uld seem that death is not a punishment.

Obj. 7: Further, punishment would seem to be painful. But death
apparently cannot be painful, since man does not feel it when he is
dead, and he cannot feel it when he is not dying. Therefore death is
not a punishment of sin.

Obj. 8: Further, if death were a punishment of sin, it would have
followed sin immediately. But this is not true, for our first parents
lived a long time after their sin (Gen. 5:5). Therefore, seemingly,
death is not a punishment of sin.

_On the contrary,_ The Apostle says (Rom. 5:12): "By one man sin
entered into this world, and by sin death."

_I answer that,_ If any one, on account of his fault, be deprived of
a favor bestowed on him the privation of that favor is a punishment
of that fault. Now as we stated in the First Part (Q. 95, A. 1; Q.
97, A. 1), God bestowed this favor on man, in his primitive state,
that as long as his mind was subject to God, the lower powers of his
soul would be subject to his rational mind, and his body to his soul.
But inasmuch as through sin man's mind withdrew from subjection to
God, the result was that neither were his lower powers wholly subject
to his reason, whence there followed so great a rebellion of the
carnal appetite against the reason: nor was the body wholly subject
to the soul; whence arose death and other bodily defects. For life
and soundness of body depend on the body being subject to the soul,
as the perfectible is subject to its perfection. Consequently, on the
other hand, death, sickness, and all defects of the body are due to
the lack of the body's subjection to the soul.

It is therefore evident that as the rebellion of the carnal appetite
against the spirit is a punishment of our first parents' sin, so also
are death and all defects of the body.

Reply Obj. 1: A thing is said to be natural if it proceeds from the
principles of nature. Now the essential principles of nature are form
and matter. The form of man is his rational soul, which is, of
itself, immortal: wherefore death is not natural to man on the part
of his form. The matter of man is a body such as is composed of
contraries, of which corruptibility is a necessary consequence, and
in this respect death is natural to man. Now this condition attached
to the nature of the human body results from a natural necessity,
since it was necessary for the human body to be the organ of touch,
and consequently a mean between objects of touch: and