6、先暂时将灵魂是一口气的观念放在一边，然后想想你自己，或你的朋友、孩子死后的状态，难道你不认为自己仍将作为一个人活着吗？难道你不认为他们也一样吗？既然没有感觉，就没有真实的生命，那么你必然想到他们能看、能听、能说话。再想想悼词是如何描述死者的：他们在天堂与天使同在，身穿白袍，漫步于美丽的花园。现在回到以前的观念，即：灵魂是一口气，只有等到最后审判之后才能过上有感觉的生活，那么一想到“我会是什么样？在此期间我在哪里？我会在空中飞来飞去，或在某个不确定的地方等候吗？”你岂不会发疯？然而，牧师告诉我说，死后，如果我的信仰和生活都是良善的，那么我必加入蒙福者。所以，要相信这个真理，即：死后，你仍和以前一样是一个人，唯一区别就是属世之物和属灵之物之间的区别。这也是凡相信永生，并且对关于灵魂的假说和传统理论一无所知的人所想的。
6. Set aside for a moment the idea of the soul as a breath that we exhale and think instead about your own state or the state of your friends or your children after death. Don’t you think that you are going to live as a person, and don’t you think the same of them? And since they would have no life worthy of the name if they had no senses, surely you think they will be seeing and hearing and talking. Think also of how eulogies depict the deceased: they are in heaven with the angels, in white robes, in beautiful gardens.
Now go back to the idea of the soul as a breath that will live without sensations until after the Last Judgment. Couldn’t you lose your mind wondering, “What kind of creature will I be? Where will I be all this while? Will I be flying around in the air or left in that ‘somewhere-or-other’? But the preacher told me that if I had good beliefs and lived a good life I’d be joining the blessed after I die!” Believe instead, because it is the truth, that you will be just as human after death as before, the only difference being the difference between what is earthly and what is spiritual. This is what everyone thinks who believes in eternal life and has not been exposed to hypotheses and hearsay about the soul.
6. Put from you the idea of the soul being a breath, and then think what your state, or that of your friends, or that of your children, will be after death. Surely you will imagine yourself going on living as a human being, and them likewise? Since a real life is impossible without the senses, you will inevitably imagine them seeing, hearing and talking. This too is what the composers of funeral eulogies write about the departed; they set them in heaven among the angels, dressed in white and walking in gardens. Then allow yourself to slip back into the idea that the soul is a breath, and can only come alive and feel sense-impressions after the Last Judgment, surely you might go mad thinking, 'What shall I be like? Where shall I be meanwhile? Shall I be flying through the air, or waiting in Pu? Yet the preachers taught me that after death I shall go to join the blessed, if my faith has been good and I have lived a good life'. So believe, what is the truth, that you will be just as much a human being after death as before it, the only difference being that between the natural and the spiritual. That too is what all think who believe in everlasting life and know nothing of this theoretical tradition about the soul.
6. Put away from you the idea that the soul is like an exhalation, and then think of your own state, or of the state of your friends, or of the state of your infants after death. Will you not think that you will live a man, and they likewise? And since there is no life which is life without the senses, you cannot think otherwise than that they also see, hear, and speak; thus also panegyrists write over the deceased, placing them in heaven among the angels, in white garments, and in paradises. But if afterwards you relapse into the idea, that the soul is an exhalation, and has no sensitive life until after the Last Judgment, can you help being distracted when you think, What and where shall I be in the meantime? Shall I float in the air, or remain in Pu? 1Yet the preacher teaches me that after death I shall come among the happy, if I have believed well and lived well. You may believe then, as the truth is, that you are a man after death as well as before it, with only the difference that there is between the natural and the spiritual. Thus also all those think who believe in eternal life, and know nothing of this hypothetical tradition concerning the soul.
Footnotes:
1. From the Greek pou = where.
6. Separa te ab idea de anima quod sit sicut halitus, et cogita tunc de statu tuo, aut de statu amicorum, aut de statu infantum tuorum post mortem, annon cogitabis quod victurus sis homo, et de illis similiter? Et quia sine sensibus non datur vita quae vita, non potes aliter cogitare, quem quod etiam videant, audiant et loquantur: ita quoque scribunt parentatores super defunctis; ponunt illos in caelo inter angelos, in vestibus albis, et in paradisis. At posthac relabere in ideam, quod anima sit halitus, et quod non prius vivat cum sensu quam post ultimum judicium, annon poteris insanire, cogitando, "Qualis ero? ubinam interea? num volabo in aere, vel manebo in Pu? Docuit tamen praedicator, quod post mortem inter beatos venturus sim si bene credidero et bene vixero." Credas itaque, sicut veritas est, quod sis homo post mortem sicut ante illam, cum sola differentia quae est inter naturale et spirituale: ita quoque cogitant omnes, qui credunt vitam aeternam, et nihil sciunt de traditione hypothetica de anima.