Consider how severely thou usest me; thou hast driven me out, with public infamy, as the word signifies, from the face of the earth, or, this earth, my native land, and from thy face, i.e. favour and protection, as the public enemy of mankind, and as one devoted by thee to destruction. Quest. Whom did Cain fear, when it appears not that there were any but his father and mother? Answ. So ignorant people conceive; but it is a fond conceit to think that there were no more men than are expressed in this book, where God never intended to give a catalogue of all men, but only of the church, or those who had some relation to or concern with it. Nay, that there were very many thousands of men now in being, is very credible upon these rational grounds and suppositions.
1. That Adam and Eve did, according to God's precept and blessing, Genesis 1:26, procreate children presently after the fall, and God's gracious reconcilement to them; and consequently their children did so, when they came to competent age.
2. That those first men and women were endowed by God with extraordinary fruitfulness, and might have two, three, four, or more at a time, (as divers persons long after had), which was then expedient for the replenishing of the world; and the like may be judged of their children during the world's infancy.
3. That this murder was committed but a little before the hundred and thirtieth year of Adam's age, which appears by comparing Genesis 4:25 and Genesis 5:3. Before which time, how vast and numerous an offspring might have come from Adam, none can be ignorant that can and shall make a rational computation.