Chapter 9

  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,  

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  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.  

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  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:  

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  Who are Israelites; to whom [pertaineth] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises;  

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  Whose [are] the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [came], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.  

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  Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel:  

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  Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.  

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  That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.  

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  For this [is] the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.  

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  And not only [this]; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac;  

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  (For [the children] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)  

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  It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.  

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

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  What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness 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 have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  

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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 unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.  

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  Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth.  

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  Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?  

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  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?  

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  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 longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:  

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  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,  

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  Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?  

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  As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.  

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  And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.  

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  Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though 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 will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.  

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  And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.  

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

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  But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.  

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  Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;  

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  As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  

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