unknown unrevealed God." This charge, or some such as this, if true, had been unanswerable: therefore the apostle directly denies the foundation thereof, and disproves all such kind of contradictions thus: "Because," says he, "that which may be known of God," rò yvwOTOV T Oεe, that which is known or knowable, or ought to be known of God, "is manifest," not in them, for then they had been believers unto righteousness and salvation, and not hearers only, as they were, unto condemnation; but as the margin reads, "to them," or "among them," as the same word (iv) is of necessity rendered, to preserve the sense, in hundreds of places; as Mary is said to be blessed (iv) among women; the kingdom of heaven to be (iv) among the unbelieving Jews, not in them, or in their hearts, which would have been absurd.

But how came this manifestation of the knowledge of God to be made among those heathens? was it by their own reasonings upon what they saw? The contrary may be presumed: for then, when they had hunted for it, and found it upon the scent, they would not afterwards so readily have reasoned themselves out of it again, and turned their God into a worm. How was it then? Hear the apostle, who adds, "For God shewed," or manifested, "it to them." The word here rendered shewed, is épavépwoe, answering to the word immediately before, havepóv, rendered manifest; the same word which is used i. John 4, 9. where it is said, "In this was manifested, épavepwon, "the love of God, that he sent his son into the world." And, i. Tim. iii. 16. "God was manifest," or shewed, ipavepwon, "in the flesh." And, Micah vi. 8. "He hath shewed" (igavipwoe, Gr. Trans.) " to thee, O man, what is good.” The knowledge of all which manifestations of the same object, which is Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and for ever, comes only by faith through the word, and not by the things done discovering themselves to the mind; much less by the reason of man forming syllogisms, and chopping of logic upon them.

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Verse 20. "For the invisible things of him, even his eternal power and Godhead," which Godhead certainly must comprehend the whole revealed perfections of the Divine Nature, wisdom, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, &c. these are clearly seen," like the shining light, by those who have eyes to perceive it; or, whether they perceive it or not, yet the light shines to the condemnation of them who walk in darkness, and to the justification of them who, like Moses, endured as seeing the invisible, while they looked not at the things which were seen, but at the things which were not seen, even the eternal.

Thus, as Jesus Christ was by preaching evidently set forth to the Galatians, though some were bewitched, and understood not; and as Christ the light came to his own and they knew him not, because it was their hour and power of darkness, though some always believed, and condemned the ungodly, by their chaste conversation in the light; even so, the invisible things of God "from the creation of the world," that is, from the time or date of the world's creation, "are clearly seen;" not because they are made visible to the bodily eye, which were impossible; for how could the fleshly eye see the Godhead? but because God hath shewed them, as in the last verse, by his word; so that the mind may perceive them-being understood, minded, remembered, daily suggested to and pressed upon the mind, as the word voéueva signifies, by the things that are made, now that God has manifested and declared himself by his word to be the Creator and Preserver of the world, even from the foundation thereof.

Though the words, thus paraphrased according to the common translation, make a good consistent sense; yet it must not be denied, but ought rather to be carefully remarked, that the original words rois Toihμaoi, rendered, by the things that are made, may as justly and perly in all respects be translated thus, by the things that are done, or have been done, even by God the Lord, for the manifestation of himself, his character, and

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manner of acting towards the children of men, as now in these last days declared in the gospel, according to all that God spake and did by Moses and all the prophets, by Jesus his only begotten Son and all his apostles, God also bearing them witness both with signs, and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will.-Thus "the times of former ignorance God winked at; but now in the gospel commandeth all men every where to repent." This indeed I take to be the meaning of the text, which at once will cut off all difficulty from the place, and all pretence of cavilling about the knowledge of God from the works of creation without the word; which seems to be a mere pretence, as founded only upon a mistranslation-which is the more probable from the apostle's scope, which is to charge the Romans, to whom he then wrote, rather with their own personal guilt and condemnation, if they rejected the gospel now preached to them with the Holy Ghost from heaven, than to charge their consciences with the sins and punishment of their ancestors; though he seems directed to use a figure of speech and address very common with him, by seeming to transfer to others what he means directly to charge home upon the conscience of his immediate hearer, till he can conclude directly with a Thou art the man. But, as to this, every man will judge (as he ought) for himself.

There is also another (by no means unlikely) interpretation, which has been oftentimes suggested, that by these words in the Greek, roig roihμaσi, we may understand, those holy and divinely inspired poems or songs of record, (for the words undoubtedly will bear that rendering,) wherein the Holy Ghost chose to preserve the everlasting remembrance of the glorious things of God from the beginning, till the Scriptures should be written and published to every creature-For God, from the beginning of time, inspired his servants, and spake at divers times, and in sundry manners, to the ancients by his prophets. And that of registering the

heavenly transactions and records by songs and poems, was one way which God chose: witness the song of Deborah and Barak, and that of Moses at the Red Sea, and Miriam with the women in the dance, and the daughters of Israel who met David and Saul.-Were these things recorded, and the creation unrecorded? And many of those inspired songs are spoken of, which are now lost; such as that of Jasher, for instance; and Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied and they seem always to have uttered their prophecies of old in the way of song or poem, the style being universally exalted above that of common discourse. And how many others might have been employed in the same service with Enoch, the Lord knows. One thing is certain to us, that God never left himself without witness; and that, if he did them good by giving them rain and fruitful seasons, and filling their hearts with food and gladness, he behoved to have told them at the same time, that he was their bountiful Preserver and Benefactor, and not their own idols-otherwise, how could they have been charged with sin and ingratitude for not knowing and worshipping an unrevealed God?-And to those songs concerning the creation, the Lord seems to allude, when he says to Job, "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy;" which might have been such a song for the consolation and praise of the church in the ancient days of old before the flood, as Gabriel's salutation of Mary, and the song of the angels at the birth of Jesus, when the multitude of the heavenly host, in the light shining around, sang, "Peace on earth, good-will towards men," for the everlasting joy and praise of the Christian church for in such things the angels, as being all ministring spirits to them who shall be heirs of salyation, have fellowship with the saints, and desire to look into them, and behold the manifold wisdom of God, learning it from the church. Now, it is evident from the inspired history of the first times, that believers are

called also the sons of God, and idolators or unbelievers are called the children of men. A fragment of one of those poems or songs, which God at first had bestowed on the heathen world, which they indeed (like Belshazzar with the vessels of the Lord's house in another case) had prostituted, and turned into a ballad of praise to one of their idols, called Jupiter the Olympian, the apostle quotes from one of their own poets, (whom he calls by a figure prophet, as others of them were called priests,) and applies it to its true and original purpose, "We are all his offspring," &c.

And moreover, that such revelations from God, concerning himself and his ways, were as universal as the race of Adam upon earth from the first times, appears even from the publicly established idolatry in all nations, their priests, temples, sacrifices, worship, and devotions; not to speak of circumcision, washings, purifications, and other customs, which afterwards obtained, in imitation of God's way towards his chosen Israel. All which customs, we know from the Scriptures, God ordained, in favour to mankind, for signs, which he declared the meaning of, and appointed till the times of refreshing by Jesus Christ: the nations. seized greedily upon the signs, the outward things; the Devil took away the meaning, stupified them, bewitched them, enslaved them, and taught them like dogs, to fetch and carry, and fawn upon himself; having quite corrupted them and their worship, and even drenched them in brutishness and devilishness, till they became quite ignorant, and so regardless of God, whose names, titles, attributes, ordinances, words, and works, they horribly profaned, as dogs with holy things, and swine with pearls, and yielded up themselves, with all those things which originally came from and belonged to God, even unto the Devil, whom they worshipped, adored, and served as God, under a thousand names, in every nation under heaven, and in various manners, according to all the deeps of Satan, and work