Besides 'the Father' is not the term used in that age in distinction from the gods that are no gods; but [Greek: Ho epi panton theos].
Ib.p.

222.
'The Word was with God'; that is, it was not yet in the world, or not yet made flesh; but with God.--'John' i.1.So that to be 'with God', signifies nothing but not to be in the world.
_'The Word was with God.'_ Grotius does say, that this was opposed to the Word's being made flesh, and appearing in the world: but he was far enough from thinking that these words have only a negative sense: * * * for he tells us what the positive sense is, that with God is [Greek: para to patri], with the Father, * * and explains it by what Wisdom says, 'Prov'.

vii.
30.

'Then I was by him, &c.' which he does not think a 'prosopopoeia', but spoken of a subsisting person.
But even this is scarcely tenable even as Greek.

Had this been St.
John's meaning, surely he would have said, [Greek: en theo], not [Greek: pros ton theon], in the nearest proximity that is not confusion.