See, then,
1. The importance of ascertaining your real cha- racter—
[If you will inquire who the wicked are, to whom this fearful doom will be assigned, you wiU scarcely find one : all hope that they are in a better state. But God will not judge us by the standard which we have fixed for ourselves, but by that which he has established for us in his Law and in his Gospel. To what purpose, then, will you deceive yourselves now, when yovi will so soon be undeceived, and reap the bitter fruits of your folly ? O ! turn to the Lord without delay ; and never rest till you have received in your souls the favour- able tokens of his acceptance.]
2. The blessedness of having God for your friend —
[If he be your enemy, the whole world cannot protect you from his avenging arm. But if he be your friend, who, or what, can harm you ? As for man, he cannot touch a hair of your head without God's permission : and if he be suffered to assault you for a time, you shall have an ample recompence in the eternal world. Realize the idea, that God is governing the world, and will judge it in the last day; and then you need not fear what all the confederate hosts of earth and hell can do against you.]
^ 2 Pet. iii. 7. ' Deut. xxxii. 35, 41, 42.
Ps. ix. 10. They that knoiv thy name will jiut their trust in thee : for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
IN reading the Holy Scriptures, we should not be satisfied with inquiring into their sense and meaning, but should mark very particularly the character of God, as set forth in them. In the sacred volume, the portrait of Jehovah, if I may so express myself, is drawn, as it were, at full length : so that, as far as such weak creatures as we are able to comprehend his Divine Majesty, we may form correct notions respecting him. Few persons ever enjoyed better opportunities for discovering his real character than David, who was favoured with such ample manifes- tations of God's power and grace. On what occasion he wrote this psalm, we know not. It is clear that he wrote it subsequent to his bringing up of the ark to Mount Zion, and before he had vanquished all the surrounding nations. But, from all that he had seen and known of God, he gives this testimony respect- ing him : " They that know thy name will put their trust in thee : for thou. Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee."
For the elucidating of these words, I will endea- vour to shew, I. What the knowledge of God's name imports —
It imports, not merely a knowledge of the different names by which he is called, but a knowledge of him,
\. In his own essential perfections —
[He was pleased to reveal himself to Moses in express terms, declarative of all his glorious perfections : " The Lord descended in the cloud, and stood w^ith him there, and pro- claimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and trans- gression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty''."
a Exod. xxxiv. 5 — 7.