hips.
When we say there are three Persons in the Godhead, we use a word
applicable to men, which, though the most fitting one at our disposal,
must come far short of fully describing the relations of Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost to each other. Possessing no celestial language, we
cannot fully describe or understand heavenly things.

SECTION 3.--THE FATHER

The first Person in the Godhead is the Father. This name may be viewed
(_a_) with reference to the second Person, Jesus Christ His only
Son, or (_b_) as descriptive of His relation to believers in Christ
Jesus, or (_c_) as indicating His universal Fatherhood as the
Author and the Preserver of all intelligent creatures. The relation in
which the Father stands to the Son, that He is His Father and has
begotten Him, is one that we cannot explain. Any attempt to do so must
be arrogant and misleading, for who "by searching can find out
God"?[020] Secret things belong unto God, but revealed things unto us
and our children.[021] The term "Father" is a relative one and involves
the idea of sonship. No one who accepts the teaching of Scripture can
doubt that the Father is God. The statements as to His attributes and
universal government are so many and so strong that, but for other
affirmations regarding Deity, we should naturally conclude that the
Father alone is God. But the very name "Father" corrects such a view,
and when we search the Scriptures we find it untenable. God is our
Father, but He was "the Father" before He called man into being. From
all eternity He was Father. As from everlasting to everlasting He is
God, so from everlasting to everlasting He is Father. He did not become
Father when His Son assumed human nature, but is such in virtue of His
eternal relation to the Word as the Son of God. It is the Son's
existence that constitutes Him Father; and that existence was in
eternity. "I and my Father are one,"[022] is the Son's testimony to His
eternal Sonship; and when He prays His Father to glorify Him, He asks to
be glorified with the glory which He had with Him before the world
was.[023] There are other senses in which the first Person of the
Godhead is termed Father. All men are declared to be His offspring, and
those who have received the Spirit of adoption cry, "Abba, Father," and
are taught, when they pray, to say, "Our Father."

In an exposition of the Creed the Fatherhood in relation to men
generally, or to believers in particular, need not be consi