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.
~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.