sake, are freed from the second._
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.