itself tells us that " his greatness is unsearchable0;" nor can we sum up our knowledge of him better than in those expres- sive words of Moses, " From everlasting to everlasting thou art Godd."]
2. His holiness —
[The " name" is that whereby any person is known, and, as applied to God, comprehends every thing whereby he is known to men. The perfections of his nature, the works of his hands, the dispensations of his providence, and the decla- rations of his grace, all are holye. And as he is holy in him- self, so he cannot endure any thing which is defiled by sin ; " he is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity f." Indeed holi- ness is the very perfection that stamps a worth and excellence on all the other attributes of the Deity : without holiness his wisdom would be craft, his power tyranny, his mercy a weak, indiscriminate, or partial favour. Glorious as he is in every perfection, he is declared more especially to be so in holiness &; and the angels in heaven make it the more immediate subject of their incessant praises11. God himself is pleased to distin- guish this perfection in a peculiar manner by making it the pledge of his fidelity in a most solemn oath1 ; nor does he less surpass all created beings in holiness than he does in greatness and majesty : " There is none holy as the Lord," says the Scripturek; and again, " Thou only art holy1."]
But, notwithstanding he is so great, that "the heaven of heavens cannot contain him," and so holv, that "the very heavens are not pure in his sight," yet will he " humble himself to behold the things in heaven," and to " dwell with men on the earth." This will appear by considering,
II. The objects of his love —
After the description which he has given of himself we shall not wonder that the great objects of his regard are,
1. The holy—
[Heaven is a region of holiness, in which not even the angels, after they had transgressed, were suffered to dwell. All that remain there are holy as God is holy. The saints too
c Ps. cxlv. 3. d Ps. xc. 2.
e Ps. clxv. 17. His hiding of his face occasionally, even from his dearest people, is no exception to this. See Ps. xxii. 1 — 3. f Hab. i. 13. s Exod. xv. 11. h Isai. vi. 3. Pev. iv. 8.
k 1 Sam. ii. 2. • Rev. xv. 4.