Who is God? or Define God.
GOD is that infinitely great, intelligent, and free Being; of perfect goodness, wisdom, and power; transcendently glorious in holiness; who made the universe, and continues to support it, as well as to govern and direct it, by his providence and laws. The name is derived from the Icelandic Godi, which signifies the supreme Magistrate, and it thus perfectly characteristic of JEHOVAH as the moral Governor of the universe. It also corresponds to the Jewish and Christian sense of the Greek words Theos and Kurios, in the New Testament, the names usually applied to the ETERNAL. For an account of the various attributes which enter into our conception of the divine character, as revealed in the Scriptures, the reader is referred to those articles. (Also, see Attributes.)
2. By his personality, intelligence, and freedom, God is distinguished from Fate, Nature, Destiny, Necessity, Chance Anima Mundi, and from all the other fictitious beings acknowledged by the Stoics, Pantheists, Spinosists, and other sorts of Atheists. (See Atheism)
3. The knowledge of God, his nature, attributes, word and works, above all, his moral character, with the relationships between him and his creatures, makes the subject of the extensive science called theology, that master science, of which all the other sciences are but subordinate and illustrative parts. If there have been men of science, who have failed to trace the relation of all science to the knowledge of God, it has been owing to a bias of mind, altogether foreign to sound philosophy.
4. "The plain argument, (says Maclaurin, in his Account of Sir I. Newton's Philosophical Discoveries,) for the existence of the Deity, obvious to all, and carrying irresistible conviction with it, is from the evident contrivance and fitness of things for one another, which we meet with throughout all parts of the universe. There is no need of nice or subtle reasonings in this matter; a manifest contrivance immediately suggests a contriver. It strikes us like a sensation; and artful reasonings against it may puzzle us, but it is without shaking our belief." (See Existence of God.)
5. Not only the works of creation, but the course of divine operation in the government of the world, has from age to age been a manifestation of the divine character; continually receiving new and stronger illustrations, until the completion of the Christian revelation by the ministry of Christ, and his inspired followers; and still placing itself in brighter light, and more impressive aspects, as the scheme of human redemption runs on to its consummation. From all the acts of God as recorded in the the Scriptures, we are taught that he alone is God; that he is present everywhere to sustain and govern all things; that his wisdom, is infinite, his counsel settled, his truth sure, and his power irresistible; that his character, as will as his law, is immutably holy, just, and good; above all, that he is rich in mercy; that he has freely provided, whether as Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, the means of our salvation; that he is alive and at once the Father and Lord, the Redeemer and Judge, the Sanctifier and Friend of man.
6. Under these deeply awful, but consolatory views, do the Scriptures present to us the supreme object of our worship, love,and trust; and they dwell upon each of the above particulars with inimitable sublimity and beauty of language, and with an inexhaustible variety of illustration. Nor can we compare these views of the divine nature with the conceptions of the most enlightened of pagan, without feeling ow much reason we have for everlasting gratitude, that a revelation so explicit, so comprehensive, and so joyful, should have been made to us, in our guilty and perplexed condition. It is thus the at Christian philosophers, even when they do not use the language of the Scriptures, are able to speak of this great and mysterious Being, in language so clear, and with conceptions so noble; in a manner, too so equable, so different from the sages of antiquity, who, if any time they approach the truth, never fail to mingle with it some essentially erroneous or grovelling conception.
7. ''THE IDEA OF THE SUPREME BEING," says Robert Hall, "has this peculiar property: that as it admits of no substitute, so, from the first moments it is formed,it is capable of continual growth and enlargement. God himself is immutable; but our conception of his character is continually receiving fresh accessions, is continually growing more extended and refulgent, by having transferred to it new elements of beauty and goodness; by attracting to itself as a centre, whatever bears the impress of dignity, order, or happiness. It borrows splendor from all that is fair, subordinates to itself all that is great, and SITS ENTHRONED ON THE RICHES OF THE UNIVERSE.
8. "As the object of worship will always be in a degree the object of imitation, hence arises a fixed standard of moral excellence; be the contemplation of which, the tendencies to corruption are counteracted, the contagion of bad example is checked, and human nature rises above its natural level."
Who then, as he contemplates this glorious Being in te transcendent beauty of his revealed character, can forbear to pray, "THY NAME BE HALLOWED; THEY KINGDOM COME; THY WILL BE DONE; AS IN HEAVEN, SO IN EARTH!'' (See Existence of God.)-- Hend. Buck; Works of Robert Hall, vil.i.p.30; Watson
