rged as the sand of
the sea, but O it is not large enough for the Creator of it! "What is his
name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?" Prov. xxx. 4. The
Lord himself expresses it to our capacity, because we are not capable of
what he can express, much less of what he is. If he should speak to us of
himself as he is, O, it should be "dark sayings," hid from the
understandings of all living! We could reach no more of it, but that it is
a wonder, a secret. Here is the highest attainment of our knowledge, to
know there is some mystery in it, but not what that mystery is. Christ
hath a name above all names, how then can we know that name? It was well
said by some of old, _Deus est_ {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} and yet {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~} _multorum
nominum, et tamen nullius nominis_, he hath all names, and yet he hath no
name. _quia est omnia, et tamen nihil omnium_, because he is all in all,
and yet none of all, _Deus est quod vides, et quod non vides_. You may
call him by all the works of his hands, for these are beams of his
uncreated light, and streams of his inexhaustible sea of goodness, so that
whatever perfection is in them, all that is eminently, yea, infinitely in
him. Therefore saith Christ, "There is one good, even God and he calls
himself 'the light of life,' " and therefore you have so many names of God
in Scripture. There is no quality, no property, or virtue, that hath the
least shadow of goodness, but he is that essentially, really, eternally,
and principally, so that the creature deserves not such names but as they
participate of his fulness. He is the true light, the true life, the sun
is not that true light though it give light to the moon and to men, for it
borrows its light and shining from him. All creatures are and shine but by
reflection, therefore these names do agree to them but by a metaphor so to
speak, the propriety and truth of them is in him. As it is but a borrowed
kind of speech to call a picture or image a man--only because of the
r