...how people think, how they speak, or how they act - God determines their fate in a life after death.' Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the...

...art?' (PL V.819. 822-4) and draws on Romans 9:20, where Paul answers one who questions God's justice: 'Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?' Like Paul, Abdiel reverses the implied power of the questioner...