16 Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.



Ver. 16. Suffered all nations, &c.] That we walk not as other Gentiles, in our own ways, but know and serve the true God, is of his singular grace and favour. The ancient inhabitants of this land were as barbarous and brutish as any under heaven. Cicero ( De Nat. Deorum) parallels the Britons and Scythians. Jerome ever sets them in opposition to some other nation that is most tamed and civilized. Sed Britannorum inaccsssa Romanis loca Christo tamen subdita, saith Tertullian. Christ subdued those whom the Romans could never come at to conquer.