they contend that these things are spoken to David, or Solomon, or some of their successors, they have to shew how the throne of him whom they consider to be the Ps, 89, object of the prophecy, is as the days of heaven, and as the sun before God, and as the moon stablished in heaven: and how is it they feel no awe about the text, From the womb,
Ps. 89, 36. 37.
Ps. 110, before the star of dawn I begat thee: and again, He shall he 7, endure with the sun, and before the moon, from generation to 5, Sept. generation? To apply these things to a man, argues a mind utterly and eutirely insensible.
3. But let the Jews, since they so will, be troubled with their accustomed sickness, and disbelieve these and such like
Scriptures; but let us embrace the godly doctrine of the Faith, worshipping one God, the Father of Christ.
For it vols eaWere profane indeed, when He hasgiven unto all the prerogative " sera of parents, to deny to Him the like.
And let us believe in xaetsOne God the Father, that even before proceeding to treat of pasver.
Christ, our previous discourse concerning the Father, may lay deeply in your hearts, not retard, faith in the Only-begotten.
4. For the name of the Father, in its very utterance implies (3.) the Son: asin like manner to name the Son, is at once to imply the Father also.
For if He is a Father, plainly the Father of a Son; and if a Son, plainly the Son of a Father.
Therefore, lest when we say, We believe, " in one God, the Father Almighty; Maker of Heaven and Earth; and of all things visible and invisible," and then add, " and in One Lord
Jesus Christ," it should be irreverently thought, that the Only-begotten is second in rank to heaven and earth, therefore before naming them, we named God, the Father; that as soon as we think of the Father, we may also think of the Son, for between the Son and the Father no being whatever comes.
5. God then, though He is in an improper sense the Father of many things, yet by nature and in truth is Father of One only, the Only-begotten Son our Lord, Jesus Christ : not becoming so in course of time, but being from everlasting the Father of the Only-begotten; not first without Son, and then becoming a Father, by a change of purpose; but before éwerrdall substance, and all intelligence, before times and all ages,
Ties. hath God the prerogative of Father; and more honoured
The Father of Christ, the God of the Old Testament.
in this than in all the rest.
A father, not by passion, not by wééw, le union, not in ignorance, not by effluence, not by diminution, As tebe not by alteration": for every perfect gi/t is from above, and sjaseas. cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no Jam. 1}, variableness, neither shadow of turning.
He is a perfect Father of a perfect Son: who has delivered every thing to Him who is begotten; (for ald things, He saith, are delivered Mat.11, to Me of My Father :) and is. honoured of the Only-begotten; 27:
For I honour My Father, saith the Son: and again, Even as John 8, I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His *: love.
Therefore we say like the Apostle; Blessed be God, 70>"
"> even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of 2 Cor. mercies and God of all consolation; and we bow our knees ae 4 unto the Father, of whom the whole fumily in heaven and 14.15,' earth is named, glorifying Him with the Only-begotten: for rea he who denieth the Father, denieth the Son also: and x,. of again, He who confesseth the Son, hath also the Father
; $75' knowing that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the added in Father. nyahes.
6. We worship then the Father of Christ, the Maker of 32.93.'
Heaven and Earth, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Ate 2, to whose honour the former temple also, over against us, was
_ built in this place; without toleration of the Heretics, who sever the Old from the New Testament, and in submission to Christ, who says of the temple, Wist ye not that I must be Luke 2,
. 49. in My Father's place? and again, Take these things hence; Bireaps and make not My Father's house an house of merchandise; 16,' which are plain avowals that the former temple in Jerusalem is His own Father's house.
But if any one is so unbelieving as to require yet more proofs of the Father of Christ being the Maker of the World; let him attend to these words of his, in addition; Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing
Met-10, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without My Ane es Father which is in heaven.
Aud, Behold the fowls of the vores > These ideas were introduced by the Eusebins's letter to his Church; abeis cote tics of the Gnostic and Maniohean sgpdrives Abyer, dost avd ce win cupl- : pega and imputed by the Arians to eas wadn Aiye oi duscdeser, ode! edt nad yr eee the Catholic doctrine, and especially to Jaigsess, odes nerd ee dweveuty In cod | a the word dpseteu, Accordingly, exsacgis bwereivas pics yee Bbrachas om 5s planations were given on the subject at Ai Aor me) verges na) dowpacer Pies, copeeee tho te the Council of Nicwea; as e.g. Conrixér «1 wdbes dficrarba: s.¢.2.
Socr. your Fastantine's, which is thas reported in Hist i. 8.
Cheri G
Two senses of the word Father. air: for they sow not, neither gather into barns, and your
Mong hearenly Father feedeth them.
And, My Father worketh att. 6 ee hitherto, and I work.
John 5, 7. But in case any one, whether from simplicity, or perverse 17.
(4.) ingenuity, suppose Christ to be but equal in honour to righseu? teous men, from His saying, J ascend to My Father, and your
Father: it is well first to lay down, that though the Name of Father is one, its meaning is manifold.
As understanding this, He said without hesitation, J go to My Father, and your Father : not saying, To our Father; but making a distinction, and using at first in its proper meaning, to My Father, which was by nature, and then adding, and your Father, which was by adoption.
For though we have been allowed to say without qualification in our prayers, " Our Father, which art in Heaven," this is a privilege from God's lovingkindness.
For we do not call Him Father, because we were by nature begotten of the " Father which is in Heaven:" but having been translated from bondage to adoption, by the Father's grace, through the Son and the Holy Ghost, we are by ineffable loving-kindness allowed thus to speak.
8. And if any wishes to learn, how we call God, Father, let him hear Moses, the most excellent of elementary teachers;
Dent.
Is not He thy Father, he says, that hath bought thee?
Hath He not made thee, and established thee? And Esaias Is.64,8.the prophet; But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father: we b e are the clay, and we all are the work of Thy hand.
In the plainest way has the Prophetic gift shewn, that not by nature, but of God's grace, and by adoption, we call Him
Father.
9. Let Paul too explain to thee still more certainly, that in Holy Scriptures, itis not by any means the father according to the flesh only, who is called father; for he says, For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for, in Christ Jesus have I begotien you through the Gospel.
For not by begetting them according to the flesh, but in teaching and begetting them again according to the Spirit, was Paul the Father of the Corinthians. Again, consider Job's words, J was a father to the poor.
For he 1 Cor.
4, 16. dsaysvires pct Tob 99 ob 29, 16.
' named himself a father, not as having begotten them all, but as taking care of them.
And the Only-begotten Son of God
The Son and Holy Ghost alone see the Father.
Himself, when at His crucifixon, His flesh was nailed to the tree, seeing Mary His mother according to the flesh, and John His dearest disciple, says to him, Behold thy mother ; Souda and to her, Behold thy son: teaching her the parental" ke affection due to him, and indirectly explaining that which is said in Luke, and His father and Hés mother marvelled at Luke 2
Him: words which heretical schools catch at, as if He = ere begotten of a man and a woman.
For like as Mary was J0sps, called the mother of John, from her parental affection to him, eaeiter not from having given him birth: so was Joseph called the lbieg father of Christ, not as being really so, (for he knew her not, reads as says the Gospel, till she had brought forth her first-born Son
:) Matt. 1, but on account of his care in nurturing Him.
25.
10. Thus much then, in the way of a digression, to put you in remembrance.
However, I will add yet another text in proof that God is called the father of men, but in an improper sense.
Considering Isaiah says to God, Thou art our Father, ts. 63, though Abraham be ignorant of us; and Sara travailed not 5° oe wilh us, is it necessary to pursue the enquiry? And when the Psalmist says, They shall be troubled from His countenance, Son
67,6. the Father of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows, is it (6s, 5.) not evident at once to all, that when God is called the Father of orphans who have lately lost their own fathers, He is thus named, not as having begotten them of Himself, but as tending and shielding them?
Of men, then, He is, in an improper sense, the Father, as has been said: but only of Christ the Father by nature and not by adoption: moreover, of men in time, but of Christ before all time, as Christ Himself says, And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Jb17, own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
1]. We believe then in One God the Father, the Unsearch- (5.) able, and the Ineffable: whom none of men hath seen, but em
1, the Only-begotien hath declared Him: for He which ws of John 6, God, He hath seen the Father: whose countenance the 46.
Angels continually behold, yet behold, according to the Mat18, measure of their respective orders; but the undimmed vision of the Father is reserved in its purity for the Son with the Holy Ghost.
_ 12. At this point, recollecting what I have been just saying a2
God our Father through adoption and our own choice.
Lect. concerning God being called the Father of men, I am greatly YI" amazed at men's insensibility.
For while God has with unspeakable loving-kindness deigned to be called their Father,—
He in heaven, they upon earth; He the Maker of Eternity, Je, 40, they the production of time; He who holdeth the earth tn ron go, the hollow of His hand, they upon the earth as grasshoppers,— yet man, having forsaken his heavenly Father, has said to a Jer.2, stock, Thou art my father; and toa stone, Thou hast brought me forth; and methinks, for this cause the Psalmist says to Ps. 45, human nature, Forget also thine own people,and thy father's
1; house, whom thou hast chosen for thy father, whom thou hast coveted, to thy destruction.
18. And not only stocks and stones, but even Satan himself, some have ere now chosen for their father, even the destroyer
John 8, of souls: these men the Lord thus reproves, Ye do the deeds of your father; that is, of the devil, who is the father of men, not by nature, but by deceit; for like as Paul for his godly rare teaching was called the father of the Corinthians, thus also the devil is called the father of those who of their own choice
Ps. 60, consent with him.
For they are not to be tolerated who ae nn Petvert the text, By this we know the children of God, and 3 10. the children of the devil, as if by a law of nature some among is «émen were to be saved, and some to perish: whereas neither means: exqur, Ao we come to such holy sonship of necessity, but of choice ; pee a nor was it by nature that the traitor Judas was the son of text,» the devil and of perdition: else he would never at all have
¥, cast out devils in the name of Christ, for Satan casteth not ives, it out Satan ; nor on the other hand would Paul have turned ts are manifrom persecuting to preaching the Gospel; but the adoption fest. is at our choice, as saith John, But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to Soko '; them that believe in His name.
For not before faith, but from faith, we of our own choice have been counted worthy to become the sons of God.
(6.) 14. Knowing this then, let us walk spiritually, that we Rom. 8, may be counted worthy of God's adoption: for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For it avails us nought to possess the name of Christians, unless on 8, the works follow; lest to us also the words apply, [/ ye were
Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
Duty of honouring and obeying our earthly parents,
For tf we call on the Father, who without respect of person.
Pet.1, Sudgeth according to every man's work, let us pass the time of" our sojourning here in fear; not loving the world, neither thei John things that are in the world ; for if any man love the world," '® the love of the Father is not in him.
Therefore, my beloved children, let us offer glory to our Father which ts in heaven, through our works: that they may see our good works, and Mat. 5, glorify our Father which is in heaven; casting all our care 1
Pot.b, upon Him; for our Father knoweth what things we have'. is need of. peas :
15. And while we honour our Heavenly Father, let us also (7.) honour the fathers of our flesh: since the Lord hath evidently babeetdet so appointed in the Law and the Prophets, saying, Honour Exod. thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and* |? thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
This command claims especial attention from those here present, who actually have fathers and mothers.
Children, obey your parenis in all things, for this is well Col. 3, pleasing to the Lord.
For the Lord said not, He who loveth ee, 10 father or mother is not worthy of Me, lest thou shouldest37. from ignorance understand badly a good word, but added, more than Me.
For when our fathers upon earth have views at variance with those of our Father which is in heaven, then we must obey this word: when, however, not hindered by them in respect of godliness, but from want of affectionate feeling, and forgetfulness of their benefits to us, we despise them, then that oracle will have place, which saith, He that Exod. curseth father or mother, let him die the death. ape 16. The first virtuous observance in a Christian is, to« honour his parents, to requite their trouble, and with all his might to provide. for their comfort:
(for though we dresywshould repay them ever so much, yet we never can be what they have been to us:) so that they enjoying comfort of our sateh providing, may establish us in blessings, which Jacob the ,4,, : supplanter knew the value of, when he appropriated them: s* oe and that our Heavenly Father approving our virtuous course, gfgss, may count us worthy to shine with the just as the sun, in the Mat.13, kingdom of our Father: to whom be glory, with the Only- -: begotten, our Saviour Jesus Christ, with the Holy and lifegiving Spirit, now and ever, to all eternity.
Amen.