But God
is just--He will not sanction unrighteousness in any. Nor will he allow
any choice of his to continue persons in favour, longer than, after much
long suffering, he finds them deserving his support. You are acquainted
with your own history. The Almighty, as you know, undoubtedly
distinguished the posterity of Abraham, but he was not partial to them
alike. Did he not reject Ishmael the scoffer, though he was the eldest
son of Abraham, and countenance Isaac, who was the younger? Did he not
pass over Esau the eldest son of Isaac, who had sold his birth-right,
and prefer Jacob? Did he not set aside Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, the
three eldest sons of Jacob, who were guilty of incest, treachery, and
murder, and choose that the Messiah should come from Judah, who was but
the fourth? But if, in these instances, he did not respect eldership,
why do you expect that he will not pass you over for the Gentiles, if ye
continue in unbelief?"
"But so true it is, that he will not support any whom he may have
chosen, longer than they continue to deserve it, that he will not even
continue his countenance to the Gentiles, though he has now preferred
them, if by any misconduct they should become insensible of his favours.
[99] For I may compare both you and them to an Olive-Tree. If some of
you, who are the elder, or natural branches, should be broken off, and
the Gentiles, being a wild Olive-Tree, should be grafted in among you,
and with you partake of the root and fatness of the Olive-Tree, it would
not become them to boast against you the branches: for if they boast,
they do not bear the root, but the root them.
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