Chapter XXXIII.

33. Seeing that the fear of death, that is, the ruin of our souls, menaces³⁶²⁵ us, in what are we not acting, as we all are wont, from a sense of what will be to our advantage,³⁶²⁶ in that we hold Him fast who assures us that He will be our deliverer from such danger, embrace Him, and entrust our souls to His care,³⁶²⁷ if only that³⁶²⁸ interchange is right? You rest the salvation of your souls on yourselves, and are assured that by your own exertions alone³⁶²⁹ you become gods; but we, on the contrary hold out no hope to ourselves from our own weakness, for we see that our nature has no strength, and is overcome by its own passions in every strife for anything.³⁶³⁰ You think that, as soon as you pass away, freed from the bonds of your fleshly members, you will find wings³⁶³¹ with which you may rise to heaven and soar to the stars. We shun such presumption. and do not think³⁶³² that it is in our power to reach the abodes³⁶³³ above, since we have no certainty as to this even, whether we deserve to receive life and be freed from the law of death. You suppose that without the aid of others³⁶³⁴ you will return to the master’s palace as if to your own home, no one hindering you; but we, on the contrary, neither have any expectation that this can be unless by the will of the Lord of all, nor think that so much power and licence are given to any man.