r consolation. He
accuses and blames himself in order to rouse the little flock to the
certain faith that God will be merciful hereafter.

53. And their souls stood in real need of such consolation. They had
been terrified as they witnessed God's raging wrath, and their faith
could not but be shaken. So now God is impelled to so order his acts
and words that these people might expect only grace and mercy.
Accordingly he now speaks with them, is present at their sacrifice,
shows that he is pleased with them, blames his own counsel, and
promises that he will never do anything like it in the future. In
brief, he is a different God from what he had been before. While God,
indeed, does not change, he wants to change men, who have become
altogether habituated to thoughts of wrath.

54. They who have experienced trials of the spirit, know full well how
much the soul then stands in need of sure and strong consolation to
induce it once more to hope for grace and to forget the wrath. One
day, a whole month, perhaps is not enough for this change. Just as it
takes a long time to recover from bodily disorders, so such wounds of
the soul cannot be healed at once, or by one word. God sees this, and
tries by various means to recall the terrified souls to a certain hope
of grace; he even chides himself, speaking to his own heart, as in
Jeremiah 18, 8, where he promises to repent of the evil he thought of
doing, if the offenders also repent.

55. It should furthermore be noted that he says, "I will not again
curse the ground." He speaks of a general destruction of the earth,
not of a partial one, as when he destroys fields, cities, or kingdoms.
The latter instances are for a warning; as Mary says, "He hath put
down princes from their thrones." Lk 1, 52.

III. MAN'S NATURAL DEPRAVITY AND HIS NATURAL POWERS.

1. Natural depravity crops out in infancy 56.

2. It is seen as the years advance 57-58.

3. Whether those who would drown it have reason for doing so 59-60.

4. There is none untainted by it 61-62.

5. The godless yield to it, believers resist it 62.

* Can God be charged with being changeable 63-64.

6. The knowledge of natural depravity is very necessary 65.

7. What moves sophists to ignore natural depravity 65-66.

8. How to view those who lightly regard natural depravity, and how
to refute them 68-69.

* Meaning of "the imagination of the heart" 70.

* True theologica