dent, therefore, that the offering of ourselves unto God is the ONLY reasonable service, and that ALONE wherewith God is pleased, or has been pleased at any time since the beginning of the world.

He, therefore, that shall serve God as a Spirit, in spirit and in truth; he that shall serve God as holy, with probity of manners; as omniscient, with reverence of thoughts; as bountiful, with willingness of heart; as merciful, with imitating that mercy we hope for; such a man as this shows what Christianity is, and that it is the only STANDARD of a reasonable (service: such a man as this offers a sacrifice worthy of himself; and (as it is graciously interpreted) worthy of God; and (as the Prophet Micah has rated it) more worthy than thousands of rams, and ten thousands of rivers of oil.

SERMON XXIX.

FROM BEVERIDGE*.

EXODUS iii. 14.

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM and he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

ALL the happiness of which mankind is capable, consists in the enjoyment of that supreme and allglorious Being, which we call God. But we can never enjoy him, unless we first serve him, nor serve him, unless we first know him. And this knowledge we never can attain, without consulting those divine oracles, in which this Almighty Being has been pleased to discover his perfections to us. From these, therefore, I shall endeavour to show what thoughts and conceptions we should frame in our minds concerning the most High God, and

* William Beveridge, Bishop of St. Asaph, was born 1638, and died 1707.

what influence they will have upon our lives and

actions.

But who is sufficient for these things? At least, who am I, that I should take upon me to speak of Him, by whom alone I speak? and, being myself but a finite and sinful creature, should strive to unveil the nature of the infinite and most holy God? Alas! I cannot so much as begin to think of him, but my thoughts are confounded, and my whole soul seems unhinged and overwhelmed within me. His mercy exalts me, his justice depresses me, his wisdom astonishes me, his power affrights me. How then shall I dare to discourse of him, and endeavour to manifest and declare his greatness and glory unto others? Had he not himself, in his most holy word, given me a command to do it, I should not presume to attempt it. But, since he has been pleased, both to blame his people for not

knowing him, and his ministers for not making him known to his people; and has enjoined us so to display and discover his divine perfections, that others may fear and love him; in obedience to his command, I shall stammer out as well as I am able, what we are to believe and conceive of him.

But where shall I begin to speak of Him, who had no beginning, and will have no end? And by what words can I express His glory, who infinitely surpasses all expressions? All expressions, did I say? Yes, and conceptions also. For his nature is so pure, his goodness so great, his knowledge so

transcendant, his power so boundless, his wisdom, justice, and mercy so mysterious, his glory so incomprehensible, and all his perfections so infinitely high, that our highest conceptions of him are still infinitely below him. And, therefore, when he would make himself known to us in his Holy Scriptures, he is pleased to condescend to our capacities, so as to adapt his expressions to the weakness of our apprehensions; not speaking of himself as he really is, (for then we should not be able to apprehend his meaning) but as a nurse to a child, who utters not her mind in complete sentences, but lisps in broken language, suitable to the shallow capacity of its tender years. So even God speaks to us in such language as we are best able to understand: sometimes making use of the names that we give to the several parts of our bodies, and passions of our minds, to signify those infinite perfections that are in him, or the effects of them upon us. Thus he uses the word eye to signify his omniscience; and the word hand to express his power. Thus also he uses the words rejoicing, grieving, loving, hating, repenting, and the like, to denote something in him, which we cannot so well apprehend, as by the dark resemblance which these our passions have of it.

As, then, it is by names that we usually know both persons and things, and distinguish one from another; hence God is pleased to give himself such names in holy writ, from whence we may

gather what he would have us think of his nature, so as to distinguish him from all other things. That which he himself in a more especial manner calls his name, is JEHOVAH which our English translation always renders THE LORD; and which is the most proper and essential name of God, signifying essence, or being itself.

Hence, therefore, it having pleased the most high God to reveal himself to us under this name or title, he thereby suggests to us, that he is the Being of all beings, who gives being to, and therefore exercises authority over all things.

Thus much I thought right to premise concerning this great and most glorious name of God; because it will prepare us for better understanding the words of the text, in which he is pleased to manifest himself under the same notion that is intimated to us by that name. For we find, that Moses being ordered by God to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt, he said unto him, 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 to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? Then it follows, And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM. And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

He does not say, I am the great, the living, the true, the everlasting God; he does not say, I am the almighty creator, preserver, and governor of