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God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have ye not known -- in Elijah -- what the Writing saith? how he doth plead with God concerning Israel, saying,
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'Lord, Thy prophets they did kill, and Thy altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they seek my life;'
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but what saith the divine answer to him? 'I left to Myself seven thousand men, who did not bow a knee to Baal.'
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So then also in the present time a remnant according to the choice of grace there hath been;
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and if by grace, no more of works, otherwise the grace becometh no more grace; and if of works, it is no more grace, otherwise the work is no more work.
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What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened,
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according as it hath been written, 'God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear,' -- unto this very day,
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and David saith, 'Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a recompense to them;
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let their eyes be darkened -- not to behold, and their back do Thou always bow down.'
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I say, then, Did they stumble that they might fall? let it not be! but by their fall the salvation [is] to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy;
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and if the fall of them [is] the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them?