the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe
with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of
Israel"?[507] Reasonings on the sovereignty of God exercised in setting
apart a limited number to the benefits of salvation, illustrate and
assert the truth. "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against
God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou
made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump,
to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with
much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: and that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy,
which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called,
not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles."[508] In such terms is
God described as not merely having created all things, but as having
predestinated some to eternal life, and decreed that others should be
left to perish. The mode of expression embodying the image of the potter
agrees with the words of the Old Testament Scriptures,--"Surely your
turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay:
for shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? or shall the
thing framed (formed) say of him that framed (formed) it, he had no
understanding?"[509] What is taught by the use of such language must
therefore be implied in those declarations of the prophets, where
corresponding terms are employed. In the language of the Old Testament,
the potter is literally, he who forms. According to the Apostle, the
potter symbolizes him who predestinates. Hence, since, as in the
words,--"Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd
strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth (formeth) it, what makest thou? or thy work, he hath no
hands,"[510] he is compared to the potter, He is to be recognised as the
sovereign Disposer of the final conditions of all. And forasmuch as, at
a given period, concerning the existing house of Jacob, framed by him,
he says in regard to their descendants, also formed by him, "But when he
seeth his children, the work of mine hands, in the midst of him, they
shall sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall
fear the God of Israel,"[511] depicting all of them in the character of
those who avouch him to be their Go