"The LORD is are baptiz'd into this Name, and in this Name of our God we are to walk: living a Life of Dependence upon Him, Devotednefs to Him, and Communion with Him. We must be inquiring after and feeking the LORD in all his Ways, Ordinances and Providences. That must continually be the Question with us, WHERE is the LORD? His gracious Prefence muft be our principal Aim and Defire, as that in which lies all our Safety, Profperity, Glory and Happiness. Blessed is the Man, O LORD, whom Thou chufest and caufeft to approach unto Thee. "The LORD is my Shepherd; I fhall not want: Yea, tho' I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no Evil; for Thou art with me. a Sun and Shield, He will give Grace and Glory, and no good Thing will He withold from them that walk uprightly. To whom should we go but to HIM? Nor need we enquire after any other god: for He is able to do for us exceeding abundantly above all that we afk or think. If JEHOVAH be his Name, what may we not expect from his favourable Prefence! Thus He faith, Fear not, I am with thee. "Behold, I am the LORD: Is there any Thing too hard for Me? Verily, the Lovingkindness of the LORD is better than Life: and his Wrath worse than Death. Who knoweth the Extent of his Goodness, or the Power of his Anger!Let all the Inhabitants of the Earth venerate this great and terrible Name JEHOVAH, and tremble at his Prefence; for our God is a confuming Fire, and who can ftand before Him whence once He is angry! Cleanse your Hands and Hearts, ye Sinners: Humble your felves in the Sight of the LORD: Stand in Awe, and fin not: Draw nigh to Him, and He will draw nigh to You: Lift up your Souls to Him, and not to lying Vanities: Seek the LORD, and his Strength : Seek his Face evermore. And let the Heart of them that feek the LORD, be joyful. Ye Saints, glory in 66 his his holy Name: Extol Him that rideth upon the Heavens by his Name JAH, and rejoyce before Him. But ferve the LORD with Fear, and rejoyce with Trembling: for with Him is dreadful Majefty, and He is terrible out of his holy Places. A Pharaoh may infult and fay, Who is the LORD, that I fhou'd obey Him? But let Ifrael humbly fubmit and fay, Whatsoever the LORD commandeth, that will we do, and will be obedient. If Laban confults his Teraphim, and bows down to graven Images; yet let Jacob feek JEHOVAH, and put away all ftrange gods, pay his Vows to the LORD, and ferve him only. Let the Prophets, which eat at Jezebel's Table, follow Baal, and call on the Name of their Idol: But let Elijah follow the LORD, follow Him fully, and call on the Name of JEHOVAH. Let the Children of this World trust in the Abundance of their Wealth, and make Gold their Confidence: But let the Children of Light truft in the living God, make the LORD their Hope, and ftay themselves upon JEHOVAH, with whom is everlasting Strength, and in whofe Favour is Life. Acquaint now thy felf with Him, and be at Peace: thereby Good fhall come unto thee. Under afflictive Loffes, make it your Inquiry, Where is the LORD? Let none be heard faying, "They have taken away my gods, and what have I more! "Many there be that fay, Who will fhew us any Good? Their Inquiries are, "What fhall we eat? and what fhall we drink? and wherewith fhall we be cloathed? Where is there a good Bargain to be got? Where is Mirth to be had? Which way fhall we come to Honour? Thus they are full of the Cares and Cries of Nature and Paffion. But none of them faith, WHERE is God my Maker? That's the Cry of Grace, "My Soul thirsteth for God, the living God: when shall I come and apr pear before God"?"O that I knew where I might find Him! "Whom have I in Heaven but Thee? and and there is none upon Earth that I defire befides Thee. Lo, they that are far from Thee fhall perish: But it is Such fhould be good for me to draw near to God. the ardent Breathings of Faith, Love, and Defire in our Souls toward JEHOVAH. We should be daily seeking and afking for Him; having our Eyes ever to the LORD, deprecating his Departure from us, and defiring his Prefence with us. We fhou'd make it our Concern that our Fellowship may be with the Father, Son, and holy Ghost, whose Name is JEHOVAH. We fhou'd delight in approaching to Him: and Him we fhou'd acknowledge in all our Ways. In the Day of Prosperity we fhou'd blefs the Lord as the Author of all our Mercies: and in the Day of Adverfity we fhou'd confider his Hand, and inquire wherefore He contendeth with us. Under all the Troubles of Life and Apprehenfions of Death, we fhou'd be inquiring early after the LORD our God. When Religion is dying, we fhou'd cry, Where is the LORD? and pray, Help LORD, when the godly Man ceafeth. Under our moft forrowful Bereavements we shou'd remember, The LORD liveth; and whoever dies and leaves us, ftill JEHOVAH is nigh to them that feek Him, and is the fame Yesterday, to Day, and for ever. Tho' even an Elijah forfakes us; yet in this we may be confident, if the LORD his God and our God be with us, we shall have our Lofs abundantly compenfated. On fuch an Occafion then let Survivors be inquiring after the LORD God of Elijah. Which brings me to obferve, in the next place, II. Elifba inquires for Jehovah, as the GOD of Eli- jab. He? It mayn't be amifs to premise here, that the Majefty of Heaven is in our Text and many other Scriptures ftiled JEHOVAH ELOHIM: upon which judicious Criticks have observ'd, that the singular Name Jehovah represents represents the Deity to us as One, while that of Elobim, being plural, reprefents Him as More; and Jehovah being join'd with Elohim, this perhaps is defign'd to engage our Attention to what both fuggeft at one and the fame time, The Unity of Effence and the Plurality of Perfons in the Godhead. We are not to take Fehovah Elohim in our Text as intending the Father only; however it may mean Him primarily, yet is not to be understood exclufively of the Son and the boly Ghoft. Nor is Jehovah Elohim to be understood Jehovah ONE of the Elohim, but we fitly read it the LORD GOD, the facred THREE which are ONE. Elifba cries out, Where is the LORD GOD of Elijah ? Let it be more particularly remark’d: 1. He afferts, that Jehovah is GOD, the GOD. Elifba might now have in his Thoughts what had happen'd in a late notable Controverfy between Elijah and his Adverfaries, upon that grand Question, WHO is God? Elijah reprov'd all the People, faying, "How long halt ye between two Opinions? If JEHOVAH be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And finally he put the Difpute upon this Iffue, "Call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the Name of JEHOVAH; And He fhall be the God that anfwereth by Fires He [Hu, the fame, Himfelf] the GOD! And when all the People faw the Fire of the LORD fall upon Elijah's Sacrifice, they humbled themselves before the Prophet, and own'd their full Conviction, crying out, in that vehement and repeated Exclamation, JEHOVAH Himself the ELOHIM! The LORD, He is the GOD! It feems an Adoration fomething In the Original the Word is HU; which, fome think, is one of the Names of God: But moft Expofitors judge it only a common Pronoun, and read it He, Himfelf, or the fame. Dominus ipfe Deus. 1 Kin. 18. 39. 1 thing like that of the Apoftle Thomas, when in a Tranfport of Love and Joy, he broke out in that Ad drefs to the rifen Jefus, My LORD and GOD!. my As to the Import of Elohim or GoD, I take it hot to be a mere relative Word, or a Term of Office only, fignifying a kind Providence and Dominion, as fome wou'd carry it, and properly applicable to created Rulers and Benefactors: But I look upon it to be rather of an abfolute Signification (like the Word Jebo vab) and according to the Ufe of it in Scripture pro perly and strictly it denotes the fupreme Being, under the Character of the Almighty, including the Idea of infinite Perfection, neceffary Exiftence, and Indepen dency. The original and genuine Meaning of the Word, I conclude, may be beft learnt from the Ufe of it in fuch Texts as thofe, Ezek. 28. 2. Say to the Prince of Tyrus, Thou art a MAN, and not GOD. So Num. 23. 19. GOD is not a MAN, that He fhould tie; neither the Son of Man, that He fhould repent. And Hof. 11. 9. I will not execute the Fierceness of mine Anger; for I am GOD, and not MAN. There's an obfervable and beautiful Antithefis in thefe feveral Pla ces, which must be loft, and the Texts unintelligible, if the word GOD be properly a mere Term of Office or Relation, and not of Effence or Nature, as well as the word MAN. Evident it is, that the Divine and Human NATURES are here put in Contradiftinction, one to the other: and while the words [Man and Son of Man] fignify a Being created, a Nature frail, imper fect, and very mutable, the other and oppofite word [God] is ufed to denote a Being uncaufed and eternal, à Nature abfolutely and immutably perfect, infinitely good and glorious and bleffed in it felf, and for ever independent; which, upon a little Reflection, will be found Ideas effentially connected with, and infeparable from the Character of Almighty. ELOHIM then, in the true, original, and complex Notion of the Word, is C.. D a |