Miscellanies 2.20.124

The tragedy, at any rate, writes well about Hades: “To what a god you will come … who knew neither fairness nor grace, but loved only justice pure and simple.” For even if you are not yet able to do what is not commanded by the law, yet, perceiving that the finest examples are set out for us in it, we can nourish and increase the love of freedom; and in this way we would be helped, as far as we can, more eagerly, being challenged by some, imitating others, and shamed by others. For the righteous of old who lived according to the law were not “from an oak of ancient story, nor from a rock.” At any rate, by their willingness to philosophize genuinely, they offered themselves wholly to God, and it was “counted to them as faith.”