Chapter XIV.—The Demons Shall Be Punished More Severely Than Men.
And such are you also, O Greeks,—profuse in
words, but with minds strangely warped; and you acknowledge the dominion
of many rather than the rule of one, accustoming yourselves to follow
demons as if they were mighty. For, as the inhuman robber is wont to
overpower those like himself by daring; so the demons, going to great
lengths in wickedness, have utterly deceived the souls among you which
are left to themselves by ignorance and false appearances. These beings
do not indeed die easily, for they do not partake of flesh; but while
living they practice the ways of death, and die themselves as often as
they teach their followers to sin. Therefore, what is now their chief
distinction, that they do not die like men, they will retain when about
to suffer punishment: they will not partake of everlasting life, so as
to receive this instead of death in a blessed immortality. And as we,
to whom it now easily happens to die, afterwards receive the immortal
with enjoyment, or the painful with immortality, so the demons, who abuse
the present life to purposes of wrong-doing, dying continually even while
they live, will have hereafter the same immortality, like that which they
had during the time they lived, but in its nature like that of men, who
voluntarily performed what the demons prescribed to them during their
lifetime. And do not fewer kinds of sin break out among men owing to
the brevity of their lives,465465 while on the part of these demons
transgression is more abundant owing to their boundless existence?
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