Miscellanies 4.11.79

Unwillingly, then, they bear witness to our righteousness, we who are unjustly punished for righteousness. But the injustice of the judge does not touch providence either; for the judge must be master of his own judgment, not pulled by strings like lifeless instruments, perhaps taking only occasions from the external cause. He is tested, at any rate, in how he judges, as we are in the choice of what is to be chosen and in endurance. And even if we do no wrong, the judge looks on us as wrongdoers; for he does not know our affairs nor wish to learn them, but is carried away by an empty prejudice; that is why he too is judged. They persecute us, then, not having found us unjust, but supposing that by the mere fact of being Christians we wrong life, both living so ourselves and urging others to choose the same life.