82 NATURAL THEOLOGY. 



"Omnipotence," " omniscience," "infinite " pow- 

 er, "infinite" knowledge, are superlatives ; expres- 

 sing our conception of these attributes in the 

 strongest and most elevated terms which language 

 supplies. We ascribe power to the Deity under 

 the name of " omnipotence," the strict and correct 

 conclusion being, that a power which could cre- 

 ate such a world as this is, must be, beyond all 

 comparison, greater than any which we experi- 

 ence in ourselves, than any which we observe in 

 other visible agents : greater also than any which 

 we can want, for our individual protection and 

 preservation, in the Being upon whom we depend. 

 It is a power, likewise, to which we are not autho- 

 rized, by our observation or knowledge, to assign 

 any limits of space or duration. 



A^ery much of the same sort of remark is appli- 

 cable to the term " omniscience," infinite know- 

 ledge, or infinite wisdom. In strictness of language, 

 there is a difference between knowledge and wis- 

 dom ; wisdom always supposing action, and ac- 

 tion directed by it. With respect to the first, viz. 

 knoicledgey the Creator must know, intimately, the 

 constitution and properties of the things which he 

 created : which seems also to imply a foreknow- 

 ledge of their action upon one another, and of 

 their changes ; at least, so far as the same result 

 from trains of physical and necessary causes. His 

 omniscience also, as far as respects things present, 

 is deducible from his natures, an intelligent be- 

 ing, joined with the extent, or rather the univer- 



