These however are images all borrowed from sensible objects, and,
magnificent as they may be, they fail of throwing upon the mind a full
image of Him who hath "no likeness in the heavens above, nor in the
earth beneath." And, besides, these glowing pictures present to the mind
none of his moral attributes. For a description of these, we must look
either to the events of his providence, or a more particular disclosure
in the bible. And it may well astonish us, that, after the lapse of more
than three thousand years, we may look in vain for a fuller or more
perfect description of the Divine Being, in words, than is given by
MOSES in that memorable moment upon Mount Sinai--
"Whose grey tops did tremble, when God ordained their laws."
A description that is like the sun rising upon the chaos that surrounded
him in the Egyptian mythology, which at that time was so gross that no
object in nature was too mean for a deity. But "in the midst of this
darkness that might be felt," God was pleased to reveal himself in the
following language, at once sufficiently grave and impressive to afford
irrefragable proof of its high origin.
רחום אל יהוה יהוה ויקרא על־פניו יהוה ויעבור
חסד נצר ואמת׃ ורב־חסד אפים ארך וחנון
ינקה לא ונקה וחטאה ופשע עון נשא לאלפים
על־שלשים בנים ועל־בני על־בנים אבות עון פקד
ועל־רבעים׃
~Vay'avor Adonai 'al panav vaykra Adonai Adonai El ra[h.]um
ve[h.]anun erekh apayim verav [h.]esed veemeth. Notzer
[h.]esed laalafim nose 'avon vafesha ve [h.]atah venakeh lo
yinakeh poked 'avon avoth 'al banim ve'al bnei vanim 'al
shileshim ve'al ribe'im.~
"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 transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear _the guilty_; visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's
children, unto the third and to the fourth generation."
Or, as these striking appellatives of the Divine Being might be
translated, without offering any violation to the Hebrew,--the JEHOVAH,
the STRONG and MIGHTY GOD, the _merciful_ ONE, the GRACIOUS ONE, the
long-suffering ONE, the GREAT and MIGHTY ONE, the BOUNTIFUL BEING, the
TRUE ONE, or TRUTH, the Preserver of BOUNTIFULNESS, the REDEEMER, or
Pardoner, the Righteous JUDGE, and He who VISITS INIQUITY.
This is a remarkable description indeed to come from one educated in
the midst of Egyptian mythology; and the awful names by which the
Supreme Being is designated, can only be accounted for, under such
circumstances, on the supposition that Moses received them directly from
the Almighty himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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