Genesis 6:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I will destroy both man and beast, &c.— God made the beasts for the service and delight of man; they therefore must perish with him, as with him they became subject to vanity and abuse. And God might certainly destroy them thus with as much justice as by a natural death; it is only a recalling that temporary breath which God himself had given them. And as the recalling it at that time, served to render this example of the Divine severity against sin the more signal and tremendous to future ages, we may venture to affirm, it answered the purposes of God's moral government, even better than if he had saved them by miracle from the common wreck. And, considered in that light, it is so far from being an imputation upon his justice, that it is rather an act of mercy; for whatever tends to reclaim inconsiderate mortals from their infatuation in counteracting the laws, which infinite Wisdom has devised to raise them to happiness, is an act of goodness and benevolence.