Wesley Corpus

vi. 5, 12, 13.) And this was not the case of only part of mankind; but “all flesh had cor rupted his way upon the earth: ” And accordingly God said, “The end of all flesh is come, for the earth is filled with vio lence through them.” Only Noah was “righteous before God.” (Gen. vii. 1.) Therefore only he and his household were spared, when God “brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly,” and destroyed them all from the face of the earth. “Let us examine the most distinguishing features in this draught. Not barely the works of their hands, or the works of their tongue, but “every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts was evil.” The contagion had spread itself through the immer man; had tainted the seat of their principles, and the source of their actions. But was there not some mixture of good? No; they were only evil: Not so much as a little leaven of piety, unless in one single family. But were there no lucid intervals; no happy moments wherein virtue gained the ascendancy? None; every imagination, every thought was only evil continually.”* 2. Such was the state of mankind for at least sixteen hundred years. Men were corrupting themselves and each other, and proceeding from one degree of wickedness to another, till they were all (save eight persons) ripe for destruction. So deplorable was the state of the moral world, while the natural was in its highest perfection. And yet it is highly probable, that the inhabitants of the earth were then abundantly more numerous than ever they have been since, considering the length of their lives, falling little short of a thousand years, and the strength and vigour of their bodies, which we may easily gather from the time they were to continue; to say nothing of the fertility of the earth, probably far greater than it is at present. Consequently, it was then capable of sustaining such a number of inhabitants as could not now subsist on the produce of it. 3. Let us next take a view of the “families of the sons of Noah,” the inhabitants of the earth after the flood.