Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God

5. Proposition. God is not changed, when of loving to any Creatures he becomes angry with them, or of angry he becomes appeased. The change in these cases is in the Creature; according to the alteration in the Creature, it stands in a various relation to God: an innocent Creature is the Object of his Kindness, an offending Creature is the Object of his Anger; there is a change in the dispensations of God, as there is a change in the Creature making himself capable of such dispensations. God always acts according to the immutable nature of his Holiness, and can no more change in his Affections to good and evil, than he can in his Essence. When the ⟨p. 228⟩Devils, now fallen, stood as glorious Angels, they were the Objects of Gods love, because holy: When they fell, they were the objects of Gods hatred, because impure; the same reason which made him love them while they were pure, made him hate them, when they were criminal: The reason of his various dispensations to them was the same in both, as considered in God, his immutable holiness; but as respecting the Creature, different; the nature of the Creature was changed, but the Divine holy nature of God remained the same;^* With the pure thou wilt show thy self pure, and with the froward thou wilt show thy self froward: He is a refreshing light to those that obey him, and a consuming fire to those that resist him. Tho the same Angels were not always loved; yet the same reason that moved him to love them, moved him to hate them. It had argued a change in God, if he had loved them alway, in whatsoever posture they were towards him: It could not be counted love, but a weakness and impotent fondness; the change is in the object not in the affection of God: For the object loved before, is not beloved now, because that which was the motive of love, is not now in it: So that the Creature having a different state from what it had, falls under a different affection or dispensation.

5. Proposition. God is not changed, when of loving to any Creatures he becomes angry with them, or of angry he becomes appeased. The change in these cases is in the Creature; according to the alteration in the Creature, it stands in a various relatition to God: an innocent Creature is the Object of his Kindness, an offending Creature is the Object of his Anger; there is a change in the dispensations of God, as there is a change in the Creature making himself capable of such dispensations. God always acts according to the immutable nature of his Holiness, and can no more change in his Affections to good and evil, than he can in his Essence. When the