Here (yet again) is an influential Puritan Reformed man, asserting that the Woodsman does not actually swing the axe, but that the axe swings by itself.
"I build a house subject to change and falling, which notwithstanding would continue many years, if it might be free from the annoyance of winds: yea, if I would but underprop it when the storm cometh, it would continue stable. But as soon as the winds begin to rage I do not underprop it, and it is my will not to underprop it, because it is my pleasure so to do; thereupon the house being weather beaten, falleth down. I see the fall, and in part I will it, because now when I could very easily have hindered the fall, yet I would not. And although thus far I do will the fall, in so much as it is my will not to hinder it, yet the cause of the fall is not to be imputed unto me, that did not underprop it, but to the winds which cast it down."
Thus, the cumulative wear and tear on the self-swinging and oft-used axe.
"So God leaving Adam unto himself that he might be proved by temptation, and that it might appear what the creature is able to do, the Creator ceasing for a time to help and guide, is not to be accounted the the cause of this fall. For he did not incline the mind to sin, he did not infuse any corruption, neither did he withdraw any gift which he did bestow in the creation: only it pleased him to deny or not to confer confirming grace. The proper cause of the fall was the devil attempting our overthrow, and Adam's will, which when it began to be proved by temptations, did not desire God's assistance, but voluntarily bent itself to fall away" (William Perkins, Predestination).
So, it appears that the axe is able to lift and swing itself as if it were not a created axe, but the Creator Woodsman. Or, if the axe insists on maintaining that it remains an axe, then apparently it is the axe who determines when and where it will swing. Of course, so long as the axe is able to boast against Him that heweth therewith, it may grudgingly concede some form of restraint to the woodsman. What a display of humility and generosity.
“Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? [or] shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake [itself] against them that lift it up, [or] as if the staff should lift up [itself, as if it were] no wood” (Isaiah 10:15).
And just in case anybody was wondering, Perkins answers in the affirmative.
