From Reformation to Reformation

Now, with all these Limitations of the divine Power passed over, or with certain of these omitted, which our AUTHOR set forth in this §, our AUTHOR says that CALVIN had good reason to detest the Absolute Power of God; that is, not in the sense in which our AUTHOR in § 21 distinguished the Absolute Power of God from the Actual, as God by His Absolute Power antecedently to every Decree is able to do a great many things that He is not able to fulfill by His Actual Power on accou

With this Independence of the divine Power not withstanding, nevertheless it is to be said that God is not able to do; not from any defect of Power, but rather from abundance of Perfection: 1. What things are opposed to His eternal Counsel: since that is Immutable, Isaiah 46:10; Psalm 33:11. Thus by the divine Decree many things are made Impossible to God, which, if you have regard to His absolute Power, are to be designated as altogether Possible; but, if these things should

To confirm what our AUTHOR asserts concerning the Absolute Power of God, he also appeals to Matthew 3:9, following many other Theologians, both Ancient and more Recent; see our AUTHOR’S Exercitationes Textuales XXVI, Part III, § 1, 2. Nevertheless, this argument for the Absolute Power of God, dealing with those things that are never done or are future, is denied by many others that either of old or in more recent times have expounded this text concerning that which actually h

This Power of God is divided into Actual and Absolute; from which distinction one and the same thing is able sometimes to be said to be possible and impossible to God. The Actual Power of God denotes the divine Sufficiency, insofar as by it what things by the eternal Decree were determined for the state of existence are actually created in the fullness of time; or it denotes the determination of the divine Virtue to actualize those certain sorts of possible things that God by

Then, γ. in the Faculties and Operations hence proceeding: since what in one regard is Independent is in every regard Independent; and the mode of operation follows upon the mode of being. Hence the divine Intellect is not instructed from another source; which here in advance our AUTHOR observes against the patrons of Middle or Conditional Knowledge, whereby God knows Free and Contingent Future Things conditionally before the Decree; which error our AUTHOR painstakingly refut

God is Independent, α. in Existence, whence He is said Necessarily to Exist. Which Necessary Existence of God we prove, 1. a priori, a. From the Infinite Perfection of God. For, what exists as infinitely Perfect exists necessarily; because the Necessity of existence is a simple and absolute Perfection. That is, what thing exists in such a way that it is not able not to exist is Necessary with respect to Existence. To this is opposed a Contingent thing; which exists in such a

Among the Incommunicable Attributes in the first place God’s Independence is treated. He is Independent, because He is of Himself sufficient unto Himself, in such a way that He requires nothing except Himself for His existence. And so, when we speak of God’s Independence, absolute Independence is to be understood, which removed dependence of every sort: but not relative Independence, which some observe in the order of creatures among themselves, and which only denies a certa

ε. Finally, the Attributes are distinguished into Communicable and Incommunicable. Thus we speak improperly, and this distinction is able easily to be drawn unto harmful sense: but if you understand Communicability very broadly of a certain very obscure similitude, even certain things that are commonly called Incommunicable are able to be called Communicable: thus the Most Illustrious WITTICH in his Theologia Pacifica, § 194. But we ourselves do not think that this distinctio

Descartes δ. Into Internal and External, which division was accommodated to the Philosophy of Descartes, according to which the whole nature of God is mere Thought, to the exclusion, as we were hearing Poiret say above, § 16, of all other things that are able to be conceived of besides thought. From this principium it is deduced that there are only two internal Attributes of God, Intellect and Will, because there are only two general modes of thought, perception or the operat

γ. Into Absolute and Relative, which imply a Relation to the creatures with Himself, and are founded in Absolutes. Thus an Absolute Attribute of God is Goodness, but a Relative Attribute is Mercy, which pertains to the Goodness of God, but additionally involves a regard to a miserable creature. Immensity is an Absolute Attribute, but Omnipresence is Relative, because it indicates a relation to created things, in all which it asserts the presence of God. Vindictive Justice is

β. Into Negative and Positive: thus Infinity, Immensity, Independence, Invisibility, etc., are called Negative: Wisdom, Goodness, Justice, etc., are called Positive. We form a conception of the Negative Attributes by way of Negation; of the Positive Attributes by way of Eminence. But the Negative Attributes for the most part are so called in relation, not to the very Attributes of God, but to the Mode of our Conception and the Names by which they are expressed; while Infinity

The Attributes of God are divided in various ways: α. Into Proper and Metaphorical. Unto the Metaphorical Attributes human Affections ought to be referred; it will be demonstrate below in § 26 that such do not properly apply to God. Unto the Metaphorical Attributes are also referred other metaphors from created things, under which God comes, when He is called a Rock, a roaring Lion, a consuming Fire. But the Proper Attributes are expressed concerning God in a proper sense, wh

But, that thus God in a manner agreeing with Himself possesses an Infinity of Perfections, and is not merely called and conceived of by us as Infinite according to our impotence, while actually He is not such in Himself, as Hobbes maintains, see COCQUIUS’ Anatomen Hobbesianismi, locus VI, chapter XII, page 125; our AUTHOR proves, α. From the enumeration of the individual Perfections made in the Scripture; β. And from the exclusion of all Imperfections. γ. Especially from the

[Of all the divine Attributes or Perfections there is a certain Complex/ Inclusion in Infinity, as it is stated negatively, or with Consummate Perfection, as it is stated positively:] Indeed, this is not so much to be called an Attribute, as rather a certain Complex of all the Attributes, whereby as a brief compendium, as it were, but a conception less distinct and obscure enough, our mind strives to apprehend whatever comes to be understood concerning God. Now, although Infi

After the Nature of God, His Attributes ought to be regarded, so called because they are attributed by us to God: which same things are called Perfections, since they not only remove any Imperfection from God, but also denote in Him positive and real predicates; even if often, from the poverty of our conceptions and vocabulary, they be represented by a negative notion, expressed by a negative word. Those divine Perfections are also pure perfections, which have no mixture of t

γ. The Faculty of Power operative externally is added, which independently, and with all Passive Power excluded, is applicable to God. That is, this is the Perfection of the Living God, whereby out of the abundance of His Omnisufficiency it belongs to Him with perfect ease externally to ordain whatever involves no contradiction. From this Perfection God has not only the Name אֵל/El from its more common derivation, see § 5,[1] but also אֲבִ֖יר יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל, the Mighty One of Is

β. The next Spiritual Faculty of the divine Essence is Will, or that Perfection of the Living God whereby in a most perfect manner He is pleased with Himself in Himself, and with all things that are not opposite to Him. Now, Will is not able to be denied to God, because He is Spirit, neither is it separated from Intellect in a Rational Being. Indeed, it is easily the first Perfection among all, to be the lord of their own actions through supreme αὐτεξουσίαν, free will, withou

3. α. The first Spiritual Faculty, with which God, as a Living Spiritual Substance, is furnished, is Intellect, which is expressly attributed to God in Sacred Scripture, Psalm 139:2; 147:5; and which is supposed in Knowledge, in such a way that Intellect better expresses the power of understanding, Knowledge the exercise of understanding; while the Eyes, Ears, and Nostrils ascribed to God are often emblems of of this Faculty of Intellect also. Neither is the first cause to be

2. God is Living Substance, just as Life is attributed to God everywhere in the Sacred Scriptures, both by Himself, John 5:26, and by others, Psalm 84:2; Matthew 16:16, so also He is distinguished from dead Idols, Jeremiah 10:10, 11; Acts 14:14, 15. Neither is rational Life able to be denied to the very Father of rationally living Spirits. The fount and origin of all Life is not able to be without Life. Indeed, the inanimate things themselves, by their singular craftsmanship

1. We saw above in § 13, that it is better to call God a Spirit than a Substance, when it is asked, What is God with respect to Essence or Nature? But when it is now further asked, what is that Spirit? what then do we assign to God when we pronounce Him to be Spirit? Our AUTHOR responds, that He is a Living Substance, furnished with the faculties of Intellect, Will, and Power. Now, from those things that we observed on § 13, it is proven that God is not to be referred to the