Chapter 9

  And not only she. But when Rebecca also had conceived at once, of Isaac our father.  

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  For when the children were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil (that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand,)  

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  Not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger.  

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  As it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.  

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  What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? God forbid.  

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  For he saith to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy.  

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  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.  

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  For the scripture saith to Pharao: To this purpose have I raised thee, that I may shew my power in thee, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.  

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  Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will; and whom he will, he hardeneth.  

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  Thou wilt say therefore to me: Why doth he then find fault? for who resisteth his will?  

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  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?  

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  Or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?  

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  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction,  

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  That he might shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath prepared unto glory?  

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  Even us, whom also he hath called, nor only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles.  

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  As in Osee he saith: I will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her that had not obtained mercy, one that hath obtained mercy.  

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  And it shall be, in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there they shall be called the sons of the living God.  

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  And Isaias crieth out concerning Israel: If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.  

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  For he shall finish his word, and cut it short in justice; because a short word shall the Lord make upon the earth.  

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  And as Isaias foretold: Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been made as Sodom, and we had been like unto Gomorrha.  

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  What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who followed not after justice, have attained to justice, even the justice that is of faith.  

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  But Israel, by following after the law of justice, is not come unto the law of justice.  

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  Why so? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were of works. For they stumbled at the stumblingstone.  

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  As it is written: Behold I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and a rock of scandal; and whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded.  

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