Wishing For Nothing After Death

Nec ignoro plerosque, conscientia meritorum, nihil se esse post mortem magis optare quam credere: malunt enim exstingui penitus, quam ad supplicia reparari. Quorum error augetur, et in saeculo libertate remissa, et Dei patientia maxima: cujus quanto judicium tardum, tanto magis justum est. Et tamen admonentur homines, doctissimorum libris et carminibus poetarum, illius ignei fluminis, et de Stygia palude saepius ambientis ardoris, quae cruciatibus aeternis praeparata, et daemonum indiciis et de oraculis Prophetarum cognita tradiderunt. Et ideo apud eos etiam ipse rex Jupiter per torrentes ripas et atram voraginem jurat religiose; destinatam enim sibi cum suis cultoribus poenam, praescius, perhorrescit. Nec tormentis aut modus ullus, aut terminus. Illic sapiens ignis membra urit et reficit; carpit et nutrit, sicut ignes fulminum corpora tangunt, nec, absumunt; sicut ignes Hennei montis et Lesui montis, et ardentium ubique terrarum flagrant, nec erogantur: ita poenale illud incendium non damnis ardentium pascitur, sed inexesa corporum laceratione nutritur. Eos autem merito torqueri qui Deum nesciunt, ut impios, ut injustos, nisi profanus, nemo deliberat, cum Parentem omnium et omnium Dominum non minoris sceleris sit ignorare quam laedere. Et quamquam imperitia Dei sufficiat ad poenam, ita ut notitia prosit ad veniam, tamen, si vobiscum Christiani comparemur, quamvis in nonnullis disciplina nostra minor est, multo tamen vobis meliores deprehendemur. Vos enim adulteria prohibetis, et facitis; nos uxoribus nostris solummodo viri nascimur: vos scelera admissa punitis; apud nos et cogitare, peccare est: vos conscios timetis, nos etiam conscientiam solam, sine qua esse non possumus. Denique de vestro numero carcer exaestuat: Christianus ibi nullus, nisi aut reus suae religionis, aut profugus. Minucius Felix, Octavius, Cap XXXIV - XXXV

Nor I am not ignorant that many, conscious of their merits, rather wish than believe that they shall be nothing after death, for they would prefer to be utterly extinguished rather than to be restored for punishment. And their error is increased, both by the liberty allowed them in this life, and by God's great patience, whose judgment, the more tardy it is, the more just it is. And yet men are warned in the books and poems of the most learned poets of that fiery river, and of the surrounding heat from the Stygian marsh, things which, prepared for eternal torments, they have been given knowledge by the tales of demons and from the oracles of their prophets. And therefore among them even king Jupiter himself swears religiously by the torrid banks and the black pit, for foreseeing the punishment destined to him, with his worshippers, he shudders. Nor is there any measure or termination to these torments. There the intelligent fire burns limbs and restores them, feeds on them and nourishes them, as the fires of thunderbolts strike bodies and do not consume them, as the fires of Mount Aetna and of Mount Vesuvius, and everywhere the burning earth blazes but is not exhausted, so it is that the penal inferno is not fed by the damned who burn but nourished by the inexhaustible mangling of bodies. But that they who do not know God are deservedly tormented as impious, as unrighteous, no one doubts unless he is profane, since it is not less of a crime to be ignorant of, than to offend the Parent and Lord of all. And although ignorance of God suffices for punishment, even as knowledge of Him may gain pardon, yet if we Christians be compared with you, although in some things our discipline is less, yet we shall be found better than you. For you forbid adulteries and do them, we are born men only for our own wives; you punish crimes committed, with us even to think of a crime is to sin: you fear witnesses, we our  consciences alone, without which we cannot be. Finally, on account of your numbers the prison boils over, but there is no Christian there, unless he is guilty on account of his religion, or a deserter. Minucius Felix, Octavius, Chap 34-35