e names Adam or Eve gave to their children: "And
she called his name Seth." Seth is derived from the Hebrew verb
_sath_, which signifies he placed, or he established, and was intended
to show that this son would be, as it were, the foundation on which
the promise concerning Christ would rest, even though many other sons
should be born unto the parents. Eve does not give him an exalted
name, such as "Cain," yet she gives him a name signifying that the
posterity of Seth should never be suppressed or destroyed.

293. The Cainites, cast out from the sight of their parents, are left
under a curse, without any promise whatever, and have only so much
mercy as they receive from the generation of the righteous as beggars,
not as heirs. This is the mercy we above called uncovenanted mercy.
But who, of the posterity of the Cainites, obtained that mercy, Moses
does not mention, and his design in this omission is to keep separate
the two churches: the one the Church of the righteous, which had the
promise of a life to come, but in this life was poor and afflicted;
the other the church of the wicked, which in this life is rich and
flourishing.

294. Eve, the mother of us all, is highly to be praised, as a most
holy woman, full of faith and charity, because in the person of her
son Seth she so nobly lauds the true Church, paying no regard whatever
to the generation of the Cainites. For she does not say, I have gotten
another son in the place of Cain. She prefers the slain Abel to Cain,
though Cain was the first-born. Herein praise is due, not only to her
faith but to her eminent obedience; for she is not only not offended
at the judgment of God concerning righteous Abel, but she also changes
her own judgment concerning God. When Abel was born she despised him,
and magnified Cain as the first-born, and as the possessor, as she
thought, of the promise. But now she acts in all things quite the
contrary. As if she had said: After God's acceptance of him and of his
offering, I had placed all my hopes on my son Abel, because he was
righteous; but his wicked brother slew him. But now God hath appointed
me another seed instead of Abel.

295. She does not indulge her maternal affection for Cain. She does
not excuse or lessen the sin of her son. But she herself
excommunicates him, already excommunicated of God; and she banishes
him, together with all his posterity, among the polluted mass of the
Gentiles who live without any sure mercy of Go