The Freedom of the Will, Part 1 · Subpart 1 · Argument 4
4. Argument.
Next to the Wisdom of God, the Power of God, seemeth to furnish a fourth Argument against this Liberty of the Will.
We have it proclaim'd from Heaven by the mouth of God Himself, That Power belongeth to God. God hath spoken once, twice have I heard this, That Power belongeth unto God, Psal. 62. 11. Joseph saith to Pharaoh, That his dream was repeated, to declare the certainty of it. A Repetition also is design'd to express the weight and consequence of that Truth, which is twice over affirmed. No Truth hath a clearer certainty, or beareth a greater weight upon it in the whole nature of things, than this, That Power belongeth to God. Jesus Christ, who is the only true God, is said by the word of his Power to uphold all things, to bring forth, and to bear up all things, as the Greek word manifestly and commonly signifies. This alone bringeth forth all things, all spirits. This alone beareth upon its bosome all its own Births, as a root the plant with all its fruit. Here only in the sense of this truth, with an immediate repose upon it, do all things, all hearts find rest.
Power is here by the Psalmist expressed absolutely, unlimited, in the abstract; all Power is Gods, and of Him: So the Hebrew phrase imports.
God is the first Seat and Spring of all Power, in every kind. All Power supernatural, natural, civil, moral; All Power in every State undetermined, determined; All Power in every degree, the Power of acting; the Power in act hath its first seat in God, and cometh down from Him.
There is a three-fold Power,
1. An Active Power.
2. A Passive Power.
3. A Power in Act.
1. The Power of Acting, which as it belongeth to the forms of things, which are either Spirits or spiritual, so it self is a Spirit or a spiritual form. This is defin'd to be a principle of Acting. This is it self an eminent and universal Act, or active form like a Spring; containing and sending forth from it self variety of Acts or forms, as a Spring doth streams. This Power is more excellent than the Act which is produced by it.
2. The Passive Power, is that of matter, which as an obscute shade, comprehending or hiding variety of Acts or forms in it, like Plants; obscured and contracted there, like Plants in their seeds in the Earth, or the Intellectual and sensitive Soul, with all its treasure of Intellectual, of sensitive forms, in a sleeping Body. This Power is inferior to the Act, which, when it is brought forth, is the exaltation of this Passive Power to an higher degree of Being; it is indeed, as a spiritual Act or form, encompast with, obscured within its own shade. As the Sun calleth up the Plants out of their seeds and beds in the dust, so the Spirit it self, the Spiritual Act or form shining forth from the Active Power upon this shade of matter and of the Passive Power, awakeneth it into a beautiful form.
3. Power in Act. All Power purely Active is ever in Act. Such Power is alwayes abstracted from matter and a spiritual essence or form, eminent above all things in matter, an universal comprehending variety of Acts or spiritual forms in it self.
Every Active Power, in matter is compounded, being partly Active, and partly Passive. This Power is never brought into Act, but as it is excited and awakened, from without, by its Object, from above, by power abstractive and purely active, shedding its beams upon it. Thus in the Schools they distinguish between the Active Understanding in man, separated from matter in its operations, and the Passive, which ever worketh in Conjunction with the material and imaginative faculty; like the Moon, having some obscure light in it self, but depending upon the illuminations of the Active Understanding, as its Sun.
Power and Act are distinguished, not as two several Beings, but as the same Being in several states, modifications, or degrees of Being. When Power, as it is a spiritual and universal Act, comprehending all its own Acts formally and eminently in it self, being all at once in Act within it self, brings forth it self into any particular or single Act in matter, This is the same Power contracted, and so in a less degree of perfection. When a Passive Power in matter springs up into Act, This Act is the perfection of the Power. The Power and the Act here are the same form, sleeping and awakened, in the seed and in the flower.
All Power is Gods. As he is the most pure, perfect, and universal Spirit: so is Power in Him, the most pure, perfect, and most universal Act. God gives this Testimony of Himself, I am Alpha and Omega, The beginning and the ending, (saith the Lord) Which is, and which was, and which is to come, The Almighty, Rev. 1. 8. As the Power of God comprehendeth all Powers, most eminently and most actually, in …imself; so all Powers in Him are ever most perfectly in Act, being themselves pure Acts: God is said to work all things after the counsel of his own will, Eph. 1. 11.
Power is the principle of Activity. The Will is the inclination or spring of internal motion in a Spirit, whence all external motions flow, as commanded by those internal, and immediate, or elicite motions. So is the Will also the principle of Activity, and the same with power in every Spirit.
Power is a principle of Activity, a spring of Action or Motion; Motion, Action, are the form in communication, diffusing and propagating it self. The Will of God is goodness it self, the Object being the Actuation, the perfection of the Will: The object and the perfection of the will being most perfectly one with the will, in the Divine Nature. Goodness is properly and formally the principle of communication: The more there is of the nature of good in any thing, so much the more communicative and diffusive it is. Thus is, upon this ground also, the Will and the Power of God the same; both being that Divine Goodness, which being the supream and universal form, comprehendeth all forms of things most perfectly in it self, and diffuseth it self endlesly into all forms.
Neither let this trouble any person, that there are evil Powers as well as good, that there are Powers of doing evil as well as of doing good, that there are communications and diffusions of evil as well as good, which is manifest in Original Sin. For all Power in every state and degree in its own nature, is a participation of the Divine Power, and truly good. As all good in every rank is truly good, and a stream from the Fountain of good, yet may every subordinate good be turned by accident into evil, if it be broken off from its subordination to the supream good, and be terminated in any other principle or end: so also is every communication, or propagation of things, in its own nature good; each form, which is propagated in every communication, being good, and a branch of the first good. As Evil and Sin are themselves privations, and deficiencies of Being; so is the propagation of these by Accident, or rather no propagation in truth, but a deficiency in the propagation and communication, from the deficiency in its principle.
But as the VVill and Power, so also the Will and Wisdom in the Divine Nature are properly and formally the same in their most proper, most formal conceptions and definitions. The Divine VVill is goodness it self. Goodness is the suitableness, the agreeableness, the harmony of things, by which they are desirable to each other, by which they become the perfection of each other, being as one self, diffusing it self into many forms within it self, in each of which as a distinct-self, it entirely answers it self. This Harmony is the proper and essential form of VVisdom, which thus falls in with goodness, and so with the VVill, by giving to all things their proper forms, measures, weights, bounds, and all manner of proportions in which the Agreeableness and Harmony consisteth.
Saint Paul seemeth plainly to instruct us in this, That the Will of God being goodness it self, The first, the supream goodness, being the Spring of all the Divine inclinations, motions, and communications, giving to each thing its Being, Form, and proportions, is properly both the Power and the Wisdome of God, when he saith, That he worketh all things according to the Counsel of his Will. The power of working, and the Counsel in working (which is Wisedome) are both here attributed to the Divine Will.
At the same time, the holy Apostle signifieth also, That this Divine power comprehendeth all powers in it self, and is one pure, perpetual, universal Act, comprehending all things, in their highest and most eminent acts, within it self, diffusing it self into power, all acts of power, when he expresseth this in the present Tense, which, according to the Rule of Grammarians, doth also imply a continued act, That God worketh all things, according to the Counsell of his Will. As the Divine Power is one pure, eternal, universal Act within it self, (which is the Divine Goodness, the Divine Will, the Divine Wisdom in the highest and amplest activity;) so from their eternal Originals in this universal Power, in this universal Act, spring by a Divine emanation all Powe…s, all Acts in all seasons, in their proper forms, measures, and proportions, through the whole Creation.
Having thus laid the ground, let us build up our Argument upon this ground. There is implyed and supposed in Discourses upon this Question, a three-fold Power in the VVill.
1. The VVill it self, is the power of the Soul, by which it willeth.
2. The VVill hath a power of Acting freely.
3. There is the power of the VVill in Act, as often as it acteth: and now in this joynt sense of having its power in Act, it is no more free. VVe will not now dispute the distinction of these powers: Only as we have before asserted the Power of acting, and the Power in act are both the same Being, the same form in different states or degrees of Being, Accordingly, both are eminently originally seated in God, and formally derived from God, who is the seat and spring of all Power.
As I have before touched a great part, if not the whole weight of this question of the power in the VVill, to determine it self, and to act, (which is confessed to be an effect of the Divine Power) and of the determination (the acting of this power in the determination of it) which is ascribed to the power it self, without any dependance upon the supream Power, How doth this ground of the freedome of the VVill, laid in this distinction, vanish in the light of this Truth (like a shady Ghost, before a Divine appearance) That the supream Power is a most pure and perfect Act, and so comprehendeth all Powers in its self, not only in their potentiality, but in their several acts? If the Divine Power be omnipotence it self, that is, all Power, it is Power in every state, Power indeterminate or determinate, Power in Act as well as the Power of Acting.
I shall seal up this Argument with the signature and impression of the Divine VVill, as it is goodness it self, power it self, under one Formal conception. Goodness hath this essential to it, to be diffusive. Every good, the more it communicates it self, hath the more of good in it. Goodness then most simple, most absolute and perfect; diffuseth it self most simply, absolutely and universally. This is that Sun which encompasseth the Heavens from one end to the other, which penetrates to the neithermost parts, to the center of the Earth, from whose heat and force nothing can hide it self. This toucheth most intimately, most powerfully, disposeth most sweetly and beautifully all things, every state, every distinction of things, the Will of each Spirit, each determination and motion of the VVill. The goodness of God is upon, above, and over all his Works, saith the Psalmist. It not only extends it self adaequately through all, but transcendeth all. It not only fills, but overflows all.
Although the simplicity of the Divine Nature suffereth it not to be the subject of any relation to the Creature, yet doth it terminate relations from the Creature to it self. Thus doth the Divine goodness, in the Divine VVill, terminate the relation of every created VVill to it self, in the agreeableness or disagreeableness of every Act. This supream goodness then hath in it self the measure of this agreeableness and disagreeableness which it receiveth not from without, but hath originally in it self. So all the acts of the VVill, according to their conformity with, or deformity from the first goodness, derive themselves from their proper Original in that goodness.
Accordingly the Goodness and the Will of God, hath a complacency in every Act of the VVill if it be agreeable to it, or an aversion from it if it be disagreeable. Thus is the created VVill, in all its motions, with their several most exact distinctions, the Object of the eternal VVill in its love or hatred. Every faculty or power hath an essential relation to its proper object, and dependance upon it. It is drawn forth by it into the most proper Acts of its essence, and receiveth from it the perfection of its essence, which consisteth in its Activity. The supream VVill, the supream Goodness, being perfectly, eternally in Act, hath all its Acts, all its Objects, by which it is actuated perfectly, eternally, from and in it self.
Object. You will say, How can this be? Can the Divine VVill, which is infinitely pure in the beauties of Holiness, in the joys of all blessedness, comprehend in it self Good and Evil, agreeableness and disagreeableness to it self, which are the proper measures, and essential forms of all good and evil? Can it comprehend in it self Objects of Love and Hatred? Can this Fountain send forth from it self sweet and bitter waters? How is it holy, if there be these mixtures? How is it happy, if it be thus divided within it self?
Answ. The Flats and Sharpes, the Bases and Trebles, the Concords and Discords of Musick, are all comprehended by the spirit of the Musician in one Act of Harmony, in one simple and undivided Act of Harmony. This single Act of Harmony, by its proper force, first invented and formed all Musical Instruments, prepared them for it self through all the diversity of touches and motions, actuated them, that it might compleatly figure and display upon them and upon all things round about them, it self, in its own full sweetness, according to all those rich varieties, virtually and eminently comprehended within it self, in one simple Act. So in one indivisible Act, or Idea of beauty in the Spirit of the Painter, lie together all the differing lines, lights, shades, and colours, by which that Idea reflecteth it self in Picture upon the eyes and spirits of the Beholder. In like manner, the far greater perfection, the Will of God, being a simple … of Goodness, supreamly indivisible and eternal, containeth originally eminently within it self complacency and aversion, love and hatred, with their several objects, in their several forms and degrees, in their several risings and fallings, most properly and harmoniously suited to each other. From it self doth this supream Goodness bring forth its own Objects, like tuned Instruments wound up or let down, every way prepared for the diffusion and discovery of it self upon them, in those Varieties of love and hatred, complacency and aversion, with their several steps or modifications, which, as so many distinct forms or virtues of the Divine Goodness, dwell together there in the highest and most absolute Variety, as in the fullest and most unconfined Unity.
The Will of God is commonly and rightly distinguished into positive and permissive. Evil is by the permissive, Good from the positive Will of God. All the determinations and motions of the Will in every Spirit, are, at least, from the permission of the Divine Will. I will not now enquire, how the most perfect Goodness can be permissive in that, in which it is positive: This only I take, which is universally granted, That there is no permissive Will in God, without a positive Act. He permitteth nothing, without a positive Act of his Will for that permission. If the permission of any Act in the will of man antecede that Act, then is that act or motion of the humane will the Object of a positive Act of the Divine Will for the permission of it, before it be brought forth here below. This objective existence in the Divine Will, is either the Copy or the Original to that motion in the will of the Creature. If it be universally received by all Understandings from the universal Harmony and principles of Truth, that the Divine Nature can take no Copy, receive no Impression of any thing, from any thing without it self: it necessarily followeth, that all motions in the will of man flow from that antecedent existence, which they have in the Divine Will, as the Objects of that.
Thus, that I may not be too long upon this Head of Arguments, drawn from the Divine Nature, I have contracted three sorts of Arguments into one. Those from the Will, the Goodness, the Power of God being drawn together under that of the Divine Power. I have in it built upon this sure ground, The VVill of God is the first, the supream, the essential Goodness: The Goodness of God is his Power. As every thing depends upon the VVill of God, in its permission or positive Act, As all things in their measures of Good or Evil, lie together in the Divine Goodness, the Original, the eternal measure of all Good and Evil; so have all Powers, all Acts and Motions of Power, their first spring, their exact form and rule in the Power of God.