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 "If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter 4:1) I have therefore considered it would be useful to exhort myself, in the first place, and then my Brethren, highly to esteem the "Art of dying Well." And if there be any who, as yet, have not acquired this Art from other learned teachers, I trust they will not despise, at least those Precepts which I have endeavored to collect, from Holy Writ and the Ancient Fathers.

But before I treat of these Precepts, I think it useful to inquire into the nature of death; whether it is to be ranked among good or among evil things. Now if death be considered absolutely in itself, without doubt it must be called an evil, because that which is opposed to life we must admit cannot be good. Moreover, as the Wise man says: " God made not death, but by the envy of the devil, death came into the world." (Wis 1:11,13-24) With these words St. Paul also agrees, when he says: " Wherefore as by