Vice, too, is so contrary to nature, that it cannot but damage it. And therefore departure from God would be no vice, unless in a nature whose property it was to abide with God. So that even the wicked will is a strong proof of the goodness of the nature. But God, as he is the supremely good creator of good natures so he is of evil wills the most just ruler, so that while they make an ill use of good natures, he makes a good use even of evil wills.#
In scripture they are called God’s enemies who oppose his rule, not by nature, but by vice; having no power to hurt him, but only themselves. #
When the will abandons what is above itself, and turns to what is lower, it becomes evil – not because that is evil to which it turns, but because the turning itself is wicked.#
Wherefore it is not without meaning said that all sin is a lie. For no sin is committed save by that desire or will by which we desire that it be well with us, and shrink from it being ill with us. That, therefore, is a lie which we do in order that it may be well with us, but which makes us more miserable than we were.#
And indeed, this is already sin, to desire those things which the law of God forbids, and to abstain from them through fear of punishment, not through love of righteousness.#
It is true that wicked men do many things contrary to God’s will; but so great is his wisdom and power, that all things which seem adverse to his purpose do still tend toward those just and good ends and issues which he himself has foreknown. And consequently, when God is said to change his will, as when, for example, he becomes angry with those to whom he was gently, it is rather they than he who are changed, and they find him changed insofar as their experience of suffering at his hand is new, as the sun is changed to injured eyes, and becomes as it were fierce from being mild, and hurtful from being delightful, though in itself it remains the same as it was.#
Let wretched men abjure that blasphemous perversity which would blame the darkness of their own hearts on the plain scriptures of God!#
This is what we come to when we seek to measure God and make excuses for him by human reason . . . we are overwhelmed by the glory . . . and instead of a single excuse we vomit out a thousand blasphemies.#
Actions are denominated virtuous or vicious, from their motives, not from their tendencies; tendencies that are not perceived, or not felt at the time of action, never determine the moral character of the action. If such a rule of moral judgment were for an instant admitted, many an action would become virtuous which the world had never suspected of being as such; nay, for ought we can tell, all moral evil itself might be found in the end to be so.#