Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

2. If God were changeable in his Knowledge, it would make him unfit to be an Object of Trust to any rational Creature. His Revelations would want the due ground for entertainment, if his Understanding were changeable; for that might be revealed as truth now which might prove false hereafter, and that as false now which hereafter might prove true; and so God would be an unfit Object of Obedience in regard of his Precepts, and an unfit Object of confidence in regard of his Promises: For if he be changeable in Knowledge, he is defective in Knowledge, and might promise that now which he would know afterwards was unfit to be promised, and therefore unfit to be performed: It would make him an incompetent Object of dread, in regard of his threatenings; for he might threaten that now, which he might know hereafter were not fit or just to be inflicted. A changeable mind and understanding cannot make a due and right judgment of things to be done, and things to be avoided. No wise man would judge it reasonable to trust a weak and flitting person.

2. If God were changeable in his Knowledge, it would make him unfit to be an Object of Trust to any rational Creature. His Revelations would want the due ground for entertainment, if his Understanding were changeable; for that might be revealed as truth now which might prove false heareafter, and that as false now which hereafter might prove true; and so God would be an unfit Object of Obedience in regard of his Precepts, and an unfit Object of confidence in regard of his Promises: For if he be changeable in Knowledge, he is defective in Knowledge, and might promise that now which he would know afterwards was unfit to be promised, and therefore unfit to be performed: It would make him an incompetent Object of dread, in regard of his threatnings; for he might threaten that now, which he might know hereafter were not fit or just to be inflicted. A changeable mind and understanding cannot make a due and right judgment of things to be done, and things to be avoided. No wise man would judge it reasonable to trust a weak and flitting person.

God must needs be unchangeable in his Knowledge: But, as the Schoolmen say, that as the Sun always shines, so God always knows; as the Sun never ceaseth to shine, so God never ceaseth to know: Nothing can be hid from the vast compass of his Understanding, no more than any thing can shelter it self without the Verge of his Power. This farther appears in that