race of creatures might be in danger of destruction: but that,
having now punished the wicked, he would of his goodness spare
the remainder, and such as he had hitherto judged fit to be
delivered from so severe a calamity; for that otherwise these
last must be more miserable than the first, and that they must be
condemned to a worse condition than the others, unless they be
suffered to escape entirely; that is, if they be reserved for
another deluge; while they must be afflicted with the terror and
sight of the first deluge, and must also be destroyed by a
second. He also entreated God to accept of his sacrifice, and to
grant that the earth might never again undergo the like effects
of 'his wrath; that men might be permitted to go on cheerfully in
cultivating the same; to build cities, and live happily in them;
and that they might not be deprived of any of those good things
which they enjoyed before the Flood; but might attain to the like
length of days, and old age, which the ancient people had arrived
at before.

8. When Noah had made these supplications, God, who loved the man
for his righteousness, granted entire success to his prayers, and
said, that it was not he who brought the destruction on a
polluted world, but that they underwent that vengeance on account
of their own wickedness; and that he had not brought men into the
world if he had himself determined to destroy them, it being an
instance of greater wisdom not to have granted them life at all,
than, after it was granted, to procure their destruction; "But
the injuries," said he, "they offered to my holiness and virtue,
forced me to bring this punishment upon them. But I will leave
off for the time to come to require such punishments, the effects
of so great wrath, for their future wicked actions, and