152. When Moses introduces Jehovah as speaking, I understand him to mean, as above, that it was Adam who spoke by the Holy Spirit in the place of God, whom he represented in his relation as father. The expression of the Holy Spirit, therefore, is intended to set forth the high authority of parents; when children dutifully hear and obey these, they hear and obey God. And I believe Adam knew by the revelation of the Holy Spirit that Abel had been slain by his brother; for his words intimate the commission of murder at a time when Cain still dissembled as to what he had done.
| V. | CAIN PUNISHED FOR HIS MURDER. | |||
| A. | CAIN'S PUNISHMENT IN GENERAL. | |||
| 1. | By whom and how he is punished [153]. | |||
| 2. | Why he was not put to death [153]. | |||
| * | The double grief of the first parents [154]. | |||
| * | What was Adam's church and altar [155]. | |||
| 3. | How Cain was excommunicated [156]. | |||
| * | God's inquiry about Abel's blood. | |||
| a. | How unbelievers refer to it [157]. | |||
| b. | How a theologian should use it [158]. | |||
| c. | It is a great and important matter [159]. | |||
| * | How Abel's death is to be viewed [159]. | |||
| d. | Why God does not inquire after the blood of beasts [160-161]. | |||
| e. | Whether this inquiry was from God direct or made through Adam [162-163]. | |||
| f. | How Cain felt upon this inquiry [164]. | |||
| * | The result of sin to murderers and other sinners [165-166]. | |||
| * | An evil conscience the result of evil-doing [166]. | |||
| g. | How to understand the statement that Abel's blood crieth to heaven [167]. | |||
| * | How God's children are to comfort themselves when the world oppresses them and seemingly God refuses to help [168-171]. | |||
| h. | This inquiry is a sign of God's care for Abel [169]. | |||
| * | The blood of many Evangelical martyrs cry to the Papists [170]. | |||
| * | How God opportunely judges the afflictions of believers [171]. | |||
| * | Why God's vengeance does not immediately follow [172]. | |||
| i. | The time this inquiry occurred [173]. | |||
| * | God indeed has regard for the sufferings and tears of his children [174]. | |||
| * | How sinners can meet the judgments of God [174]. | |||
| 4. | The miserable life Cain must have led after his punishment [175]. | |||
| B. | CAIN'S PUNISHMENT IN DETAIL. | |||
| 1. | The Church suffered. | |||
| a. | How Cain's punishment and curse differed from Adam's [176-178]. | |||
| b. | Why Cain's person was cursed [178-179]. | |||
| * | The more Cain desired honor, the less he received [180]. | |||
| * | The beginning of both churches, the true and the false [181]. | |||
| * | Cain's whole posterity perished in sin [181]. | |||
| c. | How his curse and punishment were lightened [182]. | |||
| * | Whether any of Cain's posterity were saved, and holy [182]. | |||
| * | The way the heathen had part in the promise [182-185]. | |||
| * | The way Cain withheld his children from the true Church [185]. | |||
| 2. | The Home suffered. | |||
| a. | How this curse affected the earth [186-187]. | |||
| b. | Why Adam used such severe words in this curse [186]. | |||
| c. | How it caused the earth to be less fruitful [187]. | |||
| * | The difference between "Arez" and "Adama" [188]. | |||
| 3. | The State suffered. | |||
| * | What "No" and "Nod" mean, and how they differ [189-190]. | |||
| * | Cain's sin punished in three ways and in each the sin was mitigated [191-193]. | |||
| * | Cain a fugitive and a wanderer. | |||
| a. | This refers chiefly to the true Church, as is illustrated by many examples of the saints [194-195]. | |||
| b. | It refers less to the false [194-195]. | |||
| c. | Many take offense at this [196]. | |||
V. HOW CAIN WAS PUNISHED FOR HIS MURDER.
A. Cain's Punishment in General.
153. If Eve overheard these words, what think you must have been the state of her mind! Her grief must have been beyond all description. But the calamity was brought home to Adam with even greater force. As he was the father, it fell to him to rebuke his son and to excommunicate him for his sin. Since, according to the ninth chapter, the law concerning the death-penalty for murderers was not promulgated until afterward when the patriarchs beheld murder becoming alarmingly frequent, Adam did not put Cain to death, but safeguarded his life in obedience to the prompting and direction of the Holy Spirit; still, it is a fact not to be gainsaid that the punishment ordained for him and all his posterity was anything but light. For in addition to that curse upon his body he suffered excommunication from his family, separation from the sight of his parents and from the society of his brothers and sisters, who remained with their parents, or in the fellowship of the Church.
154. Now, Adam could not have done all this, nor could Eve have heard it without indescribable anguish. For a father is a father, and a son is a son. Gladly would Adam have spared his son and retained him at home, as we now sometimes see murderers become reconciled to the brothers of their victims. But in this case no place was left for reconciliation. Cain is bidden at once to be a fugitive upon the face of the earth. The pain of the parents was doubled in consequence. They see one of their sons slain, and the other excommunicated by the judgment of God and cut off forever from the fellowship of his brethren.