35. But, say my opponents , if souls are mortal and 3639 of neutral character, how can they from their neutral properties become immortal? If we should say that we do not know this, and only believe it because said by 3640 One mightier than we , when will our readiness of belief seem mistaken if we believe 3641 that to the almighty King nothing is hard, nothing difficult, and that 3642 what is impossible to us is possible to Him and at His command? 3643 For is there anything which may withstand His will, or does it not follow 3644 of necessity that what He has willed must be done? Are we to infer from our distinctions what either can or cannot be done; and are we not to consider that our reason is as mortal as we ourselves are, and is of no importance with the Supreme? And yet, O ye who do not believe that the soul is of a neutral character, and that it is held on the line midway between life and death, are not all whatever whom fancy supposes to exist, gods, angels, dæmons, or whatever else is their name, themselves too of a neutral character, and liable to change 3645 in the uncertainty of their future? 3646 For if we all agree that there is one Father of all, who alone is immortal and unbegotten, and if nothing at all is found before Him which could be named, 3647 it follows as a consequence that all these whom the imagination of men believes to be gods, have been either begotten by Him or produced at His bidding. Are they 3648 produced and begotten? they are also later in order and time: if later in order and time, they must have an origin, and beginning of birth and life; but that which has an entrance into and beginning of life in its first stages, it of necessity follows, should have an end also. 3639     The ms. reading is, mortalis est qualitatis . The first five edd. merely drop est —“of mortal, of neutral,” etc.; LB. and the others read, es et , as above. 3640     Lit., “heard from.” 3641     So the ms. , according to Crusius, the edd. reading cred-id-imus —“have believed.” 3642     Lit., “if we believe that.” 3643     So the ms. , reading ad modum obsecutionis paratum —“prepared to the mode of compliance;” for which the edd. read adm. executioni —“quite prepared for performing,” except Hildebrand, who gives adm. obsecutioni —“for obedience.” 3644     So the ms. , according to Crusius, but all edd. read sequ-a-tur (for i )—“Is there anything which He has willed which it does not follow,” etc. 3645     So all edd., reading mutabiles , except the two Roman edd. and Oehler, who gives, as the reading of the ms. , nu. —“tottering.” 3646     Lit., “in the doubtful condition of their lot.” 3647     Lit., “which may have been of a name.” 3648     LB., followed by the later edd., inserted si , “if they are,” which is certainly more consistent with the rest of the sentence.