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Page 13
9:11. 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):
Not yet born, etc... By this example of these twins, and the preference
of the younger to the elder, the drift of the apostle is, to shew that
God, in his election, mercy and grace, is not tied to any particular
nation, as the Jews imagined; nor to any prerogative of birth, or any
forgoing merits. For as, antecedently to his grace, he sees no merits in
any, but finds all involved in sin, in the common mass of condemnation;
and all children of wrath: there is no one whom he might not justly
leave in that mass; so that whomsoever he delivers from it, he delivers
in his mercy: and whomsoever he leaves in it, he leaves in his justice.
As when, of two equally criminal, the king is pleased out of pure mercy
to pardon one, whilst he suffers justice to take place in the execution
of the other.
9:12. Not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: The
elder shall serve the younger.
9:13. As it is written: Jacob I have loved: but Esau I have hated.
9:14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? God forbid!
9:15. 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.
9:16. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that sheweth mercy.
Not of him that willeth, etc... That is, by any power or strength of his
own, abstracting from the grace of God.
9:17. 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.
To this purpose, etc... Not that God made him on purpose that he should
sin, and so be damned; but foreseeing his obstinacy in sin, and the
abuse of his own free will, he raised him up to be a mighty king, to
make a more remarkable example of him: and that his power might be
better known, and his justice in punishing him, published throughout the
earth.
9:18. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will. And whom he will, he
hardeneth.
He hardeneth... Not by being the cause or author of his sin, but by
withholding his grace, and so leaving him in his sin, in punishment of
his past demerits.
9:19. Thou wilt say therefore to me: Why doth he then find fault? For
who resisteth his will?
9:20. 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?
9:21. Or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to
make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?
The potter... This similitude is used only to shew that we are not to
dispute with our Maker, nor to reason with him why he does not give as
uch grace to one as to another; for since the whole lump of our clay is
vitiated by sin, it is owing to his goodness and mercy, that he makes
out of it so many vessels of honor; and it is no more than just, that
others, in punishment of their unrepented sins, should be given up to be
vessels of dishonor.
9:22. What if God, willing to shew his wrath and to make his power
known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for
destruction,
9:23. That he might shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he hath prepared unto glory?
9:24. Even us, whom also he hath called, not only of the Jews but also
of the Gentiles.
9:25. 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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