Chapter X.
The decree of God, 'If anyone kills Cain, etc.,' is explained morally; in the sign placed above the same [Cain], the divine mercy is declared, as is also in the madness of Cain, that he feared temporal death more than eternal death. Hence, a beautiful discussion is made about the incorruptibility of the soul and the future life. Finally, it is shown that judgment should not be hastily passed, nor should a crime go unpunished.
34. Now let us consider why God said: Whoever kills Cain will suffer vengeance sevenfold (Gen. IV, 15); and why a sign is placed upon him, so that the murderer may not be killed, since it was not foreseen, lest the innocent be killed. The eighth is man, who has reason by which he excels the others, and he also has the five senses of the body, and he also has a voice, and he also has the grace of procreation. These seven things, unless they are ruled by reason, are subject to death; and therefore the foolish person in these matters has every danger to himself. Therefore, whoever loses that rational thing, in vain will flatter themselves with the use of these seven carnal pleasures. All of these dissolve unless they are bound by certain reins of reason. Therefore, the death of reason operates the death of irrational passions. But that which is better is the seventh number of rest and remission. Therefore, whoever does not spare the sinner, and envies him the gift of forgiveness of sins, will himself lose the hope of forgiveness, and there will be in him an equal measure of vengeance for grace.
35. But the sign which he set upon Cain, *when it was applied to him that his brother's blood had lodged its stain upon his soul*, was intended to represent the wanderer and the exile, wandering away from the presence of the Lord and seeking a habitation, and yet defended by a certain privilege for the sake of his punishment, so that no one might kill him at his pleasure. Yet this grant was but small, for in his very case he had the vengeance of the simpleton who, when liable to lasting penalties, did not make his prayer for pardon, but begged for his life to be spared in this body of ours, where there is at least as much distress as delight. For death is the one and only separation of the soul and body, and at the end of this life, which as soon as it comes, is accustomed to take away all bodily pains, not to increase them. But the fears that frequently assail those who are still alive, bring to the human race many wounds of sorrow, pains, groans, various tortures, burdens of heaviness, and injuries of illnesses, so that this death seems to be a remedy, not a punishment. For it is not a destructive death, by which life is not taken away, but is transferred to better things. For if the guilty die, those who refuse to return from their sins; or even against their will they obtain an end not according to nature, but according to fault, so that they may not commit more, for whom life is interest on sins. But if they are possessors of good hope, they should be believed to migrate rather than to fail.
36. At this point, the doctrine of the incorruption of the soul is inserted, that it is the true and blessed life, which each person lives much more purely and happily when our soul, having cast off this fleshly envelope and having been freed from this bodily prison, flies back to that higher place, from which it groaned within our entrails, infused with compassion for this body, until it fulfilled the duty of the entrusted helm, so that it might govern and restrain the irrational movements of this flesh by rational guidance. Hence, it happened that the prophets later went into captivity with the people of Judah, so that the remaining holy people would not be abandoned, deprived of protection and counsel, and would suffer a more severe affliction. Instead, they were often reminded by the prophecies of the prophets to return with devout affection to their Lord God, lest they fall into the sin of faithlessness amidst the adversities of captivity and despair of eternal salvation.
So those who believe that this is the only life, which is in this world (everything is full of faults, full of sorrow), are refuted by a simple series of events. Look, the just, innocent, pious one, due to the grace of devotion, incurs hatred from his brother, and at a young age, still immature, he is taken away by parricide; and the unjust, wicked, impious one, even stained by fratricide, lives a long life, takes a wife, leaves behind descendants, founds cities, and achieves this by divine permission. Doesn't the voice of God openly cry out in these things? You err, those of you who think that all the grace of living is found here: you do not understand, you do not notice that this old age is a veteran of miseries, a procession of the burdens of life, and that we are almost made to echo with a certain reef by daily shipwrecks, to be battered by the waves, to live in rocky dwellings, and to delight in them, just as that not so much eternal creature, as immortal evil? Therefore, even to these descendants of Cain, long life was granted as a punishment; because they lived in fear, and a long and fruitless span of time passed with much labor, in which the punishment was nothing more severe than that one should be the cause of their own punishment for their ancestors. Therefore, see how the life of the righteous is perpetual, and that of the wicked is non-existent! The blood of the righteous cries out, and the life of the sinner is hidden.
38. The third point is, that since the crime of parricide, which is the chief of crimes, involves the violation of divine law, where sin has intruded, the divine law of clemency should immediately be extended; for if the guilty were immediately punished, men would also have no patience or moderation in their punishment, but would immediately give the accused over to punishment. However, by the providence of divine judgment, it is such that it teaches judges magnanimity and patience, so that no one is hastily carried away by the desire for vengeance, and the judge himself does not punish the innocent with immature deliberation, or make the punishment more severe out of anger: yet it does not allow the one who has shown no remorse for his crime to go completely unpunished. For he drove him from his presence, and deprived him of the love of his parents, and placed him in a separate dwelling, as it were in exile; because he had passed from human gentleness to the cruelty of beasts. Yet he did not desire the punishment of a murderer by murder, but he preferred the correction of a sinner to death. Hence Lamech is avenged seventy-sevenfold, because his guilt is greater, since he did not correct himself after his condemnation. Cain, in a sudden and reckless impulse, sinned before; but Lamech, having observed that he was reprimanded in another, should have taken caution. Indeed, according to his own judgment, he deserved to be condemned so that no one would think that a guilty person should be struck down everywhere. And in order to enter into the mystery, he should not have killed the one who had the time for repentance until the natural end of his life. He could excuse himself by saying that he had redeemed himself or that he had engaged in late repentance, if premature punishment had not taken him away.