As Christ was the minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to establish the certainty of the promise made unto the Jewish fathers; and as, in the absence of a promise, he was the minister of the Gentiles, because of the mercy of God, (Rom 15, 8-9), so the like uncovenanted mercy was shown also to the posterity of Cain. These two opinions have been expressed concerning the marriage of Cain, but which is the truth I know not. If Cain was married after he committed the murder, his wife is most certainly worthy of all praise and of all fame, who could thus yield to the authority of her parents, and suffer herself to be joined in marriage with an accursed murderer. 254. To myself, the first opinion appears to be much nearer the truth, that he murdered his brother after his marriage with his sister; because we have so clear a testimony in the text concerning the division of the inheritance. And in that case, the necessity lay on the wife to follow her husband. As wife and husband are one body and one flesh, Adam had no desire to separate them; moreover, the wife is bound to bear her part of the calamities of her husband. Just in the same manner as the posterity of Cain enjoyed a part of those blessings which were bestowed of God upon the innocent wife, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, was saved in the time of Joseph, and the King of Nineveh was saved in the time of his calamity, although neither of them belonged to the people of God. And so I also believe that some were saved out of the posterity of Cain, although Cain himself had utterly lost the promise concerning the blessed seed. B. THE POSTERITY OF CAIN IN DETAIL; THE GENERATIONS OF CAIN. * The names were given to the descendants of Cain, not by accident, but by special thought and with a definite meaning 255. 1. Of Enoch. a. The meaning of his name 255-256. b. Is the first in Cain's posterity and the beginning of the temporal blessing 256. * Why Cain built a city 257-258. 2. Irad and the meaning of his name. It was not given without a purpose 259. 3. Mehujael and the meaning of his name 260. * The means the false church uses to suppress the true Church 260. 4. Methushael and the meaning of his name 261. 5. Lamech. a. What his name signifies 262. * Cain's descendants persecute the true Church. Yet some of Cain's posterity were saved 263. b. The reason he took two wives 264. c. Who were his wives 265. d. His sons, Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-cain, and his daughter Naamah 266-268. * Why Moses mentions the various arts of Cain's descendants 269. * Whether poverty drove Cain's descendants to the arts 269-270. * As the false church was before the flood so is she still, and will remain so to the end of the world 271. * How the Cainites increased and oppressed the true Church 272.