We are ne’er like angels till our passion dies.

The speaker contrasts human nature with an idealized angelic state. “Passion” here means not only romantic feeling but the whole range of unruly appetites—anger, lust, pride, and impulsive desire—that disturb judgment and lead to sin. Dekker’s aphorism suggests that people approximate “angels” only when these passions subside: moral clarity and spiritual likeness are achieved through restraint, temperance, or the extinguishing of turbulent emotion. The line also carries a sober irony: if angelic calm arrives only when passion “dies,” it may come late—through exhaustion, disillusionment, or even death—implying that perfect purity is more an aspiration than a stable human condition.