Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book II/Chapter LIII

by Arnobius

53. Since this, then, is the case, we do nothing out of place or foolish in believing that the souls of men are of a neutral character, inasmuch as they have been produced by secondary beings,^[1] made subject to the law of death, and are of little strength, and that perishable; and that they are gifted with immortality, if^[2] they rest their hope of so great a gift on God Supreme, who alone has power to grant such blessings, by putting away corruption. But this, you say, we are stupid in believing. What is that to you? In so believing, we act most absurdly, sillily. In what do we injure you, or what wrong do we do or inflict upon you, if we trust that Almighty God will take care of us when we leave^[3] our bodies, and from the jaws of hell, as is said, deliver us?

Footnotes

1. Lit., “things not principal.” Orelli here quotes from Tertullian, de Anim., xxiii., a brief summary of Gnostic doctrines on these points, which he considers Arnobius to have followed throughout this discussion.
2. Siwas first inserted in LB., not being found in the ms., though demanded by the context.
3. Lit., “have begun to leave.”