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For if we look at the matter a little more carefully, we shall see
that even when a man dies faithfully and laudably for the truth's
sake, it is still death he is avoiding. For he submits to some part
of death, for the very purpose of avoiding the whole, and the second
and eternal death over and above. He submits to the separation of soul
and body, lest the soul be separated both from God and from the body,
and so the whole first death be completed, and the second death receive
him everlastingly. Wherefore death is indeed, as I said, good to
none while it is being actually suffered, and while it is subduing the
dying to its power; but it is meritoriously endured for the sake of
retaining or winning what is good. And regarding what happens after
death, it is no absurdity to say that death is good to the good, and
evil to the evil. For the disembodied spirits of the just are at
rest; but those of the wicked suffer punishment till their bodies rise
again, those of the just to life everlasting, and of the others to
death eternal, which is called the second death.
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