MOTHER. This Word is sometimes used for a Metropolis, the capital City of a 2 Sam. xx. 19.Country, or of a Tribe; and sometimes for a whole People. The Synagogue is the Mother of the Jews, as the Church is of the Christians. Isaiah says, l. 1. Where is the Bill of your Mother’s Divorcement whom I have put away? That is, of the Synagogue. And St. Paul says, Galat. iv. 26. But Jerusalem which is above, is free, which is the Mother of us all. The great Babylon, the Heathen City of Rome, is called in the Revelations, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth, that is, of Idolatry.
A Mother in Israel signifies a brave Woman, of whom God makes use to deliver his People. This Name the Scripture gives Judg. v. 7.to Deborah. Wisdom calls her Mater pulchræ dilectionis, the Mother of chaste Love. The Earth, to which at our Death we must all return, is called the Mother of all Men: Mater omnium. To the Day that Ecclus. xl. 1.they return to the Mother of all Things. Before a Child is able to call his Father or Isai. viii. 4. 1 Sal. xxii. 10.his Mother, before he can speak. Thou art my God from my Mother’s Belly. I was thine before I was born.