and in like manner the men also, neglecting the natural use of the female, burned with lust for one another, men with men practising that which is shameful, and receiving in themselves the due recompense of their error.

senseless, faithless, without natural affection, without pity;

That is, not the children by natural descent are children of God, but the children to whom the promise is made are accounted as the offspring.

For if God spared the natural branches, take care lest he spare not thee.

For if thou hast been cut off from an olivetree wild by nature, and hast against thy nature been ingrafted into a good olivetree, how much more shall these, the natural branches, be ingrafted into their own olivestock?