ix The Potter and the Clay. 165 



means of grace is punished by their withdrawal 

 a truth which all systems of religious philosophy 

 alike must accept as part of their data.] "Thou wilt 

 then say unto me, Why doth He yet find fault 1 for 

 who withstandeth His will 1 " [That is to say, Does 

 not God's sovereignty, then, supersede and annul 

 man's responsibility? If men's actions are fore- 

 ordained, how can any man be judged guilty 1] 

 " Nay but, man, who art thou that repliest against 

 God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that 

 formed it, Why didst thou make me thus 1 Or hath 

 not the potter a right over the clay, from the same 

 lump to make one part a vessel unto honour, and 

 another unto dishonour 1 ? What if God, willing to 

 show His wrath, and to make His power known " 

 [an allusion to v. 17: "For this very purpose did 

 I raise thee up, that I might show in thee My 

 power "], " endured with much longsuffering vessels 

 of wrath fitted to destruction " [fitted by what 

 agency ? This question is not answered, nor asked, 

 here : but there can be no doubt the Apostle be- 

 lieved that they are fitted to destruction, not by 

 God's will, but through their own fault. He does 

 not say that God makes them so, but that God 

 endures them. Compare 1 Timothy ii. 4 : "God our 

 Saviour, who willeth that all men should be saved and 

 come to a knowledge of the truth "] ; " and that He 

 might make known the riches of His glory upon 

 vessels of mercy, which He afore prepared unto 

 glory, even us 1 " 



