ather
to disdain, though we feel and see that we also shall incur
destruction. Blessed are they, therefore, who heed, and are moved by
such examples of wrath to be humble and to live in the fear of God.

9. Consider, then, the preeminence of the old world, that perished in
the flood. It possessed apparently the best, holiest and noblest men,
compared with whom we are as the dregs of the world. For the
Scriptures do not say that they were wicked and unjust among
themselves, but toward God. "He saw," says Moses, "that they were
evil." The eyes of God perceive and judge quite differently from the
eyes of men. He says in Isaiah 55, 8-9: "Neither are your ways my
ways.... For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways
higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

10. These tyrants and giants were esteemed and honored among
themselves as the wisest and most just of men. So in our day kings and
princes, popes and bishops, theologians, physicians, jurists and
noblemen occupy exalted places and receive honor as the very gems and
luminaries of the human race. More deservedly did the children of God
in the old world receive such honor, because they excelled in power
and possessed many gifts. Nevertheless, falling into pride and
contempt of God while enjoying his blessings, they were rejected by
God and destroyed, together with their gifts, as if they had been the
lowest and vilest of the human race.

11. And this is a common failing of our human nature. It necessarily
puffs itself up and prides itself on its gifts unless restrained by
the Holy Spirit. I have often said that a man has no more dangerous
enemy than himself. It is my own experience that I have not without me
so great cause for fear as within me; for it is our inner gifts that
incite our nature to pride.

12. As God, who is by nature most kind, cannot refrain from gracing
and showering us with various gifts: health, property, wisdom, skill,
knowledge of Scripture, etc., so we cannot refrain from priding
ourselves upon these gifts and flaunting them. Wretched is our life
when we lack the gifts of God, but twice wretched is it when we have
them; for they tend to make us doubly wicked. Such is the corruption
of original sin, though all but believers are either unaware of its
existence or regard it a trivial thing.

13. Such corruption is perceptible not only in ourselves but in
others. How property inflates pride though it occupies relat