88 LORD, oR JEHOVAH, &c. Of the infinite, felf-extent EJfence, implied by this Name, it is impoflible for us to form a full and ade- quate Idea; becaufe we, and all other Creatures, have but afinite, derivative Effence. Our fublimeft Notions of fuch uncircumfcribed Exiftence fall infinitely more thort of the Truth, than the fmalleft Animalcule, or Atom floating in the Air, of the waft Dimenfions of univerfal Nature. We cotild not even have conceived any thing of the Peculiarities, which this Name teaches us, of the AL- MIGHTY; if He had not been pleafed to reveal himfelf under it, and to declare thofe diftingatifhing Peculiari- ties to us. From the Want of this Revelation, the wifeft Heathens did but grope, or (as the Apoftle ex- preffes it) feel after him * in the Dark ; tacitly-acknow- ledging, by their great Variety of different Conjeftures, what Simonides profefl'ed openly.; That the more they confidered and reflected upon the Being and Nature of GOD, the more infcrutable HE appeared to them, and the more bewildered were their Refearches after Him.-j- JEHOVAH, EHJAH, and JAH, are Names expreffive of the incommunicable ESSENCE; not Names of OFFICE:. And, had it not pleafed Him, from the infinite-Source of his own free Grace and Love, to have affirmed fome other Denominations, fignificant of his own Kindnefs to us and of what we need from Him; this aweful Title JEHOVAH couldonly have thundered ten thoufand Ter- rors, A&s xvii. 27. * Cic. de nat. Dear. 1. 1. § 6o. The Jews have had many fuperititious Opinions, relative to this Name; which, becaufe they were forbidden to mention in vain, they would not mention at all. They fubitituted 1ldsnai, &c. in its room, whenever it occurred to them in Reading or Speaking; or elfe, limply and emphatically ltyled it coat the Name. Some of them attributed to a certain Repetition of this Name the Virtue of a Charm, and have had the Boldnefs to alfert, that our bleffed Sa- viour wrought all his Miracles (for they do not deny them to be loch) by that myftical Ufe of this venerable Word. The ancient Jews, before ad. ft, underftood the Diltinttion of the Perfons in the Godhead, and the Dottrine of the Trinity. Their Cabbal:ffr infifted that the Dottrine was to be found in the very Con- ltruttton
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