{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/103/1030348.htm","path":"chr/ecf/103/1030348.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/103/1030348.htm","text":"Chapter 98.\u2014Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God\u2019s Free Grace.\nAnd, moreover, who will be so foolish and blasphemous as to say that God cannot change the evil wills of men, whichever, whenever, and wheresoever He chooses, and direct them to what is good? But when He does this He does it of mercy; when He does it not, it is of justice that He does it not for \u201cHe hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.\u201d 1279 And when the apostle said this, he was illustrating the grace of God, in connection with which he had just spoken of the twins in the womb of Rebecca, \u201cwho 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, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.\u201d 1280 And in reference to this matter he quotes another prophetic testimony: \u201cJacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.\u201d 1281 But perceiving how what he had said might affect those who could not penetrate by their understanding the depth of this grace: \u201cWhat shall we say then?\u201d he says: \u201cIs there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.\u201d 1282 For it seems unjust that, in the absence of any merit or demerit, from good or evil works, God should love the one and hate the other. Now, if the apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good works of the one, and evil works of the other, which of course God foreknew, he would never have said, \u201cnot of works,\u201d but, \u201cof future works,\u201d and in that way would have solved the difficulty, or rather there would then have been no difficulty to solve. As it is, however, after answering, \u201cGod forbid;\u201d that is, God forbid that there should be unrighteousness with God; he goes on to prove that there is no unrighteousness in God\u2019s doing this, and says: \u201cFor 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.\u201d 1283 Now, who but a fool would think that God was unrighteous, either in inflicting penal justice on those who had earned it, or in extending mercy to the unworthy? Then he draws his conclusion: \u201cSo then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.\u201d 1284 Thus both the twins were born children of wrath, not on account of any works of their own, but because they were bound in the fetters of that original condemnation which came through Adam. But He who said, \u201cI will have mercy on whom I will have mercy,\u201d loved Jacob of His undeserved grace, and hated Esau of His deserved judgment. And as this judgment was due to both, the former learnt from the case of the latter that the fact of the same punishment not falling upon himself gave him no room to glory in any merit of his own, but only in the riches of the divine grace; because \u201cit is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.\u201d And indeed the whole face, and, if I may use the expression, every lineament of the countenance of Scripture conveys by a very profound analogy this wholesome warning to every one who looks carefully into it, that he who glories should glory in the Lord. 1285\nRom. 9:13, Mal. 1:2, 3Rom. ix. 13; Mal. 1:2, 3\n268:1282 268:1283 268:1284\nRom. 9.16Rom. ix. 16. [See R V.]\n268:1285\nComp. 1 Cor. 1.311 Cor. i. 31","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III: Doctrinal Treat...","type":"page"}