Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.62
Nor let that steal upon you or flatter you with airy hope which is said by some sciolists who claim much for themselves: that they are born of God and not subject to fate’s laws if they have lived more strictly, that his hall lies open to them, and after a human’s function, with none forbidding, they are carried back as into the ancestral seat; nor what magi promise, that they have commendatory prayers by which some powers, softened, offer easy ways to those striving to fly up to heaven; nor what Etruria promises in the Acherontic books, that by blood of certain animals given to certain divinities souls become divine and are led out from mortality’s laws.
These are empty blandishments and fomentations of vain vows. Another than almighty God cannot save souls, nor besides is there anyone who can make them long-lived, who can supply the spirit of perpetuity, except he who alone is immortal and perpetual and bounded by no circumscription of time. For since all gods, whether whichever are true or who are said by rumor and opinion to be, are immortal and perpetual by his will and by the gift of his benefit, how can it be that others are able to bestow that which they themselves are, when they have it as another’s and lent by a greater’s power?
Let Etruria slay as many victims as it likes, let the wise deny all human things to themselves, let magi soften and caress all powers: unless from the Lord of things that which reason demands has been given to souls, and that by mandate, it will much afterward repent to have been a mockery, when one begins to come to the sense of perishing.
Latin
62.1. Neque illud obrepat aut spe vobis aeria blandiatur, quod ab sciolis nonnullis et plurimum sibi adrogantibus dicitur, deo esse se gnatos nec fati obnoxios legibus, si vitam restrictius egerint, aulam sibi eius patere, ac post hominis functionem prohibente se nullo tamquam in sedem referri patritam; neque quod magi spondent, commendaticias habere se preces quibus emollitae nescio quae potestates vias faciles praebeant ad caelum contendentibus subvolare, neque quod Etruria libris in Acheronticis pollicentur, certorum animalium sanguine numinibus certis dato divinas animas fieri et ab legibus mortalitatis educi.
2. Blandimenta haec cassa sunt et inanium fomenta votorum. Servare animas alius nisi deus omnipotens non potest, nec praeterea quisquam est qui longaevas facere, perpetuitatis possit et spiritum subrogare, nisi qui immortalis et perpetuus solus est et nullius temporis circumscriptione finitus. 3. Cum enim dii omnes, vel quicumque sunt veri vel qui esse rumore atque opinione dicuntur, immortales et perpetui voluntate eius sint et beneficii munere, qui fieri potis est, ut alii praestare id quod ipsi sunt valeant, cum alienum id habeant et maioris potentia commodatum?
4. Caedant licet hostias quantaslibet Etruria, humana sibi omnia sapientes negent, magi cunctas emolliant et commulceant potestates: nisi ab domino rerum datum fuerit animis id quod ratio postulat idque per mandatum, multum postea paenitebit fuisse inrisui, cum ad sensum coeperit interitionis accedi.