TEXT. 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, PARAPHRASE. Jesus Christ, against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who live not up to the light that God has given 19 them. Because God, in a clear manifestation of himself amongst them, has laid before them, ever since the creation of 20 the world, his divine nature and eternal power; So that what is to be known, of his invisible being, might be clearly discovered and understood from the visible beauty, order, and operations, observable in the constitution and parts of the universe, by all those that would cast their regards, and apply their minds that way; insomuch that they are utterly without ex21 cuse: For that, when the Deity was so plainly discovered to them, yet they glorified him not, as was suitable to the excellency of his divine nature: nor did they, with due thankful NOTES. These the world in righteousness, by the man whom he hath ordained." words of St. Paul to the Athenians, give light to these here to the Romans. A life again after death, and a day of judgment, wherein men should be all brought to receive sentence, according to what they had done, and be punished for their misdeeds, was what was before unknown, and was brought to light by the revelation of the Gospel from heaven, 2 Tim. i. 10. Matth. xiii. 40, &c. Luke xiii. 27, and Rom. ii. 5, he calls the day of judgment the day of wrath, consonant to his saying here, the wrath of God is revealed. 'Aribay, "ungodliness," seems to comprehend the atheism, polytheism, and idolatry of the heathen world, as ådıníav, “unrighteousness,” their other miscarriages and vicious lives, according to which they are distinctly threatened by St. Paul, in the following verses. The same appropriation of these words, I think, may be observed in other parts of this epistle. "Of men," i. e. of all men, or as in the xviith of Acts, before cited, "all men, every where," i. e. all men of all nations: before it was only to the children of Israel, that obedience and transgression were declared and proposed, as terms of life and death. "Who hold the truth in unrighteousness," i. e. who are not wholly without the truth, but yet do not follow what they have of it, but live contrary to that truth they do know, or neglect to know what they might. This is evident from the next words, and for the same reason of God's wrath, given, chap. ii. 8, in these words," who do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness." 20 St. Pani says, vooúμeva natopãrai, if they are minded, they are seen: the invisible things of God lie within the reach and discovery of men's reason and understandings, but yet they must exercise their faculties and employ their minds about them. TEXT. neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image, made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves; 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: PARAPHRASE. ness, acknowledge him as the author of their being, and the giver of all the good they enjoyed: but, following the vain fancies of their own vain' minds, set up to themselves fictitious no-gods, and their foolish understandings were darkened: 22 Assuming to themselves the opinion and name" of being wise, 23 they became fools; And, quitting the incomprehensible majesty and glory of the eternal, incorruptible Deity, set up to themselves the images of corruptible men, birds, beasts, and 24 insects, as fit objects of their adoration and worship. Wherefore, they having forsaken God, he also left them to the lusts of their own hearts, and that uncleanness their darkened hearts led them into, to dishonour their bodies among themselves: 25 Who so much debased themselves, as to change the true God, who made them, for a lie" of their own making, worshipping and serving the creature, and things even of a lower rank than themselves, more than the Creator, who is God over all, 26 blessed for evermore. Amen. (For this cause God gave them up to shameful and infamous lusts and passions: for even NOTES. 21 1 Εμαλαιώθησαν εν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν, “ became vain in their imaginations," or reasonings. What it is to become vain, in the Scripture-language, one may see in these words, "and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen, and made to themselves molten images, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal," 2 Kings xvii. 15, 16. And accordingly the forsaking of idolatry, and the worship of false gods, is called by St. Paul turning from vanity to the living God," Acts xiv. 15. 22m honores elva copal, "professing themselves to be wise;" though the nations of the heathen generally thought themselves wise, in the religion they embraced; yet the apostle here, having all along in this and the following chapter used Greeks for Gentiles, he may be thought to have an eye to the Greeks, among whom the men of study and inquiry had assumed to themselves the name of σopoì, wise. 25 ■ The false and fictitious gods of the heathen are very fitly called, in the Scripture, "lies," Amos ii. 4. Jer. xvi. 19, 20, TEXT. 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; PARAPHRASE. their women did change their natural use, into that which is 27 against nature: And likewise their men, leaving also the natural use of the women, burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men practising that which is shameful, and receiving in themselves a fit reward of their error, i. e. idolatry°). 28 And, as they did not search out 9 God, whom they had in the world, so as to have him with a due acknowledgment of him, God gave them up to an unsearching and unjudicious mind, to do things incongruous, and not meet' to be done; NOTES. 27"Error," so idolatry is called, 2 Pet. ii. 18. As they, against the light of nature, debased and dishonoured God by their idolatry, it was a just and fit recompense they received, in being left to debase and dishonour themselves by unnatural lusts. 28 "And." This copulative joins this verse to the 25th, so that the apostle will be better understood, if all between be looked on as a parenthesis, this being a continuation of what he was there saying, or rather a repetition of it in short, which led him into the thread of his discourse. 'Oux idoxíμatav, "did not like," rather did not try, or search; for the Greek word signifies to search, and find out by searching: so St. Paul often uses it, chap. ii. 18, and xii. 2, compared, and xiv. 22. Eph. v. 10. 'Ev iπyvσs, with acknowledgment. That the Gentiles were not wholly without the knowledge of God in the world, St. Paul tells us, in this very chapter, but they did not acknowledge him as they ought, ver. 21. They had God eixov ev, but οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν ἔχειν αὐτὸν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει, did not so improve that knowledge, as to acknowledge or honour him as they ought. This verse seems, in other words, to express the same that is said ver. 21. • Els dôóxiμor your, "to a reprobate mind," rather to an unsearching mind, in the sense of St. Paul, who often uses compounds and derivatives in the sense wherein, a little before, he used the primitive words, though a little varying from the precise Greek idiom: an example whereof we have, in this very word, ádóximos, 2 Cor. xiii. where having, ver. 3, used doxsun for a proof of his mission by supernatural gifts, he uses adóxiμos for one that was destitute of such proofs. So here he tells the Romans, that the Gentiles, not exercising their minds to search out the truth, and form their judgments right, God left them to an unsearching, unjudicious mind. Non explorantibus permisit mentem non exploratricem. A discourse like this of St. Paul here, wherein idolatry is made the cause of the enormous crimes and profligate lives men run into, may be read Wisdom xiv. 11, &c. TEXT. 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God (that they which commit such things are worthy of death) not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. PARAPHRASE. 29 Being filled with all manner of iniquity, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malice, full of envy, contention, deceit, 30 malignity, even to murder, Backbiters, haters of God, insulters of men, proud, boasters, inventors of new arts of debauchery, 31 disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who, though they acknowledge the rule of right" prescribed them by God, and discovered by the light of nature, did not yet understand that those, who did such things, were worthy of death, do not only do them themselves, but live well to W u NOTES. 32 To dixαíwμа тоữ Oũ, "the judgment of God;" might it not be translated the rectitude of God, i. e. that rule of rectitude which God had given to mankind, in giving them reason? as that righteousness, which God requires for salvation in the Gospel, is called "the righteousness of God," ver. 17. Rectitude, in the translation, being used in this appropriated sense, as dixalupa is in the original. Vid. note, chap. ii. 26. w Oùx ivóncav ot, did not understand that they who commit, &c. This reading is justified by the Clermont, and another ancient мs. as well as by that which the old Latin version followed, as well as Clement, Isidore, and Ecumenius : and will, probably, be thought the more genuine by those, who can hardly suppose that St. Paul should affirm, that the Gentile world did know, that he, who offended against any of the directions of this natural rule of rectitude, taught, or discoverable by the light of reason, was worthy of death; especially if we remember what he says, chap. v. 13, "That sin is not imputed when there is no positive law," and chap. vii. 9, "I was alive without the law, once:" both which places signifying, that men did not know death to be the wages of sin, in general, but by the declaration of a positive law. * Zuveudoxoũci Toîs wpácσovci, “have pleasure in those that do them." He that considers, that the design of the apostle here, manifest in the immediately following words, is to combat the animosity of the Jews against the Gentiles; and that there could not be a more effectual way to shame them into a more modest and mild temper, than by showing them that the Gentiles, in all the darkness that blinded them, and the extravagancies they ran into, were never guilty of such an absurdity as this, to censure and separate from others, and show an implacable aversion to them, for what they themselves were equally guilty of: TEXT. II. 1 Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost the same thing. PARAPHRASE. gether, without any mark of disesteem, or censure, with them II. I that do them. Therefore, thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art, that judgest or censurest another; for NOTES. a he, I say, that considers this, will be easily persuaded to understand σuseudoxova here as I do, for a complacency, that avoided censuring, or breaking with them, who were in the same state and course of life with themselves, that did nothing amiss, but what they themselves were equally guilty of. There can be nothing clearer than that Guyeuboxoσ, have pleasure, in this verse, is opposed to spíveis, judgest, in the next verse, without which I do not see how it is possible to make out the inference which the apostle draws here. 1 "Therefore." This is a term of illation, and shows the consequence here, drawn from the foregoing words. Therefore the Jew is inexcusable in judging, because the Gentiles, with all the darkness that was on their minds, were never guilty of such a folly as to judge those who were no more faulty than themselves. For the better understanding of this place, it may not, perhaps, be amiss to set the whole argumentation of the apostle here in its due light: it stands thus: "the Gentiles acknowledged the rectitude of the law of nature, but knew not that those, who break any of its rules, incurred death by their transgression; but, as much in the dark as they were, they are not guilty of any such absurdity, as to condemn others, or refuse communication with them, as unworthy of their society, who are no worse than themselves, nor do any thing but what they themselves do equally with them, but live in complacency, on fair terms with them, without censure or separation, thinking as well of their condition as of their own; therefore, if the blinded heathen do so, thou, O Jew, art inexcusable, who having the light of the revealed law of God, and knowing by it, that the breaches of the law merit death, dost judge others to perdition, and shut them out from salvation, for that, which thou thyself art equally guilty of, viz. disobedience to the law. Thou, a poor, ignorant, conceited, fallible man, sittest in judgment upon others, and committest the same things thou condemnest them for: but this thou mayest be sure, that the judgment and condemnation of God is right and firm, and will certainly be executed upon those who do such things. For thou, who adjudgest the heathen to condemnation for the same things which thou dost thyself, canst thou imagine that thou thyself shalt escape the same judgment of God? God, whatever thou mayest think, is no respecter of persons : both Jews as well as Gentiles, that are perversely contentious against others, and do not themselves obey the Gospel, shall meet with wrath and indignation from God; and Gentiles, as well as Jews, whom the goodness and forbearance of God bringeth to repentance, and an humble, submissive acceptance of the Gospel, shall find acceptance with God, and eternal life, in the kingdom of the Messias; from which, if thou art contentious to shut out the Gentiles, thou manifestly shuttest out thyself." O man, whosoever thou art." It is plain from ver. 17 and 27, and the whole tenour of this chapter, that St. Paul, by these words, means the Jews; but there are two visible reasons, why he speaks in these terms: 1st, he makes his conclusion general, as having the more force, but less offence, than if he had |