Table of Events in Life of St. Paul. has never been doubted. But that the appeal which brought him to Rome issued in his liberation, that he was at large for some years thereafter and took some wide missionary circuits, and, that he was again arrested, carried to Rome, and then executed — was the undisputed belief of the early Church, as expressed by Chrysostom, Jerome, and Eusebius, in the fourth century, up to Clement of Rome, the "fellow-labourer" of the apostle himself (Philippians, 4. 3), in the first century. The strongest possible confirmation of this is found in the Pastoral Epistles which bear marks throughout of a more advanced state of the Church, and more matured forms of error, than can well have existed at any period before the appeal which brought the apostle to Rome; which refer to movements of himself and Timothy, that cannot without some straining (as we think) be made to fit into any prior period; and which are couched in a manifestly riper style than any of his other Epistles. (See Introduction to Timothy, and Titus, and Notes.) All this has been called in question by modern critics of great research and acuteness (Petavius, Lardner, De Wette, Wieseler, Davidson, &c.). But those who maintain the ancient view are of equal authority and more numerous, while the weight of argument appears to us to be decidedly on their side. ACTS, XXVIII. and the Pastoral Epistles-to Timothy and Titus which, in our judgment, are of subsequent date. From the former class of Epistles we learn the following particulars: (1) That the trying restraint laid upon the apostle's labours by his imprisonment had only turned his influence into a new channel; the Gospel having in consequence penetrated even into the palace, and pervaded the city, while the preachers of Christ were emboidened; and though the Judaizing portion of them, observing his success among the Gentiles, had been led to inculcate with fresh zeal their own narrower Gospel, even this had done much good by extending the truth common to both (See on Philippians, 1. 12-18; 4. 22 (2) That as in addition to all his other labours, "the care of all the churches pressed upon him from day to day" (2 Corinthians, 11. 28), so with these churches be kept up an active correspondence by means of letters and messages, and on such errands he wanted not faithful and beloved brethren enough, ready to be employed - Luke; Timotheus; Tychicus; (John) Mark; Demas; Aristarchus; Epaphras; Onesimus; Jesus, called Justus; and, for a short time, Epaphroditus (See on Colossians, 4, 7,9-12, 14; Philemon, 23, 24; and Introduction to Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon.) That the apostle suffered martyrdom under Nero at Rome - CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE LIFE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL. Certainty in these dates is not to be had, the notes of time in the Acts being few and vague. It is only by connecting those events of secular history which it records, and the dates of which are otherwise tolerably known to us-such as the famine under Claudius Cesar (ch. 11. 28, the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by the same emperor (ch. 18. 2), and the entrance of Porcius Festus upon his procuratorship (ch. 24. 27)-with the intervals specified between some occurrences in the apostle's life and others (such as ch. 20. 31; 24. 27; 28. 30; and Galatians, 1., and 2.), that we can thread our way through the difficulties that surround the chronology of the apostle's life, and approximate to certainty. Immense research has been brought to bear upon the subject, but, as might be expected, the learned are greatly divided. Every year has been fixed upon as the probable date of the apostle's conversion, from A.D. 31 (Bengel) to A.D. 42 (Eusebius). But the weight of authority is in favour of dates ranging between 35 and 40, a difference of not more than five years; and the largest number of authorities is in favour of the year 37 or 38. Taking the former of these, to which opinion largely inclines, the following Table will be useful to the student of apostolic History: THE THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO THE ROMANS. INTRODUCTION. HE GENUINENESS of the Epistle to the Romans has never been questioned. It has the unbroken testimony of all antiquity, up to Clement, the apostle's "fellow-labourer in the gospel, whose name was in the book of life" (Philippians, 4. 3), and who quotes from it in his undoubted Epistle to the Corinthians, written before the close of the first century. The most searching investigations of modern criticism have left it untouched. WHEN and WHERE this epistle was written, we have the means of determining with great precision, from the epistle itself compared with the Acts of the Apostles. Up to the date of it the apostle had never been at Rome (ch. 1. 11, 13, 15). He was then on the eve of visiting Jerusalem with a pecuniary contribution for its Christian poor from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia, after which his purpose was to pay a visit to Rome on his way to Spain (ch. 15. 23-28). Now this contribution we know that he carried with him from Corinth, at the close of his third visit to that city, which lasted three months (Acts, 20. 2, 3; 24. 17). On this occasion there accompanied him from Corinth certain persons whose names are given by the historian of the Acts (Acts, 20. 4), and four of these are expressly mentioned in our epistle as being with the apostle when he wrote it-Timotheus, Sosipater, Gaius, and Erastus (ch. 16. 21, 23). Of these four, the third, Gaius, was an inhabitant of Corinth (1 Corinthians, 1. 14), and the fourth, Erastus, was "chamberlain of the city" (ch. 16. 23), which can hardly be supposed to be other than Corinth. Finally, Phebe, the bearer, as appears, of this epistle, was a deaconess of the Church at Cenchrese, the eastern port of Corinth (ch. 16. 1). Putting these facts together, it is impossible to resist the conviction, in which all critics agree, that Corinth was the place from which the epistle was written, and that it was despatched about the close of the visit above mentioned, probably in the early spring of the year 58. The FOUNDER of this celebrated church is unknown. That it owed its origin to the apostle Peter and that he was 1ts first bishop, though an ancient tradition and taught in the Church of Rome as a fact not to be doubted, is refuted by the clearest evidence, and is given up even by candid Romanists. On that supposition, how are we to account for so important a circumstance being passed by in silence by the historian of the Acts, not only in the narrative of Peter's labours, but in that of Paul's approach to the metropolis, of the deputations of Roman "brethren" that came as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns to meet him, and of his two years' labours there? And how, consistently with his declared principle-not to build on another man's foundation (ch. 15. 20)-could he express his anxious desire to come to them that he might have some fruit among them also, even as among other Gentiles (ch. 1. 13), if all the while he knew that they had the apostle of the circumcision for their spiritual father? And how, if so, is there no salutation to Peter, among the many in this epistle-or, if it may be thought that he was known to be elsewhere at that particular time-how does there occur in all the epistles which our apostle afterwards wrote from Rome not one allusion to such an origin of the Roman Church? The same considerations would seem to prove that this church owed its origin to no prominent Christian labourer; and this brings us to the much litigated question, For WHAT CLASS of Christians was this epistle principally designed-Jewish or Gentile? That a large number of Jews and Jewish proselytes resided at this time at Rome is known to all who are familiar with the classical and Jewish writers of that and the immediately subsequent periods; and that those of them who were at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts, 2. 10), and formed probably part of the three thousand converts of that day, would on their return to Rome carry the glad tidings with them, there can be no doubt. Nor are indications wanting that some of those embraced in the salutations of this epistle were Christians already of long standing, if not among the earliest converts to the Christian faith. Others of them who had made the apostle's acquaintance elsewhere, and who, if not indebted to him for their first knowledge of Christ, probably owed much to his ministrations, seem to have charged themselves with the duty of cherishing and consolidating the work of the Lord in the capital. And thus it is not improbable that up to the time of the apostle's arrival the Christian community at Rome had been dependent upon subordinate agency for the increase of its numbers, aided by occasional visits of stated preachers from the provinces; and perhaps it may be gathered from the salutations of the last chapter that it was up to that time in a less organized, though far from less flourishing state, than some other churches to whom the apostle had already addressed epistles. Certain it is that the apostle writes to them expressly as a Gentile church (ch. 1. 13-15; 15. 15, 16); and though it is plain that there were Jewish Christians among them, and the whole argument presupposes an intimate acquaintance on the part of his readers with the leading principles of the Old Testament, this will be sufficiently explained by supposing that the bulk of them, having before they knew the Lord been Gentile proselytes to the Jewish faith, had entered the pale of the Christian Church through the gate of the ancient economy. It remains only to speak briefly of the PLAN and CHARACTER of this epistle. Of all the undoubted epistles of our apostle this is the most elaborate, and at the same time the most glowing. It has just as much in common with a theo logical treatise as is consistent with the freedom and warmth of a real letter. Referring to the headings which we have prefixed to its successive sections, as best exhibiting the progress of the argument and the connection of its points, we here merely note that its first great topic is what may be termed the legal relation of man to God as a violator of His holy law, whether as merely written on the heart, as in the case of the Heathen, or, as in the case of the Chosen People, as further known by external revelation; that it next treats of that legal relation as wholly reversed through believing connection with the Lord Jesus Christ; and that its third and last great topic is the new life which accompanies this change of relation, embracing at once a blessedness and a consecration to God which, rudimentally complete already, will open, in the future world, into the bliss of immediate and stainless fellowship with God. The bearing of these wonderful truths upon the condition and destiny of the Chosen People, to which the apostle next comes, though it seem but the practical application of them to his kinsmen according to the flesh, is in some respects the deepest and most difficult part of the whole epistle, carrying us directly to the eternal springs of Grace to the guilty in the sovereign love and inscrutable purposes of God; after which, however, we are brought back to the historical platform of the visible church, in the calling of the Gentiles, Introduction. ROMANS, I. Introduction. the preservation of a faithful Israelitish remnant amidst the general unbelief and fall of the nation, and the ultimate recovery of all Israel to constitute, with the Gentiles in the latter day, one Catholic Church of God upon earth. The remainder of the epistle is devoted to sundry practical topics, winding up with salutations and outpourings of heart delightfully suggestive. CHAPTER I. mon expression must mean 'in His other nature, Ver. 1-17. INTRODUCTION. 1. Paul (see on Acts, 13. which we have seen to be that "of the Son of God"5. a servant of Jesus Christ-The word here rendered an eternal, uncreated nature. This is here styled the "servant" means 'bond-servant,' or one subject to the "Spirit," as an impalpable and immaterial nature will and wholly at the disposal of another. In this (John, 4. 24), and "the Spirit of holiness," probably in sense it is applied to the disciples of Christ at large absolute contrast with that "likeness of sinful flesh" a Corinthians, 7. 21-23, as in the Old Testament, to all which He assumed. One is apt to wonder that if this the people of God (Isaiah, 66. 14). But as, in addition be the meaning, it was not expressed more simply. to this, the prophets and kings of Israel were officially But if the apostle had said 'He was declared to be the "the servants of the Lord" (Joshua, 1. 1; Psalm 18. Son of God according to the Holy Spirit,' the reader title), the apostles call themselves, in the same official would have thought he meant the Holy Ghost;' and sense, "the servants of Christ" (as here, and Philip- it seems to have been just to avoid this misapprehenpians, 1. 1; James, 1. 1; 2 Peter, 1. 1; Jude, 1), expressing sion that he used the rare expression, "the Spirit of such absolute subjection and devotion to the Lord holiness." 5. By whom (as the ordained channel) we Jesus as they would never have yielded to a mere have received grace (the whole "grace that bringeth creature. (See on v. 7; and on John, 5. 22, 23.) called salvation") and apostleship-for the publication of that to be an apostle-when first he "saw the Lord:" the "grace," and the organisation of as many as receive indispensable qualification for apostleship. See on it into churches of visible discipleship. (We prefer Acts, 9. 5; 22. 14; 1 Corinthians, 9. 1. separated unto the thus taking them as two distinct things, and not, with (preaching of the gospel-neither so late as when "the some good interpreters, as one-the grace of apostleHoly Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul" (Acts, ship.") for obedience to the faith (rather, for the obedi13. 2, nor so early as when "separated from his mother's ence of faith')-i.e., in order to men's yielding themwomb" (see on Galatians, 1. 15). He was called at one selves to the belief of God's saving message, which is and the same time to the faith and the apostleship of the highest of all obedience. for his name-that He Christ (Acts, 26. 16-18). of God-i.e., the gospel of which might be glorified. 6. Among whom are ye also-i.e.. God is the glorious Author. So ch. 15. 16; 1 Thes- along with others; for the apostle ascribes nothing salonians, 2. 2, 8, 9; 1 Peter, 4. 17. 2. Which he had special to the Church of Rome cf. 1 Corinthians, 14. promised afore... in the holy Scriptures-Though the 30). [BENGEL.] the called (see on ch. 8. 30) of Christ Roman Church was Gentile by nation (see on v. 13), Jesus-i.e., either called 'by Him' (John, 5. 25), or the yet as it consisted mostly of proselytes to the Jewish called 'belonging to Ilim? 'Christ's called ones.' Perfaith (see Introduction to this Epistle) they are here haps this latter sense is best supported, but one hardly reminded that in embracing Christ they had not cast knows which to prefer. 7. beloved of God-(cf. Deuterooff, but only the more profoundly yielded themselves nomy, 33. 12; Colossians, 3. 12). Grace . . . (see on to, Moses and the prophets (Acts, 13. 32, 33). 3, 4. John, 1. 14, p. 70, 2d column) and peace - the peace Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord- the grand which Christ made through the blood of His cross burden of this "gospel of God." made of the seed of Colossians, 1. 20), and which reflects into the believing Davidas, according to "the holy Scriptures," He bosom the peace of God which passeth all understandbehoved to be. (See on Matthew, 1. 1.) according to ing (Philippians, 4. 7). from God our Father, and the the fleah-i.c., in His human nature (cf. ch. 9. 5, and Lord Jesus Christ-Nothing speaks more decisively John, 1. 14; implying, of course, that He had another for the divinity of Christ than these juxtapositions of nature, of which the apostle immediately proceeds to Christ with the eternal God, which run through the speak. And declared lit., marked off,' 'defined.' whole language of Scripture, and the derivation of determined,' i.e., 'shown,' or 'proved.' to be the Son purely divine influences from Him also. The name of of God-Observe how studiously the language changes no man can be placed by the side of the Almighty. He here. He was MADE (says the apostle) of the seed of only, in whom the Word of the Father who is Himself David, according to the flesh;" but He was not made. God became flesh, may be named beside Him; for men He was only "declared (or proved) to BE the Son of are commanded to honour Him even as they honour God." So John, 1. 1, 14, "In the beginning was the the Father, John, 6. 23.' [OLSHAUSEN.] 8, your faith Word... and the Word was MADE flesh;" and Isaiah, is spoken of throughout the whole world-This was quite 9. 6. "Unto us a Child is BORN, unto us a Son is practicable through the frequent visits paid to the GIVEN." Thus the Sonship of Christ is in no proper capital from all the provinces; and the apostle, having sense a born relationship to the Father, as some, other- an eye to the influence they would exercise upon wise sound divines, conceive of it. By His birth in others, as well as their own blessedness, gives thanks the flesh, that Sonship, which was essential and un- for such faith to "his God through Jesus Christ," as created, merely effloresced into palpable manifestation. being the source, according to his theology of faith, as (See on Luke, 1. 35; Acts, 13. 32, 33.) with power-This of all grace in men. 9. For God... whom I serve (the may either be connected with "declared," and then the word denotes religious service, with my spirit (from my meaning will be 'powerfully declared' [LUTHER, BEZA, inmost soul in the gospel of his Son (to which Paul's BESGEL, FRITZSCHE, ALFORD, &c.]; or (as in our ver- whole religious life and official activity were consesion, and as we think rightly) with "the Son of God," crated) is my witness, that without ceasing I make and then the sense is, 'declared to be the Son of God mention of you always in my prayers-So for the Ephein possession of that "power" which belonged to Him sians (Ephesians, 1. 15, 16) so for the Philippians as the only-begotten of the Father, no longer shrouded (Philippians, 1. 3, 4); so for the Colossians (Colossians, as in the days of his flesh, but "by His resurrection 1. 3, 4); so for the Thessalonians (1 Thessalonians, 1. from the dead" gloriously displayed and henceforth 2, 3). What catholic love, what all-absorbing spirituto be for ever exerted in this nature of ours.' [VUL-ality, what impassioned devotion to the glory of Christ GATE, CALVIN, HODGE, PHILIPPI, MEHRING, &c.] among men! 10. Making request, if by any means now according to the spirit of holiness-If "according to the at length I may have a prosperous journey by the will of flesh" mean here, 'in His human nature,' this uncom- God, to come to you-Though long anxious to visit the The Gospel is for the ROMANS, I. Justification of all Men. capital, he met with a number of providential hind- | Hebrews, 10. 38 showing that the gospel way of 'LIFE BY FAITH,' so far from disturbing, only conrances (v. 13; ch. 15. 22; and see on Acts, 19. 21; 23. 11; 28. 15); insomuch that nearly a quarter of a century tinued and developed the ancient method-On the elapsed, after his conversion, ere his desire was ac- foregoing verses, note (1.) What manner of persons complished, and that only as "a prisoner of Jesus ought the ministers of Christ to be, according to the Christ." Thus taught that his whole future was in the pattern here set up:-absolutely subject and officially hands of God, he makes it his continual prayer that at dedicated to the Lord Jesus; separated unto the gospel length the obstacles to a happy and prosperous meet- of God, which contemplates the subjugation of all ing might be removed. 11, 12. For I long to see you, nations to the faith of Christ; debtors to all classes, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift-not any the refined and the rude, to bring the gospel to them supernatural gift, as the next clause shows, and cf. all alike, all shame in the presence of the one, as well 1 Corinthians, 1. 7. to the end that ye may be establighed; pride before the other, sinking before the glory which That is, that I may be comforted together with you by the they feel to be in their message; yearning over all faithmutual faith both of you and me- Not wishing to "lord ful churches, not lording it over them, but rejoicing it over their faith," but rather to be a "helper of their in their prosperity, and finding refreshment and joy," the apostle corrects his former expressions: my strength in their fellowship! (2. The peculiar features desire is to instruct you and do you good, that is, for of the gospel here brought prominently forward should us to instruct and do one another good: in giving I be the devout study of all who preach it, and guide shall also receive.' [JOWETT.] Nor is he insincere the views and the taste of all who are privileged in so speaking, for there is none so poor in the Church statedly to hear it: that it is "the gospel of God," as of Christ who may not impart to us something of a message from heaven, yet not absolutely new, but value: it is only our malignity and pride that hinder on the contrary, only the fulfilment of Old Testament us from gathering such fruit from every quarter.' promise; that not only is Christ the great theme of it, [CALVIN.] How 'widely different is the apostolic style but Christ in the very nature of God as His own Son, from that of the court of Papal Rome! [BENGEL.] and in the nature of men as partaker of their flesh-' 13. oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, but was let the Son of God now in resurrection-power and in(hindered) hitherto-chiefly by his desire to go first to vested with authority to dispense all grace to men, places where Christ was not known (ch. 15. 20-24), and all gifts for the establishment and edification of that I might have some fruit (of my ministry) among the Church, Christ the righteousness provided of God you also, even as among other Gentiles -The GENTILE for the justification of all that believe in His name; origin of the Roman Church is here so explicitly stated, and that in this glorious Gospel, when preached as that those who conclude, merely from the Jewish such, there resides the very power of God to save Jew strain of the argument, that they must have been and Gentile alike who embrace it. (3.) While Christ mostly Israelites, decide in opposition to the apostle is to be regarded as the ordained Channel of all grace himself. (But see Introduction to this Epistle. 14, 15. from God to men (v. 8), let none imagine that His I am debtor both to the (cultivated) Greeks and to the proper divinity is in any respect compromised by this (rude) Barbarians.... So, as much as in me is, I am ready arrangement, since He is here expressly associated with to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also- HeGod the Father," in prayer for "race and peace" feels himself under an all-subduing obligation to carry (including all spiritual blessings to rest upon this the gospel to all classes of mankind, as adapted to and Church (v. 7). (4.) While this Epistle teaches, in conordained equally for all (1 Corinthians, 9. 16). 16. For formity with the teaching of our Lord Himself, that I am not ashamed of the gospel. (The words, "of Christ," all salvation is suspended upon faith, this is but half a which follow here, are wanting in the oldest and best truth, and will certainly minister to self-righteousness, if dissociated from another feature of the same truth. MSS.) This language implies that it required some courage to bring to the mistress of the world' what "to the Jews was a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness." But its inherent glory, as God's life-believers, he "thanks his God through Jesus Christ" giving message to a dying world, so filled his soul, that, like his blessed Master, he "despised the shame." for IT IS THE POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION TO EVERY ONE THAT BELIEVETH-Here and in the next verse the apostle announces the great theme of his ensuing argument: SALVATION, the one overwhelming necessity of perishing men; this revealed IN THE GOSPEL MESSAGE; and that message so owned and honoured of God as to carry, in the proclamation of it, God's own POWER TO SAVE EVERY SOUL THAT EMBRACES IT, Greek and Barbarian, wise and unwise alike. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed-that is, (as the whole argument of the Epistle shows) GOD'S JUSTIFYING RIGHTEOUSNESS, from faith to faith-a ditficult clause. Most interpreters judging from the sense of such phrases elsewhere) take it to mean, 'from one degree of faith to another.' But this agrees ill with the apostle's design, which has nothing to do with the progressive stages of faith, but solely with faith itself as the appointed way of receiving God's "righteousness." We prefer, therefore, to understand it thus: The righteousness of God is in the gospel message, revealed (to be) from (or 'by') faith to (or 'for') faith,' that is, in order to be by faith received.' (So substantially, MELVILLE, MEYER, STUART, BLOOMFIELD, &c.) as it is written (Habakkuk, 2. 4), The just shall live by faith -This golden maxim of the Old Testament, is thrice quoted in the New Testament-here; Galatians, 3. 11; here explicitly taught, that this faith is God's own gift for which accordingly, in the case of the Roman (. 8). (5.) Christian fellowship, as indeed all real fellowship, is a mutual benefit; and as it is not possible for the most eminent saints and servants of Christ to impart any refreshment and profit to the meanest of their brethren without experiencing a rich return into their bosoms, so just in proportion to their humility and love will they feel their need of it and rejoice in it. 18. WHY THIS DIVINELY PROVIDED RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NEEDED BY ALL MEN. For the wrath of God (His holy displeasure and righteous vengeance against sin is revealed from heaven-in the consciences of men, and attested by innumerable outward evidences of a Moral Government. against all ungodliness-i.e., their whole irreligiousness, or their living without any conscious reference to God, and proper feelings towards Him. and unrighteousness of men-i.e., their whole deviations from moral rectitude in heart, speech, and behaviour. (So these terms must be distinguished when used together, though, when standing alone, either of them includes the other.) 18-32. THIS WRATH OF GOD, REVEALED AGAINST ALL INIQUITY, OVERHANGS THE WHOLE HEATHEN WORLD. 18. who hold (rather, 'hold down,' 'hinder." or keep back') the truth in unrighteousness - The apostle, though he began this verse with a comprehensive proposition regarding men in general, takes up in the end of it only one of the two great divisions of mankind, to whom he meant to apply it; thus gently the whole Heathen World. sliding into his argument. But before enumerating | 24. Wherefore God also (in righteous retribution) gave their actual iniquities, he goes back to the origin of them all, their stifling the light which still remained to them. As darkness overspreads the mind, so impotance takes possession of the heart, when the "still small voice" of conscience is first disregarded, next thwarted, and then systematically deadened. Thus "the truth" which God left with and in men, instead of having free scope and developing itself, as it otherwise would, was obstructed (cf. Matthew, 6. 22, 23; Ephesians, 4. 17, 16). 19. Because that which may be (rather, which is known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them - The sense of this pregnant statement the apostle proceeds to unfold in the next verse. 20. For the invisible things of him from (or since') the creation of the world are clearly seen (the mind brightly beholding what the eye cannot discern), being understood by the things that are made-Thus, the outward creation is not the parent but the interpreter of our faith in God. That faith has its primary sources within our own breast (v. 19; but it becomes an intelhable and articulate conviction only through what we cbserve around us ("by the things which are made," v. 25. And thus are the inner and the outer revelation of God the complement of each other, making up between them one universal and immoveable convic-like dishonour done to the blessed God. 26, 27. For tion that God is. (With this striking apostolic statement agree the latest conclusions of the most profound speculative students of Theism.) even his eternal power and Godhead - both that there is an Eternal Power, and that this is not a mere blind force, or pantheistic spirit of nature,' but the power of a living Godhead. so that they are without excuse-all their degeneracy being a voluntary departure from truth thus brightly revealed to the unsophisticated spirit. 21. Because that, when they knew God (that is, while still retaining some real knowledge of Him, and ere they sank down into the state next to be described), they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful-neither yielded the adoration due to Himself, nor rendered the gratitude which His beneficence demanded but became vain (cf. Jeremiah, 2. 5) in their imaginations, thoughts, notions, speculations regarding God: cf. Matthew, 15. 19: Luke, 2. 33; 1 Corinthians, 3. 20, Greek, and their fochish senseless,' 'stupid') heart (i. e., their whole inner man, was darkened - How instructively is the downward progress of the human soul here traced 22, 23. Professing themselves (boasting,' or, pretending to be wise, they became fools It is the invariable property of error in morals and religion, that men take credit to themselves for it and extol it as wisdom. So the heathen, 1 Corinthians, 1. 21. (THOLUCK.] and changed (or, exchanged; the glory of the uncorruptible Gad into for 'for an image... like to corruptible man -The allusion here is doubtless to the Greek worship, and the apostle may have had in his eye those exquisite chisellings of the human form which lay so profusely beceath and around him as he stood on Mars' hill, and "beheld their devotions." (See on Acts, 17. 29.) But as if that had not been a deep enough degradation of the living God, there was found a lower deep' still, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things -referring now to the Egyptian and Oriental worship. In the face of these plain declarations of the descent of man's religious belief from loftier to ever lower and more debasing conceptions of the Supreme Being, there are expositors of this very Epistle as Reiche and Jowett) who, believing neither in any Fall from primeval innocence, nor in the noble traces of that innocence which lingered even after the fall, and were only by degrees obliterated by wilful violence to the dictates of conscience, maintain that man's religious history has been all along a struggle to rise, from the lowest forms of nature-worship, suited to the childhood of our race, into that which is more rational and spiritual. them up-This divine abandonment of men is here and |