the posterity of Cain became exceeding wicked, every one
successively dying, one after another, more wicked than the
former. They were intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies;
and if any one were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his
profligate behavior, in acting unjustly, and doing injuries for
gain.

3. Now Adam, who was the first man, and made out of the earth,
(for our discourse must now be about him,) after Abel was slain,
and Cain fled away, on account of his murder, was solicitous for
posterity, and had a vehement desire of children, he being two
hundred and thirty years old; after which time he lived other
seven hundred, and then died. He had indeed many other
children,(8) but Seth in particular. As for the rest, it would be
tedious to name them; I will therefore only endeavor to give an
account of those that proceeded from Seth. Now this Seth, when he
was brought up, and came to those years in which he could discern
what was good, became a virtuous man; and as he was himself of an
excellent character, so did he leave children behind him who
imitated his virtues.(9) All these proved to be of good
dispositions. They also inhabited the same country without
dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes
falling upon them, till they died. They also were the inventors
of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the
heavenly bodies, and their order. And that their inventions might
not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's
prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the
force of fire, and at another time by the violence and quantity
of water, they made two pillars, (10) the one of brick, the other
of stone: they inscribed their discoveries on them both, that in