Minucius Felix, Octavius 34
As for the world’s conflagration, not to believe either that unforeseen fire falls or that moisture fails is a vulgar error. For which of the wise doubts, which is unaware, that all things that have arisen perish, that all things made pass away, and that heaven too with all contained in heaven ends as it began? Indeed that this whole world, if the sun, moon, and remaining stars cease to be nourished by sweet spring-water and sea-water, will pass into the force of fire is a constant Stoic opinion — that when moisture is consumed this whole world will blaze. And Epicurus says the same of the world’s parts dissolving and the world itself, once made, being soluble and mortal for God its craftsman alone. So it is no wonder if this mass is destroyed by him by whom it was set up.
You notice that philosophers dispute the same things we say — not that we have followed their tracks, but that they have imitated a shadow of interpolated truth from the prophets’ divine preachings. So also the clearer of the wise handed down the condition of being born again with corrupted and halved faith: for when bodies are dissolved they will have souls alone remain forever and often migrate into other new bodies. To twist the truth they add that human souls return into cattle, birds, beasts — a sentence worthy not of philosophers’ zeal but of a mime’s mockery. But for the point it is enough that even here your wise men agree with us in some measure. For who is so stupid or brutish as to dare deny that a human, as God could first fashion him, can also be reshaped anew? that after death there is nothing, and before birth there was nothing? that as it was allowed to be born from nothing, so it is allowed to be repaired from nothing? Further it is harder for what is not to begin than for what was to be repeated. Do you believe something perishes even for God if it is withdrawn from our dull eyes? Every body, whether it dries to dust or dissolves to moisture or is pressed to ash or thinned to vapor, is withdrawn from us, but reserved for God in the custody of the elements. Nor, as you think, do we fear any loss of burial; but we await the old and better form.
Latin
XXXIV. "Ceterum de incendio mundi, aut improvisum ignem cadere aut deficere umorem non credere, vulgaris erroris est. Quis enim sapientium dubitat, quis ignorat, omnia quae orta sunt occidere, quae facta sunt interire, caelum quoque cum omnibus quae caelo continentur, ita ut coepisse, desinere. Omnem adeo mundum, si solem lunam reliqua astra desierit fontium dulcis aqua et aqua marina nutrire, in vim ignis abiturum, Stoicis constans opinio est, quod consumto umore mundus hic omnis ignescet. Et Epicureis de elementorum conflagratione et mundi ruina eadem ipsa sententia est. Loquitur Plato partes orbis nunc inundare nunc alternis vicibus ardescere, et cum ipsum mundum perpetuum et insolubilem diceret esse fabricatum, addit tamen, ipsi artifici deo soli et solubilem et esse mortalem. Ita nihil mirum est, si ista moles ab eo, quo exstructa est, destruatur. "Animadvertis, philosophos eadem disputare quae dicimus, non quod nos simus eorum vestigia subsecuti, sed quod illi de divinis praedicationibus prophetarum umbram interpolatae veritatis imitati sint. "Sic etiam condicionem renascendi sapientium clariores, Pythagoras primus et praecipuus Plato, corrupta et dimidiata fide tradiderunt: nam corporibus dissolutis solas animas volunt et perpetuo manere et in alia nova corpora saepius commeare. Addunt istis et illa ad retorquendam veritatem, in pecudes, aves, beluas hominum animas redire. Non philosophi sane studio, sed mimi convicio digni ista sententia est. Sed ad propositum satis est, etiam in hoc sapientes vestros in aliquem modum nobiscum consonare.
"Ceterum quis tam stultus aut brutus est, ut audeat repugnare, hominem a deo, ut primum potuisse fingi ita posse denuo reformari? nihil esse post obitum, et ante ortum nihil fuisse? sicut de nihilo nasci licuit, ita de nihilo licere reparari? Porro difficilius est, id quod non sit incipere, quam id quod fuerit iterare. Tu perire et deo credis, si quid oculis nostris hebetibus subtrahatur? Corpus omne sive arescit in pulverem sive in umorem solvitur vel in cinerem comprimitur vel in nidorem tenuatur, subducitur nobis, sed deo elementorum custodia reservatur. Nec, ut creditis, ullum damnum sepulturae timemus, sed veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus. "Vide adeo, quam in solacium nostri resurrectionem futuram omnis natura meditetur. Sol demergit et nascitur, astra labuntur et redeunt, flores occidunt et revivescunt, post senium arbusta frondescunt, semina nonnisi corrupta revirescunt: ita corpus in sepulcro, ut arbores in hiberno: occultant virorem ariditate mentita. Quid festinas, ut cruda adhuc hieme revivescat et redeat? Expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est. "Nec ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum nihil se esse post mortem magis optare quam credere: malunt enim extingui penitus quam ad supplicia reparari. Quorum error augetur et in saeculo libertate remissa et dei patientia maxima, cuius quanto iudicium tardum, tanto magis iustum est.