99. Such is the description given by Moses of the first, the original world, in five brief chapters. But it is readily seen that in the beginning was the real golden age of which poets have made mention, their information being doubtless the traditions and the utterances of the fathers.
100. But as the sins of men increased, God spared not the old world, but destroyed it by a flood utterly, even as he did not spare it when under the dispensation of the Law. Because of its idolatry and the impiousness of its worship, he not only overturned one kingdom after another, but even his own people, the Jews, having been severely punished at his hands by various afflictions and captivities, were at length utterly destroyed by the Roman armies.
101. Our age, which is the third age of the world, although it is the age of grace, is so filled with blasphemies and abominations that it is not possible either to express them in language or to form a mental image of them. This age therefore shall not be punished by temporal punishment, but by eternal death and eternal fire, or, if I may so express it, by a flood of fire. The very rainbow even, with its colors, contains a prophetic intimation of these things. The first color is sea-green, representing the destruction of the first world by the waters of the flood, because of violence and lust; the middle color of the bow is yellow, prefiguring the various calamities by which God avenged the idolatry and wickedness of the second age; the third and last color of the bow is fiery red, for fire shall at length consume the world, with all its iniquities and sins.
102. Wherefore, let us constantly pray that God may so rule our hearts by his fear and may so fill us with confidence in his mercy, that we are able with joy to await our deliverance and the righteous punishment of this ungodly world. Amen. Amen.
CHAPTER VI.
| I. | THE SINS OF THE FIRST WORLD, THE CAUSE OF ITS DESTRUCTION. | |||
| * | How this chapter and the preceding one are connected [1]. | |||
| * | It is terrible that God destroyed by a flood the first world, which was the best [2]. | |||
| * | Of pride and the proud. | |||
| 1. | How God humbles what is high and grand in the eyes of the world and has the best gifts [3-4]. | |||
| * | How man can meet the judgments of God [4]. | |||
| 2. | The more gifts man has the greater his pride [5]. | |||
| 3. | The most terrible examples of punishment God gives in the case of the proud and such examples should be diligently pondered [6-7]. | |||
| * | The complaint that the world is hardened by reason of God's judgments [7-8]. | |||
| 4. | How the ancient world was misled into pride through its gifts [9-10]. | |||
| 5. | Pride is the common weakness of human nature [11]. | |||
| 6. | In what ways man is moved to pride [12-13]. | |||
| a. | The chief sin of the old world [14-15]. | |||
| * | Pride is the spring of all vices [15]. | |||
| b. | How the old world sinned against the first table of the law, and brought on the sins against the second table [16]. | |||
| c. | How and why God punished the old world [17]. | |||
| * | From the punishment of the first world we conclude that the last world will be also punished [18]. | |||
| d. | Whether the first world was wicked before Noah's birth; on what occasion its wickedness increased [19]. | |||
| * | Noah the martyr of martyrs [20]. | |||
| * | Why Lamech called his son Noah [21]. | |||
| e. | How sin greatly increased in the days of Noah [22]. | |||
| * | Why Noah remained unmarried so long, which was his greatest cross [23]. | |||
| f. | When the wickedness of the old world began [24]. | |||
| * | Concerning unchastity. | |||
| (1) | It is the foundation of all want and misery [24]. | |||
| (2) | It is the spring of many other sins [25]. | |||
| (3) | How to remedy it [25]. | |||
| (4) | Whether bearing children is in itself to be reckoned as unchastity, and how far Moses denounces it [26]. | |||
| (5) | Unchastity makes the bearing of children difficult [27]. | |||
| g. | The reason the sons of God looked upon the daughters of men [28]. | |||
| h. | Why the sin of the first world was not so terrible as the sin of the second [29-30]. | |||
| i. | How the first world changed through the marriages of Adam and the other patriarchs [30-32]. | |||
| * | The sons of God. | |||
| (1) | What is understood by them [32]. | |||
| (2) | The rabbins' fables about the sons of God, how to refute them [33-34]. | |||
| * | What is to be held concerning the "Incubis" and "Succubis" [34-35]. | |||
| (3) | How the deluge came because of the sons of God [36]. | |||
| (4) | To what end should the fall and punishment of the sons of God serve us [37-38]. | |||
| * | Should the Romish church be called holy [37]. | |||
| * | How the children of God became the children of the devil [38]. | |||
| * | How Noah had to spend his life among a host of villains [39]. | |||
| * | The conduct of the world when God sends it righteous servants [40]. | |||