[f. FATHERLY a. + -NESS.] The quality of being fatherly; fatherly character, function, or feeling.
1551. Cheke, Matt., Let. iv. (1843), 116. His deapnes of knowlege, his earnestnes in religion, his fatherlines in life, his authoritee in knowlege.
1662. J. Chandler, Van Helmont’s Oriat., 147. Although a fleshly Father doth give of his own, whence the name of Paternity or fatherliness is given unto him: yet because he is not the giver of vitall lights, or the Creator of Forms, the name of vital Fatherliness is forbidden to be given to the Creature.
1727–36. in Bailey.
1820. L. Hunt, The Indicator, No. 16 (1822), I. 124. Ah, young gentleman, said he (for so he called me in the fatherliness of his age) ‘now would I lay my life, that you are one of those studious persons who read so much about the fields, that they have not time to walk in them.’
1856. Lit. Churchman, II. 90/1. He has viewed his subject too exclusively from one point of view,—that of the fatherliness of God, as distinguished from His justice.
