An exposition with practical observations continued upon the thirty-eighth, thirty-ninth, fortieth, forty-first, and forty-second,…

These words are an elegant Metaphor taken from Child-bearing. What woman can the Ice call Mother? God is here compared to a Mother, for the same reason for which he was before compared to a Father. We are to note (saith Aquinas upon this place) that Cold is the cause of Ice, which is a feminine or womanish quality; but the cause of rain and dew is heat, which is a masculine or manly quality. And therefore the Lord speaking of the generation of rain and dew, useth the word Father; and about the generation of Ice and Frost he useth a word most proper to the Mother; Out of whose womb came the Ice? The word rendered womb signifies the whole belly, yea the whole body. Thus (Psal. 132.11.) Of the fruit of thy body, &c. The Hebrew is belly, so the word is used (Gen. 15.4. 2 Chron. 22.21.) but according to our Translation it strictly relates to the Mother, as if God would take upon him both sexes, and be, as, the Father of the rain and dew, so, the Mother of the Ice and Frost. The Ancients insist much upon this setting forth the glory of God in the former verse as a Father, and here as a Mother, out of whose womb the Ice comes; and they tell us of some who never had Scripture light,¹ that yet did speak of God according to this Notion, calling him Mother-Father. They looked to God, and honoured him, as having not only the power of a Father, but the care of a Mother conceiving, nourishing, nursing, and educating the Creature as a Mother doth her children; and therefore called God Mother-Father, and so much this change of the word in the Text doth imply, Out of whose womb Came the Ice?²

These words are an elegant Metaphor taken from Child-bearing. What woman can the Ice call Mother? God is here compared to a Mother, for the same reason for which he was before compared to a Father. We are to note (saith Aquinas upon this place) that Cold is the cause of Ice, which is a feminine or womanish quality; but the cause of rain and dew is heat, which is a masculine or manly quality. And therefore the Lord speaking of the generation of rain and dew, useth the word Father; and about the generation of Ice and Frost he useth a word most proper to the Mother; Out of whose womb came the Ice? The word rendred womb signifies the whole belly, yea the whole body. Thus (