Lactantius — Divine Institutes 7.10
Let us now pass in turn to the things that fight against virtue, so that from these also the immortality of the soul may be gathered. All vices are temporal: for they are stirred for the present. The rush of anger is calmed when revenge is taken; the pleasure of lust is the body's end; desire is killed either by satiety of the things it seeks or by the motions of other affections; ambition grows old after it has gained the honors it wanted; likewise the other vices cannot stand and remain, but are finished by the very fruit they seek. Therefore they withdraw and return.
But virtue is perpetual without any interruption and cannot depart from the one who has once taken it. For if it should have an interval, if we can sometime lack it, the vices that always assault virtue will return at once. It has not therefore been grasped if it deserts, if it sometime withdraws: but when it has set a stable dwelling for itself, it must be engaged in every act and cannot faithfully leave its seat. Therefore just as two lives are set before the human, of which one is of the soul and the other of the body, so also two deaths are set, one belonging to the body, which all must undergo according to nature, the other belonging to the soul, which is acquired by crime and avoided by virtue. As this life is temporal and has sure limits because it is of the body, so also death is equally temporal and has a sure end, because it touches the body.
Latin
Transeamus nunc uicissim ad ea quae uirtuti repugnant, ut etiam ex his inmortalitas animae colligatur. uitia omnia temporalia sunt: ad praesens enim commouentur. irae impetus recepta ultione sedatur, libidinis uoluptas corporis finis est, cupiditatem aut satietas earum rerum quas expetit aut aliorum affectuum commotiones interimunt, ambitio postquam honores quos uoluit adepta est, consenescit; item cetera uitia consistere ac permanere non possunt, sed ipso fructu quem expetunt finiuntur. recedunt ergo et redeunt. uirtus autem sine ulla intermissione perpetua est nec discedere ab eo potest qui eam semel cepit. nam si habeat interuallum, si aliquando carere ea possumus, redibunt protinus uitia, quae uirtutem semper inpugnant. non est igitur conprehensa, si deserit, si aliquando secedit: cum uero sibi domicilium stabile conlocauit, in omni actu uersari eam necesse est nec potest fideliter depellere uitia et fugare, nisi pectus quod insedit perpetua statione munierit. ipsa ergo uirtutis perpetuitas indicat humanum animum, si uirtutem ceperit, permanere, quia et uirtus perpetua est et solus animus humanus uirtutem capit. quoniam igitur contraria sunt uitia uirtuti, omnis ratio diuersa et contraria sit necesse est. quia uitia commotiones et perturbationes animi sunt, uirtus e contrario lenitudo et tranquillitas animi est; quia uitia temporalia et breuia sunt, uirtus perpetua et constans et par sibi semper; quia uitiorum fructus id est uoluptates aeque ut ipsa breues temporalesque sunt, uirtutis ergo fructus ac praemium sempiternum est; quia uitiorum commodum in praesenti est, uirtutis igitur in futuro. ita fit ut in hac uita uirtutis praemium nullum sit, quia uirtus adhuc ipsa est. nam sicut uitia cum in actu suo finiuntur, uoluptas et praemia eorum secuntur, ita uirtus cum finita est, merces eius insequitur. uirtus autem numquam nisi morte finitur, quoniam et in morte suscipienda summum eius officium est. ergo praemium uirtutis post mortem est. denique Cicero in Tusculanis quamuis dubitanter tamen sensit summum homini bonum non nisi post mortem contingere. fidenti animo, inquit si ita res feret, gradietur ad mortem, in qua aut summum bonum aut nullum malum esse cognouimus. mors igitur non * extinguit hominem, sed ad praemium uirtutis admittit. qui i autem se, ut ait idem, uitiis ac sceleribus contaminauerit uoluptatique seruierit, is uero damnatus aeternam luet poenam), quam diuinae litterae secundam mortem nominant: quae est et perpetua et grauissimis cruciatibus plena. nam sicuti duae uitae propositae sunt homini, quarum altera est animae, altera corporis, ita et mortes
duae propositae sunt, una pertinens ad corpus, qua cunctos secundum naturam fungi necesse est, altera pertinens ad animam, quae scelere adquiritur, uirtute uitatur. ut uita haec temporalis est certosque terminos habet. quia corporis est, sic et mors aeque temporalis est certumque habet finem, quia corpus attingit.