e. Although the first world adorned itself with this glory, it did not save them 72. 5. How and why this judgment and complaint are ascribed to God 73-74. 6. How they were published to the world by the holy patriarchs 75. 7. Why they were made 76. 8. In what way they have been published to the world 77. 9. How the world resented this judgment and complaint 78. * Time given to the first world for repentance. a. We are not to understand the 120 years as the period of a man's life 79. b. The 120 years the time given these people in which to repent 80-81. 10. Whether and to what end this time was necessary 82. 11. How the old world felt upon hearing this 83. * The complaint and judgment of the last world 84-86. * The nearer the world approaches its destruction the less it thinks of it 86. * How the time of the flood is to be compared with the time God gives man to repent 87. II. THE JUDGMENT AND LAMENTATION OF GOD OVER THE FIRST WORLD; NOAH AND HIS PREACHING. A. GOD'S JUDGMENT AND LAMENTATION OVER THE OLD WORLD. V. 3. _Jehovah said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for that he also is flesh: yet shall his days be a hundred and twenty years."_ 41. Moses here begins by describing Noah as the highest pontiff and priest, or, as Peter calls him, a preacher of righteousness. This text has been mangled in various ways, for the natural man cannot understand spiritual things. When, therefore, the interpreters, with unwashed feet and hands, rushed into the Holy Scriptures, taking with them a human bias and method, as they themselves acknowledge, they could not but fall into diverse and erroneous views. It has almost come to pass, that the more sublime and spiritual the utterances of Scripture, the more shamefully they have been distorted. This passage in particular they have managed so shamelessly that you would not know what to believe, if you followed the interpreters. 42. The Jews are the first to crucify Moses here, for this is their exposition: My Spirit, that is my indignation and wrath, shall not always abide upon man. I will not be angry with men, but spare them, for they are flesh. That means, being spurred by sin, they incline to sin. This meaning Jerome also adopts, who is of the opinion that here only the sin of lust is spoken of, to which we are all prone by nature. But his first error is that he interprets Spirit as wrath. It is the Holy Spirit Moses here speaks of, as the contrast shows. "For man," he says, "is flesh." The meaning is, therefore, that the flesh is not only prone to sin, but also hostile toward God.