Ibid.—'My days shall be shortened, and only the grave remaineth for me.' 33. Hence the former decline the faults of elation and uncleanness, the latter multiply them. The perfect life is the imitation of death.—For he who considers what he will be in death is ever fearful in his action; and thence, in his own eyes, he as it were no longer lives, thence he truly lives in the eyes of his Creator. He desires nothing that passes away, he contradicts all the desires of the present life; and he considers himself almost dead, because he is by no means ignorant that he is to die. For the perfect life is the imitation of death, and while the just carefully practise it, they escape the snares of faults. Whence it is written:
'In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin' (Ecclus. vii, 40). Whence blessed Job also, because he considers his days to be shortened and reckons that only the grave remains for him, fittingly subjoins: