THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER

The title Jehovah is the grand, the peculiar, and the incommunicable name of God. It neither is applied to any created being throughout the Scriptures, nor can be applied in reason; for it imports the necessary, independent, and eternal existence of the Most High.

Of the infinite, self-existent essence, implied by this name, it is impossible for us to form a full and adequate idea; because we, and all other creatures, have but a finite, derivative essence. Our sublimest notions of such uncircumscribed existence must fall infinitely more short of the truth, than the smallest animalcule, or atom floating in the air, of the vast dimensions of universal nature.

We could not even have conceived anything of the peculiarities, which this name teaches us, of the Almighty; if he had not been pleased to reveal himself under it, and to declare those distinguishing peculiarities to us. From the want of this revelation, the wisest heathens did not grope, or (as the apostle expresses it) feel after him in the dark; tacitly acknowledging, by their great variety of different conjectures, what Simonides professed openly, that the more they considered and reflected upon the being and nature of God, the more inscrutable he appeared to them, and the more bewildered were their researches after him. How thankful then ought we to be for the Holy Scriptures! How should we meditate on them day and night! These will never lead us astray. These will edify our understandings, and enliven our hopes, without the fallacies of human sophistry, or the dryness of carnal inventions. In a word, the more constant and teachable readers, by the aid of divine grace, we are of these, the more we shall become real, and solid, and experimental divines.

Jehovah, Ehjah, and Jah, are names expressive of the incommunicable essence; not names of ofice. And, had it not pleased him, form the infinite source of his own free grace and love, to have assumed some other denominations, significant of his own kindness to us and of what we need from him, this awful title, Jehovah, could only have thundered ten thousanl terrors, and filled the soul of fallen man with all the torments of a consuming fire. Abstractedly viewed as a Being of infinite holiness and power, who made the heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all things therein, we, as sinful creatures, could have had no complacency in his holiness, nor, as rebellious creatures, any delight in his justice. He also must abhor us from the contrariety of our nature to his own. But, in his office-character of Saviour and Redeemer, we become endeared to him and he to us; and all his work of creation and grace appears to be arrayed with the infinite splendors of eternal glory.

The word Jah stands simply for the divine essence, or for him who is, and who necessarily must be.

The name Ehjah occurs no where but in Exod. 3:14, and means not only him who necessarily is, but who necessarily will be. It regards the future eternal, and demonstrates the immutability of the divine existence.

The title Jehovah includes the past, the present, and the future Eternal; that is, according to our conceptions: for all things, and every division of that duration which we understand by time, are present with him though successive to us. Thus the inspired apostle (finding no word in Greek to represent the idea of the Hebrew) uses a periphrasis or comment on the word, and expresses the name Jehovah by, he that is, that was, and that is to come.

The word Jehovah (which contains the other two) imports in itself an independent essence; and it denotes to us, and to the whole creation, both the source of life and the continual maintainer of it. In him every species of existence lives, and is moved, and hath its being. Thus far, because it is necessary to faith, it is given us to understand; and thus far we can form a just though narrow idea of it: but we cannot, with precision, from the least idea of abstracted essence, much less can we comprehend spiritual essence; and least of all are we acquainted with infinite and spiritual essence abstracted. We know that in the reason of things and by divine revelation, such an essence has existence, and may be as justly convinced of it as of the existence of our own spirits: but to specify the mode, or the nature, of the one or the other, is absolutely beyond us. The best account which Plato, a man of the most enlarged and penetrating genius, could give of the godhead was, that the mind could neither comprehend, nor language express, him. We need not ascend to the nature of spirit for proofs of human incompetency to determine upon essences, for there is not a particle of matter, or the simplest property in nature, which does not exceed the comprehension of our faculties, and elude our utmost investigation. And if the wisdom of this world cannot define the essence of a grain of sand, how shall the wisdom of this world find out God, or study the Almighty to perfection?

“We may discern,” says M. Rollin, treating of the philosophical opinions concerning the Deity, “the weakness of human reason, and the vain efforts that it makes alone, to raise itself up to the exact knowledge of a God truly hidden, and who dwells in accessible light. What progress in this respect was proud reason capable of making, during above four ages, in the best heads of Greece, in the most illustrious of the Pagans for their learning, and the chiefs of their most famous schools? There is nothing so absurd that has not been advanced by some philosopher.” For the justice of this remark, we need only recur to Tully’s books upon the Nature of the Gods. These circumstances, so humiliating to the pride of man, should at least teach him modesty and diffidence in every speculation which relates to the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity; and constrain the Theists or Deists, Socinians, Unitarians, and all our rational inquirers (as they style themselves) to use some caution and moderation of sentiment and language when treating of this profound and important subject. The observation of St. Austin is true: “no point is to be mistaken with more danger, none to be studied with more diligence, none to be understood with more profit.” It is never more easy to err than in the dark. And if men reject the light of Jehovah (the revelation of his will), and choose rather to walk by the feeble glimmerings of their own reason, how is it possible for them, in the midst of that obscurity of which every man must complain, to be sure of traveling in the right way? If the matter transcend all human understanding, how can human understanding presume to guide? If the subject be altogether infinite and divine, what less than a mind, entirely divine and infinite, can describe any thing concerning itself, or communicate a just description to the creatures? And if men cannot do what is least, by specifying the principles of sensible objects, how can they perform what is greatest of all, in explaining those properties of which sense affords no demonstration? It is a position which neither human nor diabolical sophistry can refute, that God by his name Jehovah hath revealed that he independently and eternally exists; and, by other denominations, that he exists in a personality. And it is the summit of human wisdom to receive this testimony of God (to which it can bring nothing superior), concerning his own nature, both because it is impossible for him to lie, and of course to deceive us, and because on giving credence to his word depend all our comfort and happiness both here and hereafter. The infidel, on the other hand, attempts to rob us of this true knowledge of God, and the happiness resulting from it; but cannot supply its place with any well grounded opinion of the Deity, or with any just prospect of our everlasting interest in him. He would remove every solid foundation and leave us to build our hopes upon nothing but air.

Our translators have usually rendered the name Jehovah by the word Lord, which implies power and dominion: but as this is so very inferior to the complete idea of the original word, and as perhaps no one word in any language can convey that idea, it might have been better to have retained the original name wherever it occurs, and to have given a short elucidation of its import in a note where it is first mentioned in the book of Genesis. It is however distinguished by capital letters from the name Adonai, also translated Lord, which stands in the common character. The distinction may be observed in the first verse of the 110th Psalm, and in many other places.

This glorious name, incommunicable to any of the creatures, is applied to each and to all the persons in the sacred Trinity throughout the Scriptures. Hence we may learn, as well as by other declarations, that every person is by himself, both God and Lord, and consequently, able to fulfil, respectively, the engagements of the everlasting covenant made in our behalf. It is applied to the Father, as Creator, in Isaiah 60: . 16, and 63:7, 8, 9. To the Son, as Redeemer, in Isaiah 60:16, and 63:7, 8, 9. To the Spirit, as the divine agent, Isaiah 61:1, 2. 3. To the three persons together, or trinity in unity, Deut. 6:4. There are other almost numberless passages in the Scripture, in which the distinct operations of each person are set forth; but, at the same time, in undivided essence.

If this name, therefore, be applied to the Messiah in the sacred writings, it constitutes an irrefragable proof of his divinity from an infallible evidence. And that it is so applied, there are many instances which cannot be denied; two or three of which may probably suffice for our purpose.

Jeremiah prophesied that a rightenous branch should be raised to David; a king, in whose days Judah should be saved, and whose name should be called Jehovah our righteousness. Both Jews and Christians apply this to the Messiah; and, indeed, it cannot possibly be understood of any other. For Christ alone is our righteousness, as well as wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. The Messiah, therefore, is Jehovah.

An equally striking proof of the Messiah’s divinity may be found in the 43rd chapter of Isaiah; in which Jehovah is styled the Saviour, and is said to save and redeem in almost every line. I, even I, am Jehovah, and beside me there is no Saviour: and, therefore, Jesus Christ is Jehovah. See also Isaiah 47:4, 54:5–8.

In the book of the prophet Zechariah, we find Jehovah himself declaring, I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem (all the elect people of God,) the spirit of grace and supplication, and they shall look upon me (Jehovah) whom they have pierced. Jesus Christ, uniting the two natures of God and man, was the pierced one; for Jehovah, respecting his divine nature, can neither be tangible nor passive; consequently the great Redeemer, taking our humanity upon himself, is Jehovah.

It would take up too much room, under this head, to cite the passages in the Old Testament, in which this great name is peculiarly applicable to the Messiah, as one of the persons in the divine essence: in the New, were it so directly our design, we might find equal testimony of his right to that supreme and everlasting title. Christ, at sundry times and in divers manners, evinced himself to be the incarnate Son of God with power. He wrought such wonderful works, and gave such supernatural demonstrations of himself, as render all the verbal attestations of his divinity irresistibly convincing and evident, to his disciples, to heathens, to devils, and (if they would have been convinced) to the Jews. He answered the description, and fulfilled the purpose, of every prophecy which was given concerning the Redeemer that should come out of Zion; and all in such a manner, as surpasses every idea of a subordinate nature, a finite wisdom, or created strength. His own arm brought salvation to him; by his own almighty energy he raised himself from the grave; by his infinite merit he both made an end of sin, in the perfect expiation of its guilt, and brought in an everlasting righteousness, for the free and complete justification of his people. Could an angel be delegated to the performance of this important work? Behold he put no trust in his servants, and his angels he charged with folly. And could man contribute any thing to this mighty deed? Alas! He was dead in trespasses and sins, and had no spiritual sense to excite one holy act, or even one heavenly hope. It was, therefore, Jehovah-Jesus alone, who rescued his chosen from the pit of destruction, and not only gave them an indisputable right to, but ensured their unalienable possession of everlasting glory.

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