First Apology 43

But so that no one may infer from what we have said that we assert that whatever happens happens by the necessity of fate, because it was foretold as foreknown, we will resolve this too. We have learned from the prophets, and declare it to be true, that punishments and chastisements and good rewards are rendered according to the merit of each person's actions; since if this is not so, but all things happen by fate, nothing at all is in our power; for if it is fated that this person be good and that one wicked, neither is the one to be approved nor the other to be blamed. And again, if the human race does not have the power by free choice to flee what is shameful and choose what is good, it is not responsible for whatever it does. But that it both does right and errs by free choice we prove thus. We see the same person making the change to opposite things. But if it were fated that he be either wicked or good, he would never be capable of opposites and would not change so often; nor would some be good and others wicked, since we would then be declaring fate to be the cause of good and evil and to act contrary to itself; or else that saying mentioned before would seem true, that there is no such thing as virtue or vice, but that things are considered good or evil only by opinion; which, as true reason shows, is the greatest impiety and injustice. But we say that this is inescapable fate: that those who choose the good have worthy rewards, and likewise those who choose the opposite have worthy wages. For God did not make man like the other things, such as trees and four-footed beasts, which can do nothing by choice; for he would not be worthy of reward or praise if he did not choose the good of himself but was made so; nor, if he were evil, would he justly receive punishment, not being such of himself, but being unable to be anything other than what he was made.