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But, it is added, many Christians were slaughtered, and were put to
death in a hideous variety of cruel ways. Well, if this be hard to
bear, it is assuredly the common lot of all who are born into this
life. Of this at least I am certain, that no one has ever died who
was not destined to die some time. Now the end of life puts the
longest life on a par with the shortest. For of two things which have
alike ceased to be, the one is not better, the other worse, the one
greater, the other less. And of what consequence is it what kind of
death puts an end to life, since he who has died once is not forced to
go through the same ordeal a second time? And as in the daily
casualties of life every man is, as it were, threatened with
numberless deaths, so long as it remains uncertain which of them is his
fate, I would ask whether it is not better to suffer one and die,
than to live in fear of all? I am not unaware of the poor-spirited
fear which prompts us to choose rather to live long in fear of so many
deaths, than to die once and so escape them all; but the weak and
cowardly shrinking of the flesh is one thing, and the well-considered
and reasonable persuasion of the soul quite another. That death is not
to be judged an evil which is the end of a good life; for death becomes
evil only by the retribution which follows it. They, then, who are
destined to die, need not be careful to inquire what death they are to
die, but into what place death will usher them. And since Christians
are well aware that the death of the godly pauper whose sores the dogs
licked was far better than of the wicked rich man who lay in purple and
fine linen, what harm could these terrific deaths do to the dead who
had lived well?
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