On the Good of Death

1. The Three Kinds of Death

But there are three kinds of death. One is the death of sin, of which it is written: The soul that sins, it shall die. Another is the mystical death, when one dies to sin and lives to God, of which the Apostle says: For we are buried together with him by baptism into death. The third death is that by which we complete the course of this life and its office, that is, the separation of soul and body. We observe, then, that one death is evil, if we die on account of sins; another death is good, by which he who has died is justified from sin; the third death is intermediate, for it seems good even to the just, and yet is to be feared by many, since, though it absolves all, it delights but few. But this is not a fault of death, but of our weakness, who are captivated by the pleasure of the body and the delight of this life, and tremble to complete this course, in which there is more bitterness than pleasure.

But not so the holy and wise men, who groaned over the length of this pilgrimage, esteeming it fairer to be dissolved and to be with Christ; and indeed they cursed the day of their birth, as one says: Let that day perish in which I was born.

2. Ecclesiastes on the Miseries of Life

For what is there in this life that should delight, full as it is of hardships and anxieties? In which there are countless calamities, and many troubles, and many tears of those who are afflicted with troubles, and there is none, he says, to comfort them. And therefore Ecclesiastes praises the dead rather than the living. And best of all, he says, above these two, is he who has not yet been born, who has not seen this evil. And elsewhere the same Ecclesiastes declared better than a man of long life him whom his mother cast forth by miscarriage; because he has not seen these evils which flow in this world, nor has he come into this darkness, nor walked in the vanity of the age; and therefore he who has not come into this life will have more rest than he who has come. For what good is there for man in this life, who lives in shadow, and cannot be satisfied with his desires?

And if he be satisfied with riches, he loses the fruit of quiet, because he is compelled to guard what he has sought with wretched greed; so that he possesses them more miserably, since they could not profit him. For what is more miserable than to be tormented by guarding that whose abundance profits nothing?

3. Simeon and David on Longing for Release

Thus, if life is full of burden, surely its end is a relief; and relief is a good, and death is the end; death, therefore, is a good. Nor did Simeon rejoice otherwise, who had received the answer that he would not see death before he had first seen the Christ of the Lord; and when his parents brought him into the temple, he took him up in his arms and said: Now dost thou dismiss thy servant in peace; as though held in this life by a certain necessity, not by will. Thus he asks to be dismissed, as if hastening from certain bonds toward liberty. For there are, as it were, certain bonds of this body, and, what is more grave, bonds of temptations, which bind us and constrain us to the injury of captivity by a certain law of sin.

Finally, in the very moment of departure we see how the soul of the dying gradually looses itself from the bonds of the flesh, and, sent forth through the mouth, flies away as though released from the prison-hovel of this body.

Finally, holy David too hastened to depart from this place of pilgrimage, saying: I am a stranger with thee upon earth, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. And therefore, as a stranger, he hastened toward that common fatherland of all the saints, asking that his sins be remitted to him for the defilement of this sojourning, before he should depart from life. For he who has not received here the remission of sins will not be there. And he will not be, who cannot arrive at eternal life, because eternal life is the remission of sins. And therefore he says: Forgive me, that I may be refreshed, before I go hence, and be no more.

4. The Growth of Sin with Length of Life

Why then do we desire this life so greatly, in which the longer one continues, the greater the burden of sins with which he is loaded? The Lord himself says: Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. And Jacob said: The days of the years of my life which I have are a hundred and thirty, few and evil, not because the days are evil, but because as the days advance, increases of evil are heaped upon us. For no day passes without our sin.

5. Paul on Living for Christ and Dying as Gain

Whence the Apostle says excellently: For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain, referring one to the necessity of life, the other to the advantage of death. For Christ is to us to live, whom we serve, to whom homage ought to be paid by his saints in the preaching of the Gospel. Finally, Simeon too, who said: Now dost thou dismiss thy servant, was waiting for the sake of Christ. For Christ is our King; and therefore what the King commands, we cannot abandon or despise. How many does the emperor of this earth bid to dwell in foreign places, either for the appearance of honor, or for the sake of some office! Do these depart without consulting the emperor? And how much more is it to obey the divine than the human! To the holy man, then, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Whence the Apostle, as a servant, does not shrink from the service of life; and as a wise man, he embraces the gain of death.

For it is gain to have escaped the increase of sin, gain to have fled the worse and passed to the better. And he added: For I am straitened between the two, having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more needful for you. One thing is better, another is necessary. Necessary, for the sake of the fruit of labor; better, for the sake of the grace and union with Christ.

1. Death as the Release of Soul from Body

Since, then, the Apostle taught that he who escapes from this body, if indeed he shall have deserved it, will be with Christ, let us consider what death is, and also what life is. Thus, taught by Scripture, we have learned that death is a release of soul and body, and a certain separation of man. For we are loosed from this bond of soul and body when we depart. Whence David also says: Thou hast broken my bonds; I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise. Now that the bonds of this life, that is, of our union which consists of soul and body, are signified, the preceding verse of this psalm teaches: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

And therefore, as a prophet foreseeing that he himself would be with the saints, and with those who for devotion have laid down their souls in Christ, he rejoices; because he too offered himself faithfully for the people of God against Goliath, when he fought in single combat, and alone repelled the common danger and reproach; or when he readily offered himself to death to appease the offense against the Lord; or when he offered himself, ready, to divine vengeance for the safety of the struggling people. For he knew it more glorious to die for Christ than to reign in this age. For what is more excellent than to become a sacrifice of Christ? And so, though we often read that sacrifices were offered by him to the Lord, yet in this place he added: I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise.

He does not say, I sacrifice, but I will sacrifice, signifying that this is the perfect sacrifice, when each one, released from the bonds of this body, shall stand before the Lord and offer himself as a sacrifice of praise; because before death there is no perfect praise; nor can anyone in this life be proclaimed with a settled tribute of praise, since what remains for him is uncertain. Death, therefore, is the release of soul and body. Finally, we have also shown it read in the Apostle: To be dissolved, and to be with Christ, is far better. Now what else does this release accomplish, but that the body be dissolved and rest, while the soul is turned to its rest, and is free, so that, if it is pious, it shall be with Christ?

2. Imitating Death Through Detachment from the Body

What else, then, do the just do in this life, but strip themselves of the contagions of this body, which bind us like fetters; and strive to separate themselves from these troubles, renounce their pleasures and luxury, flee the flames of lusts? Does not, then, everyone placed in this life imitate the likeness of death, who can so conduct himself that all the delights of the body die to him, and he himself also dies to all desires and to the enticements of the world, just as Paul was dead, saying: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world? Finally, that we may know that there is a death even in this life, and a good death, he exhorts us to bear about in our body the death of Jesus. For he who has in himself the death of Jesus will also have the life of the Lord Jesus in his body. Let death, then, work in us, that life also may work.

Good life after death, that is, good life after victory, good life when the contest is finished; so that now the law of the flesh may no longer know how to fight against the law of the mind; so that now there be no contention for us with the body of death, but victory in the body of death. And I know not whether this death is not of greater virtue than life. Certainly I am moved by the authority of the Apostle, saying: So then death works in us, but life in you. The death of one man built up the life of how many peoples! Thus he teaches that this death too is to be sought by those placed in this life, that the death of Christ may shine forth in our body, and that blessed death by which the outward man is corrupted, that our inward man may be renewed, and our earthly house be dissolved, that a heavenly dwelling may be opened for us.

He, then, imitates death who withdraws himself from the fellowship of this flesh, and looses himself from those bonds of which the Lord says to you through Isaiah: Loose every bond of injustice, dissolve the obligations of violent exchanges, let the broken go free in remission, and break every unjust exaction.

3. The Soul's Ascent Beyond the Senses to Truth

He too imitates death who strips himself of pleasures, and raises and lifts himself up to eternal delights, and sets himself in that heavenly dwelling place in which Paul, while he still lived, had his conversation; for otherwise he would not have said: But our conversation is in heaven, which likewise can be referred both to the assumption of merit and to meditation. For there was his meditation, there the conversation of his soul, there his prudence, which certainly was not accustomed to cling within the confines of this flesh. For the wise man, when he inquires into that divine reality, releases his soul from the body, and banishes its companionship, when he handles that knowledge of the true, which he desires to be shown to him bare and open; and therefore he seeks to strip himself of certain things, and of the mists of this body. For neither with these hands, nor eyes, nor ears can we grasp that supernal truth; since the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Indeed we are often deceived by sight, and we see many things otherwise than they are. We are deceived also by hearing; and therefore let us contemplate not the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, if we do not wish to be deceived. When therefore is our soul not deceived, when does it attain the throne of truth, except when it separates itself from this body, and is neither deceived nor mocked by it? For it is mocked by the sight of the eyes, it is mocked by the hearing of the ears; and therefore let it abandon and forsake that. Whence the Apostle cries: Touch not, taste not, handle not, all things which are for corruption. For they are in corruption, which are in the indulgence of the body. And therefore, showing that he had found what is true not through the indulgence of the body, but through the elevation of the soul and the humility of heart, he added: But our conversation is in heaven.

There, therefore, let it seek what is true, what is and abides, and let it gather itself together into itself, and assemble the whole force of its virtue; and let it not commit and entrust itself to others, but let it know and understand itself; and what seems to it to be true, let it know this is to be followed; what it shall have judged to be chosen by carnal delight, let it know this to be false, let it flee and withdraw from it, because it is full of deceit.

4. Withdrawing the Senses to Contemplate Virtue

Rightly, therefore, he has devalued and dishonored this body, calling it the body of death. For who could see with eyes the splendor of virtue? Who could grasp justice with hands? Who could gaze upon wisdom with the eyes' regard? Indeed, when we think of something, we wish no one to meet us, no one to make noise in our ears, and so we so intend our mind that often we do not see things present. Indeed, at night we think more sincerely, and then we better ponder in heart the things that move us. Whence also the Prophet says: The things you say in your hearts, be pricked with compunction upon your beds. Often also some close their eyes, if they wish by effort of thought to draw out something profound, avoiding the hindrances of the eyes. Often too we seek out solitudes, lest anyone's speech whisper into our ears, and as it were draw away by a certain path the soul clinging to its thought from the truth, and bend it aside from its purpose.

5. Job on the Miseries and Temptations of Life

Many occupations, therefore, does the necessity of this body beget for us, and its use brings in, by which the vigor of the soul is impeded, and its attention is called back. Whence holy Job beautifully says of himself: Remember that thou hast fashioned me as clay. If then the body is clay, it surely bespatters us, does not cleanse us, and defiles the soul with the defilement of intemperance. Thou hast clothed me, he says, with skin and flesh, thou hast knit me together with bones and sinews. Our soul, therefore, is bound and stretched taut by the sinews of this body, and therefore at times it grows stiff, often it is bent. And he added: Thou hast not made me innocent from iniquity. For if I be wicked, woe is me: but if I be just, I shall not be able to lift up my head. For I am full of confusion. Thou hast brought in temptations upon me. For what else is this life but full of snares?

We walk among snares, we are engaged amid very many temptations. Indeed the same man says above: Is not the life of man upon earth a temptation? Well did he add upon earth, because there is a life of man in heaven also. As the days of a hireling, he says, are his life—that is, in labor and lukewarmness, lighter than fables, and fluctuating, and swimming in words: whose habitation is in houses of clay, and whose very life is in clay. There is no firmness of judgment, no constancy. In the day night is longed for, in the night day is sought: before food, groaning; among meals, weeping, tears, sorrows, fears, anxieties, no rest from disturbances, no relaxation from labors, the movements of anger and indignation more dreadful still. Very many desire death, and do not obtain it: but if they have obtained it, they rejoice; because death alone is rest for a man.

1. Answering the Objection That Death Is Evil

But someone will say it is written that God did not make death: life was in paradise, where the tree of life was, and life was the light of men. Death, then, is an evil, which came in and crept in stealthily. But how is death an evil, if either, according to the pagans, it lacks sensation, or, according to the Apostle, Christ is gain, with whom to be is much better? How, then, is death an evil for us, if there is no sensation after death? For where there is no sensation, there is certainly no pain of injury, because pain is a sensation. Or, if there is sensation after death, there is also life after death, and the soul which uses sensation and performs life survives death.

But when life and the soul remain after death, the good remains, and is not lost by death, but increased: nor is the soul held back by any hindrance of death; rather it works the more, because it works the things that are its own, without any partnership of the body, which is more a burden than a use to the soul. What evil, then, is there for the soul, which has kept its purity and observed the discipline of the virtues? Or if it has not kept it, it is not death that is the evil, but life; life by which it was not truly living. For what kind of life is one beset by vices and sins? Why then do we accuse death, which either was the price of life, or abolishes its pain and torment? And so death either enjoys the good of its own quiet, or labors under an evil not its own.

2. Death as the Freeing of the Virtuous Soul

Now consider this: if life is a burden, death is a release; if life is a punishment, death is a remedy; or if there is judgment after death, there is also life after death. Life here, then, is not good; or if life here is good, how is death there not good, since there no dreadful fear of judgment remains? But this life here, if it is good, by what things is it good? By virtue, certainly, and good morals. It is not, then, good according to the coupling of soul and body: but because through virtue it repels what is its own evil; but what is death's good, it obtains; so that what belongs to the soul, rather than what belongs to the fellowship and conjunction, may operate.

But if life is good, which is the mirror of a soul separating itself from the body, and if a soul is good which raises itself and leads itself away from the fellowship of the body; then death too is certainly a good, which releases and frees the soul from the fellowship of this flesh.

3. Death as Harbor, Passage, and Redemption

In every way, then, death is a good; both because it divides things that conflict, lest they war against one another; and because it is a kind of harbor for those who, tossed about by the great sea of this life, seek a station of faithful rest; and because it does not make the condition worse: but such as it has found each one, so it reserves him for the future judgment, and cherishes him with its own quiet, and withdraws him from the envy of present things, and settles him by the expectation of future things. Add to this, that men fear death in vain, as though it were the end of nature. For if we recall that God did not make death: but that after man had fallen into the crime of transgression and deceit, the sentence overtook him, that he should return as earth to his own earth, we shall find that death is the end of sin; lest, the longer life were, the more numerous guilt would become.

The Lord, therefore, allowed death to creep in, that guilt might cease. But lest death should again be the end of nature, the resurrection of the dead was given; that through death guilt might fail, but through resurrection nature might be made perpetual. And therefore this death is the passage of all. It is necessary that you pass through steadfastly. But the passage is from corruption to incorruption, from mortality to immortality, from disturbance to tranquility. Let not, then, the name of death offend you, but let the benefits of a good passage delight you. For what is death, but the burial of vices, the raising up of virtues? Whence also that man says: Let my soul die in the souls of the just, that is, let it be buried together with them, that it may put off its own vices, and take up the grace of the just, who carry about the mortification of Christ in their body and soul.

But the mortification of Christ is the remission of sins, the abolition of crimes, the forgetting of error, the assumption of graces. What fuller thing, then, can we say concerning the good of death, than that it is death which redeemed the world?

1. The Soul as an Eagle Above Worldly Snares

But let us speak of death common to all. Why should we fear it, which is not accustomed to harm the soul? For it is written: Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But through this death the soul is set free, while it is separated from the fellowship of the body, and stripped of the wrappings of disturbance. Whence we too, while we are in the body, imitating the practice of death, should raise up our soul from the couch of this flesh, and, as it were, rise from this tomb. Let us withdraw ourselves from the bond of the body, let us leave behind all things whatsoever are earthly; that when the adversary comes, he may find nothing of his own in us. Let us strive toward that eternal thing, let us fly to that divine thing on the wings of love, and by the oarage of charity. Let us rise from here, that is, from things secular and worldly.

For the Lord said: Arise, let us go hence, enjoining that each one should rise from earthly things, should raise up the soul lying prostrate on the ground, should lift it to things above, should rouse his eagle, and that eagle of which it was said: Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's. This was said of the soul. Let our soul, then, like an eagle, seek the heights, fly above the clouds, shine renewed in its plumage, direct its flight to heaven, where it cannot fall into snares. For a bird which descends from on high, or which cannot lift itself on high, is often either caught by snares, or deceived by birdlime, or entangled by whatsoever traps there are. So too let our soul beware of descending to these worldly things. There is a snare in gold, birdlime in silver, a bond in an estate, a nail in love. If we seek gold, we are strangled; while we seek silver, we stick fast in its birdlime; while we seize upon an estate, we are bound.

Why do we seek vain profit at the loss of a precious soul? The whole world is a small thing to you compared to the loss of a single soul. For what does it profit a man if he gain this whole world, but suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange will you give for your soul? It is not redeemed with gold, not with silver; rather, by gold it is lost. Nay, even the beauty of a woman, while it is tempted, binds fast. Lust is a nail, sadness is a nail, anger is a nail, all the passions are nails, which pierce our soul as with a kind of spit, and fix it to the body, and bind it to its inward parts.

2. The Soul's Walls Painted with Virtue

Let us flee, then, these evils, and let us exalt our soul to that image and likeness of God. The flight from evils is the likeness of God, and by virtues the image of God is acquired. Therefore he who painted us as its author, painted with the colors of virtues: Behold, he says to Jerusalem, I have painted thy walls. Let us not wipe away with the brush of negligence the wall-defenses painted upon our soul. Therefore he said: I have painted your walls, by which we may be able to turn away the enemy.

3. The Soul as a Fortified City

The soul has its own walls, from which it stands forth, and concerning which it says: I am a fortified city, I am a besieged city. By these it is fortified as walls, by these, besieged, it is defended. And truly the soul is a wall, which, holding its ground, does not dread the enemy's camp. Whence also she herself says in the Canticle: I am a wall, and my breasts are as towers. Good is the wall which the Lord has painted, as he himself says: In my hands I have painted your walls, and you are ever before my sight. Good is the soul which has God as her watcher, and is in his hands, as the prophetic soul, which is commended into the hands of the Lord as a spirit, and which is in the sight of God; for the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, as she herself also says: I was in his eyes as one finding peace.

She has good towers who has both the word concerning intelligible things and discipline concerning moral things. And so this soul, having the grace of her own breasts, enters into the gardens, and finding there the bridegroom sitting and discoursing with his friends, says: You who sit in the gardens, make known your voice to me. To me, she says, not to friends. Flee, my brother. She exhorts the bridegroom to flee, because she herself is now able to follow one fleeing even earthly things. And she says that he should be like a young roe that escapes from the nets. For she too wishes to flee and to fly up above the world.

4. Plato's Garden and the Soul as Paradise

From this Plato composed for himself that garden, which he called elsewhere the garden of Jove, elsewhere the garden of the mind. Into this, he said, the soul entered, which he names Venus, that she might fill herself with the abundance and riches of this garden, in which, filled with drink, Porus lay, who poured forth nectar. This, then, he composed out of the book of the Canticles, because the soul cleaving to God has entered into the garden of the mind, in which there is abundance of diverse virtues, and flowers of discourses. But who does not know that from that paradise which we read of in Genesis, having the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the other trees, he thought the abundance of virtues should be transferred, and should be planted in the garden of the mind? This garden Solomon in the Canticle of Canticles signified as the garden of the soul, or the soul herself.

For thus it is written: A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed, your channels are a paradise. And below the soul says: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind, blow through my garden, and let my perfumes flow. Let my brother come down into his garden. How much more beautiful is this, that the soul, adorned with the flowers of virtues, should be a garden, or should have within herself a paradise sprouting forth! Into this garden the Word of God is invited to descend, that that soul, watered by the heavenly shower of the Word and by his abundance, may bear fruit. But the Word of God is fed upon the virtues of the soul, whenever he finds her obedient to himself and most excellent, and he gathers her fruits, and is delighted by them. But when the Word of God has descended into her, there flow forth from her the perfumes of wholesome words, and the breathings of diverse graces, sweet-smelling far and wide, are exhaled.

5. The Bridegroom's Banquet in the Garden

Whence the bridegroom says (but the bridegroom of the soul is the Word of God, to whom the soul is joined by a certain lawful covenant of marriage): I have come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh with my spices, I have eaten my bread with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, my friends, and drink, and be inebriated, my brethren. I sleep, and my heart watches. Let us know what fruits and foods God feasts upon, and by what he is delighted. He is delighted by this, if anyone mortifies his sin, blots out his fault, buries and abolishes his iniquities. For myrrh is the burial of the dead. But sins are dead things, which cannot have the sweetness of life. Certain wounds of delights are anointed with the perfumes of the divine word, and are healed by the stronger food of the word as by bread, and by the sweeter discourse as by honey.

That the foods of discourses exist, Solomon also teaches elsewhere, saying: Good words are honeycombs. In that garden, therefore, are good words: one that restrains fault, another that corrects iniquity, another that causes insolence to die, and as it were buries it, when someone corrected renounces his errors. There is also a stronger word, which strengthens the heart of man with the more solid nourishments of heavenly Scripture. There is also a persuasive word, sweet as honey, and yet pricking the conscience of the sinner in that very sweetness. There is also the word of a more fervent spirit, which inebriates like wine, and gladdens the heart of man. There is also a milky word, pure and white. These foods of sweet and useful discourses the bridegroom bids his friends feast upon: Eat, my friends, and drink and be inebriated, my brethren. But his friends are those who follow him, and are present at his nuptials.

With this food and drink the soul, filled (for each one drinks water from his own vessels, and from the fountains of his own wells) and made drunk, was asleep to the world, watchful for God. And therefore, as what follows teaches, she asked that the Word of God be opened to her, that he might fill her with his entrance.

6. The Soul's Departure Following the Word

From this, therefore, come those Platonic banqueters, from this that nectar from prophetic wine and honey, from this that sleep is transferred, from this that perpetual life, which he said his gods feast upon, because Christ is life. And therefore, by the seeds of such words, the belly of her soul was filled, and she herself went forth in the Word. But the soul that goes forth from this servitude, and lifts herself up from the body, follows the Word.

1. Powers That Tempt the Soul from Heaven

But there are aerial principalities, and powers of the world, which seek to cast us down, as it were from the wall of the soul, or to hinder us as we walk rightly, or to bring down those tending to higher things, and to call them back to earthly things. But let us all the more raise up our mind to lofty things, following the Word of God. Those principalities pour forth worldly things, by which they may bend down your mind: then all the more, O soul, direct your steps toward Christ. They cast in the desire of gold, of silver, of a neighboring possession; that for the sake of acquiring it you may excuse yourself from the supper of him who invited you to the nuptials of the Word; take heed lest you excuse yourself, but rather put on the wedding garment, and enjoy the banquet of the rich one; lest the rich man who had invited you, when you have excused yourself, being occupied with worldly things, invite others, and you be shut out.

The powers of the world also cast in the desire of honor; that you may exalt yourself as Adam did, and while you wish to equal God in likeness of power, you may despise the divine precepts, and begin to lose what you had. For to him who has not, even what he has shall be taken away.

2. Temptations That Assail the Soul in Prayer

How often, in prayer, by which we especially draw near to God, there are cast before us things full of some reproach or crime, by which they may turn us away from the zeal of prayer! How often the enemy strives to insert into our heart that which might turn it back from the purpose of holiness and pious vows! How often he inflames bodily ardors! How often he causes wanton eyes to encounter us, by which he tempts the chaste affection of the just man, that he may strike the unprepared with the unforeseen dart of love! How often he inserts into your mind an iniquitous word, and hidden thoughts of the heart! Of which the law says to you: Take heed to yourself, lest there be a hidden and iniquitous word in your heart, and the Lord say to you: Why do you think evil things in your heart?

Nor, when you have abounded in gold and silver, and the best fruits of the fields, or in honors, should you say: My own power has given me these things; and forget the Lord your God.

3. Fighting as a Soldier of Christ Against Snares

By these things, then, the soul that desires to fly upward is brought down. But do you struggle on as a good soldier of Christ Jesus, and, despising lower things, forgetting earthly things, strive toward heavenly and eternal things. Lift up your soul, lest the bait of snares entice it. The pleasures of the world are certain baits; and, what is worse, baits of evils, baits of temptations. While you seek pleasure, you run into snares. For the eye of a harlot is the snare of a lover. The eye of a harlot, therefore, is a snare. A snare too is the speech of a harlot, which sweetens your throat for a time, and afterward embitters it with the bitterness of a sinning conscience. A snare is another's possession full of charm. The whole path of this life is full of snares. Whence the just man says: In this way in which I walked, they have hidden snares for me.

In this way, he says, they have hidden them; therefore walk that way which says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life; that you may say: He has converted my soul, he has led me on the paths of justice for his name's sake.

4. Subjecting the Soul to Christ Alone

Let this world, then, die to us, let the wisdom of this flesh, which is enemy to God, die to us. Let us subject our soul to Christ alone, that each may say: Is not my soul subject to God? Not subjected to the world, not subjected, he says, to the world. This the moneyed man cannot say, the avaricious man cannot say; but the just and continent man says it. But the avaricious man says: Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years, rest, eat, drink, feast; because the soul of the avaricious man is subjected to bodily luxury: but the soul of the just man uses the body as an instrument or organ, which, like an excellent artist, leads the service of the body wherever it wishes, and fashions from it the form it has chosen, and makes resound in it whatever virtues it wills, composing now measures of chastity, now measures of temperance, the song of sobriety, the sweetness of integrity, the pleasantness of virginity, the gravity of widowhood.

Yet sometimes the player has fellow-feeling with his own instrument. And so play honorable measures, that the fellow-feeling may be honorable. For he who sees is often affected by seeing, and he who hears, by hearing. And therefore Scripture says: Let your eyes look straight on. And below: Be not much with a strange woman. Do not gaze upon the eyes of a young girl. Do not attend to the words of a harlot.

1. The Soul Must Not Mingle with the Flesh

And why do I speak of external snares? Our own snares are to be guarded against. In this very body of ours snares are spread around us, which we ought to avoid.

Let us not trust ourselves to this body, let us not mingle our soul with it. With a friend, he says, mingle your mind, not with an enemy. Your body, which fights against your mind, is an enemy to you, whose works are enmities, dissensions, strifes, and disturbances. Do not mingle your soul with it, lest you confound the two. For if it is mingled, then the flesh, which is lower, becomes better than the soul, which is higher; because the soul gives life to the body, but the flesh transfuses death into the soul. Thus the operation of both is confounded, and almost the very substance of both is confounded. Therefore the soul takes on into itself the insensibility of the dead body, and the body performs all the functions of the soul's virtues. And lest perhaps, because the soul is poured into the body, it be thought that it is also confounded with it, let the grace of this light be an example for us.

For light too is poured into an earthly place, and yet it is not confounded with it. Let not the operation, then, be confounded, of things whose substance is unlike: but let the soul be in the body, so as to vivify the body, to govern it, to illuminate it.

2. The Soul as Musician of the Body

Yet we cannot deny that it has fellow-feeling with its body; for it is also saddened. For indeed Jesus said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death, expressing in himself the affection of a man. And elsewhere: My soul is troubled exceedingly. For indeed a player has fellow-feeling with his instruments, whether of pipe, or lyre, or organ, in voice, gesture, and affection. In sad sounds he is sadder, in glad ones gladder, in the sharper ones more excited, in the gentler ones themselves gentler and more mild; so that he himself commends the sounds of the songs, and in a certain manner molds the affections. The soul too, in this body as in musical strings, being sober yet, so to speak, with the topmost fingers, strikes, as it were, the sounds of the sinews, the passions of this flesh, so as to render a harmony of manners and virtues consonant and agreeing; so that in all its thoughts, in all its works, it keeps this rule, that all its counsels and deeds agree together.

The soul, therefore, is that which uses, the body is that which is for use; and by this, one thing is that which commands, another that which serves: one thing is what we are, another is what is ours. If anyone loves the beauty of the soul, he loves us: if anyone loves the comeliness of the body, he loves not the man himself, but the beauty of the flesh, which nevertheless quickly withers and flows away.

3. The Preacher on the Vanity of Life

Wherefore give heed to him of whom the Prophet says: Who has not received his soul in vain. He has received his soul in vain (to speak now of the troubles of this life) who builds up worldly things, who constructs bodily things. Daily we rise to eat and drink, and no one is satisfied, so that he does not hunger and thirst again after a moment. Daily we seek gain, and no limit is set to greed. The eye, it says, is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. He who loves silver is not satisfied with silver. There is no end of labor, and no fruit of abundance. We desire daily to know new things; and what is knowledge itself, but the daily increase of sorrow? All things that are have already been, and there is nothing new under the sun, but all is vanity. I hated all life, said the Preacher. He who hated life certainly preached death.

Finally, he praised the dead more than the living; and he judged that man blessed who did not come into this life, nor took up this vain labor. My heart went about, he says, that I might know the joy of the wicked, and I considered, and sought wisdom and number, and that I might know through rule the joy, and the trouble, and the boasting; and I found her more bitter than death: not because death is bitter, but because it is bitter to the wicked; and yet life is more bitter than death. For it is more grievous to live in sin than to die in sin; because as long as the wicked man lives, he increases sin: if he dies, he ceases to sin.

4. The Danger of Presuming on God's Patience

Many rejoice in the absolution of their crimes. If they are going to amend, rightly; if they are going to persevere in them, foolishly; because condemnation would have profited them far more, that they might not increase their sins. Concerning which there is a lofty sentence of the Apostle, saying that not only those who commit shameful deeds, but also those who approve them, are worthy of death: but also that those who condemn in others the very things they themselves do are held inexcusable, so that they are condemned by their own judgment. For when they condemn others, they condemn themselves. Nor ought they to flatter themselves because they seem for a time free from punishment and exempt from guilt; since they pay heavier penalties within themselves, and are guilty to themselves, though they do not seem so to others; and they turn upon themselves a graver sentence of conscience, when they judge the sins of others.

But do not, he says, O man, despise the treasures of divine goodness and patience; for the goodness of God calls you to repentance, invites you to correction: but your hardness, by which you persist in the obstinacy of error, increases the severity of the future judgment, that you may receive a fitting recompense for your sins.

5. Death Is Not an Evil

Death, therefore, is not an evil. For neither is death present among the living, nor among the dead: for among the one it is not, because they still live; the others have passed away. And so it is not bitter to those who do not yet know it, by the very fact that they do not know it; nor to those who now feel nothing according to the body, and according to the soul have been set free.

1. The Opinion of Death, Not Death Itself, Is Feared

But if it is reckoned terrible among the living, it is not death itself that is terrible, but the opinion about death, which each one interprets according to his own disposition, or shudders at according to his own conscience. Let each, therefore, accuse the wound of his own conscience, not the bitterness of death. In short, death is a haven of rest for the just, and is thought a shipwreck for the guilty. Certainly for those to whom the fear of death is grievous, it is not grievous to die, but it is grievous to live under the fear of death. Therefore it is not death that is grievous, but the fear of death. But fear belongs to opinion: and opinion belongs to our weakness, and is contrary to truth. For through truth comes virtue, through opinion, weakness. But opinion pertains not to death at all, but to life. Therefore that grievous thing is found to belong rather to life. It is clear, then, that the fear of death is to be referred not to death, but to life.

For we have nothing to fear in death, if our life has committed nothing that ought to be feared. For to the prudent, the punishments of sins are terrifying: but sins are not the acts of the dead, but of the living. Life, therefore, is referred to us, whose action is in our own power: but death is nothing to us; for it is the separation of soul and body: the soul is released, the body is dissolved. That which is released, rejoices: that which is dissolved into its own earth, feels nothing: that which feels nothing is nothing to us.

2. Death as the Path Back to Life

Yet if death is an evil, how is it that the young do not fear becoming old, nor dread the age that borders upon death; and one who fails after death has been anticipated fails more patiently than one taken unawares? To those also who think death an evil, I think this an apt answer: that through life there is a passage to death; but through death a return to life. For none can rise again except those who have died. But the foolish dread death as though it were the sum of evils; the wise desire it as rest after labors, and the end of evils.

3. Refuting Fears of Destruction and the Poets' Fables of Hell

Now the foolish fear death for two reasons. One, that they call it destruction: but destruction cannot belong to man, since the soul survives the body, provided also that the body itself remains for resurrection. The other reason is that they dread punishments, terrified, namely, by the fables of the poets—the barking of Cerberus, the sad whirlpool of the river Cocytus, Charon more grim still, the bands of Furies, or the sheer depths of Tartarus, in which a fiercer Hydra has her seat. The entrails of Tityus too, fruitful for the renewal of torments, which a monstrous vulture devours without end. Also the perpetual whirling of Ixion's wheel under the atrocity of punishment, and then the ruin hanging over the heads of those reclining at banquet beneath the overhanging rock. These things are full of fables, and yet I would not deny that there are punishments after death. But what has that which is after death to do with death itself?

But if the things that are after death are referred to death, then also the things that are after life should be referred to life. There will be, then, no punishments to be referred to death. For death, as we have said above, is the release and separation of soul and body: nor is that release evil; because to be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better. Death, therefore, is not evil. Yet, it is said, the death of sinners is the worst. Not indeed that death is worst in general: but it is specifically the worst of sinners. And then, precious is the death of the just. Whence it is clear that the bitterness belongs not to death, but to guilt.

4. Death as Sleep and Rest

Fittingly, moreover, the Greeks named death from its ending; for they call death τελευτή, because it is the end of this life. But Scripture also calls sleep death, as in that passage: Lazarus our friend sleeps; but I go that I may awaken him. Now sleep is good, since it is rest, as it is written: I slept, and took rest, and rose up; because the Lord sustained me. Sweet, therefore, is the rest of death. Finally, the Lord raises up those who rest, because the Lord is the resurrection.

5. Death as the Final Test of a Well-Lived Life

This too is excellent, which Scripture says: Praise no one before death. For each is known by his last end, and is judged by his children, if he has well instructed his children, and trained them by fitting discipline. Since indeed the dissolution of children is attributed to the negligence of the father. Then too, because each one, as long as he lives, is liable to fall, nor is old age immune from fault; therefore you read that Abraham died in a good old age, because he persevered in the goodness of his purpose. Death, therefore, is the testimony of life. For if a pilot cannot be praised before he has brought his ship into port, how will you praise a man before he has come into the harbor of death? He himself is his own pilot, and he himself is tossed on the deep of this life; as long as he is on this sea, so long is he amid shipwrecks.

A commander himself does not take the laurel unless the battle is finished, nor does the soldier lay down his arms, nor obtain the wage of his service, unless the enemy has been overcome. Death, therefore, is the fullness of service, the sum of reward, the grace of discharge.

6. The Blessing of the Dying, as in Job

Now how much did holy Job attribute to death, who said: Let the blessing of him who is about to die come upon me? For although Isaac blessed his sons when dying, and Jacob blessed the Patriarchs, yet the grace of that blessing could be attributed solely to the merits of those who blessed, or to fatherly piety. But here there is no prerogative of merits, none of piety, but the privilege of death alone: since the blessing of anyone dying has such power that the holy Prophet wished it for himself. And therefore let us always think on this verse, and hold it in our heart.

7. A Call to Aid the Dying and the Poor

If we see any poor man about to die, let us help him with our means; and let each of us say: Let the blessing of him who is about to die come upon me. If we see anyone weak, let us not desert him: if anyone placed at the point of death, let us not abandon him: let it occur to us too to say: Let the blessing of him who is about to die come upon me. Let every dying man praise you also, every one worn down by age, every one exhausted by grievous wound, every one consumed by disease, and now near to death. How many has this verse caused to be blessed! How often has it struck me with shame, if I passed by one about to die, if I did not visit one grievously sick, if I disdained a poor man, if I did not ransom a captive, if I scorned an old man!

Let it, therefore, ever be in the heart, that it may spur the harder, that it may admonish the more ready. Let the last words of the dying resound in you, and let the soul departing the body carry with it the blessing given to you. Rescue also him who is being led to death, who would have perished had you not come to his aid, so that you may say: Let the blessing of him who was about to perish come upon me.

1. The Soul's Return to Its Divine Origin

Who, then, can doubt of the good of death, when that which is restless, that which is shameful, that which is hostile to us, that which is violent, that which is stormy, and enticing to every vice, comes to rest and lies still, and is shut up as it were a wild beast in the cage of the tomb, its rage left lifeless, and the deadened framework of the members is dissolved into earth: while that which is akin to virtues, friendly to disciplines, zealous for glory, a follower of the good, subject to God, flies up to that lofty realm; and remains with that pure and everlasting and immortal Good, cleaving to it; and is with Him from whom it draws its kindred, as one has said: For we too are His offspring? For it is manifest that the soul does not die with the body, because it is not of the body. That it is not of the body, Scripture teaches in many ways.

For Adam received from the Lord our God the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And David says: Return, my soul, to your rest; because the Lord has done well by me. And in what he did well, hear: Because he has delivered, he says, my feet from stumbling. You see him rejoicing in the remedy of this death, because an end has been made of error, because it was guilt, not nature, that failed.

2. The Land of the Living and the Region of the Dead

Finally, as if stripped free and released, he says: I will be pleasing to the Lord in the land of the living. For that is the region of the living. And so he calls that rest of souls the land of the living, where sins do not penetrate, where the glory of the virtues lives. But this region is full of the dead, because full of sins, and it was rightly said: Let the dead bury their dead. But above too he likewise says: His soul shall dwell among good things, and his seed shall inherit the earth, that is, the soul of one who fears God shall dwell among good things, so as always to be in them and according to them. This can also be understood of one who is still in the body; so that he too, if he fears God, may dwell among good things, and be among heavenly things, and possess his own body, and rule over it as reduced to servitude, and possess the inheritance of glory and of heavenly promises.

3. The Deceptions of the Bodily Senses

Whence we also, if we wish after the death of this body to be among the good, let us beware lest our soul be glued to this body, lest it be mingled with it, lest it cling to it, lest it be dragged by the body, and, as though drunk, waver and float amid its disturbances, nor entrust itself to it and to its delights, so as to commit itself to its senses. For its eye is error and deceit, since sight is deceived: and its ear is deception, since hearing too is mocked: and its taste is deception. Finally it was not said idly: "Let thy eyes look straight on". And: "Let thy tongue speak no perverse things". Which would not have been said unless they frequently erred. You have seen a harlot, you were captivated by her countenance, and you thought her form comely: your eyes erred, they saw perverse things, they reported other things.

For if they had truly seen, they would have seen the deformed disposition of the harlot, her abhorrent shamelessness, her unseemly immodesty, her withering lusts, her foul defilement, the wounds of her soul, the scars of her conscience. "Whosoever," it says, "looketh on a woman to lust after her". You see that this man sought a falsehood, who sought not truth but adultery. For he sought to see in order to lust, not in order to know the truth. The eye errs, then, where the affection errs. The affection, then, is deception, the deception of sight. And therefore it is said to you: "Be not captured by thine eyes", that is, let not thy soul be captured. "For a woman captures the precious souls of men". Hearing is deception. Finally, by much flattery of speech a fornicating woman has often seduced, deceived, and mocked the heart of a young man.

4. Becoming Like the Good We Follow

Let us not, therefore, entrust ourselves to those snares and nets which deceive and mock; for hearts are tempted, thoughts are impeded, which are impeded by sight, impeded by hearing, by smell, by touch, by taste. Let us not follow enticing and seducing things: but let us follow that which is good, let us cleave to it, let us imitate it, let its presence, its communion make us better, color our habits, let a certain fellowship according to it, that is, near it or beside it, form us. For he who cleaves to the good takes from it that which is good; for it is written: "With the holy thou shalt be holy, and with the elect thou shalt be elect, and with the perverse thou shalt be perverse, and with the innocent thou shalt be innocent": for by constant association and imitation a certain image of likeness is formed. And therefore he added: "For thou, Lord, dost light my lamp".

For indeed he who draws near to light is the more quickly illumined, and the splendor of the eternal light shines forth more from nearness in him. Therefore the soul which cleaves to that invisible good God, and immortal, itself flees these bodily things, and abandons earthly and mortal things, and becomes like that which it desires, in which it lives and is fed; and because it is intent upon the immortal, it is not itself mortal. For the soul that sins dies; not indeed by any dissolution of itself, but it dies deservedly to God, because it lives to sin. Therefore that which does not sin does not die; because it remains in its substance, it remains in virtue and glory.

5. The Soul Cannot Receive Death

For how can its substance perish, since it is indeed the soul which infuses life? And to whomever the soul is infused, life is infused: from whom the soul departs, life departs. The soul, then, is life. For how can it receive death, since it is contrary to it? For as snow does not receive heat, for it is at once dissolved: and light does not receive darkness, for it is at once dispelled (for when light is poured in, the horror of darkness is taken away, just as when fire is brought near, the rigidity of snows ceases), so also the soul, which creates life, does not receive death, and does not die: but the soul does not receive death; the soul, therefore, does not die.

1. The Soul Required, Not Destroyed

We have, then, reasoning, but this is human: that is divine, which the Lord says: "I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again". You see, then, that it does not die with the body, that which is both laid down and taken up again, and is commended into the hands of God the Father. But perhaps you may say that this is peculiar to Christ, and although he assumed the things that belong to man, yet because it is of a different case—and to build this up, that we may not waste time—hear him saying: "Thou knowest not whether this night thy soul shall be required of thee". Did he say: Let thy soul die in thee? No; but, "shall be required of thee." That which was given is demanded back, or they require it back from you. For the soul is demanded back, not destroyed. What is demanded back remains: what is destroyed does not remain.

For how is that destroyed of which the Wisdom of God said, that no one is to be feared who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul? Of which the prophet says: "My soul is in thy hands always". "Always," he says, not merely for a time.

2. The Soul Rests in God's Hands, Not the Tomb

And do thou commend thy soul into the hands of the Lord: not only when it departs from the body, but also while it is in the body, it is in the hands of the Lord; because you do not see whence it comes, or whither it goes. For it is in you, and it is with God. Finally, "the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord," and by him it is ruled and governed. The heart is filled with the mind, because the mind is the principal part of the soul, and the virtue of the soul. I do not mean that virtue which is in the muscles, but that which is in counsels, in temperance, in piety, and in justice. If the heart of man is in the hand of the Lord, much more the soul. If the soul is in the hand of God, then surely our soul is not shut up in the sepulchre together with the body, nor held fast by the tomb: but it enjoys a pious rest.

And therefore men in vain construct costly sepulchres, as though these were receptacles of souls, and not of the body alone.

3. The Dwellings of Souls in the Books of Esdras

That the dwelling places of souls are above is proven very strongly by the testimonies of Scripture. For indeed also in the books of Esdras we read: That when the day of judgment shall come, the earth shall render the bodies of the dead, and the dust shall render those who rest in tombs, the remains of the dead. And the dwelling places, it says, shall render the souls which were committed to them, and the Most High shall be revealed upon the seat of judgment. These are the habitations of which the Lord speaks, that there are many mansions with his Father, which, going to the Father, he would prepare for his disciples. But I have used the writings of Esdras, that the Gentiles may know that the things which they admire in the books of the philosophers were transferred from ours.

And would that they had not mixed in superfluous and useless things beside these; so that they said that the souls of men and of beasts alike are common, and that it is the highest reward, if the souls of great philosophers should migrate into bees or nightingales; that they who before had fed the human race with speech, might afterward soothe them with the sweetness of honey, or the sweetness of song. It would have sufficed for them to have said that souls freed from bodies seek αἴδην, that is, a place which is not seen, which place in Latin we call the underworld.

4. The Storehouses of Souls Awaiting Judgment Day

Finally, Scripture too has called those dwelling places of souls "storehouses": which, meeting the complaint of humanity, in that the just who have gone before seem, up to the day of judgment—for a great length of time, evidently—to be defrauded of their due reward, wonderfully says that that day of judgment is like a crown, in which there is neither the tardiness of the last, nor the swiftness of the first. For the day of the crown is awaited by all; that within that day both the vanquished may blush, and the victors obtain the palm of victory. This too it has not left hidden, that those who seem to have been begotten earlier are stronger, those born later, weaker. For it compared the births of this age to the womb of a woman; since stronger are those who were born in the youth of vigor, weaker those born in the time of old age.

For this age has failed in the multitude of its generation, like the womb of one giving birth, and like a creature growing old lays down the strength of its youth, as though the vigor of its powers were now withering.

5. Souls Awaiting Reward Amid Shame or Glory

Therefore while the fullness of time is awaited, souls await their due reward. For some, punishment remains; for others, glory; and yet in the meantime neither are the former without injury, nor are the latter without fruit. For the former, seeing that a reward of glory is laid up for those who keep the law of God, that their dwelling places are preserved by angels, but that for themselves there remain the punishments of disregard and stubbornness, and shame and confusion; so that, beholding the glory of the Most High, they blush to come into his sight, whose commandments they have profaned. For as was the transgression of Adam, so too was the confusion; since as he, through carelessness of the heavenly commandments, fell, and hid himself in the shame of his fall, not daring, from the modesty of a sinning conscience, to come under the brightness of the divine presence: so also the souls of sinners will not endure the splendor of his vibrant light, by whose witness they will remember that they went astray.

1. The Seven Orders of Joy for the Just

But the joy of the souls of the just shall be arranged through certain orders First, that they have conquered the flesh, nor have been bent by its enticements. Then, that as a reward of their diligence and innocence, they obtain security, nor are entangled, like the souls of the impious, in certain errors and disturbances, nor tormented by the memory of their vices, nor harassed by certain surges of anxieties. Third, that being supported by the divine testimony of the law kept by them, they need not fear an uncertain outcome of their deeds at the final judgment. Fourth, because they begin to understand their rest, and to foresee their future glory, and soothing themselves with that consolation, they shall rest in their dwelling places with great tranquility, surrounded by the guard of angels. But the fifth order has the sweetness of the most abundant exultation, that from this prison of the corruptible body they shall have come into light and liberty, and shall possess the inheritance promised to them.

For there is an order of rest, because there is also an order of resurrection: "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ," it says, "shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ's, who have believed in his coming, then the end" There shall be, then, a different order of brightness and glory, as there shall be an order of merits. The progression of the orders also expresses the progression of brightness. Finally, in the sixth order it will be shown to them that their faces begin to shine like the sun, and to be compared to the lights of the stars; yet their brightness can no longer feel corruption.

But the seventh order will be this, that they exult with confidence, and without any hesitation trust, and without trepidation rejoice, hastening to see the face of him to whom they rendered the service of diligent servitude: from which, by the recollection of an innocent conscience, they may presume the glorious reward of a small labor, which, beginning to receive, they have recognized that the sufferings of this time were unworthy of the glory of eternal reward which is thus rendered. This is the order, it says, of souls, of those who are just, whom it did not hesitate to call immortal also in the fifth order; because, it says, they begin to receive space, enjoying and immortal. This is, it says, their rest through seven orders, and the first tasting of future glory, before they fully enjoy in their own habitations the gift of a quiet gathering. Whence the prophet says to the angel: Will time then be given to souls, after they have been separated from their bodies, that they may see these things as thou hast said?

And the angel said: seven days shall be their freedom, that they may see, in the seven days, the discourses that have been foretold, and afterward they shall be gathered in their dwelling places. These things have therefore been expressed more fully concerning the orders of the just, than concerning the sufferings of the impious; because it is better to know how the innocent are saved, than how the wicked are tormented.

2. Seeing God Face to Face

Therefore, because the just have this reward, that they see the face of God, and that light which enlightens every man, let us henceforth put on this kind of zeal, that our soul may draw near to God, that our prayer may draw near, that our desire may cleave to him, that we be not separated from him. And even placed here, by meditating, by reading, by seeking, let us be joined to God, let us know him as far as we are able. For here we know in part, because here all things are imperfect, there all things are perfect: here we are children, there we are strong. "We see," it says, "now through a glass in a dark manner, but then face to face". Then, with face unveiled, it shall be permitted to behold the glory of the Lord, which now souls, wrapped in the compacted inward parts of this body, and overshadowed by certain stains and defilements of this flesh, cannot see purely. "For who," it says, "shall see my face, and live"? And rightly.

For if our eyes cannot bear the rays of the sun, and if anyone gazes too long directly at the sun, he is said to be usually blinded: if a creature cannot look upon a creature without harm and injury to itself, how can it, covered by the garments of this body, behold without danger to itself the vibrant face of the eternal creator? For who is justified in the sight of God, since not even an infant of one day is free from sin in the world, and no one can glory in the integrity and chastity of his own heart?

3. Joining the Company of the Blessed Dead

Let us not therefore fear to be received by men, let us not dread that end owed to all, in which Esdras found the reward of his devotion, the Lord saying to him: For you shall be received by men, and shall dwell as the remainder with my Son, and with your likes. But if it was glorious and pleasant for him to be preserved with his likes, how much more glorious and pleasant will it be for us to go on to better ones, and to dwell with those whose deeds we admire?

4. Esdras Compared with Plato on the Life to Come

Who indeed was first, Esdras, or Plato? For Paul followed the sayings of Esdras, not of Plato. Esdras revealed, according to the revelation conferred upon him, that the just would be with Christ, would be with the saints. Hence too that Socrates says that he hastens to those gods of his, to those best of men. Ours therefore are the things that excel in the writings of the philosophers: and he set down those things for which he had no proper testimony: we have the authority of divine precept: Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ; Abraham received two others with his God into hospitality; Jacob beheld the camp of God; Daniel declared that the just would shine like the sun and the stars in heaven, the Holy Spirit revealing this to him.

1. Going Fearlessly to the Fathers and the Just

Relying on these things therefore, let us go fearlessly to our redeemer Jesus; fearlessly to the council of the patriarchs, fearlessly let us set out, when the day comes, to our father Abraham; let us go fearlessly to that assembly of the saints, and that gathering of the just. For we shall go to our fathers, we shall go to those teachers of our faith; so that even if works are lacking, faith may help, the inheritance may be defended. We shall go also where holy Abraham spreads out his bosom, to receive the poor, as he received Lazarus too: in whose bosom rest those who in this world endured heavy and harsh things.

2. Abraham's Bosom and the Paradise of the Saints

But now, father, again and again stretch out your hands to receive this poor man, open your bosom, spread out your embrace, that you may receive more, since very many have believed in the Lord. But yet, although faith has grown, iniquity abounds, charity grows cold. We shall go to those who recline in the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because, having been invited to the supper, they did not excuse themselves. We shall go there where there is the paradise of delight, where Adam, who fell among robbers, no longer knows how to weep over his wounds, where the thief himself rejoices in fellowship with the heavenly kingdom, where there are no clouds, no thunders, no lightnings, no storm of winds, neither darkness, nor evening, neither summer nor winter will vary the changes of the seasons. There will be no cold, no hail, no rains, no use of this sun, or of the moon, nor of the orbs of the stars: but only the brightness of God will shine.

For the Lord will be the light of all; and that true light, which enlightens every man, will shine upon all. We shall go there where the Lord Jesus has prepared dwellings for his servants, that where he is, we too may be. For this he willed. Hear him saying what those dwellings are: In my Father's house there are many mansions. What his will is: Again, he says, I come, and will take you to myself, that where I am, you also may be.

3. Christ as the Way, the Truth, and the Life

But you will say that he was speaking only to the disciples, that he promised many mansions to them alone. Was he then preparing them only for the eleven disciples? And where is that saying, that from all parts of the world they will come and recline in the kingdom of God? Why do we doubt the effects of the divine will? But for Christ to will is to have done. Finally, he showed both the way and the place, saying: And where I go, you know, you know the way. The place is with the Father, the way is Christ, as he himself says: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.

Let us enter upon this way, let us hold the truth, let us follow the life. The way is that which leads through, the truth is that which confirms, the life is that which is given through itself. And that we may know his true will, he added afterward: Father, those whom you have given me, I will that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may see my glory. This repetition is a confirmation, as is that: Abraham, Abraham! And elsewhere: I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities. Beautifully indeed, what he promised above, he here asked for. And because he first promised, and then asked, he did not first ask, and then promise: he promised as the arbiter of the gift, conscious of his power: he asked from the Father as the interpreter of piety. And he promised first, that you might know his power: he asked afterward, that you might understand his piety.

He did not ask first, and then promise; lest he should seem to have promised what he had obtained rather than to have granted what he had promised. Nor should you think it superfluous that he asked, since he expresses to you the sharing of the Father's will, in which there is a token of unity, not an increase of power.

4. The Supreme Good Promised in Christ's House

We follow you, Lord Jesus: but that we may follow, we must be summoned, because without you no one ascends. For you are the way, the truth, the life, the possibility, the faith, the reward. Receive us as the way, confirm us as the truth, give us life as the life. Reveal that good of yours which David desired to see, dwelling in the house of the Lord; and so he was saying: Who will show us good things? And elsewhere: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. For there are the good things, where life is perpetual, life without crime. Elsewhere too he says: We shall be filled with the good things of your house. He mentioned this often, so that you might know that it was from here that the philosophers transferred that good which they assert to be the supreme good. Reveal then that truly good thing of yours, that divine thing, in which we live, and are, and move.

We are moved as in a way, we are as in the truth, we live as in eternal life. Show us that good, which is like unto itself, always indissoluble and unchangeable, in which we may be eternal in the knowledge of every good, as Paul, the vessel of your election, testified, saying: For perhaps he departed for a time for this reason, that you might receive him forever. He therefore called him the eternal minister of God, writing to Philemon, whose faith he wished to become more evident in the knowledge of every good thing that is in the saints, in Christ Jesus. In which good there is pure rest, immortal light, perpetual grace, the pious inheritance of souls, and secure tranquility, not subject to death, but snatched away from death, where there are no tears, no weeping.

For whence would there be weeping there, where there is no fall? Where your saints are freed from errors and anxieties, from folly and ignorance, from fear and dread, from desires and from the corruption and passions of the body, where the region of the living is. And that we may join authority to this assertion, the Prophet speaks of this good: Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has done good to you: for he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from falling. I will please the Lord in the region of the living. He said, I will please, not I please, that is, he flatters himself concerning a future time. But future things are contrary to present things, and eternal things to temporal ones. And therefore since there is the region of the living, here surely is the region of the dead.

5. The Region of the Dead and the Region of the Living

Is this not the region of the dead, where there is the shadow of death, where there is the gate of death, where there is the body of death? Finally it is granted to Peter, that perchance the gates of hell may not prevail against it. Those gates of hell are earthly ones. Whence also he says: You who lift me up from the gates of death. For as there are gates of justice in which the saints confess to the Lord, so there are gates of crimes in which the impious have denied the Lord. Hear that this region is that of the dead. If anyone therefore touches a dead body, he shall be unclean. But unclean in the sight of the Lord is every unjust man. If anyone therefore touches iniquity, he shall be unclean: if anyone is in delights, he is dead; since she who is in delights is dead while living. And those who are unfaithful, descend into hell while living: even if they seem to live with us, yet they are in hell.

If anyone takes usury, commits robbery, he does not live life, as you have it in Ezekiel. But if anyone just keeps the ordinances of the Lord to do them, he says, he shall live in life, and he shall live in them. He therefore is in the region of the living, in that region where life is not hidden, but free; where there is not shadow, but glory. For here not even Paul himself lived in glory. Indeed he groaned in the body of death. Hear him saying: For now our life is hidden with Christ in God: but when Christ shall appear, who is our life, then we also shall appear with him in glory.

6. Seeking the Living Christ, Not Among the Dead

Let us hasten therefore to life. If anyone touches life, he shall live. Indeed that woman touched it, who touched the hem of his garment, and was released from death, to whom it is said: Your faith has made you whole, go in peace. For if he who touches a dead body is unclean, without doubt he who touches the living is saved. Let us seek therefore the living one. But again let us take care, lest we seek him among the dead, and it be said to us as to those women: Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. The Lord himself also showed where he wished to be sought, saying: Go to my brothers, and say to them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God. Let us seek him then there, where John sought him, and found him. He sought him in the beginning, and found him living with the living, the Son with the Father.

Let us seek him at the end of the ages, and embrace his feet, and adore him, that he may say to us also: Do not be afraid, that is, do not fear from the sins of the age, do not fear from the iniquities of the world, do not fear from the waves of bodily passions, I am the remission of sins: do not fear from darkness, I am the light: do not fear from death, I am the life. Whoever comes to me shall not see death forever; since he himself is the fullness of divinity, and to him is glory, honor, perpetuity from ages, and now, and always, and unto all ages of ages, Amen.