an attribute of the Deity, Gen. xvii, 1. The Hebrew name, שדי,
_Shaddai_, signifies also _all-sufficient_, or _all-bountiful_. See Gen.
xxviii, 3; xxxv, 11; xliii, 14; xlix, 25. Of the omnipotence of God, we
have a most ample revelation in the Scriptures, expressed in the most
sublime language. From the annunciation by Moses of a divine existence
who was “in the beginning,” before all things, the very first step is to
the display of his almighty power in the creation out of nothing, and
the immediate arrangement in order and perfection, of the “_heaven and
the earth_;” by which is meant, not this globe only with its atmosphere,
or even with its own celestial system, but the universe itself; for “_he
made the stars also_.” We are thus at once placed in the presence of an
agent of unbounded power; for we must all feel that a being which could
create such a world as this, must, beyond all comparison, possess a
power greater than any which we experience in ourselves, than any which
we observe in other visible agents, and to which we are not authorized
by our observation or knowledge to assign any limits of space or
duration.
2. That the sacred writers should so frequently dwell upon the
omnipotence of God, has important reasons which arise out of the very
design of the revelation which they were the means of communicating to
mankind. Men were to be reminded of their obligations to obedience; and
God is therefore constantly exhibited as the Creator, the Preserver, and
Lord of all things. His solemn worship and fear were to be enjoined upon
them; and, by the manifestation of his works, the veil was withdrawn
from his glory and majesty. Idolatry was to be checked and reproved, and
the true God was therefore placed in contrast with the limited and
powerless gods of the Heathen: “Among the gods of the nations, is there
no god like unto thee; neither are there any works like thy works.”
Finally, he is exhibited as the object of _trust_ to creatures
constantly reminded by experience of their own infirmity and dependence;
and to them it is essential to know, that his power is absolute,
unlimited, and irresistible, and that, in a word, he is “mighty to
save.”
3. In a revelation which was thus designed to awe and control the
wicked, and to afford strength of mind and consolation to good men under
all circumstances, the omnipotence of God is therefore placed in a great
variety of impressive views, and connected with the most striking
illustrations.
It is declared by the fact of _creation_, the creation of beings out of
_nothing_; which itself, though it had been confined to a single object,
however minute, exceeds finite comprehension, and overwhelms the
faculties. This with God required no effort: “He spake and it was done,
he commanded and it stood fast.” The _vastness_ and _variety_ of his
works enlarge the conception: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth his handy work.” “He spreadeth out the heavens,
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and
Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; he doeth great things, past
finding out, yea, and wonders without number. He stretcheth out the
north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He
bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent
under them; he hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and
night come to an end.” The _ease_ with which he sustains, orders, and
controls the most powerful and unruly of the elements, arrays his
omnipotence with an aspect of ineffable dignity and majesty: “By him all
things consist.” “He brake up for the sea a decreed place, and set bars
and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here
shall thy proud waves be stayed.” “He looketh to the end of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, to
weigh the waters by measure, to make a decree for the rain, and a way
for the lightning of the thunder.” “Who hath measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended the dust
of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the
hills in a balance.” The descriptions of the divine power are often
_terrible_: “The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his
reproof; he divideth the sea by his power.” “He removeth the mountains,
and they know it not; he overturneth them in his anger; he shaketh the
earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; he commandeth
the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars.” The same absolute
subjection of creatures to his dominion is seen among the intelligent
inhabitants of the material universe; and angels, mortals the most
exalted, and evil spirits, are swayed with as much ease as the most
passive elements: “He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a
flame of fire.” They veil their faces before his throne, and acknowledge
themselves his servants: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the
earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,” “as the dust of
the balance, less than nothing and vanity.” “He bringeth princes to
nothing.” “He setteth up one and putteth down another;” “for the kingdom
is the Lord’s, and he is governor among the nations.” “The angels that
sinned he cast down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment.” The closing scenes of this world complete
these transcendent conceptions of the majesty and power of God. The dead
of all ages rise from their graves at his _voice_: and the sea gives up
the dead which are in it. Before his _face_ heaven and earth fly away;
the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven are shaken. The
dead, small and great, stand before God, and are divided as a shepherd
divideth the sheep from the goats. The wicked go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
4. Of these amazing views of the omnipotence of God, spread almost
through every page of the Scriptures, the power lies in their _truth_.
They are not eastern exaggerations, mistaken for sublimity. Every thing
in nature answers to them, and renews from age to age the energy of the
impression which they cannot but make on the reflecting mind. The order
of the astral revolutions indicates the constant presence of an
invisible but incomprehensible power. The seas hurl the weight of their
billows upon the rising shores, but every where find a “_bound_ fixed by
a perpetual decree.” The tides reach their height; if they flowed on for
a few hours, the earth would change places with the bed of the sea; but,
under an invisible control, they become refluent. The expression, “He
toucheth the mountains and they smoke,” is not mere imagery:--every
volcano is a testimony of its truth; and earthquakes proclaim, that,
before him, “the pillars of the world tremble.” Men collected into
armies, or populous nations, give us vast ideas of human power; but let
an army be placed amidst the sand storms and burning winds of the
desert, as, in the east; or, before “_his frost_,” as in our own day in
Russia, where one of the mightiest armaments was seen retreating before,
or perishing under, an unexpected visitation of snow and storm; or let
the utterly helpless state of a populous country which has been visited
by famine, or by a resistless pestilential disease, be reflected upon;
and we feel that it is scarcely a figure of speech to say, that “all
nations before him are _less than nothing_ and _vanity_.”
5. Nor, in reviewing this doctrine of Scripture, ought the great
practical uses made of the omnipotence of God, by the sacred writers, to
be overlooked. By them nothing is said for the mere display of
knowledge, as in Heathen writers; and we have no speculations without a
subservient _moral_. To excite and keep alive in man the fear and
worship of God, and to bring him to a felicitous confidence in that
almighty power which pervades and controls all things, are the noble
ends of those ample displays of the omnipotence of God, which roll
through the sacred volume with a sublimity that inspiration only could
supply. “Declare his glory among the Heathen, his marvellous works among
all nations; for great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.--Glory
and honour are in his presence, and strength and gladness in his
place.--Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the
Lord glory and strength; give unto the Lord the glory due unto his
name.--The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?--The
Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If God be
for us, who _then_ can be against us? Our help standeth in the name of
the Lord, who made heaven and earth.--What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee.”--Thus, as one observes, “our natural fears, of which we
must have many, remit us to God, and remind us, since we know what God
is, to lay hold on his almighty power.”
6. Ample, however, as are these views of the power of God, the subject
is not exhausted. As, when the Scriptures speak of the eternity of God,
they declare it so as to give us a mere glimpse of that fearful
peculiarity of the divine nature, that God is the fountain of being to
himself, and that he is eternal, because he is the “I AM;” so we are
taught not to measure God’s omnipotence by the actual displays of it
which we see around us. These are the _manifestations_ of the fact, but
not the _measure_ of the attribute; and should we resort to the
discoveries of modern philosophy, which, by the help of instruments, has
so greatly enlarged the known boundaries of the visible universe, and
add to the stars which are visible to the naked eye, those new
exhibitions of the divine power in the nebulous appearances of the
heavens which are resolvable into myriads of distinct celestial
luminaries, whose immense distances commingle their light before it
reaches our eyes; we thus almost infinitely expand the circle of created
existence, and enter upon a formerly unknown and overwhelming range of
divine operation. But still we are only reminded, that his power is
truly _almighty_ and _measureless_--“Lo, all these are parts of his
ways; but how little a portion is known of him, and the thunder of his
power who can understand?” It is a mighty conception that we form of a
power from which all other power is derived, and to which it is
subordinate; which nothing can oppose; which can beat down and
annihilate all other power whatever; which operates in the most perfect
manner, at once, in an instant, with the utmost ease; but the Scriptures
lead us to the contemplation of greater and even unfathomable depths.
The omnipotence of God is inconceivable and boundless. It arises from
the infinite perfection of God, that his power can never be actually
exhausted; and, in every imaginable instant in eternity, that
inexhaustible power of God can, if it please him, be adding either more
creatures to those in existence, or greater perfection to them; since
“it belongs to self-existent being, to be always full and communicative,
and, to the communicated contingent being, to be ever empty and
craving.”
7. One limitation of the divine power it is true we can conceive, but it
detracts nothing from its perfection. Where things in themselves imply a
contradiction, as that a body may be extended and not extended, in a
certain place and not in it, at the same time; such things cannot be
done by God, because contradictions are impossible in their own nature.
Nor is it any derogation from the divine power to say, they cannot be
done; for as the object of the understanding, of the eye, and the ear,
is that which is intelligible, visible, and audible; so the object of
power must be that which is possible; and as it is no prejudice to the
most perfect understanding, or sight, or hearing, that it does not
understand what is not intelligible, or see what is not visible, or hear
what is not audible; so neither is it any diminution to the most perfect
power, that it does not do what is not possible. In like manner, God
cannot do any thing that is repugnant to his other perfections: he
cannot lie, nor deceive, nor deny himself; for this would be injurious
to his truth. He cannot love sin, nor punish innocence; for this would
destroy his holiness and goodness: and therefore to ascribe a power to
him that is inconsistent with the rectitude of his nature, is not to
magnify but debase him; for all unrighteousness is weakness, a defection
from right reason, a deviation from the perfect rule of action, and
arises from a want of goodness and power. In a word, since all the
attributes of God are essentially the same, a power in him which tends
to destroy any other attribute of the divine nature, must be a power
destructive of itself. Well, therefore, may we conclude him absolutely
omnipotent, who, by being able to effect all things consistent with his
perfections, showeth infinite ability, and, by not being able to do any
thing repugnant to the same perfections, demonstrates himself subject to
no infirmity.
8. Nothing certainly in the finest writings of antiquity, were all their
best thoughts collected as to the majesty and power of God, can bear any
comparison with the views thus presented to us by divine revelation.
Were we to forget, for a moment, what is the fact, that their noblest
notions stand connected with fancies and vain speculations which deprive
them of their force, still their thoughts never rise so high; the
current is broken, the round of lofty conception is not completed, and,
unconnected as their views of divine power were with the eternal destiny
of man, and the very reason of creation, we never hear in them, as in
the Scriptures, “the THUNDER of his power.”
_Shaddai_, signifies also _all-sufficient_, or _all-bountiful_. See Gen.
xxviii, 3; xxxv, 11; xliii, 14; xlix, 25. Of the omnipotence of God, we
have a most ample revelation in the Scriptures, expressed in the most
sublime language. From the annunciation by Moses of a divine existence
who was “in the beginning,” before all things, the very first step is to
the display of his almighty power in the creation out of nothing, and
the immediate arrangement in order and perfection, of the “_heaven and
the earth_;” by which is meant, not this globe only with its atmosphere,
or even with its own celestial system, but the universe itself; for “_he
made the stars also_.” We are thus at once placed in the presence of an
agent of unbounded power; for we must all feel that a being which could
create such a world as this, must, beyond all comparison, possess a
power greater than any which we experience in ourselves, than any which
we observe in other visible agents, and to which we are not authorized
by our observation or knowledge to assign any limits of space or
duration.
2. That the sacred writers should so frequently dwell upon the
omnipotence of God, has important reasons which arise out of the very
design of the revelation which they were the means of communicating to
mankind. Men were to be reminded of their obligations to obedience; and
God is therefore constantly exhibited as the Creator, the Preserver, and
Lord of all things. His solemn worship and fear were to be enjoined upon
them; and, by the manifestation of his works, the veil was withdrawn
from his glory and majesty. Idolatry was to be checked and reproved, and
the true God was therefore placed in contrast with the limited and
powerless gods of the Heathen: “Among the gods of the nations, is there
no god like unto thee; neither are there any works like thy works.”
Finally, he is exhibited as the object of _trust_ to creatures
constantly reminded by experience of their own infirmity and dependence;
and to them it is essential to know, that his power is absolute,
unlimited, and irresistible, and that, in a word, he is “mighty to
save.”
3. In a revelation which was thus designed to awe and control the
wicked, and to afford strength of mind and consolation to good men under
all circumstances, the omnipotence of God is therefore placed in a great
variety of impressive views, and connected with the most striking
illustrations.
It is declared by the fact of _creation_, the creation of beings out of
_nothing_; which itself, though it had been confined to a single object,
however minute, exceeds finite comprehension, and overwhelms the
faculties. This with God required no effort: “He spake and it was done,
he commanded and it stood fast.” The _vastness_ and _variety_ of his
works enlarge the conception: “The heavens declare the glory of God, and
the firmament showeth his handy work.” “He spreadeth out the heavens,
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea; he maketh Arcturus, Orion, and
Pleiades, and the chambers of the south; he doeth great things, past
finding out, yea, and wonders without number. He stretcheth out the
north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He
bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent
under them; he hath compassed the waters with bounds until the day and
night come to an end.” The _ease_ with which he sustains, orders, and
controls the most powerful and unruly of the elements, arrays his
omnipotence with an aspect of ineffable dignity and majesty: “By him all
things consist.” “He brake up for the sea a decreed place, and set bars
and doors, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no farther, and here
shall thy proud waves be stayed.” “He looketh to the end of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven, to make the weight for the winds, to
weigh the waters by measure, to make a decree for the rain, and a way
for the lightning of the thunder.” “Who hath measured the waters in the
hollow of his hand, meted out heaven with a span, comprehended the dust
of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the
hills in a balance.” The descriptions of the divine power are often
_terrible_: “The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at his
reproof; he divideth the sea by his power.” “He removeth the mountains,
and they know it not; he overturneth them in his anger; he shaketh the
earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; he commandeth
the sun and it riseth not, and sealeth up the stars.” The same absolute
subjection of creatures to his dominion is seen among the intelligent
inhabitants of the material universe; and angels, mortals the most
exalted, and evil spirits, are swayed with as much ease as the most
passive elements: “He maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a
flame of fire.” They veil their faces before his throne, and acknowledge
themselves his servants: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the
earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers,” “as the dust of
the balance, less than nothing and vanity.” “He bringeth princes to
nothing.” “He setteth up one and putteth down another;” “for the kingdom
is the Lord’s, and he is governor among the nations.” “The angels that
sinned he cast down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment.” The closing scenes of this world complete
these transcendent conceptions of the majesty and power of God. The dead
of all ages rise from their graves at his _voice_: and the sea gives up
the dead which are in it. Before his _face_ heaven and earth fly away;
the stars fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven are shaken. The
dead, small and great, stand before God, and are divided as a shepherd
divideth the sheep from the goats. The wicked go away into everlasting
punishment, but the righteous into life eternal.
4. Of these amazing views of the omnipotence of God, spread almost
through every page of the Scriptures, the power lies in their _truth_.
They are not eastern exaggerations, mistaken for sublimity. Every thing
in nature answers to them, and renews from age to age the energy of the
impression which they cannot but make on the reflecting mind. The order
of the astral revolutions indicates the constant presence of an
invisible but incomprehensible power. The seas hurl the weight of their
billows upon the rising shores, but every where find a “_bound_ fixed by
a perpetual decree.” The tides reach their height; if they flowed on for
a few hours, the earth would change places with the bed of the sea; but,
under an invisible control, they become refluent. The expression, “He
toucheth the mountains and they smoke,” is not mere imagery:--every
volcano is a testimony of its truth; and earthquakes proclaim, that,
before him, “the pillars of the world tremble.” Men collected into
armies, or populous nations, give us vast ideas of human power; but let
an army be placed amidst the sand storms and burning winds of the
desert, as, in the east; or, before “_his frost_,” as in our own day in
Russia, where one of the mightiest armaments was seen retreating before,
or perishing under, an unexpected visitation of snow and storm; or let
the utterly helpless state of a populous country which has been visited
by famine, or by a resistless pestilential disease, be reflected upon;
and we feel that it is scarcely a figure of speech to say, that “all
nations before him are _less than nothing_ and _vanity_.”
5. Nor, in reviewing this doctrine of Scripture, ought the great
practical uses made of the omnipotence of God, by the sacred writers, to
be overlooked. By them nothing is said for the mere display of
knowledge, as in Heathen writers; and we have no speculations without a
subservient _moral_. To excite and keep alive in man the fear and
worship of God, and to bring him to a felicitous confidence in that
almighty power which pervades and controls all things, are the noble
ends of those ample displays of the omnipotence of God, which roll
through the sacred volume with a sublimity that inspiration only could
supply. “Declare his glory among the Heathen, his marvellous works among
all nations; for great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.--Glory
and honour are in his presence, and strength and gladness in his
place.--Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the
Lord glory and strength; give unto the Lord the glory due unto his
name.--The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?--The
Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? If God be
for us, who _then_ can be against us? Our help standeth in the name of
the Lord, who made heaven and earth.--What time I am afraid, I will
trust in thee.”--Thus, as one observes, “our natural fears, of which we
must have many, remit us to God, and remind us, since we know what God
is, to lay hold on his almighty power.”
6. Ample, however, as are these views of the power of God, the subject
is not exhausted. As, when the Scriptures speak of the eternity of God,
they declare it so as to give us a mere glimpse of that fearful
peculiarity of the divine nature, that God is the fountain of being to
himself, and that he is eternal, because he is the “I AM;” so we are
taught not to measure God’s omnipotence by the actual displays of it
which we see around us. These are the _manifestations_ of the fact, but
not the _measure_ of the attribute; and should we resort to the
discoveries of modern philosophy, which, by the help of instruments, has
so greatly enlarged the known boundaries of the visible universe, and
add to the stars which are visible to the naked eye, those new
exhibitions of the divine power in the nebulous appearances of the
heavens which are resolvable into myriads of distinct celestial
luminaries, whose immense distances commingle their light before it
reaches our eyes; we thus almost infinitely expand the circle of created
existence, and enter upon a formerly unknown and overwhelming range of
divine operation. But still we are only reminded, that his power is
truly _almighty_ and _measureless_--“Lo, all these are parts of his
ways; but how little a portion is known of him, and the thunder of his
power who can understand?” It is a mighty conception that we form of a
power from which all other power is derived, and to which it is
subordinate; which nothing can oppose; which can beat down and
annihilate all other power whatever; which operates in the most perfect
manner, at once, in an instant, with the utmost ease; but the Scriptures
lead us to the contemplation of greater and even unfathomable depths.
The omnipotence of God is inconceivable and boundless. It arises from
the infinite perfection of God, that his power can never be actually
exhausted; and, in every imaginable instant in eternity, that
inexhaustible power of God can, if it please him, be adding either more
creatures to those in existence, or greater perfection to them; since
“it belongs to self-existent being, to be always full and communicative,
and, to the communicated contingent being, to be ever empty and
craving.”
7. One limitation of the divine power it is true we can conceive, but it
detracts nothing from its perfection. Where things in themselves imply a
contradiction, as that a body may be extended and not extended, in a
certain place and not in it, at the same time; such things cannot be
done by God, because contradictions are impossible in their own nature.
Nor is it any derogation from the divine power to say, they cannot be
done; for as the object of the understanding, of the eye, and the ear,
is that which is intelligible, visible, and audible; so the object of
power must be that which is possible; and as it is no prejudice to the
most perfect understanding, or sight, or hearing, that it does not
understand what is not intelligible, or see what is not visible, or hear
what is not audible; so neither is it any diminution to the most perfect
power, that it does not do what is not possible. In like manner, God
cannot do any thing that is repugnant to his other perfections: he
cannot lie, nor deceive, nor deny himself; for this would be injurious
to his truth. He cannot love sin, nor punish innocence; for this would
destroy his holiness and goodness: and therefore to ascribe a power to
him that is inconsistent with the rectitude of his nature, is not to
magnify but debase him; for all unrighteousness is weakness, a defection
from right reason, a deviation from the perfect rule of action, and
arises from a want of goodness and power. In a word, since all the
attributes of God are essentially the same, a power in him which tends
to destroy any other attribute of the divine nature, must be a power
destructive of itself. Well, therefore, may we conclude him absolutely
omnipotent, who, by being able to effect all things consistent with his
perfections, showeth infinite ability, and, by not being able to do any
thing repugnant to the same perfections, demonstrates himself subject to
no infirmity.
8. Nothing certainly in the finest writings of antiquity, were all their
best thoughts collected as to the majesty and power of God, can bear any
comparison with the views thus presented to us by divine revelation.
Were we to forget, for a moment, what is the fact, that their noblest
notions stand connected with fancies and vain speculations which deprive
them of their force, still their thoughts never rise so high; the
current is broken, the round of lofty conception is not completed, and,
unconnected as their views of divine power were with the eternal destiny
of man, and the very reason of creation, we never hear in them, as in
the Scriptures, “the THUNDER of his power.”