The Institution of Christian Religion

Concerning the Providence of God, this that is said were enough for so much as is profitable both for the perfect learning and comfort of the faithful, (for to fill the vain curiosity of men, nothing can be sufficient, neither is it to be wished that they be satisfied) were it not for certain places, which seem to mean otherwise than is above declared, that God hath not a steadfast and stable purpose but changeable according to the disposition of inferior things.¹ First, in some places is spoken of the repentance of God, as that he repented him of the creating of man, of the advancing of Saul to the kingdom. And that he will repent him of the evil that he had determined to lay upon his people, so soon as he perceiveth any conversion of them. Again there are rehearsed diverse repels of his decrees.² He had declared by Jonah to the Ninevites that after .xl. days ones past Nineveh should be destroyed, but by and by he was turned with their repentance to a more gentle sentence.³ He had by the mouth of Isaiah pronounced death to Hezekiah, which he was moved by his tears and prayers to differ. Hereupon many do make argument, that God hath not appointed mens matters by eternal decree, but yearly, daily & hourly decreeth this or that, as every mans deservings are, or as he thinketh it equity and justice. Concerning his repentance this we ought to hold, that the same can no more be in God, than ignorance error and weakness. For if no man do wittingly and willingly throw himself into the case that he need to repent, we can not say that God doth repent, but that we must also say, that God is ignorant what will come to pass, or that he can not avoid it, or that he headlong and unadvisedly runneth into a purpose whereof he by & by for thinketh him. But that is so far from the meaning of the Holy ghost, that in the very mention making of repentance he denieth that God had any repenting at all, because he is not a man that may repent. And it is to be noted ⟨p. 67⟩that in the same chapter they are both so joined together, y• the comparison doth very well bring the show of repugnancy to agreement. His changing is figuratively spoken, that God repented that he had made Saul king,