The
potter makes some for splendid or extraordinary uses and purposes, and
others for those which are mean and ordinary. So God has chosen
individuals to great and glorious uses, while others remain in the mean
or common mass, undistinguished by any very active part in the promotion
of the ends of the world. Nor have the latter any more reason to
complain that God has given to others greater spiritual gifts, than that
he has given to one man a better intellectual capacity than to another.
[Footnote 96: Rom. 9. 20. 21.]
They argue again, that the words "called or chosen," relate to
usefulness, and not to salvation; because, if men were predestined from
all eternity to salvation, they could not do any thing to deprive
themselves of that salvation; that is, they could never do any wrong in
this life, or fall from a state of purity: whereas it appears that many
of those whom the scriptures consider to have been chosen, have failed
in their duty to God; that these have had no better ground to stand
upon than their neighbours; that election has not secured them from the
displeasure of the Almighty, but that they have been made to stand or
fall, notwithstanding their election, as they acted well or ill, God
having conducted himself no otherwise to them, than he has done to
others in his moral government of the world.
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