The Latin
word is natura, which, at first sight, seems less abstruse and
metaphysical than the Greek οὐσία, or ὑπόστασις,
or the Latin essentia and substantia, though it is not
really so. A man’s natura, nature, is what he is at
and from the beginning; “change of nature” means not an
absolute change, but a reformation, a new guidance and treatment of
tendencies, passions, powers—some receiving a precedence denied
them before, others being suppressed and put in subjection. So
God’s “nature” is what He is from and to all
eternity, in Himself, unchangingly and unchangeably.