V.

The Meaning is: The Place where he SER M. shall appoint his Servants, the Profeffors of the true Religion, to appear before him with the External Tokens of their Homage and Worship. And in This fenfe, the Name of God is then Great in the World; when they who profefs his True Religion, and adhere to the Wor fhip of Him alone, and to That manner of Worship which He has appointed, do Honour to this their profeffion, by a suitable practice in the whole course of their lives; showing forth the Effect of their religion, in the Fruits of Righteousness and true Virtue; and letting their Light fo fhine before men, that Others feeing their good Works, may glorify their Father which is in Heaven. The Apostle St Paul, in his 2 Thef. i. 12. ufes exactly the fame manner of speaking; We pray always for you, fays he, that our God would fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of Faith with Power; That the Name of our Lord Jesus Chrift may be glorified in you: His Meaning is, that the Religion of our Lord Jefus Chrift may by your Practice be recommended

V.

SER M. commended to the World, and the excellency of it made manifeft before Men. Again, Rom. ii. 24. speaking of Such as, on the contrary, difcredited their Holy Profeffion by an unfuitable and unworthy behaviour; Thou (fays he) that makest thy Boaft of the Law, through breaking the Law dishonoureft thou God? For the Name of God is blafphemed among the Gentiles, through you. The Name of God, that is, the Religion and true Worship of God, is reviled and ill spoken of among Infidels, upon account of the ill lives of its unworthy Profeffors.

3dly, IN other places of Scripture, this phrafe, The Name of God, is made use of to express those adorable Perfections or Attributes, which are as it were the proper Denomination and Character of the divine Nature. Thus Exod. xxxiv. 5. The Lord defcended in the cloud, and food there with Mofes, and proclaimed the Name of the Lord: The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed; The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-fuffering and abundant in goodness and truth: Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and tranf

V.

tranfgreffion and Sin, and that will by no SER M. means clear the guilty: vifiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children, and upon the childrens children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. Here the Name of God, fignifies the Character or Defcription of God, contained in a fummary recapitulation of the Divine PerfeEtions in general. The Same, at other times, denotes more distinctly some special and particular Attribute, to which the occafion peculiarly refers. Thus Pf. xx. 2. The Name, (that is, the Power,) of the God of Jacob defend thee. And Pf. ix. 10. They that know thy Name, (that is, who have a juft Notion of thy Veracity and Goodness,) will put their Trust in Thee.

AND in These fenfes of the phrafe, the Name of God is then truly Great among Men, when, having juft and worthy Notions of the Divine Perfections, and living under the continual influence of these impreffions upon their Minds, they fhow in their whole Behaviour that they really and habitually fear his Power, admire his Wisdom, revere his Juftice, love his Good

ness,

V.

SER M. ness, and rely upon his Truth: In all their Words and Actions, acknowledging Him to be the only Potentate; Him, only Holy; Him, only Wife; and that, abfolutely and ftrictly speaking, there is None Good, but One, that is God.

4thly, THERE is ftill another sense of the phrase; in which the Name of Got fignifies in Scripture the Authority of God, or his divine Commiffion. Thus Exod. xxiii. 20. Behold, I fend an Angel before thee; Beware of him, and obey his Voice; provoke him not; For my Name (that is, my Authority,) is in him.

Again, Job. v. Saviour, in my

43. I am come, fays our
Father's Name, that is, with his Divine
Commiffion. In like manner the Apostles,
when they were examined before the
High Priest concerning their having heal-
ed a lame man, Acts iv. 7. By what Pow-
er, or by what Name have ye done This?
immediately they replied, By the Name
of Jefus Chrift of Nazareth, whom Ye
crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
even by Him (by His Name and Power,
by his Authority and Commiffion delivered

to

to Us) does This man ftand here before you Whole.

AND according to This laft fense of the phrase, the Name of God must be then understood to be Great among Men, when a juft Regard and cheerful Obedience is paid to whatever appears vested with His Authority: When the Laws of Nature are obeyed, as being established by his Supreme Authority in the Creation of things; And the Precepts of the Gospel likewife, as being by Revelation authorized from the Same Supreme Power.

AND Thus having at large explained the principal Acceptations, or the most remarkable of thofe feveral different Senfes, in which this phrafe, The Name of God, is ufed in Scripture; and what accordingly is meant in general by its being Great: It remains in the

II. 2d place, that I proceed to confider, what that glorious Event in particular is, which we find predicted in these fublime Prophetick Expreffions: From the rifing of the Sun, even unto the going down of the fame, my Name fhall be great among the Gentiles; And in every place, Incenfe

SERM.

V.