walk in vanity, being (i.e. because they are) darkened as to the understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, through the hardness of their heart.’ Darkness of mind is the cause of ignorance, ignorance and consequent obduracy of heart are the cause of alienation from God. This is both the logical and theological order of sequence. The soul in its natural state cannot discern the things of God—therefore it does not know them, therefore the heart is hard and therefore it is destitute of holiness. This is what the apostle teaches in 1 Cor. 2, 14-16. The blind cannot see; therefore they are ignorant of the beauty of creation, therefore they are destitute of delight in its glories. You cannot heal them by light. The eye must first be opened. Then comes vision, and then joy and love. This view of the passage is in ac- cordance with the analogy of Scripture; which con- stantly represents regeneration as necessary to spiritual discernment, and spiritual discernment as necessary to holy affections. Therefore the apostle says of the heathen that their understanding is darkened, a film is over their eyes, and they are alienated from God be- cause of the ignorance consequent on their mental blindness.
V.19. Who, not the simple relative, but οἵτινες, such as who. The practical proof of their being in the state described is to be found in the fact that being without feeling they give themselves over to the sins mentioned. ’Amndynxortes, no longer susceptible of pain. Conscience ceases to upbraid or to restrain them. They,