nd said, that
it was not he who brought the destruction on a polluted world, but that
they underwent that vengeance on account of their own wickedness; and
that he had not brought men into the world if he had himself determined
to destroy them, it being an instance of greater wisdom not to have
granted them life at all, than, after it was granted, to procure their
destruction; "But the injuries," said he, "they offered to my holiness
and virtue, forced me to bring this punishment upon them. But I will
leave off for the time to come to require such punishments, the effects
of so great wrath, for their future wicked actions, and especially on
account of thy prayers. But if I shall at any time send tempests of
rain, in an extraordinary manner, be not affrighted at the largeness of
the showers; for the water shall no more overspread the earth. However,
I require you to abstain from shedding the blood of men, and to keep
yourselves pure from murder; and to punish those that commit any such
thing. I permit you to make use of all the other living creatures at
your pleasure, and as your appetites lead you; for I have made you lords
of them all, both of those that walk on the land, and those that swim
in the waters, and of those that fly in the regions of the air on high,
excepting their blood, for therein is the life. But I will give you
a sign that I have left off my anger by my bow." [whereby is meant the
rainbow, for they determined that the rainbow was the bow of God]. And
when God had said and promised thus, he went away.

9. Now when Noah had lived three hundred and fifty years after the
Flood, and that all that time happily, he died, having lived the number
of nine hundred and fifty years. But let no one, upon comparing the
lives of the ancients with our lives, and with the few years which we
now live, think that what we have said of them is false; or make the
shortness of our lives at present an argument, that neither did they
attain to so long a duration of life, for those ancients were beloved of
God, and [lately] made by God himself; and because their food was then
fitter for the prolongation of life, might well live so great a number
of years: and besides, God afforded them a longer time of life
on account of their virtue, and the good use they made of it in
astronomical and geometrical discoveries, which would not have afforded
the time of foretelling [the periods of the stars] unless they had lived
six hundred yea