A Plea for the Christians 12

Would we, then, purify ourselves in this way if we did not believe that God presides over the human race? That cannot be said. But since we are persuaded that we shall give an account of our whole life here to God, who made both us and the world, we choose the moderate, humane, and despised way of life. We think that we shall suffer no evil here so great, even if people take our lives, as the good we shall receive there from the great Judge for a gentle, humane, and reasonable life. Plato said that Minos and Rhadamanthys would judge and punish the wicked; but we say that even if someone were Minos or Rhadamanthys or their father, not even he would escape the judgment of God. Are those, then, who think life is “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die,” and who regard death as a deep sleep and forgetfulness (“sleep and death, twin brothers”), considered pious? While we, who reckon the present life of small and little worth, and are guided by this alone: to know God and the Word that comes from him, what is the oneness of the Son with the Father, what the communion of the Father with the Son, what the Spirit, what is the union of these three and their distinction while united, the Spirit, the Son, the Father; who know that the life we look for is far better than words can tell, if we are brought to it pure from all wrongdoing; and who are so humane that we love not only our friends (“For if you love those who love you and lend to those who lend to you,” he says, “what reward will you have?”): we, being such people and living such a life so as to escape condemnation, are we not believed to be pious? These are small things from great ones, and few from many, so that we may not trouble you further; for those who test honey and whey judge whether the whole is good by a small part of it.