A Golden Chain

In the 19. verse there follows an other objection, arising out of the answer to the former, on this manner: If God will have some to be hardened and rejected, ⟨p. 456⟩and his will can not be resisted, then with no justice can he punish them that are necessarily subject to his decree: but God will have some to be hardened and rejected, and his will can not be resisted: therefore (saith the adversary) with no justice can he punish man that is necessarily subject to his decree. Here mark, that if there had been an universal election of all men, and if men had been elected or rejected according as God did foresee that they would believe or not believe, the occasion of this objection had been cut off. But let us come to Pauls answer. In the 20. verse he takes the assumption for granted, that some are rejected because God will: and that the will, that is, the decree of God can not be resisted:¹ and only denies the coherence of the proposition, checking the malapert pride of the adversary, and showing that the making of this wicked and blasphemous collection against the will of God, is as if a man should sue God at the law, and bring him as it were to the bar, and plead against him as his equal, whereas indeed the creature is nothing to the creator, and is absolutely to submit it self to his will in all things. In vers. 21. he proceeds to a second answer, showing that Gods will is not to be blamed, because by his absolute sovereignty and the right of creation, he hath power to choose men, or to reject and harden them. And where there is right and power to do a thing, the will of the doer is not to be blamed. Now that God hath this right and power over his creature, it is proved by a comparison from the less to the greater, on this manner. The potter hath power over the clay to make of the same lump one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour: therefore may God much more make some vessels of mercy, and some vessels of wrath prepared to destruction. The first part of the comparison is vers. 21. the second part vers. 22, 23. And least any man should think that God makes vessels of honour and dishonour without sufficient and just cause in himself, as the potter may do: therefore he sets down ends of the will of God: he makes vessels of dishonour to show his wrath, and to make manifest his power:

In the 19. verse there followes an other obiection, arising out of the answer to the former, on this manner: If God will haue some to be hardened and reiected,