286. In this manner, the Church was vexed with the cross and with persecutions from the very beginning of the world until God, compelled by the wickedness of man, destroyed the whole world by the flood. Just so, also, when the measure of Pharaoh's malice was full he was drowned with all his host in the Red Sea. Just so, again, when the measure of the malice of the Gentile nations was full they were all uprooted and destroyed by Moses and Joshua. In the same manner afterwards when the Jews raged against the Gospel they were so utterly destroyed that not one stone was left upon another in Jerusalem. Other instances are the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, the Grecians, and the Romans.
287. The Scriptures therefore do not record whom Lamech killed. They only record that two murders were committed by him, and that Lamech, in his impenitence, wished to protect himself in the same manner as his father Cain had been divinely protected, by issuing his proclamation, thereby making it appear that he had righteous cause for the murder he committed. And if this interpretation be not the true one, it is at least certain that the generation of the Cainites was a blood-thirsty generation, and hated and persecuted the true Church.
288. And it is, moreover, true that Lamech had not the Word, and that, accordingly, his utterance is not to be considered in the same light as that word which was spoken to his father Cain; for the latter was the voice of truth, but the word of Lamech was the voice of his own pride, expressive of the rule of Satan and of a church of hypocrites, which sins securely and yet glories in its sins as if they were deeds of righteousness.
| C. | THE POSTERITY OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN DETAIL; THE GENERATIONS OF THE RIGHTEOUS. | |||
| 1. | Of Seth. | |||
| a. | Why Seth is described in detail [289]. | |||
| b. | Why Eve at Seth's birth recalled Cain's murder [290]. | |||
| * | How and why the first parents after Abel's death refrained from bearing children [291]. | |||
| c. | Seth's birth was announced before in a special way by God [291-292]. | |||
| * | The uncovenanted grace of the Cainites. Also, why God did not mention that some of them would be saved [293]. | |||
| d. | How Eve manifested special faith and obedience in Seth's birth [294-295]. | |||
| * | Why the Romish church never canonized Eve [296]. | |||
| * | The idle fables of the Jews about Lamech and his wives, and about Adam's abstinence and Cain's increase, are to be rejected [297]. | |||
| e. | A new generation springs from Seth, in which the promise shall be fulfilled [298]. | |||
| 2. | Of Enoch. | |||
| a. | What his name means, and why it was given to him [299]. | |||
| * | The names of the holy patriarchs originated not by chance [299]. | |||
| b. | How true worship began under Enoch [300-302]. | |||
| * | Of true worship. | |||
| (1) | In what it consists [301]. | |||
| (2) | Why it was not in use before [302]. | |||
| * | The meaning of "the name of Jehovah" or the proclaiming of the name of Jehovah [303]. | |||
| (3) | The right course to take in the doctrine concerning divine worship [304]. | |||
| * | God always ministered comfort to his Church under the cross [305]. | |||
| (4) | What is the true worship according to the first table of the law [306-307]. | |||
| (5) | How true worship according to the second table follows from the first [308]. | |||
| (6) | People are to be instructed first and chiefly in the worship of the first table [309]. | |||
| (7) | Whether visible signs were present in these days in their worship, and to what end they were necessary [310-311]. | |||
| (8) | The worship of which Moses speaks is to be understood not of the Cainites but of Seth's posterity [312]. | |||
| * | A summary review of the contents of the fourth chapter of Genesis [313]. | |||
| * | Why the fifth chapter was written [314]. | |||
| * | Why the Jews cannot see the unity in the first five chapters of the Bible [315]. | |||
C. THE POSTERITY OF THE RIGHTEOUS IN DETAIL.
V. 25. And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For, said she, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel; for Cain slew him.