Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

3. Unchangeableness doth necessarily pertain to the Nature of God. 'Tis of the same necessity with the rectitude of his Nature; He can no more be changeable in his Essence, than he can be unrighteous in his Actions. God is a necessary Being; He is necessarily what he is, and therefore is unchangeably what he is. Mutability belongs to contingency. If any perfection of his nature could be separated from him, he would cease to be God: What did not possess the whole Nature of God, could not have the Essence of God; 'Tis reciprocated with the Nature of God. Whatsoever is immutable by Nature, is God, whatsoever is God, is immutable by Nature. Some Creatures are immutable by his Grace and Power:^* God is holy, happy, wise, good by his Essence; Angels and Men are made holy, wise, happy, strong and good by Qualities and Graces: The Holiness, Happiness and Wisdom of Saints and Angels, as they had a beginning, so they are capable of increase and diminution, and of an end also; for their standing is not from themselves, or from the nature of created strength, holiness or wisdom, which in themselves are apt to fail and finally to decay; but from the stability and confirmation they have by the Gift and Grace of God: The Heaven and Earth shall be changed, and after that renewal and reparation, they shall not be changed. Our Bodies after the Resurrection shall not be changed, but for ever be made conformable to the glorious Body of Christ^*; but this is by the powerful Grace of God: So that indeed those things may be said afterwards rather to be unchanged than unchangeable, because they are not so by nature, but by sovereign dispensation. As Creatures have not necessary Beings, so they have not necessary Immutability. Necessity of being, and therefore Immutability of being ⟨p. 210⟩belongs by nature only to God; otherwise if there were any change in God, he would be sometimes what he was not, and would cease to be what he was; which is against the nature, and indeed against the natural notion of a Deity. Let us see then,

3. Ʋnchangeableness doth necessarily pertain to the Nature of God. 'Tis of the same necessity with the rectitude of his Nature; He can no more be changeable in his Essence, than he can be unrighteous in his Actions. God is a necessary Being; He is necessarily what he is, and therefore is unchangeably what he is. Mutability belongs to contingency. If any perfection of his nature could be separated from him, he would cease to be God: What did not possess the whole Nature of God, could not have the Essence of God; 'Tis reciprocated with the Nature of God. Whatsoever is immutable by Nature, is God, whatsoever is God, is immutable by Nature. Some Creatures are immutable by his Grace and Power: