99. This faith taught him to despise the presumption of the world which derided him as a man in his dotage. This faith prompted him diligently to continue the building of the ark, a work those giants probably ridiculed as extreme folly. This faith made Noah strong to stand alone against the many evil examples of the world, and to despise most vehemently the united judgment of all others.
100. But almost unutterable and miraculous is this faith, burdened as it is with strange and most weighty obstacles, which the Holy Spirit shows in passing, without going into great detail, that we may be induced to meditate the more diligently upon its circumstances. Consider first the great corruption of the age. While the Church had before this time many and most holy patriarchs, it was now deprived of such rulers; Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch are all dead, and the number of patriarchs is reduced to three—Methuselah, Lamech and Noah. These alone are left at the time the decree concerning the destruction of the world is published. These three are compelled to witness and suffer the incredible malice of men, their idolatry, blasphemy, violent acts, foul passions, until finally Methuselah and Lamech are also called out of this life. There Noah was the only one to oppose the world rushing to destruction, and to make an effort to preserve righteousness and to repress unrighteousness. But far from meeting with success, he had to see even the sons of God lapse into wickedness.
101. This ruin and havoc of the Church troubled the righteous man and all but broke his heart, as Peter says of Lot in Sodom, 2 Pet 2, 8. Now, if Lot was so distracted and vexed by the wickedness of one community, how must it have been with Noah, against whom not only the generation of Cain raged, but who was opposed also by the decadent generation of the patriarchs, and then even by his own father's house, his brothers, sisters, and the descendants of his uncles and aunts? For all these were corrupted and estranged from the faith by the daughters of men. As the text says, they "saw the daughters of men."
| III. | THE SINS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD IN PARTICULAR. | ||||
| A. | THE FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES ENTERED INTO. | ||||
| 1. | Why this is said of the sons and not of the daughters of the holy patriarchs [102]. | ||||
| 2. | Why were the holy fathers so emphatically forbidden to let their sons marry the ungodly [103-104]. | ||||
| 3. | How this was the beginning of all evils [105]. | ||||
| * | What evils have in all times come through woman [106]. | ||||
| 4. | The sins here sprang from despising the first table of the law [107-108]. | ||||
| * | The sins of the second table follow when the first table is not kept [108]. | ||||
| 5. | Everything that is called sin is embraced in this sin [109-110]. | ||||
| 6. | How marriage with the children of the true Church was despised [111]. | ||||
| 7. | Their desire to marry thus resembled Eve's desire to take the forbidden apple [112]. | ||||
| 8. | Why the patriarchs' children took this step [113]. | ||||
| 9. | How these marriage alliances were formed [114-116]. | ||||
| 10. | Berosus' testimony concerning these forbidden marriages [116]. | ||||
| B. | DISORDER IN ALL BRANCHES OF SOCIETY [116-117]. | ||||
| C. | THE TYRANNY EXERCISED. | ||||
| 1. | By the "giants" or tyrants. | ||||
| a. | What is to be understood by tyrants [117]. | ||||
| * | The pope resembles the tyrants before the flood [118]. | ||||
| b. | The nature of these tyrants [119]. | ||||
| c. | Why called Nephilim [120-122]. | ||||
| d. | Whether they received their name from their size or from their cruelty [123]. | ||||
| * | How the Scriptures designate true rulers [123]. | ||||
| e. | These tyrants types of Antichrist [123]. | ||||
| f. | They were raging, powerful and criminal characters [124]. | ||||
| * | Of authorities. | ||||
| (1) | How God wants us to honor the authorities though he terribly threatens them [125-126]. | ||||
| (2) | Why God wants them to be honored, when he himself does not honor them [127]. | ||||
| (3) | Godless rulers are God's swine and are rare birds in heaven [128]. | ||||
| g. | Whether these tyrants were rulers and why God called them by such a shameful name [129]. | ||||
| h. | Moses chose the word Nephilim, which in his day designated a wicked people, to express the tyrants of the first World [130]. | ||||
| 2. | By "the mighty men." | ||||
| a. | How Jerome perverts this text [131]. | ||||
| b. | What is to be understood by "the mighty men that were of old" [131]. | ||||
| * | The meaning of "Olam" [132]. | ||||
| c. | Whence did they receive their power [133]. | ||||
| d. | Why called "mighty men" [134]. | ||||
| * | The character of the true church [134]. | ||||
| 3. | By "the men of renown." | ||||
| a. | Why they were thus named [135]. | ||||
| b. | Who they were [136]. | ||||
| * | They resembled the pope and bishops [136]. | ||||
| c. | Lyra's false explanation of it refuted [137]. | ||||
| * | How Antichrist is restrained from the world, and true doctrine maintained [137]. | ||||
| D. | THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT [138]. | ||||
| * | That one sin follows another until man reaches the highest degree of sin [139]. | ||||
III. THE SINS OF THE OLD WORLD IN PARTICULAR.
A. THE FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES ENTERED INTO.