Therefore, they being for a brief period overshadowed with the emblems of superstition, which is the great hindrance to holiness, and a great injury to those who have it and to those who associate with it; after that again stripping off their disguise, display their naked hypocrisy. And then like men, convicted of being aliens, they are looked upon as enemies, having entered themselves as citizens of that noblest of cities—virtue, while they have really no connection with it. For whatever is violent (βίαιον) is also of short duration, as its very name imports, since it closely resembles short (βαιὸν). And the ancients used the two words (βαιὸν) and (ὀλιγοχρόνιον) of short duration as synonymous.
We must now consider the question which is meant by "Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord God." Genesis vi. 8. Is the meaning of what is here expressed this, that he received grace, or that he was accounted worthy of grace? The former idea it is not natural for us to entertain; for what was given to him beyond what was given to all, as one may say, not only to all concrete natures only, but to all elementary and simple natures which have been accounted worthy of divine grace?
But the second interpretation has a reason in it which is not
Genesis vi. 8.
altogether inconsistent, that the cause of all things, judges those persons worthy of his gifts, who do not corrupt the divine impression which has been stamped upon them, namely, the most sacred mind, with disgraceful practises; still perhaps even this is not the true meaning of the words.