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That is, as many as have sinned without the written law, which is the case of the Gentiles or Heathens, shall also perish without that law, being judged and condemned by the law of nature written in their hearts; but as many as have sinned in or under the law of Moses, which is the case of the Jews, shall be judged and condemned by that law.
Observe here, 1. A truth plainly implied, and necessarily supposed; namely, That as some sinners perish, having the written word, and all external means of salvation; so others perish, having not the written word or law of God, and the outward and ordinary means of salvation: As many as have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law. God, in the dispensations of his grace, acteth in a way of sovereignty, according to the measures of strict justice, upon the previous demerits of sinners.
Observe, 2. That all men shall not be proceeded against in the day of judgment after one and the same manner; but every man according to the demerit of his sin, and according to the creation capacity and relation in which he stood in this life. The Gentiles which had only the law of nature, shall not be judged by the law of Moses: The Jews, which have both the law of nature, and the law of Moses, shall be judged by both: and consequently, Christians, which have the law of nature unwritten, the Mosaical law written, and the Evangelical law, both written and preached, shall lie under greater guilt, and receive a more aggravating condemnation. Christ will exactly proportion every man's hell hereafter to his sin committed here; the greater light we have quenched, the greater darkness will be inflicted, How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation? Heb_2:3