Arnobius

“ And to make manifest [11] what is unknown, this is man’s real death, this which leaves nothing behind. For that which is seen by the eyes is only a separation of soul from body, not the last end—annihilation: [12] this, I say, is man’s real death, when souls which know not God shall [13] be consumed in long-protracted torment with raging fire, into which certain fiercely cruel beings shall [14] cast them, who were unknown [15] before Christ, and brought to light only by His wisdom. ”

“ But though a man of no little wisdom, [4] and of accurate judgment and discernment, he essays a problem which cannot be solved; so that, while he says that the soul is immortal, everlasting, and without bodily substance, he yet says that they are punished, and makes them suffer pain. [5] But what man does not see that that which is immortal, which is simple, [6] cannot be subject to any pain; that that, on the contrary, cannot be immortal which does suffer pain? ”

“ For although the gentle and kindly disposed man thought it inhuman cruelty to condemn souls to death, he yet not unreasonably [7] supposed that they are cast into rivers blazing with masses of flame, and loathsome from their foul abysses. ”