the breath of life] Heb. the breath of spirit. By this it is thought that fishes are expected, because they breath not; and they are said not to breath because they have no lungs, and live in the water where aire cannot come; yet Pliny saith that fishes breathe: Nat. Hist. 50: 10. 100: 65. died] There is no doubt of the death of those that were drowned, but a great question whether all that were drowned were also damned; some are for the affirmative: 1. Because they were generally corrupt and cruell, Genesis 6:11. 2. Because the preaching of Noah, and preparing the Arke for one hundred & twenty years together wrought no repentance in them. 3. Because the Arke was a figure of the Church, 1 Peter 3:20-21. out of which there is no salvation. 4. For that they that were drowned were called the world of the ungodly, 2 Peter 2:5. Notwithstanding as all were not saved that were in the Arke, so it is probable that all were not damned that were out of it; for there were millions of infants, of whom some might belong to God by his Decree of Election; and though most were so hardned in their sinne as to die in it, and be damned for it; yet the danger coming upon them by degrees, might worke upon some of them to salvation of their souls, though they miscarried by the drowning of their bodies; as Eli though he brak his neck, 1 Samuel 4:18. did not lose his soule, as judicious and godly Divines have judged of him.