Places of Scripture that lead us to suppose, that God created the world for his name, to make his perfections known; and that he made if for his praise.
1. Here I shall first take notice of some passages of Scripture that speak of God’s name as being the object of his regard, and the regard of his virtuous and holy intelligent creatures, much in the same manner as has been observed of God’s glory.
God’s name is, in like manner, spoken of as the end of his acts of goodness towards the good part of the moral world, and of his works of mercy and salvation towards his people. As 1 Sam. xii. 22. “The Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake.” Psal. xxiii. 3. “He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake.” Psal. xxxi. 3. ”For thy name’s sake, lead me, and guide me.” Psal. cix. 21. “But do thou for me,—for thy name’s sake.” The forgiveness of sin in particular is often spoken of as being for God’s name’s sake. 1 John ii. 12. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.” Psal. xxv. 11. ”For thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” Psal. lxxix. 9. “Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.” Jer. xiv. 7. “O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake.”
These things seem to show, that the salvation of Christ is for God’s name’s sake. Leading and guiding in the way of safety and happiness, restoring the soul, the forgiveness of sin; and that help, deliverance, and salvation, that is consequent therein, is for God’s name. And here it is observable, that those two great temporal salvations of God’s people, the redemption from Egypt, and that from Babylon, often represented as figures and similitudes of the redemption of Christ, are frequently spoken of as being wrought for God’s name’s sake.
Thus that great work of God, in delivering his people from Egypt, and conducting them to Canaan. 2 Sam. vii. 23. “And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name.” Psal. cvi. 8. “Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake.” Isa. lxiii. 12. “That led them by the right hand of Moses, with his glorious arm, dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name.” In the 20th chap. of Ezekiel God, rehearsing the various parts of this wonderful work, adds, from time to time,Ezek. xx. 9“I wrought for my name’s sake, that it should not be polluted before the heathen,” as ver 9, 14, 22. (See also Josh. vii. 8, 9. Dan. ix. 15.)
So is the redemption from the Babylonish captivity. Isa. xlviii. 9, 10. “For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger. For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be polluted?” In Ezek. xxxvi. 21, 22, 23. the reason is given for God’s mercy in restoring Israel. xxxvi. 21, 22. “But I had pity for my holy name. Thus saith the Lord, I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake;—And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen.” And chap. xxxix. 25. “Therefore, thus saith the Lord God, now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name.” Daniel prays, that God would forgive his people, and show them mercy for his own sake. Dan. ix. 19.
When God, from time to time, speaks of showing mercy, and exercising goodness, and promoting his people’s happiness for his name’s sake, we cannot understand it as of a merely subordinate end. How absurd would it be to say that he promotes their happiness for his name’s sake, in subordination to their good; and that his name may be exalted only for their sakes, as a means of promoting their happiness! especially when such expressions as these are used, “For mine own sake, even for mine own sake will I do it; for how should my name be polluted?” and “Not for your sakes do I this, but for my holy name’s sake.”
Again, it is represented as though God’s people had their existence, at least as God’s people, for God’s name’s sake. God’s redeeming or purchasing them, that they might be his people, for his name, implies this. As in that passage mentioned before, 2 Sam. vii. 23. “Thy people Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name.” So God making them a people for his name, is implied in Jer. xiii. 11. “For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, &c.—that they may be unto me for a people, and for a name.” Acts xv. 14. “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name.”