{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c005\">20. Still the declaration of the apostle will appear to drag\r\nus to the conclusion that we are not possessed of freedom of\r\nwill, in which, objecting against himself, he says, “Therefore\r\nhath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom\r\nHe will He hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why\r\ndoth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will?\r\nNay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?\r\nShall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast\r\nthou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the\r\nclay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and\r\nanother unto dishonour?”<a id=\"r573\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f573\"><sup>[573]</sup></a> For it will be said: If the potter\r\nof the same lump make some vessels to honour and others to\r\ndishonour, and God thus form some men for salvation and\r\nothers for ruin, then salvation or ruin does not depend upon\r\nourselves, nor are we possessed of free-will. Now we must\r\nask him who deals so with these passages, whether it is possible\r\nto conceive of the apostle as contradicting himself. I\r\npresume, however, that no one will venture to say so. If,\r\nthen, the apostle does not utter contradictions, how can he,\r\naccording to him who so understands him, reasonably find\r\nfault, censuring the individual at Corinth who had committed\r\nfornication, or those who had fallen away, and had\r\nnot repented of the licentiousness and impurity of which\r\nthey had been guilty? And how can he bless those whom\r\nhe praises as having done well, as he does the house of\r\nOnesiphorus in these words: “The Lord give mercy to the\r\nhouse of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not\r\nashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought\r\nme out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant to\r\nhim that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day.”<a id=\"r574\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f574\"><sup>[574]</sup></a> It\r\nis not consistent for the same apostle<a id=\"r575\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f575\"><sup>[575]</sup></a> to blame the sinner as\r\nworthy of censure, and to praise him who had done well as\r\ndeserving of approval; and again, on the other hand, to say,\r\nas if nothing depended on ourselves, that the cause was in\r\nthe Creator<a id=\"r576\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f576\"><sup>[576]</sup></a> why the one vessel was formed to honour, and\r\nthe other to dishonour. And how is this statement correct:<a id=\"r577\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f577\"><sup>[577]</sup></a>\r\n“For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ;\r\nthat every one may receive the things done in his body, according\r\nto that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,”<a id=\"r578\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f578\"><sup>[578]</sup></a>\r\nsince they who have done evil have advanced to this pitch\r\nof wickedness<a id=\"r579\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f579\"><sup>[579]</sup></a> because they were created vessels unto dishonour,\r\nwhile they that have lived virtuously have done good\r\nbecause they were created from the beginning for this purpose,\r\nand became vessels unto honour? And again, how\r\ndoes not the statement made elsewhere conflict with the view\r\nwhich these persons draw from the words which we have\r\nquoted (that it is the fault of the Creator that one vessel is\r\nin honour and another in dishonour), viz. “that in a great\r\nhouse there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also\r\nof wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to\r\ndishonour. If a man therefore purge himself, he shall be a\r\nvessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use,\r\nand prepared unto every good work;”<a id=\"r580\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f580\"><sup>[580]</sup></a> for if he who purges\r\nhimself becomes a vessel unto honour, and he who allows\r\nhimself to remain unpurged<a id=\"r581\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f581\"><sup>[581]</sup></a> becomes a vessel unto dishonour,\r\nthen, so far as these words are concerned, the Creator is not\r\nat all to blame. For the Creator makes vessels of honour\r\nand vessels of dishonour, not from the beginning according\r\nto His foreknowledge,<a id=\"r582\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f582\"><sup>[582]</sup></a> since He does not condemn or justify\r\nbeforehand<a id=\"r583\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f583\"><sup>[583]</sup></a> according to it; but [He makes] those into vessels\r\nof honour who purged themselves, and those into vessels of dishonour\r\nwho allowed themselves to remain unpurged: so that\r\nit results from older causes<a id=\"r584\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f584\"><sup>[584]</sup></a> [which operated] in the formation\r\nof the vessels unto honour and dishonour, that one was\r\ncreated for the former condition, and another for the latter.\r\nBut if we once admit that there were certain older causes [at\r\nwork] in the forming of a vessel unto honour, and of one\r\nunto dishonour, what absurdity is there in going back to the\r\nsubject of the soul, and [in supposing] that a more ancient\r\ncause for Jacob being loved and for Esau being hated existed\r\nwith respect to Jacob before his assumption of a body, and\r\nwith regard to Esau before he was conceived in the womb of\r\nRebecca?</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK III.","FROM THE GREEK."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-237"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0c8b4c92215d26c5c1344a701db3690f9bc38ad92715fcbd5b1196f31f267791","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f575","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f575","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f575\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r575\">575</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">οὐ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν δὴ ἀπόστολόν ἐστι.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f575","text_sha256":"3d05cb1b727767fb84f247fb18abe245c5ebdb4ffebbfa87aa6d0718fe2aae75","verified":false,"work_id":null}