[Sidenote: Ver. 1.] =I say therefore, Did God ever thrust[184] away His people? Away with the thought! For I am an Israelite, of Abraham's seed, Benjamin's tribe;= full member of the theocratic race (Ἰσραηλίτης), and of its first royal and always loyal tribe; in my own person, therefore, I am an instance of Israel still in covenant. [Sidenote: Ver. 2.] =God never[184] thrust away His people, whom He foreknew= with the foreknowledge of eternal choice and purpose.[185] That foreknowledge was "not according to their works," or according to their power; and so it holds its sovereign way across and above their long unworthiness. =Or do you not know, in Elijah,= in his story, in the pages marked with his name, =what the Scripture says? How he intercedes before God,= on God's own behalf, =against Israel, saying= (1 Kings xix. 10), [Sidenote: Ver. 3.] ="Lord, Thy prophets they killed, and Thy altars they dug up; and I was left solitary, and they seek my life"?= [Sidenote: Ver. 4.] =But what says the oracular answer (ὁ χρηματισμὸς) to him? "I have left for Myself seven thousand men, men who (οἵτινες) bowed never knee to Baal"= (1 Kings xix. 18). [Sidenote: Ver. 5.] =So therefore at the present season also there proves to be (γέγονεν) a remnant,= "_a leaving_" (λεῖμμα), left by the Lord for Himself, =on the principle of (κατὰ) election of grace;= their persons and their number following a choice and gift whose reasons lie in God alone. And then follows one of those characteristic "foot-notes" of which we saw an instance above (x. 17): [Sidenote: Ver. 6.] =But if by grace, no longer of works;= "_no longer_," in the sense of a logical succession and exclusion; =since the grace proves (γίνεται),= on the other principle, =no longer grace. But if of works, it is no longer grace; since the work is no longer work.[186]= That is to say, when once the grace-principle is admitted, as it is here assumed to be, "_the work_" of the man who is its subject is "_no longer work_" in the sense which makes an antithesis to grace; it is no longer so much toil done in order to so much pay to be given. In other words, the two supposed principles of the divine Choice are in their nature mutually exclusive. Admit the one as the condition of the "election," and the other ceases; you cannot combine them into an amalgam. If the election is of grace, _no_ meritorious antecedent to it is possible in the subject of it. If it is according to meritorious antecedent, _no_ sovereign freedom is possible in the divine action, such freedom as to bring the saved man, the saved remnant, to an adoring confession of unspeakable and mysterious mercy.