_Satan_ no doubt too had a Hand in this Wickedness; for as it was his Business to prompt Men to do every Thing which God had prohibited, so the Reason given why the Men of those Days did this Thing was, they saw the Daughters of Men, that is of the wicked Race or forbidden Sort, _were fair_, he tempted them by the Lust of the Eye; in a word, the Ladies were beautiful and agreeable, and the _Devil_ knew how to make use of the Allurement; the Men liked and took them by the meer Direction of their Fancy and Appetite, without regarding the supreme Prohibition; _They took them Wives of all which they chose_, or such as they lik'd to choose. But the Text adds, that this promiscuous Generation went farther than the meer outward Crime of it, for it shew'd that the Wickedness of the Heart of Man was great before God, and that he resented it; In short, God perceived a Degeneracy or Defect of Virtue had seiz'd upon the whole Race, that there was a general Corruption of Manners, a Depravity of Nature upon them, that even the holy Seed was tainted with it, that the Devil had broken in upon them, and prevail'd to a great Degree; that not only the Practice of the Age was corrupt, for that God could easily have restrain'd, but that the very Heart of Man was debauch'd, his Desires wholly vitiated, and his Senses engag'd in it; so that in a Word, it became necessary to shew the divine Displeasure, not in the ordinary Manner, by Judgment and Reproofs of such kind as usually reclaim Men, but by a general Destruction to sweep them away, clear the Earth of them, and put an End to the Wickedness at once, removing the Offence and the Offenders all together; this is signify'd at large, Gen. vi. 5. _God saw that the Wickedness of Man was great in the Earth, and that every Imagination of the Thoughts of his Heart was only evil continually._ And again ver. 11, 12. _The Earth also was corrupt before God; and the Earth was fill'd with Violence. And God look'd upon the Earth and behold it was corrupt; for all Flesh had corrupted his Way upon the Earth._