Origen: On First Principles

not even pretend that it is dependent upon ourselves, but appears to attribute the whole to God, saying, “The potter hath power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another to dishonour;” and as his statements are not contradictory, we must reconcile them, and extract one complete statement from both. Neither does our own power, ^[1] apart from the knowledge ^[2] of God, compel us to make progress; nor does the knowledge of God (do so), unless we ourselves also contribute something to the good result; nor does our own power, apart from the knowledge of God, and the use of the power that worthily belongs to us, ^[3] make a man become (a vessel) unto honour or dishonour; nor does the will of God alone ^[4] form a man to honour or to dishonour, unless He hold our will to be a kind of matter that admits of variation, ^[5] and that inclines to a better or worse course of conduct. And these observations are sufficient to have been made by us on the subject of free-will.