it is impossible for it to be possible and within the power of two agents. For whether something is possible and within an agent’s power does not vary according to whether there is one agent capable of producing it or several. Thus, if it cannot be an effect within the power of one agent, it cannot be an effect within the power of two. Conversely, if it can be a possible effect within the power of two agents, it can also be within the power of one.
This is clear when possibility and impossibility arise from something in the possible effect itself, since its intrinsic attributes do not differ between the two cases. The same applies when they arise from something in the agent, for it is not impossible for the power possessed by two agents to be possessed by one. Indeed, the possibility of this is self-evident to reason. For reason knows self-evidently that all attributes, power and others alike, attain greater perfection when their bearer is unified and integrated rather than multiple and dispersed. This is why coming together and acting jointly give created beings a strength and power they do not possess when separated and acting individually, even if their conditions otherwise remain unchanged.
Indeed, individuals, bodily members, and other separate bodies each possess a power. If they are conceived as united and brought together, that power becomes stronger and more complete, because their union and coming together, to the extent possible, provide it with something it lacked when they were separate and multiple. This shows that, if the two agents possessing a power are conceived as one thing, that power becomes more complete. How, then, could it fail to be equal to the power