.(345) But the ambiguity of these details does not interfere with
the moral of the whole.

This parable is immediately followed by the ironic metaphor of the Jars
Full of Wine, XIII. 12-14, which I have already quoted.(346)

Next comes the Parable of the Potter, Ch. XVIII, that might be from any
part of the Prophet's ministry, during which he was free to move in
public. This parable is instructive first by disclosing one of the ways
along which Revelation reached, and spelt itself out in, the mind of the
Prophet. He felt a Divine impulse to go down to the house of the
Potter,(347) _and there I will cause thee to hear My Words_, obviously not
words spoken to the outward ear. For, as Jeremiah watched the potter at
work on _his two stones_,(348) and saw that when the vessel he first
attempted was marred he would remould the clay into another vessel as
seemed good to him, a fresh conception of the Divine Method with men broke
upon Jeremiah and became articulate. A word from the Lord flashed through
his eyes upon his mind, just as in his first visions of the almond-blossom
and the caldron.(349)

XVIII. 5. Then the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [6] O
House of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter?(350) Behold,
as the clay in the hand of the potter, so are ye in My hand.(351)

Thus by figure and by word the Divine Sovereignty was proclaimed as
absolutely as possible. But the Sovereignty is a real Sovereignty and
therefore includes Freedom. It is not fettered by its own previous
decrees, as some rigorous doctrines of predestination insist, but is free
to recall and alter these, should the human characters and wills with
which it works in history themselves change. There is a Divine as well as
a human Free-will. "God's dealing with men is moral; He treats them as
their moral conduct permits Him to do."(352)

The Predestination of men or nations, which the Prophet sees figured in
the work of the potter, is to Service. This is clear from the comparison
between Israel and a vessel designed for a definite use. It recalls
Jeremiah's similar conception of his own predestination, which was not to
a certain state, of life or death, but to the office of speaker for God to
the nations. Yet because the acceptance or rejection by a nation or an
individual of the particular service, for which God has destined them,
naturally determines their ultimate fate, therefore this wider sense,
which predestination ca