perfections. Things are known by their names, and God is known by his attributes, therefore his name includes his attributes. The proclamation ran in this august style, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." Moses was struck with reverence and admiration, and bowed and worshiped. My present design is to explain the several names and perfections here ascribed to God, and show that they all concur to constitute his goodness. For you must observe this is the connection. Moses prays for a view of God's glory. God promises him a view of his goodness, which intimates that his goodness is his glory; and when he describes his goodness, what is the description? It is "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, abundant in goodness and truth, keeping* mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin." That these attributes belong to his goodness we easily and naturally conceive; but what shall we think of his punitive justice, that awful and tremendous attribute, the object of terror and aversion to sinners? Is that a part of his goodness too? Yes, when God causes his goodness to pass before Moses, he proclaims as one part of it, that "he will by no means clear the guilty; and that he visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation." This awful attribute is an important part of his goodness, and without it he could not be good, amiable, or glorious. I am now about to enter upon a subject the most sublime, august, and important, that can come within the compass of human or angelic minds, the name and perfections of the infinite and ever-glorious God. I attempt it with trembling and reverence, and I foresee I shall finish it with shame and confusion: for "who by searching can find out God? who can find out the Ålmighty unto perfection?" Job xi. 7. The question of Agur mortifies the pride of human knowledge; "What is his name, or what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?" • The Hebrews observe, that the first letter of the word translated keeping, is much larger than usual; which shows that a particular em phasis is to be laid upon it; as if he should say, "I most strictly and richly keep mercy for thousands; the treasure is immense, and can never be exhausted. Prov. xxx. 4. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it." Psalm cxxxix. 6. "It is as high as heaven, what can I know? deeper than hell, what can I do? the measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." Job xi. 8, 9. Lend me your skill, ye angels, who have seen his face without intermission from the first moment of your happy existence; or ye saints above, that "see him as he is, and know even as you are known," inspire me with your exalted ideas, and teach me your celestial language, while I attempt to bring heaven down to earth, and reveal its glories to the eyes of mortals. In vain I ask; their knowledge is incommunicable to the inhabitants of flesh, and none but immortals can learn the language of immortality. But why do I ask of them? O thou father of angels and of men, who "canst perfect thy praise even out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," and who canst open all the avenues of knowledge, and pour thy glory upon created minds, do thou shine into my heart; to me give the light of the knowledge of thy glory: I beseech thee, show me thy glory: cause it to shine upon my understanding, while I try to display it to thy people, that they may behold, adore, and love. As to you, my brethren, I solicit your most solemn and reverential attention, while I would lead you into the knowledge of the Lord your maker. One would think a kind of filial curiosity would inspire you with eager desires to be acquainted with your divine Parent and original. You would not be willing to worship you know not what, or with the Athenians, adore an unknown God. Do you not long to know the greatest and best of beings, the glimmerings of whose glory shine upon you from heaven and earth? Would you not know him in whose presence you hope to dwell and be happy for ever and for ever? Come then, be all awe and attention, while I proclaim to you his name and perfections, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." We may be sure God has assumed to himself such names as are best adapted to describe his nature, as far as mortal language can reach. And every thing belonging to him is so dear and important, that his very name deserves a particular consideration. This is not to make empty criticisms upon an arbitrary unmeaning sound, but to derive useful knowledge from a word of the greatest emphasis and significancy. The first name in the order of the text, and in its own dignity, is, the Lord, or Jehovah; a name here twice repeated, to show its importance, the Lord, the Lord, or Jehovah, Jehovah. This is a name peculiar to God, and incommunicable to the most exalted creature. The apostle tells us, There are gods many, and lords many. 1 Cor. viii. 5. Magistrates in particular are so called, because their authority is some shadow of the divine authority. But the name Jehovah, which is rendered Lord in my text, and in all those places in the Bible, where it is written in capitals, I say, this name Jehovah is appropriated to the Supreme Being, and never applied to any other. He claims it to himself, as his peculiar glory. Thus in Psalm lxxxiii. ver. 18. "Thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth." And in Isaiah lxii. ver. 8. I am the Lord, or (as it is in the original) Jehovah; that is my name, my proper incommunicable name, and my glory will I not give to another; that is, I will not allow another to share with me iu the glory of wearing this name. Thus also in Amos vi. ver. 13. 66 Lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, that declareth to man what is in his thoughts, &c., the Lord, the God of Hosts, is his name," his distinguishing, appropriated name. There must therefore be something peculiarly sacred and significant in this name, since it is thus incommunicably appropriated to the only one God. The Jews had such a prodigious veneration for this name as amounted to a superstitious excess. They call it "that name," by way of distinction, "The great name, the glorious name, the appropriated name, the unutterable name, the expounded name," because they never pronounced it, except in one instance, which I shall mention presently, but always expounded it by some other thus when the name Jehovah occurred in the Old Testament, they always read it Adonai or Elo They also distinguish it by the name of the four letters that compos ed it, jodh, he, vau, he; and hence the Greeks called it the four-lettered Name. See Buxtorf. him, the usual and less sacred names, which we translate Lord God. It was never pronounced by the Jews in reading, prayer, or the most solemn act of worship, much less in common conversation, except once a year, on the great day of atonement, and then only by the high priest in the sanctuary, in pronouncing the benediction: but at all other times, places, and occasions, and to all other persons, the pronunciation was deemed unlawful. The benediction was that which you read in Numbers vi. verse 24, 25, 26, where the name Jehovah is thrice repeated in the Hebrew, "Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee: Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious to thee: Jehovah lift up the light of his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." When this venerable name was pronounced upon this occasion, we are told by the Jewish rabbies, "that all the vast congregation then present bowed the knee, and fell down in the humblest prostration, crying out, Blessed be his glorious name for ever and ever." They supposed this name had a miraculous virtue in it, and that by it Moses and others wrought such wonders: nay, so great was their superstition, that they thought it a kind of charm or magical word, and that he that had it about him, and knew its true pronunciation and virtue, could perform the most surprising things, and even shake heaven and earth.* I do not mention these things with approbation, but only to show that there is something peculiarly significant, important, and sacred in this name, from whence the Jews took occasion for such extravagant notions: and this will appear from its etymology. You know it is not my usual method to carry a great quantity of learned disquisition with me into the pulpit, or to spend your time in trifling, pedantic criticisms upon words, which may indeed have a show of literature, and amuse those who admire what they do not understand, but can answer no valuable end in a popular audience. However, at present I must take the liberty of showing you the This name seems not to have been unknown among other nations. Hence probably is derived the name Jovis, Jove, the Latin name for the Supreme God. And it is probably in allusion to this that Varro says, "Deum Judæorum esse Jovem." The Moors also call God Jubah, and the Mahometans Hou; which in their language signifies the same with Jehovah, namely, He who is. See Univ. Hist. Vol. III. p. 357, note T. deserves a particular cons wah, that I may thoyou may know the so often to you in readyou, wherever you meet etters, it is always Jehovah erived from the Hebrew verb, meaning of the word Jehovah or, He that is.-Thus it seems ver. 14. I am that I am, or, "I Cor. viii. 5. Magistat is, I exist, and have being in out dependence upon any cause; and ing is always the same, unchangeable John well explains this name by the and who is to come; or, as the passage "The present Being, the past Being, Being;" or, The Being that is, the Being the Being that will be; that is, the perAnd in Isadenal, and unchangeable Being. I shall only er, that Jehovah is not a relative, but an abthere is no pronoun or relative word that ed with it; we can say, My Lord, our Lord, e. but the Hebrews never say or write, My our Jehovah, &c.; so that this name represents is in himself, without any relation to his creahe would have been if they had never existed. still have been the Being, the absolute, inde existent, in which view he has nothing to do s creatures, and can sustain no relation to them. this name, thus explained, we learn the followrious, incommunicable perfections of God; that elf-existent and independent; that his being is ne ; that he is eternal; and that he is unchangeable. While I am about to enter upon these subjects, I seem stand upon the brink of an unbounded, fathomless and tremble to launch into it; but, under the conof scripture and humble reason, let us make the ad; for it is a happiness to be lost and swallowed independent. I do not mean by this that he proThe name Jehovah implies that God is self-existent himself, for that would be a direct contradiction, and suppose him to exist, and not to exist at the same De |