strength, whereby he can bring to pass whatsoever he please; whatsoever
his infinite wisdom can direct, and whatsoever the infinite purity
of his will can resolve. Power, in the primary notion of it, doth not
signify an act, but an ability to bring a thing into act; it is power,
as able to act before it doth actually produce a thing: as God had an
ability to create before he did create, he had power before he acted
that power without. Power notes the principle of the action, and,
therefore, is greater than the act itself. Power exercised and diffused,
in bringing forth and nursing in its particular objects without, is
inconceivably less than that strength which is infinite in himself, the
same with his essence, and is indeed himself: by his power exercised
he doth whatsoever he actually wills; but by the power in his nature,
he is able to do whatsoever he is able to will. The will of creatures
may be, and is more extensive than their power; and their power more
contracted and shortened than their will: but, as the prophet saith,
“His counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure” (Isa. xlvi.
10). His power is as great as his will, that is, whatsoever can fall
within the verge of his will, falls within the compass of his power.
Though he will never actually will this or that, yet supposing he
should will it, he is able to perform it: so that you must, in your
notion of Divine power, enlarge it further than to think God can only
do what he hath resolved to do; but that he hath as infinite a capacity
of power to act, as he hath an infinite capacity of will to resolve.
Besides, this power is of that {b14} nature, that he can do whatsoever
he pleases without difficulty, without resistance; it cannot be checked,
restrained, frustrated.[822] As he can do all things possible in regard
of the object, he can do all things easily in regard of the manner of
acting: what in human artificers is knowledge, labor, industry, that in
God is his will; his will works without labor; his works stand forth as
he wills them. Hands and arms are ascribed to him for our conceptions,
because our power of acting is distinct from our will; but God’s power
of acting is not really distinct from his will; it is sufficient to
the existence of a thing that God wills it to exist; he can act what he
will only by his will, without any instruments. He needs no matter to
work upon, because he can make something from nothing; all matter owes
itself to his creative power: he needs no time to work in, for he can
make time when he pleases to begin to work: he needs no copy to work by;
himself is his own pattern and copy in his works. All created agents
want matter to work upon, instruments to work with, copies to work by;
time to bring either the births of their minds, or the works of their
hands, to perfection: but the power of God needs none of these things,
but is of a vast and incomprehensible nature, beyond all these. As
nothing can be done without the compass of it, so itself is without
the compass of every created understanding.
4. This power is of a distinct conception from the wisdom and will of
God. They are not really distinct, but according to our conceptions.
We cannot discourse of Divine things, without observing some proportion
of them with human, ascribing unto God the perfections, sifted from
the imperfections of our nature. In us there are three orders――of
understanding, will, power; and, accordingly, three acts, counsel,
resolution, execution; which, though they are distinct in us, are not
really distinct in God. In our conceptions, the apprehension of a thing
belongs to the understanding of God; determination, to the will of God;
direction, to the wisdom of God; execution, to the power of God. The
knowledge of God regards a thing as possible, and as it may be done;
the wisdom of God regards a thing as fit, and convenient to be done;
the will of God resolves that it shall be done; the power of God is
the application of his will to effect what it hath resolved. Wisdom
is a fixing the being of things, the measures and perfections of their
several beings; power is a conferring those perfections and beings
upon them. His power is his ability to act, and his wisdom is the
director of his action: his will orders, his wisdom guides, and his
power effects. His will as the spring, and his power as the worker,
are expressed (Ps. cxv. 3). “He hath done whatsoever he pleased. He
commanded, and they were created” (Ps. cxl. 5); and all three expressed
(Eph. i. 11), “Who works all things according to the counsel of his
own will:” so that the power of God is a perfection, as it were,
subordinate to his understanding and will, to execute the results of
his wisdom, and the orders of his will; to his wisdom as directing,
because he works skilfully; to his will as moving and applying, because
he works voluntarily and freely. The exercise of his power depends upon
his will: his will is the supreme cause of everything {b15} that stands
up in time, and all things receive a being as he wills them. His power
is but will perpetually working, and diffusing itself in the season his
will hath fixed from eternity; it is his eternal will in perpetual and
successive springs and streams in the creatures; it is nothing else but
the constant efficacy of his omnipotent will. This must be understood
of his ordinate power; but his absolute power is larger than his
resolving will: for though the Scripture tells us, “He hath done
whatsoever he will,” yet it tells us not, that he hath done whatsoever
he could: he can do things that he will never do. Again, his power is
distinguished from his will in regard of the exercise of it, which is
after the act of his will: his will was conversant about objects, when
his power was not exercised about them. Creatures were the objects of
his will from eternity, but they were not from eternity the effects of
his power. His purpose to create was from eternity, but the execution
of his purpose was in time. Now this execution of his will we call
his ordinate power: his wisdom and his will are supposed antecedent
to his power, as the counsel and resolve; as the cause precedes the
performance of the purpose as the effect. Some[823] distinguish his
power from his understanding and will, in regard that his understanding
and will are larger than his absolute power; for God understands sins,
and wills to permit them, but he cannot himself do any evil or unjust
action, nor have a power of doing it. But this is not to distinguish
that Divine power, but impotence; for to be unable to do evil is the
perfection of power; and to be able to do things unjust and evil, is
a weakness, imperfection, and inability. Man indeed wills many things
that he is not able to perform, and understands many things that he is
not able to effect; he understands much of the creatures, something of
sun, moon, and stars; he can conceive many suns, many moons, yet is not
able to create the least atom: but there is nothing that belongs to
power but God understands, and is able to effect. To sum this up, the
will of God is the root of all, the wisdom of God is the copy of all,
and the power of God is the framer of all.
5. The power of God gives activity to all the other perfections of
his nature, and is of a larger extent and efficacy, in regard of its
objects, than some perfections of his nature. I put them both together.
(1.) It contributes life and activity to all the other perfections of
his nature. How vain would be his eternal counsels, if power did not
step in to execute them! His mercy would be a feeble pity, if he were
destitute of power to relieve; and his justice a slighted scarecrow,
without power to punish; his promises an empty sound, without power
to accomplish them. As holiness is the beauty, so power is the life
of all his attributes in their exercise; and as holiness, so power, is
an adjunct belonging to all, a term that may be given to all. God hath
a powerful wisdom to attain his ends without interruption: he hath
a powerful mercy to remove our misery; a powerful justice to lay all
misery upon offenders: he hath a powerful truth to perform his promises;
an infinite power to bestow rewards, and inflict penalties. It is
to this purpose power is first put {b16} in the two things which the
Psalmist had heard (Ps. lxii. 11, 12). “Twice have I heard,” or two
things have I heard; first power, then mercy and justice, included in
that expression, “Thou renderest to every man according to his work:”
in every perfection of God he heard of power. This is the arm, the
hand of the Deity, which all his other attributes lay hold on, when
they would appear in their glory; this hands them to the world: by
this they act, in this they triumph. Power framed every stage for their
appearance in creation, providence, redemption.
(2.) It is of a larger extent, in regard of its objects, than
some other attributes. Power doth not alway suppose an object,
but constitutes an object. It supposeth an object in the act of
preservation, but it makes an object in the act of creation; but
mercy supposeth an object miserable, yet doth not make it so. Justice
supposeth an object criminal, but doth not constitute it so: mercy
supposeth him miserable, to relieve him; justice supposeth him criminal,
to punish him: but power supposeth not a thing in real existence,
but as possible; or rather, it is from power that any thing hath a
possibility, if there be no repugnancy in the nature of the thing.
Again, power extends further than either mercy or justice. Mercy hath
particular objects, which justice shall not at last be willing to
punish; and justice hath particular objects, which mercy at last shall
not be willing to refresh: but power doth, and alway will, extend to
the objects of both mercy and justice. A creature, as a creature, is
neither the object of mercy nor justice, nor of rewarding goodness: a
creature, as innocent, is the object of rewarding goodness; a creature,
as miserable, is the object of compassionate mercy; a creature, as
criminal, is the object of revenging justice: but all of them the
objects of power, in conjunction with those attributes of goodness,
mercy, and justice, to which they belong. All the objects that mercy,
and justice, and truth, and wisdom, exercise themselves about, hath a
possibility and an actual being from this perfection of Divine power.
It is power first frames a creature in a capacity of nature for mercy
or justice, though it doth not give an immediate qualification for the
exercise of either. Power makes man a rational creature, and so confers
upon him a nature mutable, which may be miserable by its own fault,
and punishable by God’s justice; or pitiable by God’s compassion, and
relievable by God’s mercy: but it doth not make him sinful, whereby
he becomes miserable and punishable. Again, power runs through all the
degrees of the states of a creature. As a thing is possible, or may
be made, it is the object of absolute power; as it is factibile, or
ordered to be made, it is the object of ordinate power: as a thing is
actually made, and brought into being, it is the object of preserving
power. So that power doth stretch out its arms to all the works of God,
in all their circumstances, and at all times. When mercy ceaseth to
relieve a creature, when justice ceaseth to punish a creature, power
ceaseth not to preserve a creature. The blessed in heaven, that are
out of the reach of punishing justice, are forever maintained by power
in that blessed condition: the damned in hell, that are cast out of
the {b17} bosom of entreating mercy, are forever sustained in those
remediless torments by the Arm of Power.
6. This power is originally and essentially in the nature of God, and
not distinct from his essence. It is originally and essentially in God.
The strength and power of great kings is originally in their people,
and managed and ordered by the authority of the prince for the common
good. Though a prince hath authority in his person to command, yet
he hath not sufficient strength in his person, without the assistance
of others, to make his commands to be obeyed. He hath not a single
strength in his own person to conquer countries and kingdoms, and
increase the number of his subjects: he must make use of the arms of
his own subjects, to overrun other places, and yoke them under his
dominion: but the power of all things that ever were, are, or shall be,
is originally and essentially in God. It is not derived from any thing
without him, as the power of the greatest potentates in the world is:
therefore (Ps. lxii. 11) it is said, “Power belongs unto God,” that is,
solely and to none else. He hath a power to make his subjects, and as
many as he pleases; to create worlds, to enjoin precepts, to execute
penalties, without calling in the strength of his creatures to his aid.
The strength that the subjects of a mortal prince have, is not derived
to them from the prince, though the exercise of it for this or that
end, is ordered and directed by the authority of the prince: but what
strength soever any thing hath to act as a means, it hath from the
power of God as Creator, as well as whatsoever authority it hath to act
is from God, as a Rector and Governor of the world. God hath a strength
to act without means, and no means can act any thing without his power
and strength communicated to them. As the clouds, in ver. 8, before
the text, are called God’s clouds, “his clouds:” so all the strength
of creatures may be called, and truly is, God’s strength and power in
them: a drop of power shot down from heaven, originally only in God.
Creatures have but a little mite of power; somewhat communicated to
them, somewhat kept and reserved from them, of what they are capable
to possess. They have limited natures, and therefore a limited sphere
of activity. Clothes can warm us, but not feed us; bread can nourish
us, but not clothe us. One plant hath a medicinal quality against
one disease, another against another; but God is the possessor of
universal power, the common exchequer of this mighty treasure. He acts
by creatures, as not needing their power, but deriving power to them:
what he acts by them, he could act himself without them: and what they
act as from themselves, is derived to them from him through invisible
channels. And hence it will follow, that because power is essentially
in God, more operations of God are possible than are exerted. And as
power is essentially in God, so it is not distinct from his essence. It
belongs to God in regard of the inconceivable excellency and activity
of his essence.[824] And omnipotent is nothing but the Divine essence
efficacious _ad extra_. It is his essence as operative, and the
immediate principle of operation: as the power of enlightening in the
sun, and the power of heating in the fire, are not things distinct {b18}
from the nature of them; but the nature of the sun bringing forth light,
and the nature of the fire bringeth forth heat. The power of acting is
the same with the substance of God, though the action from that power
be terminated in the creature. If the power of God were distinct from
his essence, he were then compounded of substance and power, and would
not be the most simple being. As when the understanding is informed
in several parts of knowledge, it is skilled in the government of
cities and countries, it knows this or that art: it learns mathematics,
philosophy; this, or that science. The understanding hath a power to
do this; but this power, whereby it learns those excellent things,
and brings forth excellent births, is not a thing distinct from
the understanding itself; we may rather call it the understanding
powerful, than the power of the understanding; and so we may rather
say, God powerful, than say, the power of God; because his power is
not distinct from his essence. From both these, it will follow, that
this omnipotence is incommunicable to any creature; no creature can
inherit it, because it is a contradiction for any creature to have the
essence of God. This omnipotence is a peculiar right of God, wherein no
creature can share with him. To be omnipotent is to be essentially God.
And for a creature to be omnipotent, is for a creature to be its own
Creator. It being therefore the same with the essence of the Godhead,
it cannot be communicated to the humanity of Christ, as the Lutherans
say it is, without the communication of the essence of the Godhead;
for then the humanity of Christ would not be humanity, but Deity. If
omnipotence were communicated to the humanity of Christ, the essence of
God were also communicated to his humanity, and then eternity would be
communicated. His humanity then was not given him in time; his humanity
would be uncompounded, that is, his body would be no body, his soul no
soul. Omnipotence is essentially in God; it is not distinct from the
essence of God, it is his essence, omnipotent, able to do all things.
7. Hence it follows, that this power is infinite (Eph. i. 19);
“What is the exceeding greatness of his power,” &c. “according to the
working of his mighty power.” God were not omnipotent, unless his power
were infinite; for a finite power is a limited power, and a limited
power cannot effect everything that is possible. Nothing can be too
difficult for the Divine power to effect; he hath a fullness of power,
an exceeding strength, above all human capacities; it is a “mighty
power” (Eph. i. 19), “able to do above all that we can ask or think”
(Eph. iii. 20): that which he acts, is above the power of any creature
to act. Infinite power consists in the bringing things forth from
nothing. No creature can imitate God in this prerogative of power. Man
indeed can carve various forms, and erect various pieces of art, but
from pre‑existent matter. Every artificer hath the matter brought to
his hand, he only brings it forth in a new figure. Chemists separate
one thing from another, but create nothing, but sever those things
which were before compacted and crudled together: but when God speaks a
powerful word, nothing begins to be something: things stand forth from
the womb of nothing, and obey his mighty command, and take what forms
he {b19} is pleased to give them. The creating one thing, though never
so small and minute, as the least fly, cannot be but by an infinite
power; much less can the producing of such variety we see in the world.
His power is infinite, in regard it cannot be resisted by anything that
he hath made; nor can it be confined by anything he can will to make.
“His greatness is unsearchable” (Ps. cxlv. 3). It is a greatness, not
of quantity, but quality. The greatness of his power hath no end: it
is a vanity to imagine any limits can be affixed to it, or that any
creature can say, “Hitherto it can go, and no further.” It is above all
conception, all inquisition of any created understanding. No creature
ever had, nor ever can have, that strength of wit and understanding, to
conceive the extent of his power, and how magnificently he can work.
First, His essence is infinite. As in a finite subject there is a
finite virtue, so in an infinite subject there must be an infinite
virtue. Where the essence is limited, the power is so:[825] where the
essence is unlimited, the power knows no bounds.[826] Among creatures,
the more excellency of being and form anything hath, the more activity,
vigor, and power it hath, to work according to its nature. The sun hath
a mighty power to warm, enlighten, and fructify, above what the stars
have; because it hath a vaster body, more intense degrees of light,
heat, and vigor. Now, if you conceive the sun made much greater than it
is, it would proportionably have greater degrees of power to heat and
enlighten than it hath now: and were it possible to have an infinite
heat and light, it would infinitely heat and enlighten other things;
for everything is able to act according to the measures of its being:
therefore, since the essence of God is unquestionably infinite, his
power of acting must be so also. His power (as was said before) is one
and the same with his essence: and though the knowledge of God extends
to more objects than his power, because he knows all evils of sin,
which because of his holiness he cannot commit, yet it is as infinite
as his knowledge, because it is as much one with his essence, as his
knowledge and wisdom is: for as the wisdom or knowledge of God is
nothing but the essence of God, _knowing_, so the power of God is
nothing but the essence of God, _able_.