But
the Apostle tells us that they, the Gentiles, did not like to retain
God in their knowledge. They wickedly extinguished the light which He
had given them, because they were not willing to give up their
immoralities. And as their hearts became more corrupt, their intellects
also were darkened, and in their senselessness they changed the glory
of the incorruptible God into the baser image of "birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things." They sank into the grossest idolatry and
licentiousness and all wickedness. This picture drawn in colors which
shock our sensibilities, in the first chapter of Romans, is confirmed
by the authentic writings of heathen historians, and this in all
particulars, Paul says, "They are without excuse, because they did not
live up to the light which they had received, obscure and imperfect as
it was."
And how was it with the Jews? The advantage was, indeed, to them much
every way, but chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of
God. They had an outward revelation, and with it a knowledge of that
law of God, which is holy and just and good.
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