POTTER. Frequent mention is made Jer. xviii. 3. על ,האבניםsuper duos lapides. Ecclus. xxxviii. 29, 30.of the Potter, in Scripture. Jeremiah represents him to us at work, sitting upon two Stones. And the Author of Ecclesiasticus says, So doth the Potter sitting at his Work, and turning the Wheel about with his Feet; who is alway carefully set at his Work, and maketh all his Work by Number: He fashioneth the Clay with his Arm, and boweth down his Strength before his Feet. Homer, Homer. Strab. l. 7. Geograph.quoted by Strabo, saith, That the Potter turns his Wheel with his Hands. And at this Day there is a great Difference in the several Manners and Postures used by the Potters, when they work at their Art.
Psal. ii. 9.When God would shew his absolute Dominion over Men, and his irresistible Power over their Hearts, he has often recourse to the Similitude of a Potter, who makes what he pleases of his Clay; sometimes a Vessel of Honour, and sometimes of Dishonour; now forming it, and then breaking it; now preserving it, and then rejecting it. Thou shalt break them with a Rod of Iron; thou shalt dash them in Pieces like a Potter’s Vessel. As the Clay is in the Potter’s Hand, to fashion it at his Pleasure; so Man is in the Hand of him that made him, to render to them as liketh him best. Shall the Thing formed say to him that Ecclus. xxxiii. 13.formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the Potter Power over the Clay, of the same Lump, to make one Vessel to Rom. ix. 21.Honour, and another unto Dishonour? See also Jer. xviii. 2, 3, &c.