THE NAMES OF GOD UNDER THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT DISPENSATIONS.

"WHEN God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and commanded him to save and deliver his people Israel from the land of Egypt and from the house of bondage; Moses, among his other doubts and hesitations, proposed this question to the Lord: Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you: and they shall say unto me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.' This was the name by which God chose to be known-I AM; the self-existent being; the Jehovah, the incommunicable name which cannot without horrid blasphemy be applied to any other besides himself. Thereby God made known his unchangeable existence, and constituted himself an object of faith and of request: for he that cometh to God must believe that HE IS.' And he taught men by that name, that the Godhead was not an imagination of the fancy, nor a speculation of the intellect, nor a work of the hands of man; but an outward existence, though invisible; a living and acting being, whose highest designation was not how he is, or where he is, or why he is; but, that HE IS; he is as he is, and as he pleasetli to be.

"In thus taking a name which denoted existence independent of all time, of all place, and of all cause, he made known the foundation of all religion; which, while it is founded on the reasoning of the mind concerning the divine attributes, is no religion, but only a speculation, an idolatry of that faculty of the mind which employeth itself in the speculation. As the heathen fashioneth an idol of wood or stone, and then falleth down and worshippeth the work of his own hand; so the intellectual man fashioneth an idea of God, and falleth down and worshippeth the work of his own mind: and the heart of man, in like manner, fashioneth a God (as the Unitarians have done) all benevolence, all mercy, and all sweetness; and straightway falleth down and worshippeth that work.

"To which different forms of idolatry—the sensual, the intellectual, and the idolatry of the affections-the Lord bringeth an end, by revealing to Moses as the name he would be known by, I AM THAT I AM;' not 'That which you understand or desire me to be;' but That I am, and which I will teach you, if ye will but hear my voice, and believe the word of my testimony.' He is a God revealed to faith; from faith to faith,' as saith St. Paul: not found out by searching, or constituted and created by metaphysical operations of the human mind. Such was the first name of God.

"To this name of Self-existent, (believed existence, not speculative existence,) God added other names taken from his acts; also revealed to faith: names embodying facts in his government of the world; not abstract ideas of power and goodness: names, I say, embodying facts; all such ideas as are contained in the definition of God in our Catechism; not such ideas as are exhibited at large in 'Clark's Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God; that is, a God of infinities, a God of ideas; which I hold to be no God at all; nothing more or less than a deification of the human mind.

136 THE NAMES OF GOD UNDER THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT DISPENSATIONS.

"The names which God takes are of this kind. "The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob :" bringing to mind, the history of his dealings with the patriarchs. 'The God which led thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage: bringing to the memory of faith, the mighty acts done by his servant Moses. The Lord of Hosts: bring to the memory of faith, the battles he had won for his people by Joshua, and Jephtha, and Samson, and David, and all the princes. The God of Zion: bringing to mind the worship which was performed to him in Zion. The God that dwelleth between the Cherubim :' bringing to the memory of faith, the most sacred worship of the holy of holies, the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the oracles of Urim and Thummim, and whatever else was extraordinary in his government.

"All these names have reference to his actions, and do contain brief records thereof. They are helps to faith, not incitements to speculation; resting on facts which had an outward existence, and on ideas which have their origin in the mind. And this is the great difference between the God of the Christian, who is the God of Revelation, and the God of Reason; that the one is the I AM that hath done thus and thus, and hath promised to do thus and thus; the other is the being whom my mind creates thus and thus, who is thus because I am thus the God of Revelation, a God of faith; the god of Reason, the god of the sceptic: the one, the father of the human spirit; the other, the child of the human spirit: the one, governing the spirit; the other, governed by the spirit: the worship of the one being true worship of Him who is from everlasting to everlasting; the worship of the other being self worship.

"These names by which God was commonly known under the old dispensation, partake generally of the narrow and limited character of that dispensation; because his chief revelations and actions were among a part, and for a part, of the human race. But when the prophets arose, who were the preachers of truth to the Gentiles, they sometimes used a larger and more general style in speaking of God: and among them Isaiah is conspicuous, who hath this remarkable anticipation of brighter times: Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.' But it was left till grace and truth came by Jesus Christ; it was left to that revelation to naturalize the name of God upon the earth- Our Father.' It doth occur at times in the Old Testament, as He is the father of the fatherless;' but even on these particular occasions most rarely. We know not where we remember him (save in Isaiah) set forth, free from all restriction and limitation of every kind, as the father of all families, the common father of the children of men. And the reason is most obvious: because the fulness of time was not yet come for making known the revelation of Him who was to bring the children into peace with the father, and to bring all the prodigals back to their father's house. But when the time was come which was set to favour Zion,' then the Son came forth from the bosom of the Father, and published the glad tidings of peace, and made known the revelation of God the Father; that henceforward all who would come to him by Christ, might call him Father, and expect all the privileges of the sons of God. He came to gather all nations into one, and to redeem them from false idols, to worship God, even the Father: and he appointed his apostles to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."-REV. E. IRVING.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.

REV. J. H. EVANS, A.M.

JOHN STREET CHAPEL, KING'S ROAD, JULY 26, 1835.

"All shall know me, from the least to the greatest."-HEBREWS, viii. 11.

THE Apostle in this chapter is laying before us the infinite superiority of the Gospel dispensation over the legal covenant: and, as in many other particulars, so in this especially-that whereas there was in that covenant a perpetual remembrance of sins, the same continued repetition of sacrifices which never could put away sin, there is in the Gospel covenant this special glory, that by one offering our Lord hath "for ever perfected them that are sanctified." The true Israel of God have to plead before him, not merely the perfection of the Lord's sacrifice, not merely the perfection of the work of the Mediator, but such a complete and entire acceptance in his person and his work, that from the beginning of the year to the end of it, it is their highest mercy to draw near to a God who blots out their iniquities, and remembers their transgressions no more for ever. And while they sue out continually in their own persons the fresh application of that pardon to their hearts, and while there is not a moment of their existence when they may not well look up and say, "Forgive us our sins;" this by no means weakens in the slightest degree the fundamental truth, that the Lord God, in the person of his Son, is for ever pacified, and has completely cancelled their debt, so that it cannot be brought against them either in time or in eternity.

In the words which immediately precede the text the Apostle discourses upon another superiority: They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest." In which, as I conceive, he points out these two truths: that there is in the Gospel covenant a far clearer unfolding of the character of God, than ever there was or could be in the legal dispensation; and that it is not now as then, by the instrumentality of men, simply speaking, but that it is by the immediate agency of the Eternal Spirit bringing down his blessings through men, making use of men, but himself the infallible Teacher of his Church and people. "They shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord." That covenant we know failed in bringing effectually the truth to the heart of those before whom they were brought: it is the glory of our covenant that it never can fail; it is sure and steadfast in all things: "for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest."

The two great blessings of this covenant are justification and sanctification.

These were unfolded under the old dispensation by the brazen laver and the brazen altar: they were also declared by the water and the blood which came from the side of our Lord. It is also unfolded, as I conceive, by those two standing ordinances in the Church, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. It has its foundation in the very nature of God himself: for as long as man in himself is a guilty, depraved creature, he can never reach the mansions of the blessed as one unpardoned; and if pardoned, he can never enter into the joys of the blessed but as one made partaker of God's Eternal Spirit, and thus “made meet" to inherit the blessings of God's family.

I have chosen the words I have read for my text for this reason: the Holy Spirit seems to sum up all in the words, a true knowledge of God. After the Lord had said, "I will put my laws into their minds, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people;" he sums it up all in these words-" All shall know me, from the least to the greatest:" bringing before us this solemn conclusion-that it is not so much a putting the law of God into our hearts, as putting the LOVE of God into our souls; it is not so much acquaintance with God's law as acquaintance with God himself.

In directing your minds to this subject I would first of all endeavour to unfold what we may understand by the true knowledge of God; secondly, consider the declaration that all the true Israel shall know God," from the least to the greatest;" and thirdly, the inestimable blessings which result to them in consequence of it.

In the first place, WHAT IS INTENDED IN THE TEXT BY THE KNOWLEDGE of God. "All shall know me."

It cannot be a mere knowledge of the existence of God: for the devils believe that God is; they tremble as they believe it; and they hate the God before whom they tremble. It cannot be a mere partial acquaintance with the character of God; because we cannot for a moment doubt that the Jews were partially acquainted with God's character, and yet our Lord said to them, "Ye neither know me nor my Father:" "If ye had known me ye would have known my Father also; but now ye neither know me nor my Father." Neither can it be a dry, uninfluential, notional knowledge of God, however accurate in its outline that knowledge may be. I think we cannot find a more solemn truth than that contained in 2 Peter, ii. 20, 21: "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." This cannot be the knowledge that is here spoken of: to know God includes far more than this. It implies a real, personal, experimental, sanctifying acquaintance with God.

It especially regards him as a reconciled God in Christ. What do we understand by " a reconciled God in Christ?" Is it that his love is turned towards them whom he loved not before? By no means: we hold no such views; we altogether deny their accuracy. But when we speak of the reconciliation of God to man, we mean this great truth: the reconciliation of

all his perfections in the way of his mercy; unfolding this as the basis for our soul's confidence that he is righteously and holily merciful, pardoning sin at the expense of no other perfection, but in the full and perfect harmony of all his perfections.

Now it is this God who stands especially revealed in the Gospel of his Son -a God for ever pacified in the article of his justice; a God who considers his law to be for ever magnified and made honourable; a God who pardons, and pardons freely, who pardons fully, who pardons absolutely, who pardons eternally, who pardons unchangeably: and it is the knowledge of this God which is brought before us in the Gospel of his dear Son.

But more than this: the knowledge of God implies a knowledge of him as our God in covenant; a God who has pledged his very perfections to bring his people safe to glory; who will not have them to judge him by their feelings, nor by their providences, nor by dark and mysterious transactions; but who has pledged all that is within himself, all that is in God, all that is divine in his own character, to be the basis of their confidence, and the support of their souls; "that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have consolation." And in what does the consolation consist

but in our resting upon a faithful covenant God, who can by no means deny himself or deceive our souls?

I always think this part of my subject, whenever I touch upon it, as of unutterable importance: I have no language to express the conviction of my judgment as to its exceedingly momentous nature: because we are all so prone to measure God by our own feelings towards him; we are all so prone to measure God by his providences, by our own enjoyments-by any thing rather than his promises. But let me remind you that, after all, the true basis is, faith to build upon God's veracity; so that when the storm may come, and the tempest howl around you, you may rely on his promise, and bless God for it. In the midst of the darkest dispensations, in the midst of trying providences, in the midst of strong fears, in the midst of strong trials from within and from without, remember God's promise is faith's basis; acknowledging, "Thou hast said it, and thou wilt do it; for thou art a covenant God, and canst not deny thyself."

Is there no other knowledge of God? Where can I lead you? Whichever way we look at it, it is as a precious stone-turn it as you will it is resplendent. Who can unfold the knowledge of God which springs from the consideration of him as a pitying Father? Who can unfold that knowledge of him that is found amidst the gourds and the worms, and takes up its rest in the pityings of a pitying Father? Who can unfold the knowledge of what it is to turn away from the unkindness of an unkind world, and from the insufficient kindnesses of God's people, to take up our repose in the kindnesses of a pitying Father? Who can unfold what there is in that one verse-" Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." "He knoweth our frame," though our brother doth not, though our friends forget it, though the dearest objects of our hearts' affections may for a time pass it by: "He knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust."

To know God implies a knowledge of him as a God all-sufficient. My brethren, how long you and I have been learning this lesson, and how little we know of it after all! This was the truth that was placed before Abraham, and