Our Father.
SOme do expound these words as though they were a rhetoricall proeme which we use to win Gods favour. But we use words in our prayer not that God but that we may be moved and affected. First we call him Father: whereof we are first to seek the meaning, and then the use. By the name of Father God alone is understood: For, as our Savi∣our saith Matth. 23. 9. we must call no man father, because we have but one Father who is in heaven. Joh. 8. 41. We have one Father, which is God: A good profession if it had bene uttered with a good consci∣ence.
Now God is said to be a Father two wayes: by* 1.1 Creation, and Adoption. By creation, as Isai. 64. 8. So Adam is said to be the sonne of God, Luke 3. 38. and the Angels, Job 1. By adoption in Christ, Ephes. 1. 5. So every believer is born of God, 1. John 5. 1. For to so many as believe in Christ God hath given this priviledge, to be the sonnes of God, John 1. 12. And in this sense is every faithfull man to call God Father.