40 ROMANS 1: 18—32.

word rendered judgment, as well as the corresponding Hebrew term, is used in a very wide sense in the Scriptures, for any thing which God has ordained or commanded ; as in the frequent phrase, " thy judgments," in the Old Testament. Hence it includes the law of God. This is its meaning here, ' they know the law of God — what he has commanded ;' see Luke 1 : 6. Rom. 2 : 26. They are acquainted not only with the precept, but the sanction of this law; they know not only that these crimes are forbidden, but that those who do them are worthy of death. Death here, as often elsewhere, means the penalty of the law, all those evils by which sin is punished, Rom. 6 : 23. The idea, therefore, is, that the heathen know that they deserve punishment for their crimes ; in other words, that they are justly exposed to the wrath of God. How they know this, Paul does not here say, but explains in the next chap. V. 14. It was a knowledge written upon their hearts, or included in the very constitution of their nature ; it was implied in their being moral beings. The crimes of the heathen were not only aggravated by being- committed against a knowledge of their turpitude and ill desert, but also by their being deliberate. » They did not commit such offences in the heat of passion merely, but they took pleasure in those who did them. They were of set purpose and fixed preference, wicked ; and the promo- ters of all iniquity. Such is Paul's argument to prove that the Gentiles are all under sin, are justly chargeable with impiety and immorality, and consequently exposed to the divine displeasure.