FATHER. This word, besides the common acceptation of it for immediate Father, is likewise taken in the Scripture-style for Grand-father, Great Grand-father, or the very Author and first Father of a family, how remote soever he may be from those who speak. For example, the Jews in our Saviour’s time, and their descendants of this present generation, and the posterity of them to the consummation of ages, will call themselves sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nebuchadnezzar is termed Belshazzar’s Father, though Belshazzar was his grandson. Jesus Christ is called the son of David, though David was so many generations distant from him.
By Father is likewise understood the Institutor, the Master of those who are of a Gen. iv. 20,21,22.certain profession. Jabal was the Father of such as dwell in tents, and such as have cattle. Tubal was the Father of all such as handle the harp and organ, or flute, &c. The famous founder of Tyre, Huram, is called the Father of the King of Tyre, and 2 Chr. ii. 13. & 2 Chr. iv. 16.even of Solomon, because he was their principal workman, and the chief director of their undertakings. The principal, the eldest of the Prophets were considered as the Masters and Fathers of the rest, who were their Disciples; for this reason the young Prophets are called the Sons of the Prophets, and these style the eldest, Fathers. My Father, my Father, said Elisha to Elijah, the chariot of Israel, and the 2 Kings ii. 12.horsemen thereof.
Father is a term of respect which inferiors often give to their superiors, and servants to their masters; My Father, said 2 Kings v. 13.Naaman’s servants to their master, if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it? &c. The King of Israel, in like manner, called the Prophet Elisha his Father: My Father, 2 Kings vi. 21.shall I smite them? The Prophet being upon his death-bed, Joash came to see him, and said, O my Father, my Father, the 2 Kings xiii. 14.chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. Rechab, the Institutor of the Rechabites, is called their Father; Jonadab the son of Rechab, our Father.
A man is said to be a Father to the poor and orphans, when he takes care of their necessities, is affected with their miseries, and provides for their wants. I was a Father Job xxix. 16.to the poor, says Job. God declares himself to be a Father of the fatherless, and Ps. lxviii. 6.a Judge of the widows. Patris orphanorum & Judicis viduarum.
God is frequently called heavenly Father, and simply Father. Indeed, he is truly and eminently the Father, Creator, Preserver, and Protector of all creatures, and principally of those who invoke him, who know and serve him. Is he not thy Father that bought thee? says Moses; hath he not Deut. xxxii. 6.made thee and established thee? Since the coming of Jesus Christ, we have acquir’d a new right to call him our Father, by reason of the adoption and filiation which our Saviour has merited for us, by clothing himself with our humanity, and purchasing us by his death; Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage unto fear, like the Jews, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.
Job intitles God the Father of rain; Quis est pluviæ pater? who produces it, who causes it to fall? In another place he says, I have said to corruption, thou art my Father. I acknowledge that I am sprung out of corruption, and shall return to the putrifaction of the grave; or otherwise, in the condition which I am reduced to, I look upon worms and putrifaction as my friends and relations Joseph says, that God had made him a° Father to Pharaoh, that he had given him very great authority in this Prince’s kingdom, and that Pharaoh looked upon him as his Father, and had so much confidence in him, and consideration for his person, that he gave him the government of his house, and of all his dominions.
The Devil is esteemed to be the Father of the wicked; Ye are of your Father the Devil. Ye would imitate the desires of your Father, says Jesus Christ to the Jews; he was a murderer from the beginning, he abode not in the truth. He is a lyar, and the Father of falsehood; he is a falsifier, a deceiver, a seducer. He deceived Eve and Adam; he introduced sin and falsehood into the world. He inspires his followers with his spirit and sentiments; he keeps the school of fraud and deceit; his only business is to tempt and ensnare us.
The Prophets reproach the wicked Jews with saying unto idols, You are my Father. In reality they said so, though not perhaps with their mouths, since they adored them as their Gods.
The Father of Sichem, the Father of Tekoah, the Father of Bethlehem, &c. the Father and Head of those who inhabit these Cities; he who built or rebuilt them. These expressions are very common in the first book of Chronicles, as well as Machir the Father of Gilead, the Father of Maresa, the Father of Kirjath-jarem, and the Father of the Valley of Artificers.
To be gathered unto their Fathers, to sleep with their Fathers, to go to their Fathers, are common expressions to signify death. In these passages, the Fathers signify those who lived before us, and whom we are going to meet again in another life.
Jesus Christ is called in Isaiah, the everlasting Father, because by him we are begotten in God for eternity; he procures life eternal to us, by adopting us to be the sons of God, and the communication of his merits, which are applied to us by our good works, and faith animated by love. St. Paul says, much in the same sense, that God is the Father of Spirits; our Fathers are the Fathers of our Bodies only, but God is the Father of our Spirits; he not only creates them, but he justifies them likewise, glorifies and makes them happy. Jesus Matth. xxiii. 9.Christ in the Gospel does not permit us to give any man the name of Father, because we have one only who is in Heaven. Not that it is meant here, that we should abandon or despise our earthly Fathers, God requires us to honour them, and give them all necessary assistance; but when the interests of God are at stake, his glory, or our own salvation, if our fathers and our mothers are an obstacle to them, we should say to them, We know you not; and to God, in the language of Isaiah, Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not; thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer. Or Ps. xxvii. 10.with David, My Father and my Mother have forsaken me, but the Lord taketh me up. What our parents have done for us in comparison with what we owe to God is so inconsiderable, that we may say, our Fathers are nothing to us, and that God alone deserves the title of our Father.
Saint Luke, speaking of St. John Baptist, says, that he was sent to turn the hearts of the Fathers to the Children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. He will re-unite the sentiments of the ancient and later Israelites; both will speak the same language, have the same thoughts. The Jews will be no longer seen to degenerate from the righteousness of their ancestors, nor to contradict the Holiness of their Religion by their ill Lives, nor persecute the Saints and Prophets, by their opposition to their maxims and instructions. The Fathers and Sons shall live hereafter in perfect good understanding.
The first Father, the Father of the living, is Adam; the Father of the faithful, is Abraham; the Father of the Circumcision, or the Jews, the same Abraham; the same Patriarch is called the Father of many Nations, because in reality several people Gen. xvii. 4.sprung from him, as the Jews, Ishmaelites, Edomites, and many others.