use, _nemo sic mortuus, qui non fuerat_
_aliquando moriturus_; _quid autem interest, quo mortis genere vita ista
finiatur, quando ille cui finitur, iterum mori non cogitur_? &c. [2775]no
man so voluntarily dies, but _volens nolens_, he must die at last, and our
life is subject to innumerable casualties, who knows when they may happen,
_utrum satius est unam perpeti moriendo, an omnes timere vivendo_, [2776]
rather suffer one, than fear all. "Death is better than a bitter life,"
Eccl. xxx. 17. [2777]and a harder choice to live in fear, than by once
dying, to be freed from all. Theombrotus Ambraciotes persuaded I know not
how many hundreds of his auditors, by a luculent oration he made of the
miseries of this, and happiness of that other life, to precipitate
themselves. And having read Plato's divine tract _de anima_, for example's
sake led the way first. That neat epigram of Callimachus will tell you as
much,

[2778] "Jamque vale Soli cum diceret Ambrociotes,
In Stygios fertur desiluisse lacus,
Morte nihil dignum passus: sed forte Platonis
Divini eximum de nece legit opus."

[2779]Calenus and his Indians hated of old to die a natural death: the
Circumcellians and Donatists, loathing life, compelled others to make them
away, with many such: [2780]but these are false and pagan positions,
profane stoical paradoxes, wicked examples, it boots not what heathen
philosophers determine in this kind, they are impious, abominable, and upon
a wrong ground. "No evil is to be done that good may come of it;" _reclamat
Christus, reclamat Scriptura_, God, and all good men are [2781]against it:
He that stabs another, can kill his body; but he that stabs himself, kills
his own soul. [2782]_Male meretur, qui dat mendico, quod edat_; _nam et
illud quod dat, perit_; _et illi producit vitam ad miseriam_: he that gives
a beggar an alms (as that comical poet said) doth ill, because he doth but
prolong his miseries. But Lactantius _l. 6. c. 7. de vero cultu_, calls it
a detestable opinion, and fully confutes it, _lib. 3. de sap. cap. 18._ and
S. Austin, _epist. 52. ad Macedonium, cap. 61. ad Dulcitium Tribunum_: so
doth Hierom to Marcella of Blesilla's death, _Non recipio tales animas_,
&c., he calls such men _martyres stultae Philosophiae_: so doth Cyprian _de
duplici martyrio; Si qui sic moriantur, aut infirmitas, aut ambitio, aut
dementia cogit eos_; 'tis mere madness so to do, [2783]_furore est ne
moriare mori_. T