Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

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Note VIII.
Esau. Vol. ix. p. 436. There is considerable confusion
here, and Origen seems to slide from works not carnal to
no works at all as the ground of election ; though the
former idea in the main prevails. Origen s main view of
the ground of election is foreseen good character. Vol. iv.
p. 616.
Jackson explains the similitude of the potter and the
clay on the same principle
first making was the fault of the clay. Vol. ix. p. 462.
But is this said in Scripture ? On the contrary, it is said
that all the clay was of the same lump, and therefore the
: That it was marred in the
difference of the Divine design did not arise from any dif
ference in the clay. Origen makes in the same way a
difference in the clay, though the very phrase eadem
massa, which he accepts, as he is obliged to do, from the
Apostle, refutes it. Videns Deus puritatern ejus, et
potestatem
habens ex eadem massa facere aliud vas ad
honorem aliud ad contumeliam, Jacob quidem qui emundaverat
seipsum fecit vas ad honorem ; Esau vero eujus
animam non ita puram nee ita simplicein videbat, ex
eadem massa fecit ad contumeliam. In Rom. ix. vol.
iv. p. 616.
With the explanation of foreseen goodness, however, as
the ground of election, Jackson couples the other mode of
reconciling the passage with freewill ; viz. that of election
to means and opportunities. The Apostle imagineth
such a potter as the wise man did, that knows a reason
why he makes one vessel of this fashion, another of that,
why he appoints this to a base use, that to a better. 1
P. 462.
Hooker s explanation of the passage (given in a recently
discovered and edited writing, made an appendix to Ec
clesiastical Polity, bk. v.) makes, like Origen s and Jack
son s, a difference in the clay, though he will not at the
same time allow that the Divine Justice requires this
reason for its own defence. Suppose (which is yet false)
that there were nothing in it, but only so Grod will have
it, suppose Grod did harden and soften, choose and cast
off, make honourable and detestable, whom Himself will,