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    ing effects , exercise and improve their understandings , be taught to reverence and imitate the marks of design conspicuous throughout nature , -and be led to find out and adore the invisible Aathorot the vast fabric , I am certainly not disposed to deny this , nor does this at all militate against what I am endeavouring to prove * On the contrary , the objection takes it for granted , that this apparatus of means and ends has been contrived by the God of Wisdom as the most effectual method of instructing us and making as wise—& method , therefore , without which this purpose could not have been answered equally well ; Between this method and this purpose the connection must then be acknowledged to be independent on the divine will ; and for this very reason is it , that the choice of this method ^ with this purpose in view , evinces the divine wisdom .

    But if this representation be conformable to truth , will it not follow , that omnipotence belongs not to the Deity ? This does not appear tome a jiist conclusion . The fair inference is only this , that the notion usuaHy formed of Almighty Power is erroneous . Indeed it must be so , if it be not

    compatible with a rational belief that God is wise . Omnipotence is conceived by most to be the power of producing any effect whatever by mere volition . But surely this is not affixing t& the term its proper signification . The being who can do whatever he pleases , though not at once , nor without the intervention of means , may be said , in strictness of speech , to be

    omnipotent . The true definition of omnipotence is not the . power of doing whatever may be deemed possible by creatures of limited knowledge , but the power of doing whatever in its own nature is possible . This , indeed implies that there is a nature of things independent on the Divine will ; but that it is in any instance contrary to this will is not , however , to be thence

    inferred . He , whose is all-comprehensive knowledge , is perfectly acquainted with that nature of things , and therefore never wills that which lies not within its verge . He is truly almighty ; for he , even he alone , can do whatever can be done ; and a power greater than this cannot exist , since the very supposition of it is absurd . All possibilities are known to hinij impossibilities are never the objects of his choice ; and whatever be the end which he chooses , he is acquainted with the b ^ st means of bringing it about . He therefore never experiences . the slightest disappointment , and every event happens iottHt pl&ee , at the time and in the manner fixed upon by his will , ,,. _ - . f ^ fTfji ^ appears to me , I mi g ht , and it may seem fittest I $ bQ V £$ J * < £$ > j > pjude ; for I have laid before you the argument

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    16 JEsiay on Divine Wisdom .

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• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/16/