{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/001/0010652.htm","path":"chr/ecf/001/0010652.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/001/0010652.htm","text":"Then further concerning Him, that He alone is powerful, both to institute judgment on the deeds performed in life, and on the ignorance of the Deity [displayed by men], I can adduce witnesses from your own ranks; and first Sophocles, 2600 who speaks as follows:\u2014\n\u201cThat time of times shall come, shall surely come,\nWhen from the golden ether down shall fall\nFire\u2019s teeming treasure, and in burning flames\nAll things of earth and heaven shall be consumed;\nAnd then, when all creation is dissolved,\nThe sea\u2019s last wave shall die upon the shore,\nThe bald earth stript of trees, the burning air\nNo winged thing upon its breast shall bear.\nThere are two roads to Hades, well we know; 2601\nBy this the righteous, and by that the bad,\nOn to their separate fates shall tend; and He,\nWho all things had destroyed, shall all things save.\u201d\nAnd Philemon 2602 again:\u2014\n\u201cThink\u2019st thou, Nicostratus, the dead, who here\nEnjoyed whate\u2019er of good life often man,\nEscape the notice of Divinity,\nAs if they might forgotten be of Him?\nNay, there\u2019s an eye of Justice watching all;\nFor if the good and bad find the same end,\nThen go thou, rob, steal, plunder, at thy will,\nDo all the evil that to thee seems good.\nYet be not thou deceived; for underneath\nThere is a throne and place of judgment set,\nWhich God the Lord of all shall occupy;\nWhose name is terrible, nor shall I dare\nTo breathe it forth in feeble human speech.\u201d\nAnd Euripides: 2603 \u2014\n\u201cNot grudgingly he gives a lease of life,\nThat we the holders may be fairly judged;\nAnd if a mortal man doth think to hide\nHis daily guilt from the keen eye of God,\nIt is an evil thought; so if perchance\nHe meets with leisure-taking Justice, she\nDemands him as her lawful prisoner:\nBut many of you hastily commit\nA twofold sin, and say there is no God.\nBut, ah! there is; there is. Then see that he\nWho, being wicked, prospers, may redeem\nThe time so precious, else hereafter waits\nFor him the due reward of punishment.\u201d\n[Langus compares 2 Pet. iii. 7.]\n291:2601\nSome propose to insert these three lines in the centre of the next quotation from Philemon, after the line, \u201cNay, there\u2019s an eye,\u201d etc.\n291:2602 291:2603\nGrotius joins these lines to the preceding. Clement of Alexandria assigns them, and the others, which are under the name of Euripides, to Diphilus.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I: JUSTIN MARTYR: Chapter III.\u2014Testimonies to a future...","type":"page"}