Re: Well, the world is certainly looking grim, isn't it? 30873

[Dana]

that we can do nothing without Him, and have deserved nothing
from Him but His displeasure. It consists in knowing that there is an
unconquerable opposition between us and God, and that without a mediator
there can be no communion with Him.

471. It is unjust that men should attach themselves to me, even though they
do it with pleasure and voluntarily. I should deceive those in whom I had
created this desire; for I am not the end of any, and I have not the
wherewithal to satisfy them. Am I not about to die? And thus the object of
their attachment will die. Therefore, as I would be blamable in causing a
falsehood to be believed, though I should employ gentle persuasion, though
it should be believed with pleasure, and though it should give me pleasure;
even so I am blamable in making myself loved and if I attract persons to
attach themselves to me. I ought to warn those who are ready to consent to a
lie that they ought not to believe it, whatever advantage comes to me from
it; and likewise that they ought not to attach them