18. Therefore hath he—"So then he hath." The result then is that He hath
mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth—by judicially abandoning them to the hardening influence of sin itself (Ps 81:11, 12; Ro 1:24, 26, 28; Heb 3:8, 13), and of the surrounding incentives to it (Mt 24:12; 1Co 15:38; 2Th 2:17).