Metaphors, Allegories, Similes, Types, &c. RESPECTING G 0 D THE FATHER, The FIRST PE R S 0 N IN THE TRINITY. B 0 0 K II. GOD A F A T H E R. T HE Title of Father is attributed to God in a four-fold RefpeCl:: r. As he is rhe eternal Father of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who is his only he~ gotten Son, John i. 14. Eph. i. 3· . z. As he is rhe Father ofAdam, and all his natural Off-fpring in RefpeCl: of Creation, Lttke iii. 38. 3. As he is the Father of /'vlerciu, all flowing from his bountiful Hand to the Crea– ture, 2 Cor. 1. 3· Eph. iv. 6. 4· The Father of .11 good Men in RefpeCI: to Adoption and Regeneration wrought in them by the Power of his Grace, Rom. viii. 15. Gal. iv. 6. The Word Abba is a Syriac Word (~::l~) and is derived from the Hebrew :J~ Ab, from ;;::J~ to will or acquiefce. It is only found in three Places in Scripture; as Mark xiv. 36. Rom. vi1i. '5· Gal. iv. 6. and in all thofe Places the* Greek Word, o ""'T"P• a Father is joined to it ; which intimates (as learned Men fay) that the Gojpel·Grace belongs to the Greeks, who were Gentiles, as well as the Jews. It is obferved, that this is the firft Word that ufually Children fpeak, which carries a fpiritt1al Allufion. t Whether it be read backwards or forwards, it founds Abba, which by a fweet Allu– fion feems to imply, that God is the Father of the Faithful, even when in their Cro.ffes and Calamities he feems averfe to them. · Others think that the Gemilzation or Doubling of the Word in Syriac and Greek car– ries an Emphajis, fignifying that God is always a Father, and that the Invocations of his Ch1idren Jhould be put up with earnejl Geminations, and Vehemcncy of Dijire. JeroitJ makes rhe latter an Imerpretation of the former, as Rev. i. 7. "~l xeu ~P."ifl' evm fo, and Amen; where the jirjl is the Explication• of the fecond, being a Hebrew Word. In the enfuing Parallel we take the Title Father in the fourth RefpeCI: above men– tioned; and fo it' may not unfitly be termed a Metaphor, taken from a natu1·al or earthly Father· : llecaufe God has the fame Love to, and Care of his JPiritual or adopted Chil– dren, as worlctly Parents have of their natural o rr:rpring; and in what Degree ofpaternal Eminence God excels them, fhall be fhewed in the Difparity. • J7oci ~B/3~ ./latim additur <uo(u/a f~?i'Y'l1'1X1? o •Jrct.?r,g, quodfit, ut Scriptum ttjletur, Deum pertinere ad GrtetoJ. Glaff. Phd. Sacra, p. 305. t ~id,mjutvi..i aflujhne dicam Abba <vote, qute retro eodem modo legitur, u/um rJ1e A;ojlolum, hit f.5 aliiis, ut inuueret, Deum pion1m eJfe p~trem etianifi a6 iis cvverfiu rjfe ruidea/111" 111 crua & calamitatibtu. Id. ibid. METAPHORS.
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