Page:Sermons on the Lord's Prayer.djvu/36

 often before said, by name, is signified quality; by God's name, therefore, is meant his Divine quality. But, as remarked in the beginning, the quality or nature of God, as he is in himself and in his infinite Divinity, is totally above man's comprehension, because man's mind is finite, and the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. It is only in what is derived from him, in a modified form, as it were, that his quality or nature becomes appreciable to our minds. Now, as before shown, goodness and truth are derived from him; and these two great principles filling heaven, and coming down into the minds of men on earth, give to men and angels an idea of God and of his Divine quality or nature: they are as it were his representatives dwelling in the minds of his creatures. Thus, then, goodness and truth constitute the name of God, as manifesting his quality. In the second place, it was shown that the Word is derived from God, and is the essential Divine Proceeding from him, containing in itself all the principles of goodness and truth, and is thus truly God's representative on earth, and as it were, his dwelling-place amongst mankind. And thus, the Word, as manifesting his Divine quality, is also the name of God. But now, there is a third form, in which God has manifested himself to men, more fully, more distinctly, more perfectly, than in either of the others—namely, in the personal form of Jesus Christ. By assuming a Humanity upon earth, God not only spoke to men, as through his Word,—not only gave himself to be mentally perceived, as by his truth in the understandinsg and his love in the