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necessity of nature; but it signifies an active power, by which He can operate extrinsically, and by which he does so operate when it seems good to himself.

LXXIX. We describe it thus: "It is a faculty of the Life of God, posterior in order to the Understanding and the Will, by which God can, from the liberty of his own Will, operate extrinsically all things whatsoever that He can freely will, and by which He does whatsoever He freely wills." Hence it appears, that Power Lesse velut] resembles a principle which executes what the Will commands under the direction of Knowledge. But we wish Impeding or Obstruction to be comprehended under the operation. (Psalm cxv, 3; Lament. iii, 37, 38; Psalm xxxiii, 9; Jer. xviii, 6.) THEREFORE,

From this we exclude the power or capability of generating and breathing forth, because it acts in a natural manner and [ad intra] intrinsically.

LXXX. The measure of the Divine Capability is the Free Will of God, and indeed this is an adequate measure. (Psalm cxv, 3; Matt. xi, 25-27.) For whatsoever God can will freely, He can likewise do it; and whatsoever it is possible for Him to do, He can freely will it; and whatever it is impossible for Him to will, He cannot do it; and that which He cannot do, He also cannot will: But He does, because He wills; and He does not do, because He does not will. Therefore He does the things which He does, because He wills so to do. He does them not, because He wills them not; not, on the contrary. Hence the objects of the Divine Capability may be most commodiously, and indeed ought to be, circumscribed through the object of the Free Will of God.

LXXXI. The following is the manner: Since the Free Will [of God] rests upon a Will [habenti se] conducting itself acording to the mode of [his] nature, and both of them have an Understanding which precedes them, and which, in conjunction with the Will, has the very Essence of God for its foundation; and since God can freely will those things alone which are not contrary to his Essence and Natural Will, and which can be comprehended in his Understanding as entities and true things; it follows, that He can do those things alone; nay, that He can likewise do all things, since the Free Will of God, and therefore his Capability also, are bound by those alone. And since things of this kind are the only things which are simply and absolutely possible, all others being impossible, God is deservedly said to be capable of doing all things that are possible. (Luke i, 37; xviii, 27; Mark xiv, 36.)

For how can there be an entity, a truth, or a good, which is contrary to His Essence and Natural Will, and incomprehensible to his Understanding?

LXXXII. The things thus laid down [as described in the last clause of the preceding Thesis] are indeed confessed by all men; and they are generally described in the Schools as things impossible, which imply a contradiction. But it is asked in species, "What are those things ?" We will here recount some of them: God cannot make another God; is incapable of being changed; (James i, 17;) He cannot sin; (Psalm v, 5;) cannot lie; (Num. xxiii, 19; 2 Tim. ii, 13; Phil. iv, 19;) cannot cause a thing at the same time to be and not to be, to have been and not to have been, to be hereafter and not hereafter to be, to be this and not to be this, to be this and its contrary. He cannot cause an accident to be without its subject, a substance to be changed into a pre-existing substance, bread into the body of Christ, and He cannot cause a body to be in every place.* When we make such assertions as these, we do not inflict an injury on the Capability of God; but we must beware that things unworthy of Him be not attributed to his Essence, his Understanding, and his Will.

LXXXIII. The Power or Capability of God is infinite; because it can do not only all things possible; (which are innumerable, so that they cannot be reckoned to be such a number, without a possibility of their being still more ;) but likewise because nothing can resist it. For all created things depend upon the Divine Power, as upon their efficient Principle, as the phrase is, [tum in esse, tum in conservari,] both in their being and in their preservation; whence OMNIPOTENCE is deservedly attributed to Him. (Rev. i, 8; Ephes. iii, 20; Matt. iii, 9; xxvi, 53; Rom. ix, 19; Phil. iii, 21.)

LXXXIV. Since the measure of God's Power is his own Free Will, and since therefore God does any thing because He wills to do it; it cannot be concluded from the Omnipotence of God that any thing will come to pass, [or will afterwards be] unless it be evident [de] from the Divine Will. (Dan. iii, 17, 18; Rom. iv, 20, 21; Matt. viii, 2.) But if this be evident from the Will of God, what He hath willed to do is certain to be done, although, to the mind of the creature, it may not seem possible. (Luke i, 19, 20, 34-37.) And that the mind must be "brought into captivity to the obedience of Faith," [hic locum habet] is a truth which here finds abundant scope for exercise.

"At the same time," is understood after each of these clauses, as it is expressed in the first.

LXXXV. The distinction of Capability into absolute, and ordinary or actual, has not reference to God's Capability so much as to his Will, which uses his Capability to do some things when it wills to use it, and which does not use it when it does not will; though it would be possible for it to use the Capability if it would; and if it did use it, the Divine Will would, through it, do far more things than it does. (Matt. iii, 9.)

LXXXVI. The Omnipotence of God cannot be communicated to any creature. (1 Tim. vi, 15; Jude 4.)

ON THE PERFECTION OF GOD.

LXXXVII. From the simple and infinite combination of all these things, when they are considered with the mode of preeminence, the Perfection of God has its existence. Not that by which He has every single thing in a manner the most perfect; for this is effected by Simplicity and Infinity: But it is that by which, in the most perfect manner, he has all things which denote any perfection. And it may fitly be described thus: "It is the interminable, the entire, and, at the same time, the perfect possession of Essence and Life." (Matt. v, 48; Gen. xvii, 1; Exod. vi, 3; Psalm 1, 10; Acts xvii, 25; James i, 17.)

LXXXVIII. This Perfection of God infinitely exceeds the perfection of all the creatures, on a three-fold account. For it possesses all things in a mode the most perfect, and [non aliunde] does not derive them from another. But the perfection which the creatures possess, they derive from God, and it is faintly shadowed forth after its archetype. Some creatures have a larger portion [of this derived perfection] than others; and the more of it they possess, the nearer they are to God and have the greater likeness to Him. (Rom. xi, 35, 36; 1 Cor. iv, 7; Acts xvii, 28, 29; 2 Cor. iii, 18; 2 Pet. i, 4; Matt. v, 48.)

LXXXIX. From this Perfection, by means of some internal act of God, his BLESSEDNESS has its existence; and his GLORY exists, by means of some [respectu] relation of it [ad extra] extrinsically. (1 Tim. i, 11; vi, 15; Exod. xxxiii, 18.)

ON THE BLESSEDNESS OF GOD.

XC. Blessedness is through an act of the Understanding: Is it not also through an act of the Will? Such is our opinion; and we delineate it thus: It is an act of the Life of God, by which He enjoys his own Perfection, that is fully known by his Understanding and supremely loved by his Will; [cum acquiescentiâ in eâdem ;] and by which He complacently reposes

in this Perfection with satisfaction. (Gen. xvii, 1; Psalm xvi, 11;

1 Cor. ii, 9, 10.)

XCI. The Blessedness of God is so peculiar to himself, that it cannot be communicated to a creature. (1 Cor. xv, 28.) Yet, in relation to the object, He is the beatifying Good of all creatures endued with understanding, and is the Effector of the act which tends to this object, and which reposes with satisfaction in it: In these consists the blessedness of the creature.

THE GLORY OF GOD.

XCII. The Glory of God is from his Perfection, [cum respectu ad extra,] regarded extrinsically, and may in some degree be described thus: It is the excellence of God above all things. God makes this Glory manifest by external acts in various ways. (Rom. i, 23; ix, 5; Psalm viii, 1.)

XCIII. But the modes of manifestation, which are declared to us in the Scriptures, are chiefly two: The One, by an effulgence of light and of unusual splendour, or by its opposite-a dense darkness or obscurity. (Matt. xvii, 2-5; Luke ii, 9; Exod. xvi, 10; 1 Kings viii, 11.) The Other, by the production of works which agree with his Perfection and Excellence. (Psalm xix, 1; John ii, 11.)

But ceasing from any more prolix discussion of this subject, let us with ardent prayers suppliantly beseech the God of Glory, that, since He has formed us for his Glory, He would vouchsafe to make us yet more and more the instruments of illustrating his Glory among men, through Jesus Christ our Lord, the brightness of his Glory, and the express image of his Person. AMEN!

DISPUTATION V.

ON THE PERSON OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON,

Respondent, PETER DE LA FITE.

I. We do not here receive the name of "Father," as it is sometimes taken in the Scriptures in regard to adoption, according to which God hath adopted believers to himself as sons: (Gal. iv, 6:) Nor with respect to the creation of things, according to which even the Gentiles themselves knew God the Father, and gave Him that appellation: (Acts xvii, 28:) But by this name we signify God according to the relation which He has to his only-begotten and proper Son, who is our Lord Jesus Christ: (Eph. i, 3:) And we thus describe Him: "He is the First Person

in the Sacred Trinity, who from all eternity of himself begat his Word, which is his Son, by communicating to Him his own. Divinity."

II. We call Him "a Person," not in reference to the use of that word in personating, [appearing in a mask,] which denotes the representation of another; but in reference to its being defined [subsistens individuum] an undivided and incommunicable subsistence, of a nature that is living, intelligent, willing, powerful, and active: Each of these properties is attributed, in the Holy Scriptures, to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. SUBSISTENCE: “Him which is, and which was, and which is to come." (Rev. i, 4.)-LIFE: "As the living Father hath sent me," &c. (John vi, 53, 57.)-INTELLIGENCE: "O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God!" (Rom. xi, 33.) -WILL: "And this is the Father's will," &c. (John vi, 39.)— POWER: "Thine, O Father, is the Power." (Matt. vi, 13.)— ACTION: "My Father worketh hitherto." (John v, 17.) We do not contend about words. Under the term "Person" we comprehend such things as we have now described; and since they agree with the Father, the title of " Person" cannot be justly denied to him.

III. We call Him "a Person in the Holy Trinity," that is, a Divine Person, which with us possesses just as much force as if we were to call Him GoD. For though the Deity of the Father has been acknowledged by most of those persons who have called in question that of the Son; yet it is denied by those who have declared, that the God of the Old Testament is different from that of the New, and who have affirmed that the Father of Jesus Christ is a different Being from the Creator of heaven and earth. To the former class we oppose the word of Christ: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth," &c. (Matt. xi, 25.) To the latter we oppose another saying of the same Christ: “It is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that He is your God." (John viii, 54.) To both of these classes together we oppose that joint declaration of the whole church at Jerusalem: "Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is: Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said," &c.: And in a subsequent verse: "For of a truth against thy holy Son Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, &c. were gathered together." (Acts iv, 24-27.)

IV. We place Him "first" in the Holy Trinity: For so hath Christ taught us, by commanding us to "baptize in the name of

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