23. And since the Apostle in one place does not pretend that it rests with God whether a man becomes a |163 vessel unto honour or unto dishonour, but puts the whole responsibility upon us, saying, "If then a man purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work"; and elsewhere he does not pretend that it depends upon us but lays the whole responsibility upon God, when he asserts that "the potter hath a right over the clay, to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour", and his statements are not contradictory; we must bring them both together, and from the two draw one sound conclusion. The power we have does not compel us to advance in goodness apart from the knowledge of God, nor does the knowledge of God compel us to advance unless we also contribute to the good result; for neither does our power apart from the knowledge of God, and the full use of what is in a worthy sense our "power," make a man to be unto honour or unto dishonour; nor does God's power alone fashion a man unto honour or dishonour unless He have our choice, inclining to the better or the worse, as a sort of raw material out of which to make the difference. This may suffice for our treatment of Free Will.