Sect. CXI. — THE Diatribe at length comes to THE PASSAGES CITED BY LUTHER AGAINST “FREE-WILL,” WITH THE INTENT TO REFUTE THEM.

The first passage, is that of Gen. vi. 3, “My Spirit shall not always remain in man; seeing that he is flesh.” This passage it confutes, variously. First, it says, ‘that flesh, here, does not signify vile affection, but infirmity.’ Then it augments the text of Moses, ‘that this saying of his, refers to the men of that age, and not to the whole race of men: as if he had said, in these men.’ And moreover, ‘that it does not refer to all the men, even of that age; because, Noah was excepted,’ And at last it says, ‘that this word has, in the Hebrew, another signification; that it signifies the mercy, and not the severity, of God; according to the authority of Jerome.’ By this it would, perhaps, persuade us, that since that saying did not apply to Noah but to the wicked, it was not the mercy, but the severity of God that was shewn to Noah, and the mercy, not the severity of God that was shewn to the wicked.

But let us away with these ridiculing vanities of the Diatribe: for there is nothing which it advances, which does not evince that it looks upon the Scriptures as mere fables. What Jerome here triflingly talks about, is nothing at all to me; for it is certain that he cannot prove any thing that he says. Nor is our dispute concerning the sense of Jerome, but concerning the sense of the Scripture. Let that perverter of the Scriptures attempt to make it appear, that the Spirit of God signifies indignation. — I say, that he is deficient in both parts of the necessary two-fold proof. First, he cannot produce one passage of the Scripture, in which the Spirit of God is understood as signifying indignation: for, on the contrary, kindness and sweetness are every where ascribed to the Spirit. And next, if he should prove that it is understood in any place as signifying indignation, yet, he cannot easily prove, that it follows of necessity, that it is so to be received in this place.

So also, let him attempt to make it appear, that “flesh,” is here to be understood as signifying infirmity; yet, he is as deficient as ever in proof. For where Paul calls the Corinthians “carnal,” he does not signify infirmity, but corrupt affection, because, he charges them with “strife and divisions;’ ’ which is not infirmity, or incapacity to receive “stronger” doctrine, but malice and that “old leaven,” which he commands them to “purge out.” (1 Cor. iii. 3; v. 7.) But let us examine the Hebrew.