31 Without understanding, cov-Jenant-breakers, without natural gate to themselves qualities, and excellences, or possessions, which do not rightly belong to them, or who make a vain-glorious display of what they do possess. Samples may be found in the Pharisees, who prayed in the corners of the streets that they might have glory of men, and sounded a trumpet before them that their alms might not be unobserved, Matt. vi. 2, 5; and in Jehu, who exclaimed, "Come with me, and see my zeal for the Lord," 2 Kings x. 16. ¶ Inventors of evil things. "Who piqued themselves on making some new discoveries in the arts of sensuality and mischief." Doddridge. With the progress of luxury, new forms of indulgence are greedily sought. In the practice of vice, similar variations are demanded. The appetite becomes sated, and some additional stimulant becomes necessary. It is related of a Roman emperor, that he offered a great reward to any one who would invent a new pleasure. Some of the vile inventions of evil things are hinted at in ver. 26, 27. A common instance, within the observation of all, may serve as an example. A man indulges in the habitual use of wine. After a time this ceases to produce the desired excitement, and he addicts himself to brandy. This, in its turn, becomes unsatisfactory, and he adds laudanum, or seeks some other more fiery form of the destroyer. As with this vice, so with others. A constant hankering exists for some more vivid excitement, and new things are invented. "This was eminently true of ancient Rome; a place where all the arts of luxury, all the devices of passion, all the designs of splendid gratification, were called forth to excite and pamper the evil passions of men. Their splendid entertainments, their games, their theatres, their sports, cruel and bloody, were little else than new and ever-varying inventions of evil things, to gratify the desires of lust and pride."- Barnes. T Disobedient to parents. "Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Eph. vi. 2, 3. Those who slighted the law of God, and rebelled against his authority, would naturally despise the counsels of their parents, and of those who had legal dominion over them. The apostlo may, perhaps, here include in disobedience that neglect of parents, that disregard of their reasonable desires and absolute wants, which was and is a distinguishing characteristic of heathenism. Unkindness and disrespect to the aged, especially to one's own parents, indicates a heart sadly corrupted. If a man honor not his parents, whom he hath seen, how can he honor God, whom he hath not seen? 1 John iv. 20. 31. Without understanding. They became vain in their imaginations; and, by slighting the means of attaining the truth, they lost the true knowledge of God. T Covenant breakers. False to their promises and agreements. This vice infects both individuals and nations; none more, perhaps, than politicians, who are notorious for falsifying promises, and sometimes deliberately violating the most solemn engagements. It is a high honor to a man that it should be said of him, "his word is as good as his bond." It is a disgrace to a man, a politician, or a nation, that covenants or agreements should be broken for the sake of honor, or gain, or the accomplishment of any selfish object whatever. For this vice the heathen were notorious. Nor has it yet disappeared from the earth. Men who call themselves Christians furnish mournful examples of it, even in this age of light. Without natural affection. The affection which exists between parents and children, and between other near kindred. sented in the Scriptures as one of the strongest emotions which can exist on earth. See Isa. xlix. 18; Matt. vii. 9, 10. Yet so besotted had the ancient heathen become, through their idolatrous opinions and practices, that this affection was crushed out of their hearts. Some legislators prescribed that children should be separated from their parents, and be brought up at the public charge, as children of the state. It was not unusual for children to suffer their parents to perish through neglect, nor for parents to destroy the lives of their children because their This is repre affection, implacable, unmerciful : support was considered burdensome. By some lawgivers parents were required to destroy their children. Among the ancient heathen nations the sacrifice of children was one of the rites of worship. Of the Canaanites it is said that they "sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood." Ps. cvi. 37, 38. The Jews were sometimes guilty of the same enormity. Manassch, one of their most impious kings, "caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom." 2 Chron. xxxiii. 6. It was in consequence of such horrible rites that this valley, under the name of Gehenna, became the type of all which was hateful and intolerable. The Greeks and the Romans, with all their boasted civilization, practised infanticide. The same practice still exists in pagan nations. Especially is it prevalent in India, where thousands of infants are said to be destroyed annually. In many nations children were no less cruel to their parents, neglecting to provide for their wants in sickness and old age, and exposing them, as in India, to perish, or burying them alive, as in the Sandwich Islands, before their customs were changed by Christianity. This state of things, so abhorrent to a spirit of natural affection, was the result of abandoning the true God, and worshipping idols. By the operation of the system of idolatry which prevailed, enforced by its cruel, sanguinary, and disgusting rites and ceremonies, natural affection was stifled in the heart of devotees, so that they could even make their own children pass through fire unto Moloch. This is rightly placed in a prominent position by the apostle, as one of the characteristics of the sinful and degraded condition to which the heathen nations had sunk, in consequence of changing the truth of God into a lie. It is not a mere idle inquiry, nor is it made thoughtlessly or irreverently, "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?" Job iv. 17. If, as some theologians teach, 32 Who, knowing the judgment God has so little affection for his offspring that he will inflict on them inconceivable tortures, through eternity, why should men be denounced as sinful because they lack affection, and destroy the mortal life of their children? It is but a feeble copy of the original, falling as far short of it as time falls short of eternity. Our Saviour gives an entirely different representation of the divine character. Matt. vii. 11. The character which he describes may safely be imitated; and the more closely it is imitated, the more fervently will natural affection burn in the heart, and the more kindly and tenderly will one's offspring be treated. Moreover, it hath been said by them of old time, and some continue to echo the assertion, that the saints in heaven will rejoice in the perpetual and endless torment of their own children, and of others who on earth were bound to them by the ties of natural affection. Can that which is denounced as sinful on earth be holy in heaven? If a present lack of natural affection be characteristic of gross sinfulness, will an entire destitution of a like affection hereafter be consistent with perfect holiness? But it is disagreeable to dwell on this theme. Would that there were no occasion even to allude to it thus briefly! ¶ Implacable. "This word properly denotes those who will not be reconciled where there is a quarrel; or who pursue the offender with unyielding revenge. denotes an unforgiving temper; and was doubtless common among the ancients, as it is among all heathen people.". Barnes. Unmerciful. Not merely to enemies, but to those who have not offended. The heathen were not careful to relieve the wants of the destitute and distressed. It was left for Christianity to exhibit this grace. It 32. Who, knowing, &c. They were not entirely ignorant of the difference between moral good and evil. See ch. ii. 14, 15. Besides, they felt in their own bodies the punishment of their sins, and witnessed similar retribution in the case of others. If they were inexcusable for their idolatry on the ground that the divine power and Godhead were sufficiently manifest in tho of God, that they which commit not only do the same, but have such things are worthy of death; pleasure in them that do them. things that are made, they were appointment. For a more extended equally inexcusable for their unright- examination of the nature of that death eousness on the ground that their own which is the "wages of sin," see note consciences condemned it, and the dis-on ch. vi. 23. "The word death in the pensations of God indicated his design | Scriptures is often used to denote punto punish it. T Judgment of God. Not ishment. But it does not mean here the punishment which he inflicts, but that these deserved capital punishment rather his righteousness, which is mani- from the civil magistrate, but that fested by such punishment. The same they knew they were evil and offensive word is rendered righteousness, ch. ii. to God, and deserving of punishment 26; v. 18; viii. 4; and justification, ch. from his hand.". - Barnes. Not only do v. 18. It occurs nowhere else in this the same. They were not the only persons epistle. It imports the just adminis- who have persisted in crime while entration of the divine government, by during its just punishment. There are which every man is rewarded according those, even now, who continue to vioto his works. T¶ That they which commit late the law of their nature, while they such things. Namely, the crimes speci- know, both by observation and experified in the preceding verses. Are ence, that the way of the transgressor worthy of death. Deserve death as a is hard. T But have pleasure in them just retribution. Several of the older that do them. Approve the sinful concommentators interpret death here to duct of others; are pleased with it; mean natural death, or the death of the give countenance and encouragement to body. This interpretation seems im-it. This seems to be the climax of probable. Some of the crimes named ungodliness. A good man may be in the foregoing catalogue have been overcome by temptation, and do things punished by destroying the life of the which he ought not. Ch. vii. 18-25. offender, both anciently and in more Yet he mourns over his infirmity, and modern times. But neither human nor bitterly regrets his sinfulness. But to divine law, I think, has denounced that approve iniquity in others indicates a penalty against envy, whispering, back-state of spiritual lethargy and deadness biting, pride, boasting, and the like. which is absolutely appalling. The language of the apostle is general. They who commit such things, that is, all or any of the crimes specified, or others like them, deserve death. But it is not proved, and I am not aware that it has been alleged, that the Gentiles knew or believed that the death of the body was the proper penalty for every species of transgression. The apostle, however, refers to a death which they had witnessed, and quite uniformly witnessed: else what evidence had they that it was according to a divine law or appointment? They had felt misery of some kind, whether remorse of conscience or bodily pain, or whatever other form it may have taken, as the consequence of their own sins, and had witnessed manifestations of like results in others. This just and righteous retribution followed not only murder and other unnatural crimes, but those also of a less aggravated nature. It was so uniform that sufficient evidence was furnished of its divine Such was the result of human efforts guided by the light of nature, for a period of four thousand years. Exceptions, doubtless, might be found, and some instances of comparative virtue. Ch. ii. 14, 15. But the description of the apostle must be understood to apply to the great majority, the mass of the people. And even the less sinful were far from yielding sinless obedience to the divine law. It was thus manifest that none had attained such perfect purity as to be justly entitled to perfect happiness as a reward, or to claim the blessings of heaven as a debt due to them. This fact is illustrated and enforced by the apostle, to convince the Gentiles that their condition was hopeless, unless some other way of salvation had been ordained, and to make them the more willing to embrace the gospel, in which that way was revealed. A similar course is adopted with the Jews, in the next chapter. And thus both Jews and Gentiles are CHAPTER II. THEREFORE thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou taught that their only hope of perfect salvation is in the free, unpurchased grace of God. "The description which the apostle hath given of the national manners of the Greeks, however disgraceful to human nature, being perfectly true, merits attention; because it is a complete confutation of those who contend that natural reason hath always been sufficient to lead mankind to just notions in religion, and to a proper moral conduct. For, after the weakness of human reason, in matters of religion and morality, hath been so clearly demonstrated by experience in the case of the Greeks, who, of all mankind, were the most distinguished for their intellectual endowments, the futile pretence of the sufficiency of the light of nature, set up by modern infidels for the purpose of rendering reve lation needless, should be rejected with the contempt due to so gross a falsehood. And all who are acquainted with the actual state of the world, under the guidance of the light of nature, ought thankfully to embrace the instruction contained in the gospel, as the most effectual means of training ignorant inful creatures to virtue; and should humbly submit to the method of salvation by Christ, therein revealed as of divine appointment, as the only method in which sinners can be saved."- Macknight. CHAPTER II. Having exhibited, in the previous chapter, the condition of the Gentiles, the apostle next shows that the Jews had equally failed to attain perfect holiness. Guided by the light of nature alone, the Gentiles had in fact degenerated, instead of becoming more pure. This fact afforded sufficient evidence that a more clear light, like that of the gospel, was necessary for their guidance. Moreover, there was not the slightest prospect of their ever attaining a state of perfect and sinless purity by their own exertions. For four thousand years the most virtuous among them had fallen far short of perfection, and the mass had waxed worse and art, that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest, doest the same things. worse. Hence the absolute necessity of a righteousness of God's appointment, ch. i. 17, as the only method through which a deliverance from the power of sin could be anticipated. The general wickedness of the Gentiles was freely admitted by the Jews, and severely enough condemned. Nothing short of becoming proselytes, and yielding obedience to the law of Moses, was considered productive of any benefit to them. But the apostle proceeds to show that even this would be wholly ineffectual, inasmuch as the Jews, having the full benefit of this law, had also failed to attain perfection. Indeed, considering the purer light they enjoyed, and the more favorable opportunity of knowing the divine will, they were even more guilty than the Gentiles. Luke xii. 47, 48. So that they had no better reason to expect the attainment of perfection by the aid of the law, than the Gentiles by the aid of the light of nature. There remained, therefore, the same necessity for a righteousness of God's appointment, the free gift of his grace, and not the reward or natural result of human effort. 1. Therefore. Commentators have been somewhat perplexed to interpret the precise force of this word. It ordinarily indicates a conclusion from something which has preceded; but it is not easy to fix on the precise statement in the former chapter from which the conclusion here is drawn.. Macknight is substantially followed by others, and is very probably correct in saying that the word is here "used to introduce a conclusion, not from what goes before, but from something not expressed, the proof of which is to be immediately added, as if the apostle had said, For this reason, O Jew! thou art without excuse in judging the Gentiles worthy of death, because by that judgment thou condemnest thyself." Thou art inexcusable. This was true, in a two-fold sense. They had no excuse for condemning others, when they were themselves equally guilty; and they had no excuse for their own sins. If the Gentiles were without excuse for not glori specific. Thou that judgest does the 2 But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth, fying God by due veneration and obe- words render the rebuke even more dience, when they knew him only through his works, ch. i. 20, 21, much more were the Jews inexcusable, on the same principle, and to a greater extent, for not yielding a like veneration and obedience, when they possessed the additional advantage of "the oracles of God." ¶ Oman. The address is general; and, in this sense, the allegation is just. No man has a right to condemn other sinners, who bears the stains of guilt upon himself. See John viii. 7. But, although general in its form, the application is made specific in what follows. "It is plain, from ver. 17 and 27, and the whole tenor of the chapter, that St. Paul, by these words, means the Jews; but there are two visible reasons why he speaks in these terms. (1.) He makes his conclusion general, as having the more force, but less offence, than if he had bluntly named the Jews, whom he is very careful, in this epistle, to treat in the softest manner imaginable. (2.) He uses the term man emphatically, in opposition to God, in the next verse." - Locke. Whosoever thou art that judgest. Or, condemnest. The Jews did not hesitate to pronounce the Gentiles guilty, and worthy of punishment, on account of their sins. Indeed, they judged them to be not meet companions for themselves, even in the future life, unless they would previously pass through the gate of Moses, or become proselytes. They regarded the Gentiles as unclean persons, with whom the people of God might not associate, and considered them entirely unworthy of the divine grace and compassion. It excited their indignation to the utmost, when the gospel was proclaimed to Gentile as well as to Jew. Traces of this supercilious judgment concerning the Gentiles, and unwillingness to admit them to equal privileges, abound in the apostolic history. A sample is found in Acts xxii. 21, 22. T For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself. The same rule which you apply to others will condemn you with equal severity. If you condemn others because they are sinful, by thus pronouncing sin to be worthy of condemnation you condemn yourself, for you also are sinful. The succeeding - - Whitby. Such was the character of the Jews, drawn by Josephus, himself a Jew, who lived at the very same time with Paul, and who never abandoned the faith of his fathers. If it be not exaggerated, and the language of our Lord, and other declarations in the Scriptures, indicate that it is not, — it affords confirmation strong that the apostle's allegation was true to its utmost extent. See ver. 21-24. 2. But we are sure. We know. It is a fact admitted by all. Even the |