because, having known God they did not glorify Him as God, nor gave thanks, but were made vain in their reasonings, and their unintelligent heart was darkened,

professing to be wise, they were made fools,

much in every way; for first, indeed, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God;

for what, if certain were faithless? shall their faithlessness the faithfulness of god make useless?

'Happy they whose lawless acts were forgiven, and whose sins were covered;

for as through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners: so also through the obedience of the one, shall the many be constituted righteous.

are ye ignorant that we, as many as were baptized to Christ Jesus, to his death were baptized?

we were buried together, then, with him through the baptism to the death, that even as Christ was raised up out of the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we in newness of life might walk.

and thanks to God, that ye were servants of the sin, and -- were obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which ye were delivered up;

for when ye were servants of the sin, ye were free from the righteousness,

what fruit, therefore, were ye having then, in the things of which ye are now ashamed? for the end of those is death.

So that, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of the Christ, for your becoming another's, who out of the dead was raised up, that we might bear fruit to God;

for when we were in the flesh, the passions of the sins, that are through the law, were working in our members, to bear fruit to the death;

and now we have ceased from the law, that being dead in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.

for in hope we were saved, and hope beheld is not hope; for what any one doth behold, why also doth he hope for it?

(according as it hath been written -- 'For Thy sake we are put to death all the day long, we were reckoned as sheep of slaughter,')

But they were not all obedient to the good tidings, for Isaiah saith, 'Lord, who did give credence to our report?'

What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened,

And if certain of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast graffed in among them, and a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree didst become --

Thou wilt say, then, 'The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in;' right!

by unbelief they were broken off, and thou hast stood by faith; be not high-minded, but be fearing;

for, as many things as were written before, for our instruction were written before, that through the endurance, and the exhortation of the Writings, we might have the hope.