Difcourse I.

On the Being and Perfections of GOD.

ACTS xvii. 23.

For as I paffed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this infcription-To THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

HE knowledge of the true God lies at the foundation of all true religion. Therefore the great Apostle to the gentiles, as he was paffing through the city of Athens, (which was the feat of the mufes, the centre of the then learned world, and the glory of the Grecian empire) was greatly moved in his fpirit, when he saw that, notwithstanding all their boasted knowledge, and refined learning, they were deftitute of the first principles of true religion, as the altar which bore that ftupid infcription too plainly fhewed.

The occafion of this altar being erected, with this infcription, is uncertain. Hiftorians differ in their accounts. Some fay it was erected in honour of the true God, by the order of Socrates, who had some knowledge of him, and held that his nature was incomprehenfible, and his perfon invifible, and that, therefore, the only infcription proper for this altar was, To the unknown GOD; i. e. to the invifible and unfearchable Gon. Others fay, that the Athenians were fo wholly given to idolatry, that they were determin

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ed to have as many altars as there were gods; and, left there fhould be fome one god of whom they had not heard, nor honoured with an altar, they erected this, and wrote upon it, To the unknown god; which would equally ferve for any god whom they had not known: fo that now they were certain that they had honoured all the gods, known and unknown, with both an altar and fa crifices. Others fay, that at a certain time a very destructive peftilence prevailed in the city, and the people with great folemnity built altars, and facrificed to all the gods. they knew, or their ancestors had worshipped, and prayed with great fervency that the plague might be stayed; but to no purpose: and they applied to their wife men and philofophers, to know of them what they fhould do next, and were directed to build an altar, and dedicate it to a god whom they knew not; for they said that the god who had fent and who continued the peftilence, and who alone could remove it, was furely a god whom they did not know, and whom they had not honoured with an altar and facrifices; for they had erected altars to all they did know, and facrificed to them, but the plague was not removed. And it is farther faid, that, when they had erected this altar in the main street of the city, and had offered feveral fheep upon it, that the plague was ftayed; and then all the people of Athens were ordered to facrifice upon this altar; as they concluded that there must be a god of whom they did not know fo much as his name, or the particular province over which he prefided, who had fent, and now had removed, the peftilence, having accepted their worship and facrifice: and therefore the only proper inscription for an altar dedicated to an unknown god must be that which was found in Athens-To the unknown god.

With this account agree the clofing words of our text; for the apoftle fays, Him whom ye ignorantly worship declare

declare I unto you; i. e. I take this opportunity to teach you who that God is, who rules in providence, fends and removes the peftilence, whom you ignorantly worship, and to whom you have too fuperftitiously dedicated this altar. And though I do not imagine that I am at Athens, or that I am addreffing heathen idolaters, in enlightened America, yet it is of the greatest importance that we be well established in the fundamentals of our holy religion, especially that the minds of the rifing generation fhould be well informed, and duly impreffed with right apprehenfions, of the true and living GOD. I fhall in the enfuing discourse endeavour fo to inform and imprefs the mind with a practical fenfe of the being and perfections of the only living and true God, as may influence to a conduct which shall be well-pleafing to him through Jesus Christ. In order to which, I fhall briefly confider

I. His diftinguishing and incommunicable names.
II. His perfections, both natural and moral.

III. Shew what influence fuch a ferious confideration of his names and perfections should have upon our temper and conduct, as the fervants and fubjects of the only living and true God.

And while we humbly contemplate this great and bleffed Being, may a holy dread fall upon us, and his excellency make us religiously afraid; being fenfible that on fe fublime a fubject we cannot order our thoughts or expreffions aright, by reason of darkness, and are in danger of "darkening counfel by words without knowledge."

I. The distinguishing and incommunicable names under which the Supreme Being has been pleafed to make. himself known in the facred writings, are chiefly these three-GOD, I AM, JEHOVAH.

The

1. The firft, GOD, is ufed in the plural number, almoft throughout the Old Teftament, in the original Hebrew. There are a few exceptions, as in Job xii. 4, Pfalm xviii. 32. In the first chapter of the Bible his name is, in Hebrew, ELOHIM; and, being plural, we are to understand it as a name which comprehends the Trinity, as we are taught in the New Teftament, and expreffive of Deity. This name is derived from two words, which fig mify to bear witnefs, and to worship; therefore that he is the object of religious worship, by which we are to bear witness of him, "that he is, and that he is a rewarder of all them who diligently feek him." And with reference to the fignification of this name our Saviour repulfed the temptation of Satan, by faying, "It is written, Thou fhalt worship the Lord thy GOD, and him only fhalt thou ferve." It is alfo with reference to the fignification of this name that magiftrates are called gods (Elohim) because they who rule well are worthy, and, being reprefentatives of the Supreme Ruler, it is their business and office to conduct the subject, and to bear witness to the truth: fo that, whenever we ufe the word God, we fhould fix the idea to it of a Divine Being, who is the proper object of religious worship, who teftifies to the intelligent world his mind and will, ftrictly obferves their conduct, and impartially determines according to invariable truth; whofe perfect knowledge is in the room of ten thousand witneffes, and who has a plurality of perfons in one incomprehenfible effence.

2. Another incommunicable name, by which God has made himself known, is that under which he chofe to dif tinguish and reveal himself to Moses in the burning bush ; and that was, I AM THAT I AM. When Mofes afked what he fhould fay to the children of Ifrael, he should tell them that the GoD of their fathers had fent him to them: if they should ask him what was his name, he was answered, out of the burning bush, I AM THAT I am ;

i. e. this is the name of the God of your fathers, who hath fent me unto you: which fingular and adorable name fignifies, a prefent, independent, felf-fufficient and immutable being.

When God had appeared to any of the fathers of Ifrael in any eminent or extraordinary manner, or on any fpecial occafion, as this was, he ufually affumed a name, a name expreffive of the defign of his appearance; and the name which he had appeared under to Abraham, Ifaac and Jacob, was God Almighty; by which he encouraged their faith, and diftinguished himself from the impotent idols of the heathen; and therefore Mofes thought it probable, that when he should tell the children of Ifrael that the God of their fathers had appeared unto him, that they would want to know whether he did still appear under that name, as their ftrong and almighty helper. With this view he humbly inquires of GoD after his distinguishing name, that he might be able to anfwer the people; and GoD faid, I AM THAT I AM: a name that implied all that which was contained in the name under which he had before appeared, and fomething more; that he was not only the Almighty, but a felf-exiftent, independent, immutable and ever-present God: a name expreffive of his nature, and the design of his appearing, and highly proper at this time, when he was about to bring them out of the house of bondage, and from under the hand of tyranny and cruel oppreffion," with a high hand, and an out-ftretched arm," and by a feries of miracles to rescue them from flavery, and to carry them through a barren, howling wildernefs, to a land of liberty, peace and plenty, which had for feveral hundred years been promifed to them. And this name is very near in fignification to that other adorable name I have to mention in the next place; and that is, JEHOVAH.