On Mortality

Contents

1. 1Though most of his people stand firm in the plague, Cyprian writes to strengthen those whose faith is shaken.
2. 2Christ foretold wars, famines, and plagues before the end; since these are happening, his kingdom is near, and only those without hope fear death.
3. 3The righteous live by faith and should welcome being called to Christ, as Simeon gladly awaited death after seeing the infant Christ.
4. 4Life in the world is a constant battle against the devil and one vice after another.
5. 5Rather than cling to a life of daily struggle, Christians should long for the joy of seeing Christ, which he promised no one could take away.
6. 6Fear of death comes from lack of faith; we would trust an honorable man's promise, yet doubt God's promise of immortality.
7. 7Christ told his disciples to rejoice at his going to the Father, and Paul called death gain; so we should rejoice when loved ones leave the world.
8. 8Christians share the plague with pagans because they share the same flesh; until the resurrection, bodily ills fall on all alike, as famine and shipwreck do.
9. 9A Christian must expect more struggle than others, as Scripture warns those who serve God to prepare for temptation.
10. 10Job and Tobit were proved, not defeated, by their sufferings, blessing God in adversity and refusing their wives' temptations.
11. 11The righteous endure without murmuring, unlike Israel in the wilderness; God tests us by adversity to show whether we love him.
12. 12Abraham was ready even to sacrifice his son; losses and sickness are battles that prove faith, as storms prove a helmsman and wind separates grain from chaff.
13. 13Like Paul, whose power was perfected in weakness, Christians are proved rather than overcome by adversity, while unbelievers only complain.
14. 14Cyprian describes the plague's symptoms, which test faith; only those not reborn in baptism and facing the second death have reason to fear dying.
15. 15For Christians the plague is a release: virgins, youths, and matrons escape future dangers, while the fear it brings rouses the lukewarm and wins converts.
16. 16The plague tests everyone's character and charity, and teaches Christians not to fear death, preparing them for martyrdom.
17. 17Those who die of plague though ready for martyrdom lose nothing, for God crowns the willing mind; he seeks faith, not blood.
18. 18We pray daily that God's will be done and his kingdom come, so we should not resist when he calls us from this world.
19. 19Cyprian tells of a dying fellow bishop who prayed for more time and was rebuked in a vision by a radiant young man: “You fear to suffer, you do not want to go out.”
20. 20Cyprian has been told in revelations to teach that the Christian dead are not lost but sent ahead, so they should not be mourned in black as the pagans mourn.
21. 21Paul forbids grieving like those without hope, and Christ promises that believers will live; so we should neither fear death nor mourn the faithful dead.
22. 22Death is not an end but a passage to eternal life, where Christ will transform our bodies and has prayed that we be with him in glory.
23. 23Enoch was taken because he pleased God; Wisdom teaches that God takes the righteous early to spare them from evil, and the psalmist longs for God's courts.
24. 24Since the world hates Christians and is passing away, we should not love it but be ready for God's will, neither mourning our dead nor fearing our own death.
25. 25As one leaves a collapsing house or a ship in a storm, Christians should welcome an early departure from a world that is nearing its end.
26. 26Christians are strangers here whose homeland is paradise, where loved ones, apostles, prophets, martyrs, virgins, and the merciful await them; they should long to go there.