The arguments of greatest consequence, are the third and the fifth, and they fall both into one, namely: _If there be a necessity of all events, that it will follow, that praise and reprehension, and reward and punishment, are all vain and unjust; and that if God should openly forbid, and secretly necessitate the same action, punishing men for what they could not avoid, there would be no belief among them of heaven and hell_. To oppose hereunto I must borrow an answer from St. Paul, Rom. ix. 20, 21. From the eleventh verse of the chapter to the eighteenth, is laid down the very same objection in these words: _When they_, meaning Esau and Jacob, _were yet unborn, and had done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of God according to election, not by works, but by him that calleth, might remain firm, it was said unto her_ (_viz._ Rebecca) _that the elder should serve the younger_, &c. _What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? God forbid. It is not therefore in him that willeth, nor in him that runneth, but in God that showeth mercy. For the Scripture saith to Pharaoh, I have stirred thee up that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be set forth in all the earth. Therefore whom God willeth, he hath mercy on, and whom he willeth he hardeneth._ Thus you see the case put by St. Paul, is the same with that of my Lord Bishop, and the same objection in these words following: _Thou wilt ask me then, why does God yet complain, for who hath resisted his will?_ To this therefore the Apostle answers, not by denying it was God’s _will_, or that the decree of God concerning Esau was not before he had sinned, or that Esau was not necessitated to do what he did; but thus: _Who art thou, O man, that interrogatest God? Shall the work say to the workman, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same stuff to make one vessel to honour, another to dishonour?_ According therefore to this answer of St. Paul, I answer my Lord’s objection, and say, the _power_ of God alone without other helps is sufficient _justification_ of any action he doth. That which men make amongst themselves here by pacts and covenants, and call by the name of justice, and according whereunto men are accounted and termed rightly _just_ or _unjust_, is not that by which God Almighty’s actions are to be measured or called just, no more than his counsels are to be measured by human wisdom. That which he does, is made just by his doing it; just, I say, in him, though not always just in us.