V. First plague: the body torn away; Hadrian's lament; Paul would rather be clothed; Tertullian on inferi
V. The first plague is that which separates the body from her, with which she had been associated from birth by the dearest bond of covenant. This unhappy divorce the impious are accustomed not only to lament tearfully — as Hadrian the Roman emperor: Little soul, wandering, charming, guest and companion of the body, where now do you go? Pale, cold, naked, nor will you give jokes as you used to — but the pious also, although they certainly know they will migrate to the Lord, bear it ill, as Paul testifies (2 Corinthians 5:4): We would not be unclothed, but rather that mortality might be swallowed up by life, without any death namely, as will finally befall those who at the Lord's last coming shall be among the living.
Concerning this, and concerning these inferi, Tertullian in On the Flesh of Christ, chapter 4222: Who, he says, will not desire, while he is in the flesh, to put on immortality over it and to continue life, having gained by death through a vicarious change, lest he experience the underworld that will exact even to the last farthing? For the rest, he will attain the change also after the resurrection, having already experienced the inferi.
Latin
V. Prima plaga est, quae corpus ab ipsa avellit, quocum charissimo foederis vinculo jam inde ab ortu consociata fuit. Quod infelix divortium non solum flebiliter lamentari impii solent, ut Adrianus imperator Romanus: Animula vagula, blandula, hospes comesque corporis, quae nunc abis in loca? Pallidula, frigida, nudula, nec ut soles dabis jocos. Sed pii etiam, quanquam ad Dominum se migraturos certo sciunt, aegre ferunt, sicuti contestatur Paulus, 2.Cor. 5.2. Nollemus exui, sed magis ut mortalitas a vita absorberetur, sine ulla morte scilicet, sicut iis demum continget, qui Domini adventu ultimo in vivis fuerint. De hoc, deque his inferis Tertullianus lib. de carne Christi cap. 42. Quis, inquit, non desiderabit, dum in carne est, superinduere immortalitatem & continuare vitam, lucrifacta morte, per vicariam demutationem, ne inferos experiatur usque novissimum quadrantem exoluturos? Ceterum demutationem etiam post resurrectionem consecuturus est, inferos jam expertus.