I now approach the precepts of the art of dying well. We shall divide this art into two parts: in the first we shall set down the precepts that are to be used while we are in good health; in the second, those that will be needed when we labor under a dangerous illness, so that death may reasonably be believed to be at the door. And in the first part we shall set down first the precepts that pertain to the virtues, then those that pertain to the Sacraments; for by these two we are especially helped, both to live well and to die well. But before all these there seems to have to be placed the general precept that he who desires to die well should live well: for since death is nothing but the end of life, surely everyone who lives well up to the end dies well; nor can he die ill who has never lived ill, just as he who has always lived ill dies ill, and he who has never lived well cannot but die ill. We observe the same thing in all similar cases: for everyone who keeps to the right road arrives without error at the place to which he is bound, whereas he who strays from the right road will never reach his journey's end; and he who diligently applies himself to the study of the sciences soon turns out learned, or even a doctor, while he who frequents the schools but does not bend his mind to acquiring the disciplines loses his oil and his labor.
But perhaps someone will object with the example of the good thief, who always lived ill and ended his life well and blessedly. It is not so; rather, that devout thief lived devoutly and holily, and for that reason also died a devout and holy death. For although he spent the greater part of his life in crimes, yet he passed the other part of his life so holily that he easily purged away his past sins and gained extraordinary merits. For, burning with charity toward God, he openly defended Christ from the calumnies of the impious; and burning likewise with charity toward his neighbor, he admonished and rebuked his blaspheming companion and tried to call him back to a better life. For he was still living this mortal life when he said to his companion: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing evil (Luke 23); nor was he dead, but that same thief was still alive, when he uttered that noble cry, confessing Christ and calling upon Him: Lord, remember me when Thou shalt come into Thy kingdom. And so he seems to have been one of those who came last to the vineyard and received their reward before the first.
True, therefore, and universal is that saying: He who lives ill, dies ill. Yet it must not be denied that to defer to the very end of life one's conversion from sins to righteousness is a thing full of dangers; and that far happier are they who begin to bear the yoke of the law of God "from their youth" (Lam. 3), as Jeremiah says; and happiest in every way are they who "were purchased from among men, the first-fruits to God and to the Lamb," who not only "were not defiled with women," but in whose mouth no lie was found, and who "are without spot before the throne of God" (Rev. 14). Such was Jeremiah the prophet, and John, more than a prophet, and above all the Mother of the Lord, and the others, both men and women, whom the knowledge of God alone knows. Let this first statement, therefore, stand firm: the rule of dying well depends upon the rule of living well.