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is not unclean , 1 Cor. vii. 14 ; and, you rescued from , [e^u<ra<rde], instead of you did not deliver up. Jos. xxii. 31.
19. VE r/, <25 yg£) even still. This particle well expresses the peevish outcry. To the objection here put, Paul answers in two ways. I. The power of God over men is greater than the power of the potter over the clay, ver. 20, 21. Then II. He answers more mildly: God has not exercised His power, not even over the vessels of wrath, ver. 22. — a vrov, His) It is put for, of God , and expresses the feeling, by which objectors of this description show their aversion from God.
20.1 ’AvQputfs, Oman) weak, ignorant of righteousness [i.e. the true way of justification]. — y ,r\ sps?, x.r.x.) Isa. xxix. 16. Ov% ug cnjXog rou xspu/isco-g Xoy/o'dq (raffle ; (Lr\ spsT rb rrXdsfia tuj rrXourccvn auro, ov <n) (n gVXa<rac. The same prophet, ch. xlv. 9, [ly\ speTb ^Xbg ru> xipd(LU\ ri rrou/'g, on ovx spydZrj, ovd s ?%£/£ yeipag. (ly\ uToxgidqfferai rb rrXuiffLa rrpog rov ‘v’kdaavra, avro ; Shall ye not be reckoned as the potter’s clay ? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it , Thou hast not formed me ? Is. xlv. 9, Shall the clay say to the potter , what art thou doing , that thou dost not work, thou hast no hands ? Shall the thing formed answer Him that formed it ? — (Yers. LXX.)
21. J,H) particle of interrogation [ anT\ . — i^ooff/ocv, power ) con- strued with, over the clay. The potter does not make the clay but digs it out ; God makes man, therefore He has greater power [over man], than the potter [over the clay]. But absolute power and liberty do not imply,, that the will and decree are absolute. If God had left the whole human race under the power of sin and death, He would not have done unjustly, but He did not exercise that right. [Man is struck with the vivid exhibition of Divine power , so that he ever after unlearns all the outrageous (unreasonable) suspicions of his thoughts , against the justice [righteousness~\ of God , Matt. xx. 15.; Ex. xx. 20 ; Job xlii. 2, 6. — Y. g.]. — cpupu/Larog ) lump , which has been prepared from clay and softened by steeping, and has its
1 M.evovvyi, but truly) This answer savours of a severe and somewhat vehement nature. Men of fierce dispositions must certainly be restrained ; but the sweetest foundation of the whole argument is subsequently disclosed to them that are called, ver. 24. In this discussion, he who merely cuts off a portion of it from the rest, must be perplexed and stick at trifles ; but he proceeds easily, who thoroughly weighs the whole connection of chapters ix.,. x., xi.— Y. g.
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