CHAPTER IV: Of the Omnipotence and Will of God
I. So is God omnipotent that He is able to do more than He will do.
We believe that God is so omnipotent that He not only hath done and doeth whatsoever He would and will, but also He is able to will and to do infinite works which He will not; following also herein the doctrine of John who said, “God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham” (Matt. 3:9), which yet He would not do. And also the opinion of the apostle who wrote that God will have mercy on whom He will, (when as He could have mercy on all) and He will harden (not all, as He could, but) those whom He will (Rom. 9:15,18), so that it is very impious to conclude anything to have been done, to be done, or shall be done, of the only omnipotency of God, wherein His will is not also revealed.
II. He infringeth not the omnipotency of God that certain things cannot be done by Him.
Where the apostle writeth that God cannot deny Himself, we hold that there is no injury done against the omnipotency of God if a man say there are many things which cannot be done by God; namely, such things as are repugnant to the nature of God, and do imply a contradiction.
III. A confirmation of the former assertion.
For He being the chiefest good, He can neither be made evil, nor can do ill; and being truth itself, He cannot lie; being justice itself, He cannot do unjustly; being life itself, how should He die? Finally being only one God, and that uncreated and eternal, subsisting only in three persons, we believe and confess that He cannot so take any creature to Himself, to make the same consubstantial to Himself, and wholly [holy] such as He Himself is, or constitute a fourth person. And we are persuaded that nothing is drawn or taken away from the omnipotency of God by this confession. Yea, surely whatsoever is already done it cannot be that the same should not have been done; so that it is certain that what so implieth a contradiction, the same cannot be done by God who is the especial truth itself. For by this reason, even the omnipotency of God whereby they were done should be apparently denied.
IV. The will of God to be searched for only in the Holy Scriptures.
Furthermore, since the counsels of God are infinite and secret, which He revealeth not to the angels themselves (Mark 13:32), we hold that when there is any question concerning the will of God, the same is not to be sought for in any other place than in the Holy Scriptures. Whereas whatsoever things were necessary to our salvation, God hath plentifully and perspicuously laid open unto us; and whatsoever He would have us to do, He hath of His singular goodness revealed unto us by His Spirit (John 15:15).
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