And in this same way were the whole posterity of Cain wanderers and unsettled. For they had no promise nor command of God and were without any certain rule either to live by or to die by. And if any of these did come to the knowledge of Christ and joined the true Church, this did not come to them through any promise of God, but through his pure mercy.
But Seth, who was born afterwards, had together with his posterity the certain promise, certain dwelling-places, a certain worship of God, and certain rites of worship. But Cain on the contrary was always essentially "a vagabond." For although Cain did build a city, yet he was ever in uncertainty how long he should retain it as a dwelling place; for he had no promise of God on which to depend. And whatever things we possess without the promise of God, how long we shall possess them is always an uncertainty. For Satan can either disturb them or take them away in a moment. On the other hand, when we move, fortified on every side by the command and promise of God, Satan's strivings against us are all in vain, for God fortifies and secures by his command all that we possess. Although therefore Cain was the great lord as it were of the whole world and possessed all the riches of the world; yet because he was without the promise of the help of God and was thereby deprived of the guardianship of angels, he had nothing else to depend on, but human counsel and human reason. He was therefore truly "a vagabond" and unsettled wanderer.