Him."* So Prophecy declares, "I am the First, and I am the Last; and beside Me there is no God."+ Again, it is not only affirmed, but made the ground of devotion: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord; and (or rather Therefore‡) thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart."§ And this is the spirit and significance of the precept, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve,"|| that He alone is God.

But in the Scripture teaching of the Divine unity, a gradation is observable. The conception is not that of merely numerical unity: that indeed is the first step; and the texts of the Old Testament seem to be intended mainly as a protest against polytheism. But the New Testament propounds the idea of a higher unity, one in which a Plurality can partake. The unity which Christ revealed is not numerical; for He distinguishes the Persons of His Father, Himself, and the Spirit; yet in a higher sense He declares Himself absolutely One with the Father. And this idea of spiritual unity is extended even to men; so He prays that His own 66 may be one even as We are one; and St. Paul follows up the thought, declaring it to be God's good pleasure (evdoxía) "to gather together in one all things in Christ;"++ and encouraging Christians to live for and aim at that unity in act‡‡ and faith. §§

* Deut. iv. 35.

This parenthesis is Pearson's.
St. Matt. iv. 10.

† Isa. xliv. 6.

§ Deut. vi. 4.

St. John x. 30 and xiv. 11.

" **

** St. John xvii. 11, 22. †† Eph. i. 10. ‡‡ 1 Cor. x. 17. §§ Eph. iv. 4-6. These quotations, and the idea connecting them, are borrowed from Prof. Forbes in The Expositor for August, 1886, p. 154.

“THE FATHER Almighty, MAKER OF HEAVEN and EARTH." To the name God three attributes are here annexed the first declaring His relation to His creatures; the second, His absolute power; the third, His creative work. St. Paul, arguing for the unity, affirms also the Fatherhood of God: "Though there be that are called gods. . . to us there is but one God, the Father, of Whom are all things, and we in Him." *

The title Father is ascribed to God in imperfect and metaphorical senses; as the Producer or Former† of all things animate and inanimate; so Job asks, “Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?" but more properly is He so styled in respect of rational and intellectual beings, as of angels, when it is said, "all the sons of God shouted for joy;"§ and of man, "Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us?" || Again He is called Father not only as the Creator but as the Preserver of all; again, as the Restorer of His people from a state of misery to a happier condition. So Moses appeals to the people to remember the benefits they had received: "Is He not thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath He not made thee and established thee?"

Especially, since men are not only born into the world, but born again that they may enter the kingdom

* 1 Cor. viii. 6.

Job xxxviii. 28.

† Jer. x. 16.
§ Job xxxviii. 7.

|| Mal. ii. 10, cf. the quotation from classic poetry in Acts xvii. 28, and St. Luke iii. 38.

¶ Deut. xxxii. 6; cf. Isa, lxiii. 16.

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of God, God is termed a Father in respect of this spiritual change or regeneration; for, "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth: "* and, we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works: "+ (creation in Christ, i.e. the bringing souls from a state of sin into a state of grace, is regeneration). And this is also represented as adoption; for to be regenerate, i.e. to have the gift of sonship, in Christ or for His sake, is an act of adoption and grace. "We have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father;”‡ a privilege involving and accompanied by "His inheritance in the saints."§ Again there is another and a final regeneration, when the soul after its new birth into the life of grace is born again into a life of glory. So we read of the "Regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory; " || and that, "they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” ¶

And to believe thus in God as our Father is necessary as the ground of all filial fear, honour and obedience due to Him. If the law, "Honour thy Father," is of lasting obligation, "shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits?" Such is the Scriptural conclusion.** "A son honoureth his father. . . If I then be a Father, where is my

*Jas. i. 18.

† Eph. ii. 10.

Rom. viii. 15.

§ Eph. i. 18; cf. Rom. viii. 17.

St. Matt. xix. 28. ¶ St. Luke xx. 35. **Heb. xii. 9.

honour? . . . saith the Lord." ""* Further, this belief is the life of our devotions. "When ye pray, say, Our Father," and the argument follows, "If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?”+ Also it is an encouragement to patience: "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."‡ Also it is an inducement to imitate the goodness of God: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them. . . that ye may be the children of your Father which is in Heaven."§ "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children."||

But although the name Father is used in these senses and with such practical applications, it is undoubtedly in the Creed restrained to its proper and highest meaning, and denotes God as the Father of His only Son our Lord Jesus Christ. As our Lord is Son of God in an eminent and real sense which no other being can claim, so is God in a peculiar manner Father of that Son. In the saying "I ascend unto My Father and your Father," the distinction is indicated in the original language by the article. Christ is the "Firstborn among many brethren,” ** we become sons as being brethren unto Him. He is "Heir of all things,"++ we become "heirs of God" as

* Mal. i. 6.

† St. Luke xi. 11, Heb. xii. 6; cf. Deut. viii. 5; Ps. ciii. 13. 44, 45.

§ St. Matt. v.
St. John xx. 17.

†† Heb. i. 2.

13.

| Eph. v. 1. (R.V.) μιμηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ. ** Rom. viii. 29; cf. Heb. ii. 11.

"joint 'heirs with Christ." "God sent forth His Son . . . that we might receive the adoption of sons; and because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son unto our hearts, crying, Abba Father." Through the mission of Christ we are adopted, and by His Spirit we are taught to call God our Father. All this is gained for us in dependence on His Sonship. And since the Sonship is thus unique, it follows that the relation of Father will bear a sense answering to it. The Son is entitled in the written word of God, "His own Son," and by open testimony from Heaven "His beloved Son; "§ and on His own part He "also called God His own Father," || and we apprehend that Father accordingly as "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore." T

That this highest sense is the one intended in the Creed, may be made plain by referring to the baptismal form: "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." For in the mouth of our Lord the correlation of those two terms, Father and Son, is evident, and from that form originated the Confession of Faith. We acknowledge, then, Father and Son to be eternal, the same in essence and power; yet that which the Father is He hath of Himself, that which the Son is he hath by communication from the Father. The relation between the Father and Son consists in identity of nature, with a priority in order: "Of Whom are all

*Rom. viii. 17.
† Gal. iv. 4-6.
Rom. viii. 32.

§ St. Matt. iii. 17.

St. John v. 18. ¶ 2 Cor. xi. 31.