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Noe. moued vpon the earth, of foule, of cattle, of beasts, and of al creepers, that creep vpon the earth: al men, and al things, wherin there is breath of life on the earth, died. And he cleane destroied al substance that was vpon the earth, from man euen to beast, as wel it that creepeth, as the foules of the ayre: and they were destroyed from of the earth: ″ but onlie Noe remained, and they that were with him in the arke. And the waters held on aboue the earth an hundred fiftie dayes.

ANNOTATIONS. CHAP. VII.

16. Shut him in.) God who by his only wil could in a moment haue drowned al the rest of the world, sauing whom he pleased, not needing in any thing the help of his creatures, yet would vse both natural and supernatural meanes, as the labour of Noe to build the arke, new fountaines springing, and the heauens powring downe water fourtie dayes together, afterwards the wind to dry vp the earth, and because the dore being great (for Elephants to enter in) and was to be firmed without (as S. Ambrose noteth) for better induring the forcible waters, could not commodiously be closed by Noe, our Lord (by the ministrie of Angels) shut him in on the out side, to teach vs by al this and the like disposition of things, that albeit his Diuine omnipotencie can do what he wil al alone, yet he wil haue his creatures to concurre and cooperate as secundarie causes, sometimes naturally, sometimes supernaturally, or miraculously, as it pleaseth his goodnes to impart to them power and vertue.

23. But only Noe.) As there is not anie thing in al the old Testament, from the creation of the world til the comming of Christ, more notable, more admirable, or of greater importance, then this historie of the general floud; so was there nothing (though al, or most chanced to them in figure) that euer more aptly, more liuely, or more exactly prefigured Christ and his Church, with the rest of al mankind, then did Noe & the arke, & the drowning of the rest of the world in that deluge. Which S. Augustin declareth in many places, but most especially & of purpose in his twelfth booke against Faustus the Manichee, from the 14. chapter to the 22. and in his fifteenth booke of the citie of God, in the two last chapters: where he sheweth at large both the certaintie of the historie, & that as certainely it was a figure of things in the new Testament, & withal the great congruitie between the figure & the things figured. The same did Origen explicate (hom. 2. in Gen.) S. Gregorie (hom. 12. in Ezech.) Rupertus (li. 4. comment. in Gen. c. 71. & sequent.) & diuers other ancient Doctours, confirming their expositions by S. Peters testimonie, saying: In the arke a few, that is eight soules (or persons) were saued (from drowning) by water, wherunto Baptisme being of the like forme now saueth you also. And by our Sauiours wordes saying: As in the days of Noe, so shal also the comming of the Sonne of man be. In summe the Doctours teach, that Noe, signifying rest was a figure of Christ, the very rest of mans soule. Whom whosoeuer foloweth shal find rest for their soules. The arke signifieth the Church, the forme therof being six times so long as broad, and ten times so long as high, resembleth the proportion of mans bodie, lying prone or prostrate. The dore in the side representeth the wound in Christs side, from whence flowed the holy Sacraments, by which Rh