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of the separation of the soul, I tell you? There are, therefore, two deaths, of the body and of the soul. One who has died in soul, tell me, and because of this carries around a corruptible body united to it, growing old little by little and being dissolved and flowing away, if his soul were not destined to be released and separated from this, but were eternally bound to it, how would this life not have been worse than any other punishment in Hades? Look for me at those possessed by the sacred (391) disease, how their flesh is corrupted and consumed, how they are without hands, and feet, and eyes, and lips, and noses, and ears, how they are completely immobile, how, being mute and deaf, with unutterable cries they call upon God to be released from this flesh. For if one were allotted to be thus for ages, that I may say it again, would not living have been worse than dying? Thus, therefore, the punishment has become a benefit; or rather, not a punishment, but a divine economy. For the death of men is the death of affairs; death is a release from cares, death is freedom from all kinds of diseases and passions, death is a cutting off of sins and of injustice,

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χωρισμοῦ ψυχῆς, σοί λέγω; ∆ύο οὖν εἰσι θάνατοι, σώματός τε καί ψυχῆς. Ὁ θανών ψυχῇ, εἰπέ μοι, καί φθαρτόν ἐκ τούτου σῶμα περιφέρων ἡνωμένον, κατ᾿ ὀλίγον τε γηράσκον καί λυόμενον καί ῥέον, εἰ μή ἔμελλε λυθῆναι τούτου τε καί χωρισθῆναι ἡ ψυχή, ἀλλ᾿ αἰωνίως ἦν συνδεδεμένη τούτῳ, πῶς οὐ χείρων πάσης ἄλλης τιμωρίας τῆς ἐν ᾅδη αὕτη ἡ ζωή ὑπῆρχε; Βλέπε μοι τούς ὑπό νόσου (391) ἱερᾶς κατεχομένους, πῶς αἱ σάρκες αἱ ἐκείνων φθείρονται καί δαπανῶνται, πῶς χειρῶν, ποδῶν τε δίχα καί ὀμμάτων καί χειλέων καί ῥινῶν εἰσι καί ὤτων, πῶς ἀκίνητοι εἰς ἅπαν, πῶς καί ἄλαλοι κωφοί τε ταῖς φωναῖς ταῖς ἀλαλήτοις τόν Θεόν ἐπικαλοῦνται ταύτης τῆς σαρκός λυθῆναι. Εἰ γάρ οὕτως εἰς αἰῶνας, ἵνα πάλιν εἴπω, εἶναι ἐκληρώσατο, οὐ χεῖρον τοῦ θανεῖν τό ζῆν ὑπῆρξε; Οὕτως οὖν εὐεργεσία γέγονεν ἡ τιμωρία, μᾶλλον δέ οὐ τιμωρία, ἀλλ᾿ οἰκονομία θεία. Ὁ γάρ θάνατος ἀνθρώπων θάνατος πραγμάτων πέλει˙ θάνατος φροντίδων λύσις, θάνατος ἐλευθερία νόσων καί παθῶν παντοίων, θάνατος ἁμαρτημάτων ἐκκοπή καί ἀδικίας,