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Gen_4:16 And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.
Ver. 16. And Cain went out from the presence, &c.] But whither could he go from God’s Spirit? or whither could he fly from his presence? {a} {Psa_139:7} From the presence of his power he could not: for,
"Enter, praesenter, Deus hic et ubique potenter."
God is "not very far from any one of us," saith St Paul. {Act_17:27} Not so far surely as the bark is from the tree, "for all things consist in him"; {Col_1:17} so that a wicked man cannot wag hand or foot without his privity. But it was the presence of his grace, and use of his ordinances that this wretch fled from; as did likewise Jonah, {Jon_1:3} in that, as wise as he, so going out of the grace of God into the warm sun, as we say. God fetched Jonah home again by weeping-cross, and made him feelingly acknowledge, for it had like to cost him a choking, that "they that observe lying vanities," as he had done, "forsake their own mercies." {Jon_2:8} But Cain seated himself in the land of Nod, and there fell to building and planting, in contempt, as it is thought, of the divine doom denounced against him; or rather to drown the noise of his conscience, as the old Italians were wont to do the noise of the heavens in time of thunder, by ringing their greatest bells, and letting off their greatest ordinance. {b}
{a} Ubi est Deus? quid dixi miser? sed ubi non est? - Bern.
{b} Sigon.