of the verb rendered they did not like means, 1. To test or prove ,- 2. To approve, to judge worthy, 1 Cor. 16: 3, "whom ye shall approve;" 3. To discern or decide upon. The second signification seems best suited to this passage. ' They did not think it of any account to retain the know- ledge of the true God.'
Reprobate mind. The word for reprobate is derived from the same root with the verb just spoken of. There is, therefore, a correspondence between the terms which is not preserved in our version. ' As they did not approve of God, he gave them up to a mind which no one could ap- prove.' The word literally means that which cannot bear the test ,• see 1 Cor. 9 : 27. 2 Cor. 13 : 5 — 7. It is applied, therefore, to any thing which is actually rejected, or is worthy of universal disapprobation. This is its meaning generally, if not universally, in common Greek, as well as in the New Testament.
To do those things which are not convenient. This is the consequence of the dereliction just spoken of, and the natural fruit of a reprobate mind. Things not convenient are things which are not becoming the na- ture or duties of man. They include all the crimes enumerated in the following verses.
(29 — 31) Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, &c. These and other crimes were not of rare occurrence. The heathen we7-e filled with them. They not only abounded, but in many cases were palliated, and even justified. To their existence and prevalence, there- fore, Paul appeals as to a notorious fact. Dark as the picture here drawn is of the morals of the heathen world, it is not so dark as that drawn by the most distinguished Greek and Latin authors of their re- spective countrymen. On the two preceding verses, and on every word in those which follow to v. 32, Wetstein and Grotius quote even ad nau seam from ancient writers, passages which more than bear out the dread ful charges of the apostle. See also Leland's Work on the Necessity for a Divine Revelation, and Tholuck's Dissertation on the Morals of the Heathen, &c., translated for the Biblical Repository, Vol. II. What Paul says of the ancient heathen is found to be true, in all its essential features, of those of our own day. It is an interesting fact that the mis- sionaries in the East Indies have frequently been accused by the heathen of having forged the whole of the latter part of this chapter. They can- not believe that such an accurate description of themselves could have been written eighteen centuries ago. Wherever men have existed there have they manifested themselves to be sinners, ungodly, and unright- eous, and consequently justly exposed to the wrath of God.
(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. As Paul had before showed that the impiety of the heathen is inexcusable, inasmuch as they have a knowledge of God, so he here shows that their immorality is equally without defence. These crimes are not committed ignorantly. They know the judgment of God. The