For the wicked demons cannot persuade men that the conflagration will not come to pass for the punishment of the impious — just as they were not able to bring it about that Christ should escape notice when he came — but only this they can do: to make those who live irrationally and passionately, brought up in evil customs and lovers of vainglory, slay and hate us; whom we not only do not hate, but, as is shown, we wish out of pity to persuade to change. For we do not fear death, since it is agreed that one must altogether die, and there is nothing new but these same things that exist in this present dispensation; and if no satiety of these, even for a single year, holds those who partake of them, then men ought to attend to our teachings, so that they may forever be without suffering and without want. But if they disbelieve that there is anything after death, and declare that those who die pass into insensibility, then they are doing us a good service by delivering us from the sufferings and needs of this present life, yet they show themselves to be wicked and haters of mankind and lovers of vainglory; for they do not slay us as if to release us, but murder us as if depriving us of life and pleasure.