who is he that condemns? Is it Christ who died, and still more, who has also been raised, and who is on the right hand of God, and who makes intercession for us?

or has not the potter a right, in respect to the clay, to make of the same mass one vessel to honor and another to dishonor?

And if the first fruit is holy, the mass is also; and if the root is holy, the branches also are.

But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root and excellence of the olive,

boast not against the branches; but if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you.

And again, Isaiah says, There shall be a root of Jesse and he shall stand up to rule nations, in him shall nations hope.

I, Tertius, who wrote the epistle, salute you in the Lord.