a. How Jerome perverts this text 131.

b. What is to be understood by "the mighty men that were of
old" 131.

* The meaning of "Olam" 132.

c. Whence did they receive their power 133.

d. Why called "mighty men" 134.

* The character of the true church 134.

3. By "the men of renown."

a. Why they were thus named 135.

b. Who they were 136.

* They resembled the pope and bishops 136.

c. Lyra's false explanation of it refuted 137.

* How Antichrist is restrained from the world, and true
doctrine maintained 137.

D. THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY SPIRIT 138.

* That one sin follows another until man reaches the highest
degree of sin 139.

III. THE SINS OF THE OLD WORLD IN PARTICULAR.

A. THE FORBIDDEN MARRIAGES ENTERED INTO.

102. But, I ask, why is not complaint made also of the men, or why are
not the daughters of God included in this complaint? He says merely
that they "saw the daughters of men." It was surely for this reason,
that the holy generation of Seth had received the peculiar injunction
to beware of fellowship with the Cainites, inasmuch as they had been
excluded from the true Church, and to mingle with them neither
socially through marriage, nor ecclesiastically through worship, for
the righteous should avoid every occasion of offense.

103. In prohibiting marriage with the Cainites it was the chief
purpose of the pious fathers to maintain their generation pure; for
daughters bring into the houses of their husbands the views and
manners of the fathers. Thus, we read of Solomon in the Book of the
Kings that he was led astray through a woman who was a stranger; and
thus Jezebel introduced the wickedness of the Syrians into the kingdom
of Israel.

104. The holy fathers saw the same would come to pass in their
generation; therefore, after they were separated from the Cainites
through the divine command, they resolved that the sons of the holy
generation should not marry the daughters of men. The daughters of the
race of the righteous could more readily be restrained from marriage
with the Cainites, while the sons were independent and headstrong.

105. In this way Moses wishes to show the trouble began from the time
the sons of God joined themselves to the daughters of men, seeing that
they were fair. The sons of men who were proud and strong and