"We confess to you, O Lord, your salvation; we rejoice, because it was not possible for death to harm you in any way, and for this you prove to us that it cannot harm us either."¹

"But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them. In the eyes of the foolish, they seemed to have died; and their departure was thought to be a disaster, and their going from us to be ruin; but they are at peace. For though in the sight of others they were punished, their hope is full of immortality."²

"For though in the sight of others they were punished," therefore what happened was in the eyes of the people, not in reality.

"In the eyes of the foolish, they seem to have died, and their passing away was considered wretchedness."³