(2.) The cause or reason is positively expressed why God will not forsake them: it is " for his great name's sake." His great name is all that ho consults withal about his continuance with his people. Tliis he calls himself, Isa. xliii. 25, " I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake ;" that is, " For no other cause in the world that may be found in thee or upon thee." The "name "of God is all that wlicreby to us he is known ; all his attributes, his whole will, — all his glory. When God is said to do any thing for his name, it is either the cause and end of what he doth, or the principle from whence with the motive wherefore he doth it, that is by him intended. In the first sense, to do a thing for his name's sake is to do it for the manifes- tation of 1 lis glory, that he may be known to be God in the excellency of those perfections whereby he reveals himself to his, with most fre- quently a special regard to his faithfulness and grace. It is in these properties to make himself known, and to be exalted in the hearts of bis. So all his dispensations in Jesus Christ are for " the praise of the
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glory of his grace," Eph. i. 6, — that he may be exalted, lifted up, made known, believed, and received as a God pardoning iniquity in the Son of his love. And in this sense may the Lord be said to abide with his people " for his name's sake," for the exalting of his glory, that he may be known to be a God faithful in covenant and un- changeable in his love, who will not " cast off for ever" those whom he hath once received into favour. It will not enter into the hearts of believers sometimes why the Lord should so deal with them as he doth, and not cast them off. Their souls may go to rest as to this thing. He himself is glorious herein; he is exalted, and doth it on that account. If by his " name " you understand the principle from whence he worketh, and his motive thereunto, as it compre- hends the whole long-suffering, gracious, tender, unchangeable nature of God, according as he hath revealed himself in Jesus Christ, in whom his name is, Exod. xxiii. 21, and which he hath committed to him to be manifested, John xvii. 6; so evidently two things in God are engaged, when he promisetli to work for his name's sake, or ac- conling to his great name : —
[1.] Hispower or suficiency. Upon the engagement of the name of God on his people's behalf, Moses carefully pleads this latter or part thereof. Num. xiv. 17-19. God hath given his name unto his people; and this is wrapped up in that mercy, that he will lay out his power to pardon, heal, and do them good, in his preserving of them and abiding with them: " Let the power of my Lord be great, accord- ing as thou hast spoken, saying. The Lord is long-suffering," etc. And as, when he works for his name, the way whereby he will do it is according to the greatness of his power, so the fountain and rise from whence he will do it is, —
[2.] His goodness, kindness, love, patience, mercy, grace, faitli- fidness, in Jesus Christ. And thus, under the title of his "name," doth he call poor, afflicted, dark, hopeless, helpless creatures (upon any other account in the world), persons ready to be swallowed up in disconsolation and sorrow, to rest upon him: Isa. 1. 10, "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his ser- vant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God."^ When all other holds are gone, when flesh fails and heart fails, then doth God call poor souls to rest upon this name of his. So the psalmist, Ps. Ixxiii. 26, " My flesh and my heart faileth," all strength, natural and spiritual, faileth and is gone: " but God is the strength of my heart," saith he, " and my portion for ever." Now, this is the sole motive also of God's continuance with his: he will do it because he himself is good, gracious, merciful, loving, tender; and he will lay out these properties to the utmost in their behalf, that it may be well with ' John xvii. 6, 26 ; Ps. xxii. 22, Ixiii. 4, Ixix. 30.
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them, lifting up, exalting, and making himself gracious in so doing. This the Lord emphatically expresseth five times in one verse: Isa. xlvi. 4, "Even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you : I have made, and I will bear ; even I will carry, and will deliver you."
This, then, I say, is the reason and only ground, this the principal aim and end, upon the account whereof the Lord will " not forsake his people."
S. The rise of all this goodness, kindness, faithfulness of God to his people, as to the exercise of it, is also expressed, and that is his own good pleasure: " Because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people." This is the spring and fountain of all the goodness mentioned. God is essentially in himself of a good, gracious, and loving nature; but he acts all these properties, as to the works that outwardly are of him, "after the counsel of his own will," Eph. i. 11, according to the purpose which he purposeth in himself, and his purposes, all of them, have no other rise or cause but his own good pleasure. Why did the Lord make us his people, towards whom he might act according to the gracious properties of his nature, yea, and lay them forth and exercise them to the utmost on our behalf? Was it because we were better than others? did his will? walked with him? Did he declare Ave should be his people upon condition we did so and so? Not on any of these or the like grounds of proceeding doth he do this, but merely because " it pleaseth him to make us his people;" Matt. xi. 26. And shall we think that he who took us to be his people notwithstanding our universal aliena- tion from him, on the account of his own good pleasure, Avhich caused him to make us his people (that is, obedient, believing, separated from the world), will upon any account, being himself unchangeable, not preserve us in, but reject us from, that condition?