138. This passage furnishes a description of the sins with which that age was burdened: Men were averse to the Word; they were given over to their own lusts and reprobate minds; they sinned against the Holy Spirit by persistent impenitence, by defending their ungodly behavior and by warring upon the recognized truth. Yet with all these blasphemies they retained the name and authority, not only of the State, but also of the Church, as if God had exalted them to the place of the angels. When this was the state of things, and Noah and Lamech with their pious ancestor Methuselah taught in vain, God turned them over to the desires of their hearts (Ps 81, 12) and maintained silence until they should experience the flood, the prophecy of which they refused to believe. 139. This is falling away from God and Church and entering upon illicit marriage. One sin, unless corrected at once, will lead to another, and so on indefinitely until the state is reached which Solomon describes in Proverbs 18, 3, "When the wicked cometh, there cometh also contempt, and with ignominy Cometh reproach." They who thus sin, even if afterward rebuked, do not heed. They imagine they stand in need of no instructor, and think they represent a just cause. They do not believe in a life after this, or even hope for salvation, while living in open sin. Notwithstanding, scorn and shame shall overwhelm them. It was this persistent impenitence and consummate contempt for the Word that impelled God to visit all flesh with a universal flood. IV. GOD'S REPENTANCE AND GRIEF THAT HE MADE MAN. A. THE REPENTANCE OF GOD. 1. The Words, "The wickedness of man was great." a. How Luther used these words against the doctrine of free will; how the advocates of free will falsely interpreted them, and how they are refuted 140-141. * Concerning free will. (1) Augustine's doctrine of free will misinterpreted by the schools 140. (2) The schools unreasonably defend it 141. (3) Man has no free will and without the grace of the Holy Spirit can do nothing 142-143. (4) The reproving office of the Holy Spirit makes it clear that man has no free will 144. (5) Whether there is hope, if a council be held, that the Papists will abandon their false doctrine of free will 145. (6) How the true doctrine of free will leads us to a knowledge of sin and what we are to hold in reference to it 146. (7) Why we should guard against the false doctrine concerning free will 147. * The comfort for one who commits sins of infirmities 147. * All endeavors without the Holy Spirit are evil 148.