Then began men to call, &c.— Our marginal translation seems to give us the most proper sense: then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord: i.e.. that distinction then took place, which afterwards prevailed so generally between the children of God and the children of men: see chap. Genesis 6:2. The true believers were denominated sons of that Lord whom they served, while the rest of mankind were called the sons of men.
REFLECTIONS.—Great, no doubt, was Adam's grief for his lost Abel; and perhaps greater for his rebellious Cain: but he shall not have all sorrow and no comfort. God will in some sort make up the breach. Though he shall have enough to awaken the remembrance of his own sin, he shall not be left utterly destitute. 1. God gives him another son, to be the establishment of his family, and in whose house the worship of God should be perpetuated in the room of Abel. Sanguis martyrum semen ecclesiae, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. 2. The name given him; Seth, typifying that emphatical Seed, the Messiah, who should be placed as an ensign on a hill, and to whom should the gathering of the people be. And now they behold a comfortable prospect of the perpetuity of the true religion.