16. If, then, an old man, through religion, despised tortures even to death, confessedly religious reasoning is ruler of the passions.
17. But perhaps some might say, It is not all who conquer passions, as all do not possess wise reasoning.
18. But they who have meditated upon religion with their whole heart, these alone can master the passions of the flesh;
19. they who believe that to God they die not; for, as our forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, they live to God.
20. This circumstance, then, is by no means an objection, that some who have weak reasoning, are governed by their passions: