1. Elohim is the first name of God we meet with in Scripture, and is translated God. Gen. i. 1. and is most frequently used throughout the whole Old Testament; sometimes, indeed, improperly of creatures, angels, and men, and of false deities, Psal. viii. 5. and lxxxii. 1, 6. Jer. x. 11. but properly only of God.

The word Elohim may be derived from a word in the Arabic language, which signifies to worship, as is thought by many learned men*; and so is a fit name for God, who is the sole object of religious worship and adoration. It is a word of the plural number, and though it has a singular, which it sometimes used, yet it is most frequently in this form; and being joined with a verb singular, as in Gen. i. I. it is thought to denote a plurality of persons in the unity of the divine essence.

II. Another name of God is El; and which may be observed in the word Beth-el, which signifies, The House of God, Gen. xii. 7, 8. Both the singular and plural, El Elim, the God of gods, are used in Dan. xi. 36. and the word is left untranslated in Mat. xxvii. 46. Eli, Eli; my God, my God. It is expressive of the power of God.

III. The next name of God we meet with is Elion, the most high, Gen. xiv. 18-22. So Christ is called The son of the Highest, and the Spirit, the power of the Highest, Luke i. 32, 35. and which name God has either from his habitation, the highest heavens, Isai. lvii. 15. or from his superiority, power, and dominion over all creatures, or from the sublimity of his nature and essence, which is out of the reach of finite minds, and is incomprehensible, Job xi. 7, 8. It is expressive of the supremacy of God.

IV. Another name of God is, Shaddai: under this name God appeared to Abraham, Gen. xvii. 1. and to which reference is had, Exod. vi. 3. we translate it Almighty in both places, and in all others. Some choose to render it sufficient,

• Stockii Clavis S. Ling. p. 61. Hottingeri Smegma Oriental. 1 1. c. 8. p. 123. Schultens in Job i. 1. Noldius, No. 1093. Alting Dissert. 4. de plural. Elohim, p. 177. Schindler. Lexic. Pentaglott. col 78.

or all sufficient* God. Others render it Nourishert; deriving it from a word which signifies a breast; Hillerust, derives it from a word which signifies to pour out, or shed; and it well agrees with God, who pours forth, or sheds his blessings, in great plenty, on his creatures; and which flow from him as from a fountain: though others give a very different etymology of it; deriving it from a word which signifies to destroy; to whichthere seems to be a beautiful allusion in Isai. xiii. 6. "Destruction from Shaddai, the destroyer." And some render the word, the Darter, or Thunderer: whose darts are his thunderbolts, Job vi. 4. This name seems to be expressive of the all sufficiency of God, and of the supply of his creatures from it.

v. Another of the names of God is, the Lord, or God of hosts; it is first mentioned in 1 Sam. i. 3. 11. but frequently afterwards; and is left untranslated in James v. 4. where the Lord is called, the Lord of Sabaoth, not Sabbath, as it is sometimes wrongly understood; and as if it was the same with Lord of Sabath, Matt. xii. 8. for though the words are somewhat alike in sound, they are very different in sense; for Sabbath signifies rest, and Sabaoth host or armies. The Lord is the God of armies on earth; he is the Lord of the hosts of the starry heavens; the sun, moon, and stars, called the host of heaven, Gen. ii. 1. and also of the airy heavens; and the locusts that fly there are his army, Joel ii. 7, 11. and the meteors, thunder and lightening, snow and hail: the angels also are the militia of heaven, and are called the heavenly host, Luke ii. 13. This name is expressive of God's dominion over all his creatures, and the several armies of them.

VI. Another name of God is Adonai, or Adon, Gen. xv. 2. and is commonly rendered Lord. Hence the Spanish word don for Lord. God is so called, because he is the Lord of the whole earth, Zech. iv. 14. Adon is used in the plural number of God, Mal. i. 6. and so Adonai is used of the Son, as

So Cocceius in Lex. col. 859. Jarchi in Gen. xvii. 1. Maimon. Morch Nevochim. par. 1. c. 63. †Paschii. Dissert. de Selahi, p. 2. s. 6.

Onomast.

well as of the father, Psal. cxi. 1. and of the holy Spirit, Isai. vi. 8, compared with Acts xxviii. 25. Hence Adonis, with the bea hens, the same with the sun, their chief deity, accord. ing to Macrobius, by whom Bacchus is called† Ebon, or rather Econ; who, he says, is also the same with the sun.

VII. The famous name of God is Jehovah; this is a name be takes to himself, and claims it, Exod, vi. 3. Isai. xlii. 8. and is peculiar to him; his name alone is Jehovah, and incommunicable to another, Psal. lxxxiii. 18. The Jews of a su perstitious abuse of it, assert it to be ineffable, and not to be pronounced, and even not to be read and written, and therefore substitute other names instead of it, as Adonai, and Elohm. The words of the evangelist John are a proper periphrasis of i.; which is, and which was, and which is to come, Rev i- 4: or, shall be, as in chap. xvi. 5.

VIII Jah is another name of God, which is mentioned in Pal xvii. 4. and cl. 6. Isai. xxvi. 4. though it may be only an abbreviation or contraction of the word Jehovah, and may sige by the same.

IX. Ejeh is a name of God given as a name of his to Moses, when he sent him to the children of Israel; and translated I AM that I AM, Exod. iii 13, 14. and may be rendered, I shall be what. I stol be, and what I have been. It seems to be of the same signification with Jehovah, and to be derived from the same word, our Lord has a manifest respect unto it, hen he says. Before Abraham was I am, John viii. 58.

1. The names of God in the New Testament are two, one rendered Lord and the other God.

From these names of God we learn that God is the eternal, momoracle, and almighty Being, the Being of beings, self-exen ad selsfcicat, and the object of religious worship

• Saturnal 1 1. e 21. Ibid. c. 18.

OF THE NATURE OF GOD.

THERE is a nature that belongs to every creature, which is difficult to understand; and so to God, the Creator, which is most difficult of all. Mention is made of the divine Nature, 2 Pet. i. 4. This is what is called Divinity, Deity, or Godhead; and which is to be seen and understood by the visi ble works of creation, and is what, "in all its perfection and fulness, dwells bodily in Christ." Acts xvii. 29. We are required to believe that he is, that he has a being of essence, and does exist, Heb. xi. 6. Essence is that by which a person or thing is what it is, that is its nature; and with re. spect to God, it is the same with his face, which cannot be seen, Exod. xxxiii. 20, 23. It is impossible for a finite mind in its most exalted state, to comprehend the infinite Nature and Being of God,

This nature is common to the three Persons in God, but not communicated from one to another; they each of them partake of it, and possess it as one undivided nature; they all enjoy it. I know it is represented by some, who, otherwise, are sound in the doctrine of the Trinity, that the divine nature is communicated from the Father to the Son and Spirit, and that he is fons Deitatis, the fountain of Deity; which I think are unsafe phrases. It is better to say, that they are self-ex. istent, and exist together in the same undivided essence; and jointly, equally, and as early one as the other, possess the

same nature.

The nature of God is, indeed, incomprehensible by us; somewhat of it may be apprehended, but it cannot be fully comprehended; Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty into perfection? Job xi. 7. No: but then this does not forbid us searching and enquiring after him. An heathen philosopher being asked this question,

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whom no man hath ssen, nor can see," 1 Tim. i. 17. No likeness can be formed of God: no similitude was ever seen of him, and to whom can be likened and compared? Deut iv. 12. Aristotle argues the invisibility of God, from the invisibility of the soul of man.

But besides these properties, there are other still more excellent in spirits, by which they approach nearer to God, and bear a greater resemblance to him; they are lively; angels are commonly thought to be the living creatures in Ezekiel's vision. God is the living God, has life in and of him. self, and gives life to all creatures that have it. Spirits are active. God is all act, actus simplicissimus, as he is sometimes stiled, the most simple act; he works and always works. Spirits, angels, and the souls of men, are intelligent beings; the understanding of God is infinite, there is no searching of it. Spirits have the power of willing, they are voluntary agents; and God wills whatever he does, and does whatever he wills: Spirits have the affections of love, mercy, pity, &c. God not only loves his creatures, but “is love itself," 1 John iv. 16.

111. God being a Spirit, we learn that he is a simple and uncompounded Being, and does not consist of parts, as a body does; his spirituality involves his simplicity. If God was composed of parts he would not be eternal, and absolutely the first Being, since the composing parts, would at least co-exist with him; and, beside, there must be a composer, who puts the parts together, and therefore must be before what is composed of them; all which is inconsistent with the eternity of God: nor would he be infinite and immense; for either these parts are finite, or infinite; if finite they can never compose an infinite Being; and if infinite, there must be more infinites than one, which implies a contradiction: nor would he be independent; for what is composed of parts, depends upon those parts, and the union of them, by which it is preserved: nor would he be immutable, unalterable, and immortal, since what consists of parts, and depends upon the union of them, is liable to alteration, and to be resolved into those parts again, and so be dissolved and come to destruction. In short, he would