Before the Flood
I am, first, by opening the words of the text, to show what men were before the Flood. And we may fully depend on the account here given. For God saw it, and he cannot be deceived. He saw that the wickedness of man was great (Genesis 6:5). Not of this or that man, not of a few men only, not barely of the greater part, but of man in general, of men universally. The word includes the whole human race, every partaker of human nature. And it is not easy for us to compute their numbers, to tell how many thousands and millions they were. The earth then retained much of its primeval beauty and original fruitfulness. The face of the globe was not rent and torn as it is now, and spring and summer went hand in hand. It is therefore probable it afforded sustenance for far more inhabitants than it is now capable of sustaining, and these must be immensely multiplied, while men begat sons and daughters for 700 or 800 years together (Genesis 5). Yet among all this inconceivable number, only Noah found favor with God (Genesis 6:8). He alone (perhaps including part of his household) was an exception from the universal wickedness, which by the just judgment of God in a short time after brought on universal destruction (Genesis 7). All the rest were partakers in the same guilt, as they were in the same punishment.
1771 text
I. 1. I am, first, By opening the words of the text, to shew, what men were before the flood. And we may fully depend on the account here given. For God saw it, and he cannot be deceived. He saw that the wickedness of man was great. Not of this or that man; not of a few men only: not barely of the greater part, but of man in general, of men universally. The word includes the whole human race, every partaker of human nature. And it is not easy for us to compute their numbers, to tell how many thousands and millions they were. The earth then retained much of its primeval beauty and original fruitfulness. The face of the globe was not rent and torn, as it is now: and spring and summer went hand in hand. ’Tis therefore probable, it afforded sustenance for far more inhabitants, than it is now capable of sustaining; and these must be immensely multiplied, while men begat sons and daughters for seven or eight hundred years together. Yet among all this inconceivable number, only Noah found favour with God. He alone (perhaps including part of his houshold) was an exception from the universal wickedness, which by the just judgment of God, in a short time after brought on universal destruction. All the rest were partakers in the same guilt, as they were in the same punishment.