and senses," but there must be an inward teaching and speaking to your
souls to make that effectual, "the anointing teacheth you of all things,"
1 John ii. 27. Alas! it is the separation of that from the word that makes
it so unprofitable. If the Spirit of God were inwardly writing what the
word is teaching then should your souls be "living epistles, that ye might
read God's name on them." O! be much in imploring of and depending on him
that teacheth to profit, who only can declare unto your souls what he is!

These names express his essence or being, and his properties, what he is
in himself, and what he is to us. In himself he is Jehovah, or a Self
Being, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~} as we heard in the 3d chapter, "I am that I am", and EL, a
strong God, or Almighty God, which two hold out unto us the absolute
incomprehensible perfection of God, eminently and infinitely enclosing
within himself all the perfections of the creature; the unchangeable and
immutable being of God, who was, and is, and is to come, without
succession, without variation, or shadow of turning, and then the almighty
power of God, by which without difficulty by the inclination and beck of
his will and pleasure, he can make or unmake all,--create or annihilate--to
whom nothing is impossible. Which three, if they were pondered by us till
our souls received the stamp of them, they would certainly be powerful to
abstract and draw our hearts from the vain changeable, and empty shadow of
the creature, and gather our scattered affections that are parted among
them, because of their insufficiency, that all might unite in one and join
with this self sufficient and eternal God. I say, if a soul did indeed
believe and consider how all-sufficient he is, how insufficient all things
else are, would it not cleave to him and draw near to him? Psal. lxxiii.
ult. It is the very torment and vexation of the soul to be thus racked,
distracted, and divided about many things, and therefore many, because
there is none of them can supply all our wants. Our wants are infinite,
our desires insatiable and the good that is in any thing is limited and
bounded, it can serve, one but for one use, and another for another use
and when all are together they can but supply some wants but they leave
much of the soul empty. But often these outward things cross one another,
and