have the fruits themselves lost in excellence? Our
first parents lived moderately, and chose only those things for their
meat and drink calculated to nourish and refresh their bodies. There
can be no doubt that after the deluge all the fruits of the earth
deteriorated greatly. Even so, in our own age, we find all things
deteriorate. The Italian wines and fruits differ no more from our own
at the present day than the fruits before the deluge differed from
those produced amid that brackishness and foulness made by the sea.

38. These causes, with others which many assign for the great
longevity of the primeval patriarchs, I by no means disapprove. But
this one reason is quite sufficient, in my opinion, that it pleased
God to give them such length of life in the best part of the world.
Yet we see, as Peter strikingly says, that God willed not to spare the
old world, no, not even the angels in heaven that sinned; so horrible
a thing is sin. Sodom and Gomorrah were the choicest portion of the
earth, and yet, on account of sin, they were utterly destroyed. In the
same manner the Holy Scriptures everywhere set forth the greatness of
sin, and exhort to the fear of God.

39. We have now the root, or rather the source, of the human race,
namely Adam and his Eve. From these Seth is born, the first branch of
this tree. But as Adam lived eight hundred years after the birth of
Seth, Adam saw himself in possession of numerous progeny. This was the
period of the restoration of righteousness through the promise of the
seed to come. Afterwards, however, when men increased, and the sons of
God mingled with the daughters of men, the world gradually became
corrupt, and the majesty of the holy patriarchs became an object of
contempt.

40. It is an attractive sight, to view the number of gray-headed
patriarchs living at the same time. Only a little ciphering is
required to do it. If you compute carefully the years of our first
parent, Adam, you will see that he lived over fifty years with Lamech,
Noah's father. Accordingly, Adam saw all his descendants down to the
ninth generation, having an almost infinite number of sons and
daughters. These, however, Moses does not enumerate, being satisfied
to number the trunk and the immediate branches down to Noah.

41. There were, without doubt, in this mighty multitude, many very
distinguished saints, whose history, if we possessed it, would exceed
in marvelousness all the histories of the world. C